- Hey, everybody, I'm Kati Morton,
a licensed marriage and family therapist,
and today, I'm going to explain
what dissociative amnesia is, why it happens,
and offer five ways for you to better manage it.
So make sure you stick around until the end
to see the best way to manage dissociative amnesia.
(gentle music)
As with all diagnostic-based videos,
let's jump into how it's diagnosed first.
The DSM states that dissociative amnesia occurs
when we, number one, have an inability
to recall autobiographical information,
usually from traumatic or stressful events,
and it's inconsistent with ordinary forgetting,
meaning we can't remember things that happened to us
and it usually happens during times of trauma or stress.
Number two, the symptoms cause
clinically significant distress
or impairment in social, occupational,
or other important areas of functioning.
Now, this criterion is attached to almost all diagnoses
because in order for something to be diagnosed and treated,
it has to be affecting our ability to live our life
and to do what we need to do every day.
The third criteria is that this amnesia
must also not be attributed
to any drugs or alcohol that we may be on
or any neurological or other medical condition.
And the fourth and final criteria is
that the dissociative amnesia must not be better explained
by dissociative identity disorder,
which I'll be doing another video on soon,
so make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss out.
It also can't be attributed to PTSD
or acute stress disorder or other mental illness.
The key here is the phrase "better explained,"
meaning that this amnesia can't only be part
of another diagnosis.
It has to occur on its own at least some of the time.
(gentle music)
This amnesia can be difficult to deal with because,
as one member of our community shared,
it's like "even though we know the days happened logically,
but it's like we slept through them."
(gentle music)
Dissociative amnesia can also lead
to what is called dissociative fugues,
which is when we wander or travel to find ourselves
or to figure out what we can't remember.
An example of this would be,
if I suffered from dissociative amnesia,
I could leave work one day, not go home,
but get on a bus, head to another city or state.
And while I'm there, I get a new job.
I start a new life.
And if Sean came looking for me or if the police found me,
I wouldn't recognize Sean or have any memory of my leaving.
And these dissociative fugues aren't very common,
only occurring in 0.2% of the population,
so don't worry that if you struggle with dissociation,
you're gonna just up and leave your life one day.
It's just another portion of this diagnosis.
(gentle music)
Dissociative amnesia can be localized,
meaning that we can't recall events
during a specific period of time,
like we don't remember the months surrounding that time
when we were abused, which is the most common.
It can also be selective,
meaning that we can recall some of what happened,
but not all of the events
during that stressful or traumatic time,
like we remember one instance of abuse
but have trouble recalling another
that happened only a week later.
Another member of our community explained it as,
quote, "Even though you went
through the bad/traumatizing experience,
you can't remember all the details of it."
Also know that we can have both localized
and selective amnesia.
Just important to remember.
(gentle music)
Our dissociative amnesia can also be more general,
and we can completely forget our life history.
It can also lead to us losing previous knowledge
about the world, the meaning of life,
and any well-learned skills that we had.
This usually comes on quickly
and can cause us to be confused, disoriented,
and even find ourselves wandering aimlessly.
I know that sounds scary,
but because it's so noticeable,
people with generalized amnesia
usually get help extremely quickly,
and it's also good to know
that generalized amnesia is incredibly rare,
although the DSM does state
that it may be more common among combat veterans,
sexual assault victims, and individuals
experiencing extreme emotional stress or conflict.
(gentle music)
There's also systematized amnesia
where we lose memory for specific categories of our life,
like if we can't remember anything involving our family
or the one cousin who harmed us
or if any memory surrounding school just isn't there.
(gentle music)
And finally, there's continuous amnesia
where we forget new events as they occur,
like we aren't able to form memories.
I've had this happen with one of my patients
who was struggling with her relationship with her mom.
Her mother was emotionally abusive her entire life,
but she still wanted to find a way
to have some contact with her mom.
However, every time she talked to her,
she couldn't recall what was being said,
and I would ask her how it went in our session together
and she said it was just gone, like it never happened.
She knew she spoke to her mom
but couldn't remember what was said.
Most people with dissociative amnesia are unaware
or only partially aware of their memory problems,
just like this member of our community shared.
They said, quote, "It's funny,
it doesn't really feel like anything
because you don't know about what you don't remember."
Those of us with localized amnesia can even minimize
the importance of our memory loss
and can become uncomfortable when we are pressed
to acknowledge it or to remember something,
which is how this differs from someone
having a spotty memory or just being forgetful.
It's like we never knew what happened,
so we don't even know that we don't remember it.
Does that make sense?
Whereas someone who's forgetful can become frustrated
with their inability to remember that person's name, right,
or the directions to their old home.
They used to know it and are aware of that fact
but just can't quite pull it out of their memory.
It also differs from permanent amnesias due to brain damage
because it always has the potential to be retrieved
through talk therapy and other mental health treatments.
(gentle music)
First, dissociative amnesia most commonly occurs
during stressful or traumatic times.
Therefore, the best treatments are trauma-based ones.
This means that traditional talk therapy can be beneficial
as a starting point.
This is where we talk through the distressing
or traumatizing event and piece it together
into a story and tell that story
until it's not as emotionally charged or upsetting,
and our therapist will usually help us come up
with some of the ways to calm our system down
or feel okay while pushing us to continue
talking through the trauma.
Overall, research finds that talk therapy is effective
for about 40% of people with a history of trauma.
This leads nicely into our second treatment option:
EMDR or what's otherwise known
as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.
This treatment focuses
on what's called bilateral stimulation,
meaning we stimulate our nervous system
in a rhythmic right-to-left pattern.
This can be done through tapping
on our left and right sides,
using headphones and it beeping
on our left and then right ears,
or even through buzzers or tappers
that vibrate in our hands from left to right.
Now, this bilateral stimulation is done
while we recall distressing situations, images, or memories.
In theory, this gives our brain another chance
to process the trauma.
Third, CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy
has also been shown to be effective.
CBT works by having us identify unhelpful thinking patterns
and beliefs about ourselves.
Then we work to change those patterns
by incorporating more helpful
and healthy therapeutic techniques.
A fourth potential therapy is DBT
or dialectical behavior therapy,
which has been shown to be helpful as well.
It is similar to CBT, but with a bit more emotion regulation
and mindfulness added in.
It works by helping us become more aware
of how we're feeling before we are overcome by it,
and it also offers helpful tools to better manage impulses
and effectively navigate our relationships.
It's been very useful for those of us
who have a history of trauma
or anyone with borderline personality disorder.
Fifth and finally, medication can be effective, too.
While there isn't a medication that's indicated
for use in those with dissociative amnesia,
it can help with other symptoms
that may be making our dissociation worse.
These are things like anxiety or depressive symptoms,
or maybe we have trouble with our sleep.
Seeing a psychiatrist and trying medication
could be beneficial.
I hope you find that helpful.
If you feel like I left something out or you'd like
to share what dissociative amnesia feels like to you,
please feel free to do so in the comments down below.
Thank you so much for watching, and have a great week.
Our dissociative am... (babbles)
I said that word. (laughs)
Please feel free to make... (babbles)