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Dissociative disorders: causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 07.07.2025
Everyone experiences periods of loss of integration of memory, sensations, identity, and self-awareness. For example, a person may be driving somewhere and suddenly realize that they do not remember many aspects of the trip because they are preoccupied with personal problems, a radio broadcast, or a conversation with another passenger. Typically, such states, which are considered dissociative, do not interfere with daily activities.
People with dissociative disorder may completely forget a period of time, lasting minutes or hours, and feel that this period has disappeared from their lives. Thus, dissociation disrupts the integrity of self-perception and memories of life events; with poor memory integration, dissociative amnesia is observed. When personal identity is disrupted along with memory impairments, then we can talk about dissociative fugue or dissociative identity disorder. If self-perception and self-awareness are disrupted, then depersonalization disorder is present.
Dissociative disorders are usually associated with extreme stress. Such stress may be caused by a traumatic event or an intolerable internal conflict.
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