Dissociation and dissociative disorders

Explains what dissociation and dissociative disorders are, including possible causes and how you can access treatment and support. Includes tips for helping yourself, and guidance for friends and family.

What are dissociative disorders?

A doctor might diagnose you with a specific dissociative disorder if:

• You dissociate regularly
• Your experiences are very distressing
• This affects your everyday life

Your exact diagnosis will depend on the symptoms you experience most. And how these affect your life.

Dissociation can also be a symptom of other mental health problems.

This page has information on:

• Dissociative identity disorder
• Depersonalisation or derealisation disorder
• Dissociative amnesia
• Dissociative amnesia with fugue
• Other specified dissociative disorder (OSDD)
• Unspecified dissociative disorder (UDD)
• Why might it be difficult to get diagnosed?

Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

DID means you have intense changes in your identity.

Different aspects of your identity can be called states. You may feel like different identity states are in control at different times. Different states may have different thoughts and behaviour.

This can happen in various ways:

• Each of your identity states may have different patterns of thinking and relating to the world.
• You may feel you have one 'main' part of your identity that feels most like 'you'. Some people call this a host identity.
• Your identity states may come across as different ages and genders.
• The different parts of your identity may have memories or experiences that conflict with each other.
• You might have no control over when different parts of take over.
• You might have no memory of what happens when another part of your identity is in control. This is called amnesia.

Some people refer to the different parts of your identity as alters or parts. And to all the parts together as a system.

DID is the result of a natural way of coping with childhood trauma. Our page on the causes of dissociative disorders has more information.

Can dissociative disorders make people act violently?

The media often portrays people with dissociative disorders as being dangerous or violent. Particularly DID. This is a harmful and inaccurate stereotype.

Our page on stigma and misconceptions explains more about the myths surrounding violence and mental health.

I have many separate, distinct and unique 'parts' of my personality. My 'parts' or 'alters' collectively add up to the total person that is me. They are each a letter, and I am a sentence.

Self-care for dissociative identity disorder (DID)

DID can make looking after yourself harder. You might find that different parts of your identity have different needs. You may need to use different coping techniques for the different parts of your identity.

For more information, see our page on self-care for dissociation.

Depersonalisation or derealisation disorder

This means you might experience regular depersonalisation or derealisation. We explain what this means in our page about dissociation.

Dissociative amnesia

This diagnosis means you might be unable to remember important information about who you are. Like your life history or specific events.

Dissociative amnesia with fugue

This means you might experience a state of mind where you forget everything about who you are. This state of mind is called a 'fugue'.

In the fugue you might travel to a new location. You might act like a different person in a different life.

Other specified dissociative disorder (OSDD)

You might have dissociative symptoms that don't fit into any other diagnosis. The person making your diagnosis will explain why your symptoms don't fit into any other diagnosis.

Unspecified dissociative disorder (UDD)

You might have dissociative symptoms that don't fit into any other diagnosis. But the person making your diagnosis may not have enough information to make a full diagnosis. For example, in an emergency.

Why might it be difficult to get diagnosed?

These are some reasons why it can take a while to get a dissociative disorder diagnosis:

• Professionals often don't get enough training on dissociative disorders. They might not even think about this possibility when assessing your mental health. This means that they might not ask you the right questions about your symptoms.
• Professionals won't always ask about your childhood or trauma at an assessment. Understanding more about your life history can help reach a diagnosis. But this could take time.
• You may not remember your trauma. Especially if you have amnesia. So even if a doctor asks about your past, you might not be able to access your memories. Or you may find it too hard to talk about.
• You might want to keep your sypmtoms hidden. It might feel difficult to talk openly about about your experiences.
• You might have symptoms of other mental health problems as well. If your doctor is more familiar with other mental health problems, they may focus on these. They might not realise you also have a dissociative disorder.