Dissociative amnesia disorder or also called as psychogenic amnesia is a known mental illness wherein it is characterized as a memory disorder. People who have this condition may encounter autobiographical loss of memory that may last for several hours to several years. This can also be characterized as a dissociative disorder wherein a person may experience memory gaps. Such gaps will make a person incapable of recalling personal information and sometimes, stressful and traumatic instances.
Understanding Psychogenic Amnesia
What makes this disorder different is that, they will not remember some personal information about them and even lack the ability to have self-knowledge about who they are. It is also distinguished as a condition, which was not derived from any brain lesion or damage. This may be due to any psychological stress, which may lead to this type of condition.
There are also famous people with dissociative amnesia disorders who would forget certain incidents that may lead to many years of forgetting personal identity. People who have experienced sexual and physical abuse during their childhood days may sometimes forget about such things once they grow up. These tragic moments are the ones that may result to memory impairment and sometimes severe cases of memory loss.
How it Occurs
Unlike other amnesia cases like organic amnesia that is caused by brain damages and lesions, famous people with dissociative amnesia disorders may have suffered any traumatic incidents when they are young, which resulted to the memory disorder. The stresses caused by these incidents are the ones, which led them to forget about such things within years or sometimes permanently. Such conditions are diagnosed through imaging various brain activities with using various imaging techniques. With early diagnosis, people are assured that they can prevent it from worsening and avoid any complications.
Though there are no recorded lists of famous people with dissociative amnesia disorders that are publicized, there are still reports saying that there are certain people who are suffering from the disease. There are people from the entertainment, sports and other industries wherein they have sighted people who have these problems yet are not announced due to legal and confidential reasons. The condition can be considered as a serious one since it can affect one’s opinion about previous instances, which may lead to certain issues that may worsen the case and lead to a more severe memory loss condition than before.
Treatment Options
Treatments that can be applied for famous people with dissociative amnesia disorders may be difficult since there are no physical brain damages that should be cured. Experts would make use of other theories wherein they can attempt to regain the memory that was lost before and realize the self-punishment that patients made to forget such memories.
There are experts who would try hypnosis since they are able to release the true feelings of the patient and find out things that have triggered the condition. Due to intense questioning, there are many patients who have recovered from the disorder, gained their memories back and learned how to accept things that they have chosen to forget in the past.
