Dissociative Runaway: The Amnesia Of Estrangement
Can you imagine what it would be like to lose all or a good part of your memories? What if we add to this retrograde amnesia the forgetting of the places that a person usually frequents and the abandonment of his family and his work? All these aspects constitute the symptomatological framework of the dissociative or psychogenic fugue.
Fugue derives from the Latin fugare (“to flee”). As a result, this type of memory loss causes both physical and personal runaway. The person moves away from what his life was and forgets his past. Indeed, dissociative fugue affects the most relevant and autobiographical personal information. Who am I ? Where am I going ? What did I think? Who am I going with? As we can see, the feeling of helplessness can be very great.
It is a type of dissociative amnesia
Dissociative fugue is a form of dissociative amnesia. It is opposed to neurological or organic amnesia which are caused by brain metabolic damage or impairment. Indeed, the subject is, in dissociative amnesia, unable to remember an event due to the high stress that the situation causes. In other words, the origin is in some type of psychological trauma.
This loss of memory therefore sometimes appears as the only way to escape a feeling of deep anguish or shame. So that it is sometimes mistaken for another simulated illness since both cause the person to escape his responsibilities.
Take for example the case of a person who made a very important error in his work, prompting his immediate dismissal. She invents amnesia and has no memory of her mistake. This would be an example of a simulation with the aim of not losing your job. Although also sudden, the dissociative fugue is on the other hand not simulated and very difficult to fake.
Fugue state
One of its most peculiar and dangerous characteristics is that of literally “running away”. The sufferer takes unexpected trips or getaways away from places usually visited. Not for leisure or for pleasure. She does this because she doesn’t remember her origin and nothing is familiar to her.
The most curious thing is that the person performs these exoduses with a feeling of total normalcy. This is because it does not exhibit cognitive alterations or symptoms of mental disorders. This is why the affected person usually does not attract attention during the runaway episode. She looks normal and her behavior is not out of the ordinary.
These people show this loss of past information only through slight confusion. They therefore sometimes adopt a new identity so as not to feel so helpless.
Duration of the associative fugue
This type of dissociative amnesia is normally temporary. It usually varies between hours and months. However, it can last longer. The personal consequences of amnesia will therefore be aggravated. If this period is short, the episode usually affects the subject partially. He will have to justify his absence from work or give an explanation for his sudden disappearance. Normally there will only be one fear left.
If, on the other hand, the episode lasts a week or more, the person can travel thousands of kilometers. She may even start a new life without realizing it and find another job. In this case, the anguish felt when the subject wakes up from this state will be all the greater. It will be the same for the despair of his relatives, friends and all his environment. Let us not forget that the disappearance is sudden.
How to reverse the situation?
In the majority of cases, the patient finishes completely recovering the memory, as well as his identity. In others, however, the return to normality is slower as memories appear more gradually. There are even cases where affected people fail to retrieve some past information.
In addition, after recovery, there are sometimes moments of slight memory loss affecting only what happened during the period of dissociative fugue. A “blurring” of memories does occur, but only during the time that prevents the affected person from knowing what they have done or not.
Being aware of their condition, the person presents a feeling of confusion, anguish, guilt and anger. So much so that prolonged depression can even lead to a suicide attempt.
Therefore, the duration of the dissociative leak determines, in part, its severity. It can indeed oscillate between a simple loss of memory to an irrecoverable forgetfulness of the past in a chronic way. This mental alteration is currently not considered a disorder per se, but a subtype of psychogenic amnesia.
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