I've read some descriptions of "dissociating" and they don't match with what happens to me but my therapist and others still say that is what's happening to me.

For many years I have experienced something that is sort of like blacking out or sort of like sleeping. It used to happen during school, it would happen at [church], it has happened while I've been driving, it has happened while attending a DBT group, it's happened during job interviews, and a number of other situations.

Sometimes it starts like a panic attack, sometimes I just feel kind of odd. My mouth goes dry and I get tunnel vision. I start feeling tired and heavy. I can feel my eyes closing, like when you're really tired. Eventually it's as if I were asleep. The difference is that I can hear certain things. Like when this happened in group I could hear every time the group leader used one specific word but I couldn't hear anything else. Even though everything is shut out I'm aware enough to know when to come out of this state. As the group was coming to a close my eyes opened and I became fully aware again. While in the state I'm sort of aware of time. I know that time is passing, I even know where I'm at.

It turns out though that I do not actually close my eyes though. They are wide open and to other people I appear to be paying attention to what's going on.

Can anyone confirm for me whether this is dissociating? Can anyone relate at all? Did I even post this in the right place?

Thanks