Dissociative symptoms include :

Depersonalisation a feeling that your body doesnt quite belong to you or is disconnected from
you

Derealisation a feeling that you are disconnected from the world around you or spaced out

For a detailed description of dissociative symptoms you can download an article here which
describes them for a neurology journal

Here are some of the ways in which people describe depersonalisation and derealisation.

Depersonalisation

Common: I felt strange / weird, I felt as if I was floating away, I felt disembodied /
disconnected / detached / far away from myself, apart from everything, in a place of my own/
alone, like I was there but not there, I could see and hear everything but couldnt respond

Less Common: puppet-like, robot-like, acting a part, I couldnt feel any pain like I was
made of cardboard', I felt like I was just a head stuck on a body, like a spectator looking at
myself on TV, an out of body experience, my hands or feet felt smaller / bigger. when I
touched things it didnt feel like me touching them

Derealisation

My surroundings seemed unreal / far away, I felt spaced out, It was like looking at the world
through a veil or glass, I felt cut off or distant from the immediate surroundings, objects
appeared diminished in size / flat / dream-like / cartoon like / artificial / unsolid

Functional Memory and Concentration

Symptoms
Functional Memory and Concentration symptoms (also called functional cognitive symptoms)
frequently co-exist alongside functional and dissociative symptoms.

This is especially the case when there is sleep disturbance, fatigue, anxiety or depression.
However, it is important to state that you can have these memory and concentration symptoms
without anxiety or depression.

Functional Cognitive Symptoms are becoming more common - possibly because we now have
many more memory clinics than there used to be and dementia is quite widely publicised as a
problem.
Studies in the UK show that over half of patients attending a memory clinic dont have dementia
and many have a functional cognitive disorder.

Common memory complaints are as follows. Many may be everyday experiences that are
experienced more often than usual.

Like all functional symptoms, deciding whether these symptoms are part of a neurological
disease or not must be done carefully.

But often, these kinds of symptoms do not indicate a memory problem at all. They can mostly be
explained as a consequence of poor concentration or absentmindedness. If you are not
concentrating to begin with, perhaps because you are tired, or distracted, then you are not going
to remember things.

So whilst you used to be able to walk upstairs and keep in mind the reason for it, you now
dont because your pain or fatigue or leg weakness is getting in the way of your concentration.

People who notice these kinds of symptoms have often had above average ability to remember
things in the first place. People who have always been a bit absentminded tend to notice them
less.

Sometimes these symptoms become a focus for worry about health, especially if there is a family
history of dementia or the person is familiar with dementia. Thinking or worrying about memory
symptoms tends to make them worse. Most brain functions, like movement sleep and thinking
work best when you dont try too hard to make them work

Concentration symptoms are a very common symptom of anxiety and depression so its easy to
see how a vicious circle of symptoms can start to develop in this situation.

It may be helpful to find out how common memory symptoms are in the population. Here are
some figures from healthy people in their 20s and 30s.

When doctors assess memory problems in the clinic they may look for certain clues to help them
work out if memory symptoms are functional or not. They may carry out neuropsychological
tests using a pen and paper or computer. Clinicians need to be careful as some patients with
functional cognitive disorder perform worse on testing than they do in real life and the results
can create a false impression.

None of the features below are completely diagnostic and the diagnosis should be made by an
expert. In some patients it may not be possible to be sure, but have a look at this to decide which
side you are more likely to be on:

Is this the same as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)

No. MCI is a label commonly given to older patients who have cognitive symptoms but who do
not have dementia. Some of those patients may indeed have functional cognitive symptoms but
some will go on to get dementia.
Functional cognitive disorder is a much more specific and identifiable problem with typical
clinical features.

Treatment of Functional Cognitive Symptoms

These are some of the things that may help people suffering from functional cognitive symptoms

1. Make a positive diagnosis. Like all functional neurological disorders it should not be a
diagnosis of exclusion.
2. Identify whether there is an obvious cause like sleep deprivation, excessive medication or
anxiety which can be a target for treatment
3. People who used to have a brilliant memory may need time to recognise that the memory
symptoms they have, although different for them, are still normal for the population. Education
and discussion may help here.
4. Training to accept memory mistakes when they occur and not to focus on them for too lon (ie
reduced self-criticism)

Longer Periods of Amnesia / Dissociative Amnesia

Sometimes patients with functional neurological symptoms report quite dramatic periods of
amnesia, for example, for a whole afternoon or a whole car journey. This is especially the case in
people with dissociative seizures who often have amnesia for symptoms just preceding the
attack.

When a whole block of time like this is lost, then the explanation is more likely to be dissociative
amnesia. Click on dissociative symptoms to find out more about the general meaning of
dissociation.

In dissociative amnesia, the person is not able to remember anything because either

during the period in question they were either in a trance like state, or

They are having difficulty accessing normal memories because of a change in function of the
brain, which is part of a functional or dissociative illness

I went upstairs /to the next room and couldnt remember why I was there

I keep losing my wallet / keys

I lost track of the conversation

I couldnt recall the entire car journey home

I pick up a book and I cant remember the bit I read before

I forget the name of the place I went on holiday and what we did every day
I completely forgot to go to a meeting / send someone a birthday card'

What about my other symptoms?

Am I just imagining it then?

What if the doctors are wrong?

What can I do to get better?

Why has this happened to me?

I am 47 years old and about 4 years ago had what you might call a nervous breakdown. Since
then I have been experincing profound cognitive impairment. People will be talking to me and
it's like what they are saying is not registering with my brain. My brain can not keep up with the
words being spoken by someone. My doctor upped my dose of Celexa to 80 mgs and it has
helped alot, but still am having problems with it. My memory is really affected too.

Read more: http://www.healthboards.com/boards/anxiety/706712-cognitive-impairment-

symptom.html#ixzz4m60td5P2

Sometimes when I have been concentrating on something I feel like I am disconnected from my libs or
even my entire body.

Coincidentally, today I was sitting in a chair, thinking, and all of a sudden I realized I had no idea where
my legs were positioned.
I had my eyes closed at the time and I could not picture or feel where my legs where; e.g. folded under
the chair, stretched out, tilted etc. I just felt them, but I could not tell their position untill I moved them.

Sometimes i feel detached from my physical self which is pretty weird. Then other then that sometimes I
can't seem to move them which I don't see as a good thing but usually it only happens sometimes when
I get really anxious.

I experience this and feeling as though my surroundings are unreal as well. I have yet to figure out
whether it is derealization or depersonalization. Although feeling that limbs don't belong to you seems
like a depersonalization symptom.
By cognitive impairment, do you mean feelings of depersonalization or derealization, inability to
remember things short or long term, decrease in intelligence, harder to understand things that you
used to?

Read more: http://www.healthboards.com/boards/anxiety/706712-cognitive-impairment-

symptom.html#ixzz4m61ndVLd

Yes, that's what I mean.

Those can certainly be symptoms of anxiety, but do you feel anxious and/or panicky?

Read more: http://www.healthboards.com/boards/anxiety/706712-cognitive-impairment-

symptom.html#ixzz4m629nz6E