My friend has Dissociative Fugue Disorder?

Dissociative Fugue is one or more episodes of amnesia in which the inability to recall some or all of one's past. The condition is usually associated with severe stress or trauma.



I think this happened to my friend. The doctor is unsure and didn't even mention this, but from AP Psych... this condition seems to fit her symptoms. Its a complicated story but basically she was supposed to get her wisdom teeth taken out last Friday. She has an extreme fear of needles.. and became hysterical when they tried to put in her IV. They never did the procedure and her mother took her home. When she woke up on Saturday morning her memory was gone. Strange huh?



She has no memory of her personal life at all. Not her name, nor her mother's. She came over to my house three days after and knew nothing about me. It was shocking to see. I forgot to ask her if she knew who Michael Jackson was..



Anyway, i was wondering if this has happened to you or anyone that you know. How common is it? And most of all.. what is the possibility she will get her memory back?My friend has Dissociative Fugue Disorder?
Usually, people recover their memories, and the extent of memory loss varies considerably. Few people forget how to talk, make phone calls, etc. It may take some days, weeks, or months. When she does, she would be well advised to address her aichmophobia (Fear of Needles). A previous answer follows, but she really needs an experienced phobia therapist, and very probably a beta blocker, such as propranolol, or atenolol, etc. ~~~ It sometimes develops into a phobia, for which reason, see section 27, at http://www.ezy-build.net.nz/~shaneris... and examine the http://1-800-therapist.com/ and http://www.metanoia.org/choose/... websites, and use the locators in section 1, and phone book (but only if necessary) to find a suitable therapist, preferably a clinical psychologist.



The technique for reprogramming negative thoughts, on page N, in section 6, at ezy build, (also try the free hypnotherapy link for anxiety) may be all that is required, otherwise, Systematic Desensitisation Therapy is known to be an effective treatment. For those unable to access professional treatment, you can try the following: Look at a picture of a hypodermic needle from far away. If you have none, go to http://www.google.com/ and type "photo; hypodermic syringe" in the searchbar, and press the "enter" key on your keyboard.



Then approach it more closely. Finally, touch the picture. Then look at a real hypodermic syringe from a distance. Then approach it closer. Then touch it. Finally, pick it up, carefully. Then put it down, and move away. These don't all have to be done at once, and each step will teach you that, although it may not be pleasant, you weren't actually harmed, and it will give you confidence to proceed with the next stage. It may well be the "conditioned response", which was instilled in you as a child, that is responsible for this fear. You saw the needle, then you experienced pain, (or possibly you saw someone else experience it) so now you associate pain with the sight of a needle, causing fear of it. Consider having some (cooled %26amp; bottled?) c(h)amomile, or Tension Tamer (Celestial Seasonings; tea aisle, supermarkets) herbal tea, and hour beforehand, or valerian (vitamin pills %26amp; supplements aisle) to help relax you, but know how they affect you, first. Use no milk, or cream with herbal tea.



Some people ask to lie down for their shots. Others, ask where it will be administered, and to be told just before, so that the person about to have the needle can give that place a smack, (or you can jab yourself, lightly, with a plastic knitting needle, or similar, in several places immediately surrounding the target area) after which that tiny pinprick has considerably less effect: (the nerves which transmit pain have already started work, from over a considerable area, and the pain messages of the small additional amount of pain, from a very tiny area, tend to get flooded by the others) it may help to look away, and think of something pleasant, and promise yourself a nice reward, once it is over. As someone who doesn't like them, either; I consider that it is mostly the anticipation of pain, which is the problem, and once you take that away, by inflicting a little bit on yourself, the "shock value" is gone, in a similar way to how you can't tickle yourself.My friend has Dissociative Fugue Disorder?
this actually happened to one of my friends. me, him and sum other people did some ecstasy one night. everything was fine and nothing out of the ordinary happened. the next day i find out that he had no recollection of the night before, or even the couple of months before. he said he "woke up" when he was opening the door to his room, and had no idea what just happened. i guess he blacked out or something.

everybody thought it was fake but really if someone he had just met in the couple of months before this happened had come up to him he had absolutely no recollection of them. as if he had never met them. and he kept referring to my ex as my bf because we had only broken up a couple of months before that.

he even stopped liking the girl he couldn't stop thinking about until then, when we mentioned her he acted as if she was just another girl at school.

i'm not sure about anything else though, like stuff he learned at school since i didn't hang out with him much anymore and he didn't like talking about what happened. he liked to pretend nothing happened and i guess he kind of just tried to pretend he knew a lot of the ppl he thought he never met.

i heard that little by little he got sum of his memory back but he still doesn't remember what happened that night.

i hope that your friend does get her memory back, especially since it was a natural reaction to stress and not drug induced.