Hello I m Darren Magee and today s question asks if I would discuss Dissociative Disorders. Now if
you like this video if you find it helpful please consider subscribing to my channel.
But just as a reminder this video was not a substitute for support from a mental health
professional. Nor is it a tool to be used to diagnose someone. So in this video I'm going to
try to outline what dissociation is, the three different kinds of dissociative disorders,
and where they come from. But first of all, I would like to say that all of us dissociate
from time to time. Now even just walking into a room and forgetting what you walked in for,
or coming home from work, coming home from her journey and actually forgetting the journey.
There are different kinds of dissociation, but a Dissociative Disorder is something different,
and it could be characterised as an involuntary escape from the moment, from, from reality.
There is a disconnection from thoughts, from memory, from consciousness, from identity
even. And for it to be a disorder the symptoms have to be present over a long period of time,
they have to be persistent, pervasive. And I often tend to think of a disorder as looking
at the impact it has on a person's day to day functioning as well as the impact it has on the
relationship with themselves and with the world around them. And some of those symptoms include
a lack of a sense of purpose, a lack of a sense of identity rather. You know, Who am I? Where do I
fit in here? What is my role? What is my purpose? There can be memory loss around specific times,
periods of times. There can be memory loss around events, around people even. Some people
with dissociative disorder can sometimes have difficulty remembering huge chunks of their day,
or huge chunks from their childhood. Some have described being in a stressful situation
or remembering a traumatic stressful event but feeling as though they were outside themselves
watching it, describe what could sometimes be considered like an out of body experience. It's
almost like they're outside themselves, watching it as if they were watching it on television.
There can also be at attachment from feelings, emotions, like there can be an emotional numbness.
There can also be other various mental health related problems presents such as anxiety,
depression. There can be thoughts of life not worth living and suicidal thoughts. Now according
to the DSM Five there are three different kinds of dissociative disorder, and the symptoms often
depend on the type of disorder. But also I think it's fair to remember that these disorders can be
comorbid with other mental health conditions and with other personality disorders. So the first one
is Dissociative Amnesia. For someone with dissociative amnesia the main symptom would be
a difficulty remembering important information, even important information about themselves,
or the amnesia could be around a certain event or events such as say abuse, assault or having
been in combat. There can be amnesia around their own identity, their own life history.
Now an episode of amnesia can last from a few minutes to a few days, but in some rare cases
can last for months or even years. Next, there's Dissociative Identity Disorder, and this was
previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, and this could be characterised by
alternating between different identities. Now someone with this disorder may feel like they
have more than one identity or more than one personality trying to take control of them, even
though sometimes those identities or personalities can function without the person being aware.
And those personalities can even have different names, characteristics, traits, mannerisms. They
can experience gaps in just even everyday events as well as gaps in their own personal information.
Lastly, there's Depersonalisation Disorder and this involves ongoing feelings of detachment,
detachment from their thoughts, feelings, actions, behaviours, sensations. Now as I said earlier on
it, it's been described like sometimes watching themselves as if from the outside. There can also
be derealisation as if the world around them is unreal and the symptoms can last from say
a moment or two, but it is recurring over years. But regardless of the type of dissociation, what
we see as a defence mechanism to extreme trauma, to extreme stress ,to feeling overwhelmed. Now
consciousness is, consciousness has been disrupted. Now when I say a defence mechanism,
defence mechanisms are perfectly normal and we all have them. A defence mechanism is our way
of protecting ourselves from thinking, feeling or experiencing something really unpleasant. And this
defence mechanism, dissociation, is usually though not always, but it's usually associated with
childhood trauma such as long term physical, psychological or even sexual abuse.
In cases like this it's not uncommon for some for someone to not be able to remember huge
chunks from their childhood. But it can also develop through having say, experienced combat,
having been in combat, or having been exposed to some kind of natural disaster. And someone
with a dissociative disorder can find themselves being hyper vigilant to perceived threats and when
that that defence mechanism is triggered, the persons, like they disconnect from themselves,
from the moment, from reality as a way to stay safe. It, it's like yesterday's threat,
yesterday's situation is present today and that threat is overwhelmingly difficult. It
is painful. It is terrifying. And dissociation is a way of trying to keep those traumatic
memories and experiences at bay, developed as a result of the original trauma. Now
the means of escape is involuntary, but it is also quite unhealthy and dysfunctional, and can cause
a lot of problems with day to day functioning as well as with interpersonal relationships.
Now treatment can be difficult, but it's not impossible, and treatment usually involves
a combination of medication as well as psychotherapy. So that's a brief outline
of Dissociative disorders. Now, if you would like me to go more in depth on them individually,
by all means leave a comment to let me know that and I'll certainly get around it. But as always,
if I ve forgotten something, if there's anything you might like to add, by all means please use the
comment box below, there are some interesting conversations starting around these videos.
If you liked this video if you found it helpful please consider subscribing to my channel for
future updates on mental health related topics and until next time thanks for watching.