Many of us feel detached from our bodies, minds or surroundings at times. But when these experiences have a big impact on our lives, it can become a mental health problem. Dissociation is when you feel disconnected from your thoughts, feelings, memories, or sense of who you are. It’s a common response to stress or trauma and can affect anyone.
Dissociation itself isn’t a disorder. It might be something that just happens occasionally and isn’t a problem for you. Or, it could be a symptom of a dissociative disorder or another mental health problem. This week you will learn what dissociation is, what it feels like, and how you can find support if you need it.
What is dissociation?
Dissociation is the feeling of being detached from our bodies, minds or surroundings. Many of us dissociate during our life. Everyone’s experience of dissociation is different. For example, you may feel:
Detached from your body as though the world around you is unreal. Like you have periods of time you don’t remember that your identity shifts and changes. Dissociation can last for a short time – minutes, hours or days. Or for much longer – weeks or even months. There are many reasons it can happen. It’s one way our minds cope with too much stress, such as during a traumatic event. In situations we can’t physically get away from, dissociation can protect us from distress.
What are the signs of dissociation?
Different people experience dissociation in different ways. It can feel hard to describe. Psychiatrists have tried to group these experiences and give them names. This can help them diagnose specific dissociative disorders. But your experiences might not fit neatly into these groups. And you can experience dissociation even if you haven’t been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder.
The most common signs you’re dissociating:
Forgetting important things about yourself or your life.
You might:
Have gaps in your memory where you can’t remember certain events
Not be able to remember important information about yourself or your life history
Forget how to do something you’ve been able to do well in the past
Find that you have items that you don’t remember ever owning
Everyone forgets things sometimes. A psychiatrist might call this dissociative amnesia.
Usually this is if:
It doesn’t seem to be ‘normal’ forgetting (for example, you still can’t remember when you’re reminded)
It’s not related to injury, drugs, alcohol or another diagnosis
Not knowing how you got somewhere
You might travel somewhere and forget how you got there. You may forget important details about yourself and take on a new identity during this time.
A psychiatrist might call these experiences dissociative fugue. Most people who experience dissociative fugue also experience amnesia.
Feeling like the world around you is strange or unreal
You might feel:
Detached, distant or separate from the world around you.
Disconnected from reality.
Like you’re living in a dream.
As if other people are robots (even though you know they aren’t)
As if objects are changing in shape, size or color.
As if time is speeding up or slowing down
You may see the world as ‘lifeless’ or ‘foggy’. Or as if you’re looking at it through a pane of glass.
A psychiatrist might call these experiences derealisation.
Feeling disconnected from yourself or as if you’re not real
You might feel:
As though you’re watching yourself in a film
As if you’re looking at yourself from the outside
As if you’re just observing your emotions, not feeling them
Disconnected from parts of your body or your emotions
Numb or unable to feel physical pain
As if you’re floating away
Unsure of the boundaries between yourself and other people
As if you’re looking at someone else in a mirror
A psychiatrist might call these experiences depersonalisation.
Feeling your identity shift and change
You might:
Feel as if ‘you’ are more than one person in the same body (these ‘people’ are sometimes called identity states)
Switch between these different identity states
Speak in a different voice or voices
Use a different name or names
Feel as if you’re losing control to ‘someone else’
Feel as if ‘you’ are different people at different times
Act like different people, including children
A psychiatrist might call these experiences identity alteration.
Some people with dissociation also hear voices. If you do, you may hear your different identity states talking to each other. Or voices that are completely separate to your own identity.
Difficulty defining who you are
You might:
Find it very difficult to define what kind of person you are
Feel like your opinions, tastes, thoughts and beliefs change a lot
Feel as if your thoughts and actions change so much that it’s hard to know what is the ‘real you’
A psychiatrist might call these experiences identity confusion.
Spending a long time daydreaming each day
You might:
Spend most of your time in intense, vivid daydreams and neglect your everyday life
Do this to avoid difficult feelings or problems
Have a blank expression while you’re daydreaming
Feel addicted to daydreaming and want to do it most of the time
Some psychiatrists might call this maladaptive daydreaming. But this isn’t an official diagnosis.
Some of us have experiences of dissociation for a long time without realizing what it is. Sometimes just putting a name to an experience can help.
What causes dissociation?
There are lots of reasons you might dissociate. Dissociation can happen because of things going on in your life right now. Or it can develop as a way of coping with things that happened in your past. Certain medications can also cause dissociation as a side effect.
For example, you might dissociate:
In response to something traumatic or very stressful that you can’t control.
When under the influence of alcohol and drugs. As a side effect of certain medications, or when coming off medication.
As a symptom of certain mental health problems, such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychosis and schizophrenia.
What’s the link between trauma and dissociation?
Experts think that dissociative disorders may develop partly as a response to traumatic events, often in childhood.
This is because after a trauma you may:
Learn to use dissociation to cope with any stress or trauma
Have flashbacks to the trauma which can cause you to dissociate
If you notice signs of dissociation, you’re not alone. Many people find it helpful to talk to someone they trust, like a friend, family member, or mental health professional. There are also support groups and resources available to help you understand and manage these experiences.
As always, if you or someone you love feels suicidal or that they are in a crisis there is the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 for confidential, free, 24/7/365 help. You can also chat at 988lifeline.org. Another resource is the Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. The Crisis Hotline: 844-755-5325 Until next week, I’m Desert Rose signing off and wishing you all good mental health.
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