1. Dissociative Amnesia and Dissociative Fugue
Tyler Pascocello, Caroline Edwards, and Nassir Adderly

2. What is Dissociative Amnesia?
Formerly called psychogenic amnesia
mental illnesses that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, consciousness or awareness, identity and/or perception—mental functions that normally operate smoothly

3. Causes Overwhelming Stress
Children subjected to physical, sexual or emotional abuse
Traumatic Events(war, natural disasters, etc.)
Genetics
Injuries interacting with the brain
Abuse of alcohol and/or drugs

4. Symptoms of Dissociative Amnesia
Inability to remember past experiences or personal information
Some people with disorder might also suffer from depression and/or anxiety

5. Treatments of Dissociative Amnesia
Try to get the patient in a safe and supportive environment
Try hypnosis or get the patient into a drug induced hypnosis state.
When the bad memories that originally caused the state are recovered, the patient may need psychotherapy to help deal with the memories.

6. Complications of Dissociative Amnesia
Dissociative amnesia will interfere with a person’s general life. It will affect poorly the patient’s social life, work life, and relationships
May also cause anxiety or depression
Dissociative Amnesia can also lead to substance abuse.

7. Jodi Arias
Said to suffer from dissociative amnesia and that’s why she can’t remember the day she killed her boyfriend
ity/mesa/articles/ expert- arias-suffers-from-dissociative- amnesia.html

8. What is Dissociative Fugue?
One or more episodes of amnesia in which the inability to recall some or all of one’s past and either the loss of one’s identity or the formation of a new identity occur with sudden, unexpected, purposeful travel away from home.

9. Cause
Same as dissociative amnesia

10. Symptoms of Dissociative Fugue
The disturbance does not occur exclusively during the course of Dissociative Identity Disorder and is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., temporal lobe epilepsy).
Sudden and unplanned travel away from home
Inability to recall past events or important information from the person's life
Confusion or loss of memory about his or her identity, possibly assuming a new identity to make up for the loss
Can be partial or complete
Extreme distress and problems with daily functioning (due to the fugue episodes)

11. Treatments of Dissociative Fugue
There are many treatments for dissociative fugue.
1. psychotherapy will help get insight into the main source of the problem
2. cognitive therapy will help change bad thinking patterns.
3. anxiety or depression medication may help because it is often a patient with Dissociative fugue will suffer from anxiety or depression.
4. creative therapy involving music or art.

12. Complications of Dissociative Fugue
Can lead to traveling far away from home.
There can be a state of confusion about who the patient thinks they are and might create another identity
May lead to heavy drinking that will lead to black outs.
Will interfere with everyday functioning.

13. Celebrities with Dissociative Fugue
Roseanne Barr- also a sufferer of Dissociative Identity Disorder, claimed she was a victim of sexual abuse when she was a child
Hershel Walker- winner of the Heisman Trophy, detected in him when he claimed he didn’t remember ever winning the trophy in the past

14. Background Info
Dissociative amnesia is more common in women than in men
Dissociative Fugue is considered to be a rare disorder
Dissociative amnesia, unlike other types of amnesia, does not result from other medical trauma such as a blow to the head
Most fugues don’t last very long, range from less than a day to several months
People suffering from dissociative amnesia often have memories return, but in some cases are never able to retrieve their buried memories

15. Video of Dissociative Amnesia