I used the word "dissociate" and "dissociative" with our marriage counselor, and then later when my H started talking about the "switching" the MC was like, "What, WHAT? Whoa. Back up." He was thinking "dissociate" as in space out or go numb and not dissociative as wholly leaving and having someone else take over. amandalouise is quite correct that the terms do not mean the same thing to each person.