This is dissociation that doesn’t stay put. In a dissociative fugue, a person may travel, relocate, or otherwise step away from their usual life, often with little or no memory of how they got there or why. From the outside it can look intentional or dramatic. From the inside, it usually feels automatic — like your brain hit an emergency exit before you could think about it. This isn’t about wanting a new life or abandoning responsibilities. It’s about distance. Physical distance when mental distance wasn’t enough. The brain decides that leaving is safer than staying, and it acts accordingly. When memory starts to return, people often feel confusion, shame, or disbelief about what happened. Others may expect explanations that don’t exist. There usually isn’t a clean narrative — just a nervous system that did what it knew how to do at the time. This one is rare. It’s also very real. And it’s a lot less cinematic than fiction would like you to believe.

Dissociative fugue is a subtype of dissociative amnesia characterized by sudden, unexpected travel away from one’s usual environment, accompanied by an inability to recall one’s past and confusion about personal identity. The condition is psychological in origin and associated with trauma or extreme stress. Individuals may appear outwardly organized or functional during a fugue, which can delay recognition. Recovery typically involves gradual restoration of memory and identity with trauma-informed treatment.
(Clinically speaking: this is not impulsivity. It’s a full-system override.)