
The attitude and personal preferences (for example, about food, activities, clothes) of a person with dissociative identity disorder may suddenly shift and then shift back. As noted in the DSM-5 1, in many cultures around the world, experiences of being possessed are a normal part of spiritual practice and are not dissociative disorders. In addition, the disturbance must not be a normal part of a broadly accepted cultural or religious practice.

The signs and symptoms may be observed by others or reported by the individual. The distinct identities are accompanied by changes in behavior, memory and thinking.

This is a normal process that everyone has experienced. The Sidran Institute, which works to help people understand and cope with traumatic stress and dissociative disorders, describes the phenomenon of dissociation and the purpose it may serve as follows:ĭissociation is a disconnection between a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions or sense of who he or she is. Depersonalization/derealization disorder.There are three types of dissociative disorders: Dissociative disorders are frequently associated with previous experience of trauma.

Dissociative symptoms can potentially disrupt every area of mental functioning.Įxamples of dissociative symptoms include the experience of detachment or feeling as if one is outside one’s body, and loss of memory or amnesia. Dissociative disorders involve problems with memory, identity, emotion, perception, behavior and sense of self.
