you're welcome and Yes kimmydawn my heart was pulling for you and I wanted to tell you this. I just didn't know if posting this in the other thread would have fit in there. When I saw your post I realized I wasn't the only one dealing with dissociating during physicals and how scared I was in the middle of it, I also figured if you and I were going through this then there were probably more out there dealing with it. I wanted to let them know they were not alone either.

You don't have to tell anyone you don't want to about having PTSD with dissociative features or even DID. Take your time and do whats right for you.

My family didn't understand either. Some how through the family gossip line my DID got twisted around to my having lost total touch with reality and should be committed to a nut ward. Until a family member had an accident while alone and in order for her to get help for herself she had to totally separate the physical pain from the mental logic of get to the phone. With many broken bones and concusion she stood up, walked to the phone and called 911. When they got there she walked out climbed into the ambulance. once at the er she finally became aware of the reason they refused to let her walk - she had been walking on a foot that was totally twisted the wrong way then the pain hit and she passed out. While she was in the hospital in traction she asked why and how she was able to do that. She has memory of doing this but like she was in a slow motion movie. They explained to her about dissociation during traumatic situations. She now understands how a person can dissociate and how DID is created and no longer thinks I belong in a nut ward. The rest of the family don't understand and probably won't until they too expeience a trauma situation requiring separating the mental aspcets from the phsyical aspects. But you know I don't let them get to me. The way I see it. They are going to believe what they want to believe all that matters is that I do whats right for me and that is continue moving ahead while ignoring their efforts to bait me into family arguements and so on.

Another friend on the east coast deals with her internal exams by seeing a female gyn and just telling her she is a sexual abuse survivor and may need to go slow or stop the exam if it starts triggering emotions. and having a friend or the female nurse hold her hand during the exam helps. She never disclosed she had DID to that gyn.

No there isn't an issue of if dissociation is real or not but yet there is stigma for those that fit outside the normal scale. Someday maybe society will wake up.

Take care