However, the denial may be based on a false premise. Our clinical and research experience suggests a way of unraveling the mysterious discrepancy between patient conviction and neuropsychological findings. Instead of the flaw residing in the patient complaint, it may well be that these patients as a group are being held to the wrong standards. The logic is flawed because it does not account fully for the many ways memory failures arise and overlooks shortcomings in the testing process. A process prominently linked to memory impairment is dissociation.
Dissociation is a failure to integrate experiences that normally go together.
Short-term memory complaints of dissociatives are well known to mimic the complaints of patients with fibromyalgia that we now refer to as fibrofog . Level of dissociation fluctuates in intensity throughout the day. Variation is likely to be influenced by daily stress. With rising intensity, sensory experience is transformed into haze like sensations leaving the patients feeling as if enveloped in a fog. At more severe intensity, lapses in memory are likely to occur leaving the individual unable to remember what was said, done or planned.