Quote:
Originally Posted by StarSeedPleiades
I'll cut to the chase:
Has anyone else had dissociation episodes that damn near mimicked some sort of brief psychosis? Because this is the strangest **** I've ever dealt with.
I have a long history with dissociation and memory problems. Some people have memories of doing things with me that I don't recall to any length, and sometimes it's just me not feeling real, or feeling that I'm looking out through my eyes but I'm not really in control, or that my limbs aren't mine, or I just revert inward and the world outside ceases to exist. This has been forever.
Now, my issue within the last two or three years has been that I get caught up in unrealities as a reaction to stress (most of the time). A god of Egypt gives me messages, a coworker controls my body and refused to let me be present, taking my thoughts e.t.c. . . and when I initially spoke to a professional about this, psychosis was discussed, given I have a history with brief hallucinations, including voices, and paranoia.
These episodes will only last days to weeks, very rarely a month, but are nonetheless distressing and take up a lot of time of mine. When I come out of it, I realize how "unreal" it was (although I don't at the time) and I end up not being able to remember when it started or what I was upset about in the first place. In fact, after some episodes I"m pretty refreshed, simply because I don't remember why I was so stressed out. My psychologist got an idea that rather than an indication of some brief psychosis (as this has been going on for years now, back and forth) that it's another form of dissociation.
Can anyone relate?  |
I have both dissociative problems and psychosis problems but my own treatment providers do not lump the two together. my treatment providers use the DSM 5 way which is that dissociative disorders reality remains intact.. what that means is in order for my problems to be called dissociation the problems can not be things like having hallucinations, delusions, in turn my psychosis symptoms can not be part of my dissociation symptoms. because of the standards my treatment provider uses my psychosis problems and dissociation problems are treated as two separate mental disorders/ problems.
another distinction my treatment providers use in separating the two problems is that definition of possession. in dissociative disorders it doesnt mean spirits and gods jumping into my body. its a cultural term to mean ownership. you know like when you say I am in possession of 50 bucks or that person got caught with this much drugs or alcohol in their possession.
so if I told my treatment providers a god jumped into my body and made me do things my treatment providers called it psychosis in me. once they adjusted my medication the problem was solved.
my suggestion is contact your or a treatment provider, they will tell you what constitutes dissociation and psychosis in your location and whether the two problems have to be treated as two separate things or lumped together as one mimicking the other. they will be able to tell you how to distinguish the difference from when you are having your dissociative problems vs your psychosis problems and vice versa if they decide like my treatment providers to treat the two as separate problems.