Navigating the Terrain of Dissociative Disorders
Understanding an often misunderstood diagnosis
When Theresa called to tell me she was stuck on Metro-North somewhere in Connecticut it was understood that a dissociative fugue state occurred. One of her alters temporarily took over while in-transit, causing us to miss our therapy session in NYC. Tragically, like many, if not most folks with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), Theresa was a victim of sexual abuse for over a decade starting in her formative years.
Although dissociative amnesia, a symptom of dissociative identity disorder continued to interfere with Theresa’s efforts with unifying her parts, eventually the effective processing of traumatic material would facilitate integration. Until then, episodic amnesia and painful bouts of derealization and depersonalization would plague her.
The American Psychiatric Association reports, “People who have experienced physical and sexual abuse in childhood are at increased risk of dissociative identity disorder. The vast majority of people who develop dissociative disorders have experienced repetitive, overwhelming trauma in childhood. Among people with dissociative identity disorder in the United States, Canada and Europe, about 90 percent had been the victims of childhood abuse and neglect.”
