Feralkkitty.....can I ask what you mean by the dissociative hangover? (think that's what you called it, can't see it on mobile while typing)

Sorry Jane, I just got back to this thread. It's not a technical term or anything LOL! I just had a lot of difficulty with dissociation in the first couple of years of therapy and couldn't control it them. So sometimes, especially after an intense session, I felt a sort of hazy, unfocussed, spacey feeling--much like a physical hang-over--for a while after. During that time, the emotions from earlier still stayed with me like a shadow and would influence how I perceived other stuff. If I could have recognized the emotions and connected them to the past, they probably would have dissipated, but I couldn't consciously do that. So they influenced me, but I wasn't aware they were influencing me.