Speaking from personal experience, I think it was a kind of dissociation, but not the same kind I deal with now. I mean, for me...when my Dad got like that or my parents fought and I went in my room and shut the door...I was still present, I just pretended that the world outside my room didn't exist. Not like what happens now, where the whole world feels like it shifts or goes foggy.

For me, it was more like I just shut down. I pushed all the scared feelings away because I knew it wouldn't make a difference. I took care of my brother, or I went and read a book, or I just disappeared from everyone else's sight for a while. I don't ever remember (except for the very first time) thinking Mom and Dad are fighting, this is scary, I'm going to my room. Or Dad just punched a hole in the wall, I'm frightened. I just remember not wanting to be wherever the fighting was, so I'd go in my room and shut the door and read or play and pretend that there wasn't anything else going on.