If that is unsuccessful, a person can undergo hypnosis. Individuals with more severe memory loss require more care, including a safe, supportive environment, which helps them naturally recover lost memories. If the memory loss spans a short period, supportive therapy is usually the first-line treatment. The treatment for dissociative amnesia depends on the severity of a person’s memory loss. The end of the fugue may leave them feeling shame, depression, or grief. For instance, in some cases, a person will start a new job, assume a new identity, and essentially begin a new life.

However, once it ends, they suddenly find themselves in a strange new situation. It can last for just a few hours or go on for months.ĭuring the fugue, people appear to act relatively normally. They may also have memory loss and an inability to recognize people they know. A person with dissociative fugue may wander about in a bewildered, confused manner.

It typically manifests as sudden, unexpected travel away from a person’s home. It is severe and rare, affecting just 0.2% of the general population. Dissociative fugueĭissociative fugue sometimes occurs in people with dissociative amnesia disorder. This form of amnesia often occurs in sexual assault survivors, combat veterans, and those experiencing extreme stress or conflict. Some people with generalized amnesia may lose previously well-established skills. They can forget who they are, who they spoke to, where they went, what they did, and how they felt. This rare form of amnesia occurs when an individual completely forgets their own identity and life experiences. For example, someone may forget all of their memories involving a particular person. Systematized amnesia is a loss of memories related to a specific category or individual. A certain traumatic event may trigger this continuous forgetting. In this type of amnesia, a person forgets each new event as it occurs. For instance, this could mean forgetting some parts of a traumatic event, but not all of it.Ī person can have both selective and localized amnesia. Selective amnesia involves losing only some of one’s memory from a certain period. Those with localized amnesia often have more than one episode of memory loss. For example, someone who experienced childhood abuse may forget that entire chunk of time. These memory gaps often relate to stress or trauma. Localized amnesia means that someone cannot recall a specific event or series of events, which creates a gap in their memory. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), people with this disorder can experience different types of amnesia: localized, selective, continuous, systematized, generalized, and dissociative fugue. People with dissociative amnesia disorder can experience different types of amnesia. The information that people forget is often of a sensitive or traumatic nature. These bouts of amnesia are extensive, and they go beyond the realm of normal forgetfulness. People with this condition have episodes of amnesia, during which they forget important personal information. Dissociative amnesia is the most common dissociative disorder.

Dissociative amnesia localized