Dissociative Fugue: Amnesia Of Estrangement

Imagine what it would be like to lose all, or almost all, of your memories? What if we add to this retrograde amnesia the disappearance of the places that an individual usually goes to, and the abandonment of his family and his work? All these aspects make up the symptom picture of the so-called dissociative or psychogenic fugue.

The word “escape” comes from the Latin fugare (“to flee”). Indeed, this form of amnesia causes both physical and personal escape. The subject moves away from his life and forgets his past, forgetting the most relevant and autobiographical personal data: who are they? Where I go? What am I planning to do? Who am I going with? As we can imagine, dissociative fugue causes a feeling of vulnerability that can become enormous.

Let’s say that a person who has made a serious mistake at work, and therefore may be subject to timely dismissal, invents that he suffers from amnesia and does not remember the mistake. This would be an example of fiction driven by the desire not to lose your job. Yet, in the case of dissociative fugue , amnesia, in addition to appearing abruptly and suddenly, is not simulated and is very difficult to emulate.

Dissociative fugue state

One of the most peculiar characteristics – as well as one of the most dangerous – is precisely the fact that the patient “literally runs away”. The person affected by this disorder organizes last minute trips or unexpected escapes, far from the places they usually frequent. But this does not happen for leisure or for wanting to have fun, but because he does not remember where he comes from and, therefore, nothing is familiar to him.

The most curious aspect is that the subject realizes these exoduses as if it were his normality, due to the fact that he does not present cognitive alterations or symptoms of any mental disorder. Thus, in his escape episode, the patient does not attract attention, because apparently he does not show signs of imbalance and his behavior does not stand out, does not come out of the box.

The loss of past information manifests itself only through a state of confusion. The patient often adopts a new identity to feel less helpless.

Duration of dissociative fugue

Dissociative amnesia is usually temporary and can last for hours to months ; but it can also be prolonged by aggravating the personal consequences of amnesia. If this period of time is short, the episode damages the subject in a partial way, so he will have to justify the absence from work or give an explanation for his sudden disappearance. In general, only a bad scare remains.

If, on the other hand, the disturbance lasts a week or more, the detachment can reach thousands of kilometers. The subject may even find a new job or build a new life, all without being aware of it. In this case, the anguish triggered by waking up from this mental disorder will be more intense. As well as the despair of family members, friends and their own social circle.

How to turn the situation around?

In most cases, the patient is able to fully recover his memory and identity. However, for some people, the return to normal is slower, because memories recur gradually. In some cases the person is unable to retrieve past information.

After recovery, it may also happen that a slight loss of memory occurs which concerns only the events that occurred during the period of dissociative fugue. A “stain” is produced which obscures the memories, but only for that period of time, which prevents the patient from knowing what he has done.

As it is easy to deduce, becoming aware of one’s condition, the individual manifests confusion, anguish, sense of guilt and anger. The situation is so serious that in cases where a prolonged depressive state occurs, this can lead to an attempted suicide.

In light of this, the duration of the dissociative fugue partly determines its severity, since it can oscillate between a simple loss of memory and an irrecoverable and chronic amnesia of one’s past. Today, this mental alteration is not considered a disorder in itself, but a sub-category of psychogenic amnesia.