How to Help Someone Suffering from Dissociative Amnesia

Dissociative amnesia is a condition often triggered by trauma in a person's life. A person suffering from dissociative amnesia will forget important personal information about themselves and events in their life, often as a reaction to forgetting the trauma. There will be large gaps in memory far greater than mere lapses of memory or forgetfulness.[1]
When a loved one in your life is suffering from associative amnesia, it is important to know what to do to help them, as well as learning how to cope with how they have changed.

Steps

1. Do research and reading. It is important that you understand the disorder and how it impacts the sufferer. The more that you understand, the easier it will be to help and to forgive the moments when you feel completely distanced from your loved one.
   
   • Also try to learn about what caused your loved one to develop dissociative amnesia. Typical causes include involvement in a disaster in which they witnessed death or were near death, an abusive childhood, major life stresses, time spent in a combat zone, involvement in an accident, etc.[2][3] Unless you were also present, you won't be able to completely grasp what they went through but it will help you to understand the depth of their pain.
2. Get your loved one to quality treatment. Help your loved one find a reputable health professional whom you trust and know that your loved one is comfortable with.
3. Take on the role of talking to other family members. Your loved one isn't in a good place to be able to explain what is happening, and may instead simply withdraw, get angry, or refuse to speak. Help your family members to realize:
   
   • This memory loss is more than mere forgetfulness and impacts daily living.
   • That symptoms such as inability to recall information, depression, anxiety, and confusion are part of this condition.
   • This is not a case of malingering. Ask family members not to make snide comments or to express anguish about the inability of your loved one to remember things.
4. Help your loved one to choose appropriate treatment options. There will be a range of options available but they will all have varying degrees of effectiveness. You can play a key role in observing how your loved one is responding to treatment from the home life perspective, and give feedback to the health professionals. Treatment options might include:[4]
   
   • Psychotherapy
   • Cognitive therapy
   • Medication
   • Family therapy (this is teaching the family about the disorder and ways that the family can help the patient)
   • Creative therapies
   • Clinical hypnosis - Eriksonian hypnotherapy is recommended.[5]
5. Try to maintain the home life to enable independence and quality of life.
   
   • Get practical help as needed to help the person live normally.
   • Provide a secure, caring environment. Expect distress from the patient at times over the memory loss and be ready to reassure.[6]
   • Protect the patient from self-harm or neglect.
   • Ensure as much family and friend contact as possible.
   • Find ways to help the patient feel happy and useful.[7]
6. Look after yourself and your family. It is hard looking after someone who suffers from dissociative amnesia. Don't neglect your own emotional needs and seek support if you feel that you're not coping very well.

Tips

• Women are more likely than men to develop dissociative amnesia.[8]
• The earlier a person with dissociative amnesia gets help, the more likely it is that the treatment will result in a successful outcome.

Warnings

• Some people will never retrieve their lost memories. Prepare yourself for this possibility.

Things You'll Need

• Professional help

Related wikiHows

• How to Block a Distressing, Recurring Thought Pattern with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
• How to Heal From Rape and Sexual Assault (Rape Trauma Syndrome)
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• How to Overcome Short Term Memory Loss

Sources and Citations

1. ↑ Cleveland Clinic, Dissociative Amnesia, http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_amnesia.aspx
2. ↑ Dr Pamela Stephenson Connolly, Head Case: Treat Yourself to Better Mental Health, p.221, (2007), ISBN 978-0-7553-1721-9
3. ↑ PsychNet UK, Dissociative Disorder, http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/dissociative_amnesia.htm
4. ↑ Cleveland Clinic, Dissociative Amnesia, http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_amnesia.aspx
5. ↑ Dr Pamela Stephenson Connolly, Head Case: Treat Yourself to Better Mental Health, p.221, (2007), ISBN 978-0-7553-1721-9
6. ↑ Merck, Dissociative Amnesia, http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec07/ch106/ch106c.html
7. ↑ Dr Pamela Stephenson Connolly, Head Case: Treat Yourself to Better Mental Health, p.221, (2007), ISBN 978-0-7553-1721-9
8. ↑ Cleveland Clinic, Dissociative Amnesia, http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_amnesia.aspx

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