I'm weighing in late here, but I just wanted to add my two cents. PTSD is an anxiety disorder, however, dissociation is a very common feature and some moderate dissociative symptoms are an aspect of the diagnostic criteria.

As I've said a few times in the past, everyone experiences dissociation and it exists on a continuum, really. It is possible to have PTSD and not experience an extremely high level of dissociation. Some people with PTSD experience more of a moderate level of dissociation, and therefore would not qualify for the diagnosis of a dissociative disorder. So knowing that a person has PTSD does not necessarily mean they have a dissociative disorder. Dissociative disorders are characterized by an extremely high level of dissociation.

WW, from what I know about you, you do seem to experience a very high level of dissociation and could probably be dx with a dissoc disorder in addition to PTSD.

I can relate somewhat to where you are coming from. I am very compartmentalized, but not enough that there are distinguishable and separate "parts" necessarily. I don't know quite how to explain that, but I never have access to all the parts of my abilities and identity at once. I sort of live in several "modes" I guess you could say, and those modes don't overlap much. I have to move into a different mode to be able to have access to the abilities/feelings/beliefs/etc associated with that mode. There are no others inside with me, so nobody but me ever comes front (takes executive control) and I don't lose time. I experience a high level of dissociation and some aspects of my dissociation are similar to DID, yet I am far from being quite that separate and I don't even quite qualify for DDNOS.

I hope I didn't just muddy the waters more

Angela