<p>What an interesting story:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/nyregion/thecity/01miss.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/nyregion/thecity/01miss.html</a></p>
<p>Fascinating! Thanks for posting the link.</p>
<p>"On Aug. 28, a Thursday, a 23-year-old schoolteacher from Hamilton Heights named Hannah Emily Upp went for a jog along Riverside Drive. That jog is the last thing that Ms. Upp says she remembers before the deckhands rescued her from the waters of New York Harbor on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 16.</p>
<p>Rumors and speculation abounded about what befell Ms. Upp. She disappeared the day before the start of a new school year at Thurgood Marshall Academy, a Harlem school, where she taught Spanish. She left behind her wallet, her cellphone, her ID and a host of troubling questions.</p>
<p>It was as if the city had simply opened wide and swallowed her whole — until she was seen on a security camera at the Midtown Apple store checking her e-mail. Then she vanished again. And then reappeared, not only at the Apple store but also at a Starbucks and several New York Sports Clubs, where news reports said she went to shower.</p>
<p>Was she suffering from bipolar disorder? Running away from an overly demanding job? Escaping from a city that can overwhelm even the most resilient?</p>
<p>Other questions lingered. Did she forage for food? Where did she sleep? Most baffling of all, how did she survive for so long without money or any identification in one of the world’s busiest and most complex cities?</p>
<p>That she was rescued, alive and well, is in itself amazing; most such stories do not have happy endings. But the explanation for what had happened raised even more questions than Ms. Upp’s disappearance had — for her more than for anybody…"</p>
<p>OH MY GOSH! That’s the sister of a friend-of-a-friend of mine from college… I’d heard that she was missing, but I’d never heard anything beyond that! Thank you so much for posting this, I’m so relieved to hear that she’s okay.</p>
<p>Scary. Sounds like it could happen to anyone, anytime. She’s damn lucky they found her just in time.</p>
<p>If I had to look forward to teaching Spanish to a couple of hundred 7th grades…I’m not sure what I would do.</p>
<p>I suspect I would share her disorder … middle schoolers are TOUGH! :)</p>
<p>How did they diagnose this - by her behaviors?</p>
<p>What a humbling story.</p>
<p>Several years ago my MIL had a dissociative episode. We all wrote it off to mini-stroke kind of effect except huge number or tests showed no reason. She passed through a normal day, except the friends she ran into (like in the condo elevator) later said that she seemed confused or pre-occupied. She drove to her regular hair place, where she evidently carried on regular conversations other than repeatedlly asking if she had paid. Fortunately the salon folks knew her and called her daughter, and the medics. Checked into hospital but she didn’t come back into normal time until about 18 hours later. Doctors didn’t call it a stroke, (but what else could it be). Soon as the effects wore off she was fine. She had no memory of any of it.</p>
<p>There must be a different brain episode name for these things</p>
<p>I might add that she had no stress that might cause epiodes in others… well off happy senior with lots of friends and interests, many grandchildren, no problems that might have caused a psychological break. It’s been 8 years and no repeat. A one day problem. Makes it more scarey…</p>
<p>Tralfamadorians?</p>
<p>This is scary stuff, but fascinating. Is the identity the soul of the person? And what does that have to do with religion and perhaps reincarnation? What was the self awareness of this young woman while she was missing?</p>