I hear your concern, I worried about experiencing a problem when I was driving too. I should have NEVER gone to the deposition I had with the opposing attorney alone either. It ended with me stuck in a flashback crying and I could not talk. Oh that was awful, my own attorney kept interupting and giving long disertations about himself, it was so embarassing. I don't know how, but I managed to get to the bathroom and I just sat there stuck in the past and then the court recorder came in and told me she was so sorry about all the loss I suffered. That helped to bring me in the now enough to find my way out and to my car. I remember driving over the bridge towards home and that is it, pretty scarey. I did not have a therapist at the time, I could not find anyone I could afford. It took the opposing side three years to depose me in the first place, so having to remember it all really aggrivated the PTSD badly. I really BEGGED my lawyer to get it finished, I sat across from him in tears trying to explain how important it was and that he needed to get it over with. He kept forgetting every one the opposing side scheduled, and he never told me when they were scheduled either. It's been four years since then, I never finished being deposed and as long as I was with this lawyer, trying to constantly find another lawyer to help me, he kept telling me the opposing side could still request finishing deposing me. He also kept telling me we were waiting for the court to set a date too, that could not happen because he never closed the pleadings. Also he filed it in the wrong court and that got changed not too long ago with my new lawyer.

I don't know how I kept doing my business either, it was a lot of driving and a couple of times I was so bad my husband had to do the job, he would get SO ANGRY with me, which triggered me too. I would wait until he left and then climb into bed.

I can't tell anyone "how long" because I did not have the help I needed and I really was treated horribly. I was so lucky to finally find a therapist that KNEW how to treat me. I was also lucky that this therapist was willing to do a session over the phone because sometimes I was so bad I really did not want to drive that drive to see him.

It took me a long time to slowly understand it, and to finally have a therapist who met with my husband to tell him not to be so hard on me and that I really was in serious condition and it was not my fault.

In my situation what helped is having another human being VALIDATE that I was not treated properly when I reached out for help and that was wrong and contributed to me getting worse. Validation is so "important".

What helped me with the disassociation was learning what triggered it to happen.