Dissociative disorders are characterized by a loss of connection between thoughts, memories, feelings, surroundings, behavior and identity. These conditions include escape from reality in ways that are not wanted and not healthy. This causes problems in managing everyday life. Dissociative disorders usually arise as a reaction to shocking, distressing or painful events and help push away difficult memories. Symptoms depend in part on the type of dissociative disorder and can range from memory loss to disconnected identities. (mayoclinic.org)
"There are also common, everyday experiences of dissociation that you may have. Examples of this are when you become so absorbed in a book or film that you lose awareness of your surroundings. Or when you drive a familiar route and arrive at your destination without any memory of how you got there (...). Dissociation may be something that you experience for a short time, but you also may have learned to dissociate as a way of coping with stressful experiences" - mind.org.uk
As of now, there are those dissociative disorders:
• depersonalization / derealization
• dissociative amnesia
• dissociative fugue
• dissociative identity
• OSDD
Let's start with depersonalization and derealization.
→ DEPERSONALIZATION is "feeling of detachment from oneself, manifesting as a sense of disconnection from one's thoughts, emotions, sensations, or actions, and often accompanied by a feeling of observing oneself from an external perspective" (Wikipedia)
→ DEREALIZATION is "perceiving the external world as unreal, distant, distorted, or in other ways falsified" (Wikipedia)
These two often go together, with the person experiencing both of them at the same time or at different times.
→ DISSOCIATIVE AMNESIA is characterized by inability to remember important information about yourself or your life, often or distressing or upsetting events. It’s most likely to happen with severe or long-term trauma.
DISSOCIATIVE FUGUE is a subset of dissociative amnesia. It's characterized by reversible amnesia regarding one’s identity, often accompanied by unexpected travel or wandering.
→ DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER is when you have two or more separate personalities that control your behavior at different times. When personalities switch, you'll likely have gaps in memory. The separate identities come to life through trauma.
→ OSDD (other specified dissociative disorder) is a category for people who experience pathological dissociation but don't entirely fit the diagnostic categories. Examples of OSDD presentations include ongoing or recurring dissociative symptoms that involve shifts in identity or self-perception without full amnesia, brief dissociative states in response to acute stressors, and episodes of trance-like detachment marked by unresponsiveness and altered awareness.
CAUSES:
→ it develops as a way to deal with a catastrophic event or with long-term stress, abuse or trauma. This is particularly true if such events take place early in childhood (my.clevelandclinic.org)
Where does one go when they dissociate?
They don't have to go anywhere; they can simply feel detached from what's going on or feel the loss of the ability to react to the world around them. They can also go into their inner worlds where they can feel safer, such as a self-created meadow with animals.
I need to highlight one thing. Dissociating isn't like healthy daydreaming; it's something partially or entirely out of our control, which causes issues in relationships with other people and in workplaces. It can also be dangerous - for example when someone who's dissociating is about to cross the road. So let's not romanticize it.
How can I include dissociation in my stories?
→ make the character observe what's happening to them as if they were looking from the side
→ describe the character living mostly in their inner world
→ mention the memory loss; the person can not remember anything from their primary school, or not remember a party their friends remember
→ make it the character's go-to defense mechanism; whenever something stressful happens, they dissociate
→ point at their trauma, but don't tell everything; for example, make them dissociate whenever they visit their parents and not remember what they were doing afterwards
Dissociative disorders are often paired with anxiety, depression, personality disorders and PTSD (this relation is not both-sided).
As always, do additional research and if you're not sure you can write a certain diagnosis well, rethink using it in your story or don't state the name of the condition, instead going for general dissociation.
Because of how significantly this condition affects everyday life, it won't be suitable for the MC if it won't be central to the story.
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