Dissociative Disorders

Someone with dissociative amnesia will repeatedly have periods where they cannot remember information about themselves or about events in their past life. They may also forget a learnt talent or skill.

These gaps in memory are much more severe than normal forgetfulness, and are not the result of an underlying medical condition. Some people with dissociative amnesia will find themselves in a strange place without knowing how they got there. They may have travelled there purposefully, or wandered in a confused state.

These blank episodes may last minutes, hours or days – and rarely, months or years.

‘Depersonalisation’ means feeling detached from yourself, observing yourself and your feelings and thoughts as if they belong to someone else you are watching in a film. Some of the typical symptoms are:

• out-of-body experiences
• loss of feeling in parts of your body
• distorted views of your body
• a sense of detachment from your emotions
• feeling like you are unreal
Derealisation’ means seeing other people and the environment around you as dream-like and unreal. Objects may change in shape, size or colour. Typical symptoms are:

• feeling like a normal environment is unfamiliar
• a sense that what is happening is unreal
• feeling detached from the world
• a perception of objects changing shape, colour, size
• feeling that people you know are strangers

You might experience one or both of these problems if you have been diagnosed with depersonalisation-derealisation disorder, and will probably be aware that these experiences aren’t reality.

Episodes of depersonalisation or derealisation may last just a few moments and come and go over many years, or may be ongoing.

Dissociative identity disorder, or ‘multiple personality disorder’, is the most extreme of the three types.

If you’ve been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, you may feel uncertain about who you are and struggle to define yourself.

You may feel the presence of other identities, which may each have their own names, voices, personal histories and mannerisms.

Typical symptoms are:

• feeling like a stranger to yourself
• being confused about your sexuality or gender
• feeling like there are different people within you
• referring to yourself as ‘we’
• behaving out of character
• writing in different handwriting

Someone with a dissociative disorder may also suffer from:

• post-traumatic stress disorder
• depression
• mood swings
• anxiety and panic attacks
• suicidal tendencies and/or self-harm
• headaches
• hearing voices
• sleep disorders
• phobias
• an eating disorder
• obsessive-compulsive disorder

If you have been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder, a mental health specialist will want to ask you more questions about how you are feeling and find out whether you suffered any trauma in the past.

It’s important to be honest about your symptoms, and not feel ashamed or embarrassed, so you can receive the help and support you need.

Some people with dissociative disorders will benefit from a course of psychotherapy or counselling. This talking therapy aims to help you cope with the underlying cause of your symptoms, and helps you to manage the periods of feeling disconnected. If you have suffered a traumatic event in the past, you might benefit from a technique called eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR).

EMDR has been found to reduce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. It involves making side-to-side eye movements, usually by following the movement of the therapist’s finger, while recalling the traumatic incident.

It is not clear exactly how EMDR works, but it may help the malfunctioning part of the brain to process distressing memories and flashbacks so that they have less influence over your mind. There is no medication to specifically treat dissociation, although medication may be prescribed to treat any depression, anxiety and insomnia. You could look at the factsheets for these conditions for further information, support and self-help.

Many people make a full recovery with treatment and support.

Other things which might help:

• If you need urgent support click ‘urgent help’ on this website, which is on the side of the screen on desktops and the bottom of the screen on mobiles.
• Search for support on this website: we have information on mental health friendly services, groups, and websites.
• Have a look at our activities section, where we’ve listed workshops, groups and courses which are all mental health friendly, and free or low cost.
• Our wellbeing section also includes helpful tips.
• Go to the Sheffield IAPT website, where you can find information on self-help resources, IAPT support services and health and wellbeing.
• Check out the different support options at Sheffield Mind.
• Find out about other activities, which you might find beneficial, on the Sheffield Directory.
• Read stories about other people living with mental health issues on the Sheffield Flourish website.

The Sheffield Mental Health Guide has information about support groups, counselling services and other organisations in the Directory of Services. To search the Directory for services and resources about dissociative disorders, click here.

The Sheffield Directory has information about local support groups, services and activity groups that may be able to help you. To visit the Sheffield Directory website click here.

More information on conditions and issues relating to mental health:

• Mind has an excellent A-Z of mental health, which is written in a friendly and informal style.
• For a more medicalised approach, NHS Choices regularly reviews its information on mental disorders.
• The Royal College of Psychiatrists has information on problems and disorders.
• The Mental Health Foundation also has an A-Z  of mental health problems.

NHS Choices Website