What Are Dissociative Disorders?
Dissociative disorders involve clinically significant disruptions in memory, identity, emotion, perception, behavior, body experience, or consciousness. 1 2 3
Main ideas
- DID is one dissociative disorder, not the only one.
- Other dissociative presentations may include dissociative amnesia, depersonalization/derealization, or other specified dissociative disorder.
- Differential diagnosis matters because dissociation can overlap with trauma, mood, psychosis-spectrum, neurodevelopmental, and substance-related symptoms.
Questions for reflection
- Which symptoms are dissociative, and which may have another cause?
- What needs immediate safety planning regardless of label?
- Who is qualified to assess complex dissociation carefully?
Clinical note
A label should clarify care. If it only creates fear, the conversation needs more precision.
Footnotes
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Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Dissociative disorders. In Psychology 2e. OpenStax. Section 15.9, paragraph on dissociative disorders. Text-fragment link to the section definition. ↩
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Pietkiewicz, I. J., Banbura-Nowak, A., Tomalski, R., & Boon, S. (2021). Revisiting false-positive and imitated dissociative identity disorder. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. Differential diagnosis article. Open access diagnostic caution article. ↩
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International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. (2011). Guidelines for treating dissociative identity disorder in adults, third revision. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 12(2), 115-187. pp. 115-187. Full adult DID treatment guideline PDF. ↩