Quote:
Originally Posted by lucky2001
I finally told my therapist about dissociation. It was very hard to talk about but she was very nice about it. So now every session, she asks about it, like if i dissociated last week, when, how it happened and what it felt like. But i can't talk about it. Sometimes something triggers me to dissociate and sometimes there's no trigger. Last night it was very bad. I literally froze when i dissociated, couldn't feel or move my arms and legs. It also lasted a long time. I know what triggered it and i want to tell my therapist at the next session but i don't know how. I don't want to write something and give it to her cause that is even harder than talking :/ any advice??
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I*m wondering if maybe your therapist is trying to figure out what you mean by dissociate....
the word dissociate has many different meanings/symptoms/problems...
example
when i would say to my therapist...I dissociated this week. thats not telling my therapist what I mean. that just says I am using the word dissociate to describe "something"
kind of like saying ..I like the color red....there are many different shades and meanings to the word red...crimson red, fire red, blush red, anger red, ...my using the word red doesnt tell anyone what I mean and leaves it open to interpretation..
if I say I dissociate to one therapist to them that might mean I am foggy minded, to another that means I felt numb, to another therapist that meant I was feeling like I was in a dream, to another that means I switched into an alternate personality...
see what I mean...the word dissociate can mean any number of things..
your therapist may be trying to figure out how you are using the word and it may be differing from how the therapist thinks of the word..
so my suggestion is start with you and your usage of the word..what does the word dissociate mean to you. doe sit say you feel numb, does it say you are hallucinating, does it say you feel like the world is going slow or fast, does it say you have a sort of pain somewhere, does it say you feel foggy minded, .....these are all examples of what dissociation can mean here where I live.
instead of using the wording ...I dissociated this week...try the wording ....
I felt.........this week and fill in the blank how did you "feel"
people usually know they feel foggy minded, numb, slow or sped up especially if they know how to use the correct terminology for what is happening to them..
question....how do you know you are dissociating...in order to know you are "dissociating" you must know what symptoms you are feeling in order to use the term dissociating with your therapist.
(unless the person is copying something they heard/read or was told.... I know someone who kept saying they were dissociating because someone else told them thats what they were doing but it turned out they were not dissociating they were experiencing vertigo with an ear infection)
once you connect what you are feeling with the correct psychological terms the talking about it will come easier because you and your therapist will be on the same page.
if you are using the term dissociated then you know what that word goes to, so maybe you can try saying when this happened I felt .....(numb, foggy headed, what ever the feeling was)instead of using the word dissociated.