I think a dissociating from the body is much more common than we think, it is just that the very mild cases never get seen for what they are. When it becomes full blown one can not not see it.

I have a friend who is dissociative, although not usually, but once in a while, something within him takes over, that doesn't sound like him even and he has no memory of it so he doesn't think it happened. Only if it is totally proven to him he will believe it. But like I said, it is very rarely.

What is sort of all the time is his mild dissociation from his body. No one ever caught this. And yea he was abused in several ways as a child. He learned to sort of cut the strings to his body during the abuse like it wasn't his body. Now he sort of treats his body as a separate entity. When he abuses his body (usually overeating, no exercise, no self care) he doesn't feel that when the body acts up because of it it is his fault. He gets mad at his body for being fat on him, being not fit, getting tired and such. I'm not saying he is to blame really, because he has disconnected so many of his body's signals, like hunger and fullness.

I've never heard him say one positive thing about his body and I have never heard him refer to the body as a part of himself. Maybe his dissociation is more that the abuse happened to his body but not his mind, while in DID the abuse happened to one part and not another.

Just speculations, so meh.