Dissociation is a disruption in how perception, memory, identity, or consciousness work together. It can occur in healthy people, but persistent dissociation may suggest mental illness or trauma. Psychotherapy is the most common treatment, and medication is not usually prescribed.
Dissociation is defined as a mild to major disruption in how the perceived environment, memory, sense of identity, or consciousness work together. It is normal for most people to have experienced some degree of dissociation in the past. Extreme tiredness, for example, can cause present experiences to appear to occur in a dream state, in which the person feels removed from their sense of self or surroundings. On the other hand, hearing any of these interruptions most of the time could suggest a mental illness, a profoundly traumatized experience, and/or specific dissociative disorders.
Two common types of dissociative expression are depersonalization and derealization. In depersonalization the dream state prevails, as described above. People who suffer from derealization doubt their surroundings and may have difficulty recognizing once familiar people and things. As stated, both of these conditions can occur transiently in healthy people, but become a cause for greater concern if they worsen.
The difficulty of seeing identity in a complete way can be dissociative. People may not know who they are or may establish new identities. In some dissociative disorders, such as multiple personality disorder, switching between different identities can be exceptionally difficult. There is not always a sense of central consciousness about all identities present and this can lead to disorientation, wasting time or other characteristics.
Another type of dissociation affects your ability to remember things. Amnesia can occur for short or long periods and is most often associated with the occurrence of traumatic events. This is different from the types of memory loss that are physically or organically caused. With dissociation, memories can still be accessed, especially through treatments such as hypnosis.
There are several dissociative disorders and a number of other conditions in which dissociation may be noted. Dissociative identity disorder is also called multiple personality disorder. It usually presents at least two completely separate identities, which may or may not be aware of each other.
A couple of these disorders impact memory. Dissociative fugue occurs when a person forgets their primary identity and re-establishes themselves somewhere else as a new personality. Dissociative amnesia is the inability to remember many personal details about the self or history and may include blocking present memories so that continuous sense of time is disrupted.
People who feel as if they are living in a dream at all times may have a condition called depersonalization disorder. This is often characterized by other symptoms, such as flat or minimal affect (emotion). Other mental health conditions also have features of dissociation. Schizophrenics of some types experience it, and it occurs in depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
In most cases, dissociative conditions aren’t treated with medication. Instead, psychotherapy is often the most helpful, but exactly how it is best conducted varies. There are also some theories that only a certain population is likely to experience dissociation because they are somehow weaker in their integrated perceptions and consciousness. This has not been proven, and the fact that most humans experience momentary breaks in integration makes these theories less likely.
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