What Is Dissociative Amnesia?

Dissociative amnesia is the most common dissociative disorder, which are conditions that cause people to feel detached or disconnected from themselves or reality. In dissociative amnesia, this manifests as memory loss.

This memory loss goes beyond the realm of typical forgetfulness. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, text revision (DSM-5-TR), the different types of dissociative amnesia include:

• localized

• selective

• continuous

• systematized

• generalized

Localized Amnesia

Localized amnesia means that someone cannot recall a specific event or series of events, which creates a gap in their memory.

These memory gaps often relate to stress or trauma. For example, someone who experienced childhood abuse may forget that entire chunk of time. Those with localized amnesia often have more than one episode of memory loss.

Selective Amnesia

Selective amnesia involves losing only some of a person’s memory from a certain period. For instance, this could mean forgetting some parts of a traumatic event but not all of it.

An individual can have both selective and localized amnesia.

Continuous Amnesia

In this type of amnesia, a person forgets each new event as it occurs. A certain traumatic event may trigger this continuous forgetting.

Systematized Amnesia

Systematized amnesia is a loss of memories relating to a specific category or topic. For example, someone may forget all of their memories involving a particular person.

Generalized Amnesia

This rare form of amnesia occurs when an individual completely forgets their own identity and life experiences. They can forget who they are, who they spoke to, where they went, what they did, and how they felt.

Some people with generalized amnesia may lose previously well-established skills.

Dissociative Fugue

Dissociative fugue is a related condition to dissociative amnesia and can occur at the same time.

People in a fugue state suddenly and unexpectedly travel far from home, unaware of who they are. The fugue can last for just a few hours or go on for months.

During the fugue, people appear to act relatively typically. However, once it ends, they suddenly find themselves in a strange new situation.

For instance, in some cases, a person may have started a new job, assumed a new identity, and essentially begun a new life. The end of the fugue may leave them feeling shame, depression, or grief.

Symptoms of dissociative amnesia

The primary symptom of dissociative amnesia is memory loss that is more extensive than typical forgetfulness. People with dissociative amnesia may forget:

• all or parts of certain memories

• people or places

• information about themselves

The person may not realize they have memory loss or only have limited awareness of it. Others may know they have memory loss but downplay its importance.

The amnesia may be persistent or come and go in episodes. For example, a person may go through phases of forgetting significant information for days, weeks, or months at a time.

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