Dissociative amnesia is not normal forgetting, like misplacing keys or forgetting the name of someone you met once or twice. Symptoms range from forgetting personal information, like one’s own name and address, to blocking out specific traumatic events or even the events of one’s entire life. A person with dissociative amnesia may not remember friends, family members, or coworkers. When a person with generalized dissociative amnesia forgets everything about the self and their life, they may move to a new location and establish a new identity but, when discovered, they don’t know how they got there or why they have no identification. Most cases of dissociative amnesia are temporary, but memory gaps can last anywhere from a few minutes to an entire lifetime. Those with dissociative amnesia may be at greater risk of self-injury and suicide.
The DSM-5 includes the following symptoms for dissociative amnesia:
- The inability to remember important autobiographical information that one would typically be able to recall
- A sense of detachment from self, including identity and emotions
- The forgetting causes distress in daily life, including at work, school, or with friends and family
- The disturbance is not due to substance use, a different mental health disorder, or another medical condition, such as a seizure or brain injury