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Old Dec 19, 2015, 03:48 AM
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amandalouise amandalouise is offline
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Member Since: Mar 2009
Location: 8CS / NYS / USA
Posts: 9,171
Quote:
Originally Posted by LenoraThompson View Post
Hello,

I'm new here and would greatly appreciate insight into a phenomenon I call "living symbolically."

Growing up in a narcissistic/codependent family, we behave as if everything were PERFECT at all times. Happy. Never irritable. No boundaries. No anger.

But, things were far from perfect. Itf's so ingrained, even to this day. It's only at moments of extreme upset that I feel life is real. Sometimes, it's as though I'm seeing myself clearly for the first time. Very difficult to describe.

Is this dissociation or just being an actress/living in my head?

Thanks!
if you were here in my location no this would not be called dissociation. it would be called being a perfectionist (striving to show and be perfect) striving to be perfect and to show a perfect front is a learned behavior. children are taught from the moment that they learn how to speak to do things right (parents correct a childs speech, how they dress, how they walk, how they hold their forks and spoons, how to behave in public.... then the child goes to school and what happens a teacher teaches them how to do their assignments perfectly, how to behave in the classroom, how to participate correctly in classes. then the child grows up into teen ager and what happens, they learn how to be perfect according to their friends standards through peer pressure, sleep overs and such, then the child grows into adult hood and what happens when they get a job..they have to perform that job to the perfection of their boss or get fired.

my point the world is full of times where a person is influenced to behave a a certain way and do things a certain way, thats life.

unfortunately sometimes this normal standards gets reinforced to the extreme for many different reasons and then the child learns to be perfect or suffer the consequences and has problems with not knowing when that learned behavior of being perfect doesnt need to apply, that its ok to make mistakes.

a person can unlearn or relearn \reteach their self so that their attempting to be perfect is more with in the scope of being real. for example rather than doing the dishes right way so that my kitchen looks perfect, I take time after dinner to read a story to my children and sure enough after reading the story the house didnt fall in simply because i didnt clean my kitchen to perfection after dinner. I purposely do not wear certain clothes on my day off simply to practice that its ok the world isnt going to end just because my sock or jeans have a hole in them.

I know many people who are like this some even resort to things like self injury behaviors to get that rush of feeling real when they need to drop their guard and stop trying to be perfect.

i know many people with OCD have a perfectionist view of their self and their environment. usually medication helps for this.

I cant diagnose you but what I can say is that here in america feeling like one needs to be perfect is not a symptom nor diagnostic criteria for dissociation or dissociative disorders.

my suggestion would be to contact a treatment provider, they can evaluate whether your being a perfectionist falls into things like normal, OCD or other things.
Hugs from:
LenoraThompson
Thanks for this!
LenoraThompson