Overview of Dissociative Disorders
Three faces of Eve, Sybil, and Raising Cain are movies that made dissociative disorders, specifically dissociative identity disorder, on the map of public mental illness consciousness.
Dissociative disorders are named as such because they are marked by a dissociation from or interruption of a person's rudimentary aspects of waking consciousness (i.e., one's personal identity, one's personal history, etc.). Dissociative disorders come in various forms and level of severity. The most famous of which is dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder).
All of the dissociative disorders are believe to share a root cause of past trauma experienced by the individual with this disorder. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism -- the person literally dissociates oneself from a situation or experience too traumatic to integrate with his conscious self. In other words, the horror of the trauma is too much for one's mind to process appropriately and the conscious mind turns itself off to avoid having to be aware of traumatic events.
Symptoms of these disorders, or even one or more of the disorders themselves, are also seen in a number of other mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Treatment for dissociative disorders may include psychotherapy, hypnosis (although quite controversial regarding the efficacy of it), EMDR (to process the traumatic event), and medication. Although treating dissociative disorders can be difficult, many people with dissociative disorders are able to learn new ways of coping and lead healthy, productive lives.
There are four specific types of dissociative disorders:
For the next several posts, we will describe, explain and discuss each type of dissociative disorders. So, stay tuned.
Three faces of Eve, Sybil, and Raising Cain are movies that made dissociative disorders, specifically dissociative identity disorder, on the map of public mental illness consciousness.
Dissociative disorders are named as such because they are marked by a dissociation from or interruption of a person's rudimentary aspects of waking consciousness (i.e., one's personal identity, one's personal history, etc.). Dissociative disorders come in various forms and level of severity. The most famous of which is dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder).
All of the dissociative disorders are believe to share a root cause of past trauma experienced by the individual with this disorder. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism -- the person literally dissociates oneself from a situation or experience too traumatic to integrate with his conscious self. In other words, the horror of the trauma is too much for one's mind to process appropriately and the conscious mind turns itself off to avoid having to be aware of traumatic events.
Symptoms of these disorders, or even one or more of the disorders themselves, are also seen in a number of other mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Treatment for dissociative disorders may include psychotherapy, hypnosis (although quite controversial regarding the efficacy of it), EMDR (to process the traumatic event), and medication. Although treating dissociative disorders can be difficult, many people with dissociative disorders are able to learn new ways of coping and lead healthy, productive lives.
There are four specific types of dissociative disorders:
- Dissociative Amnesia (aka psychogenic amnesia)
- Dissociative Fugue (aka psychogenic fugue)
- Dissociative Identity Disorder (aka multiple personality disorder)
- Depersonalization Disorder
For the next several posts, we will describe, explain and discuss each type of dissociative disorders. So, stay tuned.
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