I spent a lot of time during my childhood in a dissociated state.....although I have only learnt what it actually was during the last 2 years. During therapy I easily slip into that state when talking about childhood traumas. My eyes mist over, my ears ring and I feel "unreal" or in a dreamlike state. My "official diagnosis is Complex PTSD, so I guess they do go together. I wonder about the overuse of this word myself. I still don't know why I suddenly suffered a huge meltdown 2 years ago, and since then have been slowly healing my traumatic childhood.....I guess I'll never know, but sometimes I honestly wish I had never taken the lid off the box....if you know what I mean!!!