PS By the way, can you (or anyone on the forum) explain what that is or that might shed some light on this for me. The "zoning out" bit. For example I'll be doing something, say writing a note for me to pick up laundry detergent. I'll pick up the pen, start part of the word and BLANK nothing happens, then many minutes later (or hours) I "wake up" and continue on. Is this what is called a fugue state? I don't know if I spelled that correctly or not.
Map, that is a form of dissassociaton. I do it all the time! I will forget where I am and what I'm doing or how long I've been there. It can be very unerving to find you've lost hours to blankness! I've learned when it's going to hit (usually when I've been doing too much) and will go play video games for a few hours to zone out on. I zone on and off all day long, but they are more like 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Try to find something that you can do mindlessly and go do it when you think your going to zone out! It helps and you learn to recognize it.
Here's this to read: [DLMURL]http://www.ptsdforum.org/thread1214.html[/DLMURL]
I know there is more on it here, just not awake enough to find it! This is completely normal for us ptsd'ers!
Here is what a fugue state is:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the New York City-based publisher, see Fugue State Press.
In the field of psychology, a fugue state is usually defined by the term dissociative fugue. It is etiologically related to dissociative amnesia (which in popular culture is usually simply called amnesia, the state where someone completely forgets who they are).
A fugue state is therefore similar in nature to the concept of dissociative identity disorder (DID) (formerly called multiple-personality disorder) although DID is widely understood to have its conception in a long-term life event (such as a traumatic childhood), where sufficient time is given for alternate personality representations to form and take hold. Sudden neurological damage would thus seem to fit more closely the onset of a fugue state.
As the person experiencing a fugue state may have recently suffered an amnesic onset - perhaps a head trauma, or the reappearance of an event or person representing an earlier life trauma - the emergence of a "new" personality seems to be for some, a logical apprehension of the situation.
Therefore, the terminology fugue state may carry a slight linguistic distinction from dissociative fugue, the former implying a greater degree of motion. For the purposes of this article then, a fugue state would occur while one is acting out a dissociative fugue.
The DSM-IV defines Dissociative Fugue as:
* sudden, unexpected travel away from home or one's customary place of work, with inability to recall one's past,
* confusion about personal identity, or the assumption of a new identity, or
* significant distress or impairment.
The Merck Manual [1] defines Dissociative Fugue as:
One or more episodes of amnesia in which the inability to recall some or all of one's past and either the loss of one's identity or the formation of a new identity occur with sudden, unexpected, purposeful travel away from home.
So nope! Not a fugue state! LOL
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