Dissociative amnesia: what are the signs and what to do

Dissociative amnesia: what are the signs and what to do

Dissociative amnesia: it's called that but it's a dramatic black hole of memory. The certainty of having done something that has not been done. The father who did not take the child to kindergarten and left her in the car, where she died, was convinced he had left her at school. So convinced that he later spoke about it with his wife and that he hadn't remembered even then that he had never crossed the threshold of kindergarten with little Stella. Fortunately, it is not a frequent phenomenon in this dramatic sense, but very frequent in its "benign" version.

What does "benign" Dr. Cro mean?

"It happens to everyone, very often - he specifies Francesco Cro, psychiatrist of the Mental Health Department of Viterbo - of driving and finding yourself at your destination without remembering which roads you have travelled. We got there on kind of autopilot. Maybe because we've been on the phone and got distracted. Or because we were lost in thought. It's a natural phenomenon, our brain goes on standby when external pressures are unsustainable, or after traumatic events. Of course, it's easier to happen with repetitive actions that I do every day: the first time I have to leave my daughter at school I'll be very attentive, the hundredth time maybe not anymore and anxieties, worries or work problems have the upper hand".

A defense reaction of our brain?

"A reaction of our brain to a hectic way of life. Not only are we the targets of dozens of things to do and remember every day but, at least for the amnesias that we define as benign, we should try not to ruminate on the past or think about the future, but to focus on the present, on what we live in that moment of our lives. And instead we do one thing and we already think not about the next one, but about the many subsequent ones. Probably this father too was already well past the time to leave his daughter at school and was already thinking of all the things to do that day".

But how come he didn't remember then that he had left the child in the car not even during the next phone call with his wife?

"Precisely because with dissociative episodes the memory is not formed, it has not visualized the scene, the brain has deceived it into believing it had done what it did every day. Dissociation is a form of self-defense: when the stimuli are too many and unsustainable, we automatically exclude some things and not necessarily the less important ones. So today - with life at a hundred per hour and more pressure from many sides - the risks are much greater for everyone".

But are there any solutions?

"It would be enough to slow down, focus on the present, and instead we are surrounded by the internet, TV, cell phones, very stimulating situations and we don't want to miss any of them. Then family and professional commitments and at a certain point we can't stand it anymore. We have too hectic lives, we always run, families run from the morning, breakfasts in a few minutes, then the children left at school by mums or dads who then run off to work. And while they are at work they already think about leaving school, about afternoon activities: this is not the case holds up for a long time. And, indeed, the brain launches alarms". Alarms that are real black holes.



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