Chip Chick
Facebook; Hannah is pictured above hiking
Doctors tried to figure out if Hannah had any underlying medical conditions that might explain her memory loss, but they kept coming up with nothing physical that would cause it.
Hannah was ultimately diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder: dissociative fugue. This disorder basically causes someone to forget who they are.
Someone with dissociative fugue will frequently leave home without warning and might even take on a new identity. It’s extraordinarily rare to be diagnosed with this, and it’s caused by severe trauma or stress.
The strange thing is Hannah didn’t have any severe trauma in her childhood or in her adult life. She wasn’t severely stressed out about the start of the school year. In fact, she was anxious to get back to it after landing in the hospital.
And she did get back to school and back to her life for several years…before she disappeared for a second time.
Facebook; Hannah is pictured above with long hair
It was now September of 2013. Hannah had moved from New York City to Kensington, Maryland. She was working at a Montessori school, but on the first day she was due to start classes, she didn’t make it in.
Her cellphone and her purse were found lying in a wooded area and she was nowhere to be found. Two days later, Hannah called her mom after asking to use someone’s cellphone. She had been sitting in a creek with a shopping cart when it all came back to her.
