Dissociation is a coping mechanism that I acquired very young for survival. What my therapists and pdoc always said was it served a purpose for survival when I was young and still literally in danger, but as an adult, I can learn to stay present and work through those situations that I dissociate from -- it is a coping mechanism that doesn't serve me well as an adult. And as an adult, I am also not literally in danger from those situations that caused me to initially start using dissociation as a coping mechanism. It is also very hard to really process through things when I just really am not present. I had to learn to recognize when I as I am starting to dissociate (it was possible when I came to learn that I was actually doing it), learn methods to consciously work to stay present, and confront those issues from my past that kept triggering me into dissociation. For me, that was MUCH of the work of therapy.