Dissociative disorders are mental disorders that involve experiencing a disconnection and lack of continuity between thoughts, memories, surroundings, actions, and identity. People with dissociative disorder escape realities in ways that are involuntary and unhealthy and cause problems functioning in everyday life.

They usually develop as a reaction to trauma and help keep difficult memories at bay. 

Some symptoms include:

• Memory loss of certain time periods, events, people and personal information
• A sense of being detached from yourself and your emotions.
• A perception of the people and things around you as distorted and unrealistic
• A blurred sense of identity
• Significant stress or problems in your relationships, work, and other important areas of your life
• Inability to cope well with emotional or professional stress.
• Feelings of depression and anxiety

The three major types of dissociative disorder are:

• Dissociative Amnesia – The main symptom is memory loss that’s more severe than normal forgetfulness and that can’t be explained by a medical diagnosis. You can’t recall information about yourself or events and people in your life, especially from a traumatic event. It can be specific to events in a certain time. An episode of amnesia usually occurs suddenly and may last minutes, hours, or rarely months or years. This includes Dissociative fugue (wandering away from your life.
• Dissociative Identity Disorder – Formerly known as multiple personality disorder is characterized by “switching” to alternate identities. You may feel the presence of two or more people talking or living inside your head, you may feel as though you’re possessed by other identities. Each identity may have a unique name, personal history and characteristics, including obvious differences in voice, gender, mannerisms, and even such physical qualities as the need for eyeglasses. There are also differences in how familiar each identity is with the others. Also, can suffer from dissociative fugue.
• Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder – This involves an ongoing or episodic sense of detachment or being outside yourself – observing your actions, feelings, thoughts and self from a distance as though watching a movie (depersonalization). Other people and things around you may feel detached and foggy or dreamlike, time may be slowed down or sped up, and the world may seem unreal (derealization). You may experience one or the other, or maybe both.