Dissociative fugue: why a person can forget who he is

Dissociative fugue: treatment and symptoms

The private clinic “Salvation” has been providing effective treatment for various psychiatric diseases and disorders for 19 years. Psychiatry is a complex field of medicine that requires maximum knowledge and skills from doctors. Therefore, all employees of our clinic are highly professional, qualified and experienced specialists.

When to ask for help?

Have you noticed that your relative (grandmother, grandfather, mother or father) does not remember basic things, forgets dates, names of objects, or does not even recognize people? This clearly indicates some kind of mental disorder or mental illness. Self-medication in this case is not effective and even dangerous. Tablets and medications taken independently, without a doctor’s prescription, will, at best, temporarily alleviate the patient’s condition and relieve symptoms. At worst, they will cause irreparable harm to human health and lead to irreversible consequences. Traditional treatment at home is also not able to bring the desired results; not a single folk remedy will help with mental illness. By resorting to them, you will only waste precious time, which is so important when a person has a mental disorder.

If your relative has poor memory, complete loss of memory, or other signs that clearly indicate a mental disorder or serious illness, do not hesitate, contact the private psychiatric clinic “Salvation”.

Why choose us?

The Salvation clinic successfully treats fears, phobias, stress, memory disorders, and psychopathy. We provide assistance with oncology, care for patients after a stroke, inpatient treatment for elderly and geriatric patients, and cancer treatment. We do not refuse the patient, even if he has the last stage of the disease.

Many government agencies are unwilling to take on patients over 50-60 years of age. We help everyone who applies and willingly provide treatment after 50-60-70 years. For this we have everything you need:

• pension;
• nursing home;
• bed-ridden hospice;
• professional caregivers;
• sanatorium.

Old age is not a reason to let the disease take its course! Complex therapy and rehabilitation gives every chance of restoring basic physical and mental functions in the vast majority of patients and significantly increases life expectancy.

Our specialists use modern diagnostic and treatment methods, the most effective and safe medications, and hypnosis. If necessary, a home visit is carried out, where doctors:

• an initial examination is carried out;
• the causes of mental disorder are determined;
• a preliminary diagnosis is made;
• an acute attack or hangover syndrome is relieved;
• in severe cases, it is possible to forcibly place the patient in a hospital - a closed rehabilitation center.

Treatment in our clinic is inexpensive. The first consultation is free. Prices for all services are completely open, they include the cost of all procedures in advance.

Relatives of patients often ask questions: “Tell me what a mental disorder is?”, “Advice how to help a person with a serious illness?”, “How long do they live with it and how to extend the allotted time?” You will receive a detailed consultation at the private clinic “Salvation”!

We provide real help and successfully treat any mental illness!

Consult a specialist!

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We will be happy to answer all your questions!

Hello Freud

I present to you a list of films and books in which characters experience a state of dissociative fugue. Additions and amendments to the list are welcome!

Films about dissociative fugue

Spellbound (film noir, thriller, romance; 1945)

Still from the movie “Spellbound”

A new head doctor arrives at a psychiatric clinic, and his behavior is noticeably strange. Psychiatrist Constance Pietersen becomes close to him and realizes that he is not who he says he is. The newly minted doctor admits that he doesn’t remember who he is or how he ended up here. Constance decides to help him, and love breaks out between them.

Spellbound was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and the dream sequence was choreographed by artist Salvador Dali.

Shutter Island (thriller, detective; 2009)

Still from the film “Shutter Island”

US Marshal Edward Daniels and his partner Chuck Auhl are investigating the case of a patient who escaped from a clinic for the criminally insane. They arrive on the island where the clinic is located and are faced with secrets, a riot of madmen and an approaching storm.

Nurse Betty (comedy, drama, crime; 2000)

Still from the film “Sister Betty”

Betty Sizemoor is a good-natured waitress from a small Kansas town. She dreams of becoming a nurse and is madly in love with a doctor from a soap opera. Her husband Del, who sells used cars, decides to get involved in the drug business. One day, two thugs enter Sizemoor's house and torture and kill Del. Betty manages to slip away unnoticed, but her mind is clouded by what she sees. She feels like she is a nurse from a TV series and needs to find her beloved doctor.

88 (action, thriller; 2020)

Still from the movie "88"

Gwen witnesses the murder of her lover. Out of shock, she undergoes a personal transformation and begins to take revenge. After some time, the heroine finds herself sitting in a roadside cafe with a bandaged hand and a pistol in her bag.

Dissociative fugue in literature

Howard Phillips Lovecraft "Beyond Time"

The book tells the story of how Professor Nathaniel Peasley faints during a lecture, and then, upon regaining consciousness, begins to behave like a completely different person. Despite the fact that, according to Lovecraft's idea, the cause of the metamorphosis was an alien intelligence, Nathaniel's state is similar in description to a dissociative fugue.

Quote from the book

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Joy Fielding "Jane's Escape"

Something terrible happened to Jane Whittaker. She wakes up in the middle of a crowded street and cannot remember who she is or where she is going. There is a lot of money in the pockets of her long coat, and under the coat there is a dress stained with blood.

Disease or trick?

Along with the real manifestation of the disease, doctors identify a false dissociative fugue, associating it with a person’s desire to run away for a long time either from responsibility or from an unpleasant situation. The main motive that drives the unconscious is to forget about past failures and radically change your life.

On December 3, 1926, the then-famous writer Agatha Christie gets into her car and drives off in an unknown direction. The woman's long absence forces her husband, Archibald Christie, to contact the police and begin a search. Soon Agatha’s car is found next to a swamp, with the writer’s fur coat in it. My first thought is that Agatha Christie was killed. Here, how inopportunely for Archibald, a letter is discovered in which Agatha asks to blame her legal husband for everything.

Even the venerable Arthur Conan Doyle joined the investigation into the disappearance of a fellow writer, who, after talking with a psychic, assured everyone that the missing woman was alive and would soon show up. And so it happened. Eleven days later, police learned that an employee of the Yorkshire Harrogate Hydro Hotel identified one of the guests as Agatha Christie. The discovered woman immediately assured everyone that she had suffered temporary amnesia, but after she saw her husband, her memory began to slowly return.

The reason for the writer's disappearance soon became clear. A year before the events described, her husband had a mistress - typist Nancy Neal, who shared his love of golf. Archibald eventually confessed his love for his new passion and announced to his wife his desire to get a divorce. For Agatha, who had recently experienced the death of her mother, this was a serious shock, which may have been the trigger for the debut of a dissociative fugue.

However, Archibald subsequently reported that in a personal conversation with him, Agatha admitted that the escape was not spontaneous, but a premeditated decision. The deceived wife allegedly wanted to annoy her husband, for which she planted a letter, the contents of which made the police suspect Archibald. It is noteworthy that her fictitious name, Teresa Neal, coincided with the surname of her husband's beloved. Some believe that this was a PR stunt to advertise Agatha Christie’s detective stories; experts are inclined to believe that this is a false dissociative fugue.

Treatment

Proctalgia cannot be cured quickly. To get rid of the disease, a whole range of measures is used.

The treatment is lengthy and requires the intervention of not only a proctologist, but also a gastroenterologist, surgeon, therapist and psychologist. The patient must trust doctors and help them in treatment, then getting rid of the disease will be much faster.

Among the main treatment procedures:

• Physiotherapeutic procedures - these include UHF, mud therapy, electrical stimulation, intrarectal irradiation with infrared laser, electrotherapy.
• Novocaine blockades are used during exacerbation of attacks.
• Microclysters - used to relieve pain with novocaine, sea buckthorn oil, collargol;
• Massage of the coccygeal area - massage the muscles of the anus and coccygeal muscles.
• Sedatives - if there are pronounced mental disorders, the patient is prescribed a course of sedatives, sleeping pills or light tranquilizers.

Escape from stress

It has now been established that dissociative fugue occurs against the background of unfavorable life events. They can be anything: job loss, divorce, death of a loved one, chronic stress, the situation can be aggravated by existing mental pathologies. The duration of such disorders varies over a huge time range: from several hours to several years. According to the World Health Organization, this disease occurs in no more than 0.2% of the world's population.

As a rule, a person who exhibits a dissociative fugue suddenly leaves his/her current place of residence. The final destination can be either an area previously visited by a person or a completely new one. Experts cannot yet explain how such a choice occurs. One thing is clear to them: the individual is controlled by the unconscious, whose task is to forget everything associated with the traumatic experience and rid the psyche of unbearable experiences.

The onset of this disease in 90% of cases occurs in the morning. As in Bourne's example, a person is vaguely aware of his identity for a while (the preacher was able to withdraw money from his bank account), after which amnesia sets in. The patient nevertheless behaves consciously and organizedly, without standing out among others. Often, he can easily settle in a new place and even start a family if the fugue lasts for a long time. Old memories are usually gradually replaced by false ones. Problems in communication usually do not arise, but they may appear if a person suffering from dissociation contacts official authorities.

In most cases, the intellectual sphere in such a mental disorder is not impaired; the person retains knowledge in general areas - arithmetic, geography, art, history, politics. In other words, he remembers almost everything that is not related to his personal life, the patient also does not lose previously acquired skills, be it driving a car or skiing. True, from time to time real memories still break into the patient’s consciousness, most often at night, which causes him serious discomfort.

A person can leave a state of dissociative fugue as suddenly as he entered it. A favorable time for this is after waking up. Lost memories can also be brought back by saying his own name or visiting familiar places. After the return of memory, a person most often forgets everything that happened to him during a mental disorder. If the fugue lasted more than a year, then the return to familiar reality can occur gradually.

Symptoms and clinical picture

Proctalgia is always expressed by very severe pain. They appear completely suddenly, most often at night. Painful muscle spasms can last from several minutes to several hours. In this case, pain can also be observed in neighboring organs: the perineum, anus, tailbone, hip joints. Such irradiation often leads down the wrong path, since the patient begins to suspect the presence of diseases in the genitourinary system. Thus, with proctalgia in women, the symptoms of pathology are often confused with manifestations of cystitis, and in men, vesiculitis.

Most often, proctalgia occurs with periods of calm and exacerbations. In the latter case, pain occurs more often and lasts longer. The specific cause of the exacerbations has not been established at this time. But most scientists are inclined to believe that most often proctalgia worsens due to neurological factors.

It is worth adding that proctalgia in women occurs in a more complex form than in men. The pain affects not only the perineum and anus, but also the entire rectum. Moreover, they occur during bowel movements from feces, during prolonged sitting, and also at night. Proctalgia in this case is complicated by the fact that its symptoms are very easily confused with diseases of the genitourinary system in women.

Diagnostics

To make an accurate diagnosis, the doctor must conduct a complete examination. This will eliminate the possibility of diseases of the rectum, genitourinary system, and reproductive system in women. A number of procedures are used to make a diagnosis:

• Inspection - First, a visual examination of the anus is performed, and then a digital examination of the rectum.
• Sigmoidoscopy – diagnostics of the condition of the walls of the rectum.
• Irrigoscopy and colonoscopy - these types of diagnostics are prescribed if the specialist suspects that the pathology is in the upper intestine;
• Ultrasound of the bladder and pelvic organs is done to exclude diseases of these organs.
• Blood test - a detailed analysis can show the presence of inflammatory processes in the body.

If during diagnostic procedures the doctor does not identify any diseases, then he diagnoses primary proctalgia.

Reasons for appearance

The exact causes of proctalgia have not yet been identified.

A certain connection has been noticed between proctalgia and diseases of the genitourinary system, intestines and other pelvic organs. If these diseases preceded proctalgia, then they are the cause of its occurrence.

But often the doctor does not detect any inflammatory processes. In such cases, discomfort in the anorectal area may be due to psychological reasons. Among them: stress, depression, emotional stress.

Features of manifestation

In men, proctalgia most often appears after 40 years. This disease affects them less often than women. Proctalgia in men is often mistaken for vesiculitis, since their clinical picture is similar.

Typically, pain occurs during bowel movements or prolonged sitting. Women often notice symptoms of proctalgia at night. Due to pain in the perineum, the disease is often confused with cystitis.

Features of treatment

The main goal in the treatment of proctalgia is to alleviate the patient’s condition during painful attacks and maintain his quality of life. The following procedures apply:

• physiotherapy - this includes: UHF, intrarectal irradiation with an infrared laser, electrotherapy (warming tissue with high-frequency currents), electrical stimulation;
• novocaine blockades - used during exacerbation of attacks of proctalgia;
• specialized massage of the coccygeal region: the coccygeal muscle and the muscles of the anus if a strong spasm is detected in them;
• microenemas with novocaine (procaine) - to relieve pain in the rectal area;
• taking sedative and sedative medications in case of severe mental disorders.

Treatment of proctalgia in women involves a mandatory examination by a gynecologist and appropriate tests to exclude possible existing pathologies and infections of the genitourinary system. In other cases, as additional measures, a specialist may prescribe therapeutic and preventive measures to cleanse the rectum with antibacterial drugs to prevent the development of latent proctosigmoiditis.

Considering that proctalgia is most often aggravated under the influence of neurogenic factors, it is very important to monitor the patient’s psycho-emotional state, so it is possible to schedule consultations with a psychotherapist and use psychotherapeutic relaxation methods.

If the cause of proctalgia is digestive disorders, patients are advised to adhere to a proper diet, excluding the intake of heavy foods and fast food, as well as fatty, smoked and pickled foods. Treatment of proctalgia in men and women is carried out using the same methods.

Diagnostics

To determine an accurate diagnosis of “proctalgia syndrome,” a specialist conducts a full examination of the patient in order to exclude possible organic lesions of the rectum, infections of the genitourinary and reproductive system (with proctalgia in women) and other regional organs. The set of diagnostic measures includes:

• physiological examination - visual examination, digital examination of the rectum. This makes it possible to identify spasms of the pelvic floor muscles during proctalgia or other abnormalities;
• sigmoidoscopy – performed for a detailed examination of the condition of the walls of the rectum;
• colonoscopy and irrigoscopy - can be prescribed in cases of suspected pathology of the upper intestine, when proctalgia radiates to the rectum;
• detailed blood test - the obtained indicators allow us to record the presence of an inflammatory process in the body;
• Ultrasound of the bladder and pelvic organs is prescribed to exclude possible pathologies in these organs.

If the diagnosis does not reveal any organic, functional abnormalities in the organs, no infectious diseases of the genitourinary system are detected, and the patient complains of severe, debilitating pain, the doctor makes a diagnosis of “primary proctalgia.”