What are Dissociative Disorders?
Dissociative disorders are types of mental disorders in which lack of disconnection is involved between thoughts, memories, and surroundings. People with dissociative disorder always escape from reality, and this disorder develops as a result of trauma. It ranges from amnesia to alternate identities. Dissociative symptoms include detachment or feeling or loss of memory or amnesia.
Three types of dissociative disorders are:
- Dissociative identity disorder
- Dissociative Amnesia
- Depersonalization disorder
What Are The Symptoms Of Dissociative Disorders?
Signs and symptoms always depend on the type of dissociative disorders that include:
- Memory loss of certain time, personal information, events and people
- A blurred sense of identity
- Stress or problems in relationships
- Unable to handle emotional or professional stress
- Mental health problems
What Cause Dissociative Disorders?
It usually develops in an identical way to cope with trauma. These disorders typically develop in children for long-term physical or emotional abuse. The stress or natural disasters also brings dissociative disorders. A child who learns to dissociate to endure traumatic experience use this as a coping mechanism to deal with stressful situations.
What Are Risk Factors?
People who face experienced physical and sexual abuse in childhood are at increased risk of dissociative identity disorder. People who have dissociative disorders have repetitive and overwhelming trauma in childhood. Suicide attempts and self-injurious behavior are common symptoms of dissociative identity disorder. Maximum 70 percent of outpatients with dissociative identity disorder have attempted suicide.
Risk Complications are:
- Self-harm
- Suicidal thoughts
- Sexual dysfunction
- Alcoholism
- Depression and anxiety disorders
- Eating disorders
- Personality disorders
- Physical symptoms
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
How To Treat Dissociative Disorders?
Major symptoms of dissociative identity improve the ability to function. This treatment involves psychotherapy. This therapy can help people to gain control over the dissociative process. The goal of treatment is to help integrate the elements of identity. Cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy are also used to treat this type of disorders. No medications are used directly to treat the symptoms of dissociative identity disorder. Antidepressants are used to treat the symptoms of disorder.