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Jan 24, 2009, 12:52 AM
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Hi everyone,
I've noticed more people seem to be interested in dissociation lately and I know how confusing it can be.
I found these two articles to be helpful explaining the continuum and I hope they help people understand the difference between normal, everyday dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders.
What is Dissociation?
In general, dissociation is a defense mechanism that everyone uses every day. In its most common form, mild dissociation includes day dreaming, "zoning out," or doing things on "autopilot." For example, when you find yourself staring out the window thinking about what you are going to do after your class, driving a car and not recalling the details of how you got from one point to the next, or getting so caught up in a movie you don't hear someone whispering behind you - these are all examples of normal dissociation. Dissociation is a form of self-hypnosis.
Everyone experiences dissociation.
You may dissociate more when you are tired or bored. Think about times when you have been in a boring meeting or a class with a teacher who talks with a monotone voice and doesn't use ways to engage your interest. What do you do? Maybe you start to doodle, you day dream about something that is more interesting or you think about a problem that is on your mind. Dissociation gives you an ability to do more than one thing at a time. While you may be half hearing what is happening in the boring class or meeting, your mind is wandering off somewhere else.
Dissociation is a wonderful aspect of creativity and imagination. Think about the times when you were able to be the most creative. Sometimes creative folks need to enter into the "twilight zone" of dissociative states to really get their imagination going. Therapy is often best done in dissociative type states. When working with teens, I often encourage them to use a distraction while dealing with difficult issues to help them examine their feelings. It can be very helpful! In fact, the sandtray work I do encourages people to enter into a dissociated state in order to work through conflicts and difficult feelings that may not otherwise come out in therapy. As a therapist, I encourage healthy dissociation.
Everyday Dissociation we all experience that is healthy in general: day dreaming, spacing out, fantasy, highway hypnosis etc.
Some people can read a book or watch a movie and become totally unaware of their surroundings. If a person calls your name you might not hear them until they begin to raise their voice. That is a signal that you have dissociated or spaced out. Other people find themselves reading or watching TV and find that they haven’t understood anything in the last five or ten minutes or haven’t got a clue what the last paragraph said even though they have read it three times. You have just dissociated.
http://therapist4me.com/Dissociation.htm
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What are Dissociative Disorders?
Depersonalization Disorder - a feeling that your body is unreal, changing or dissolving. Strong feelings that you are detached from your body.
Dissociative Amnesia - not being able to remember important personal information or incidents and experiences that happened at a particular time, which can't be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.
Dissociative Fugue - there is severe amnesia, with moderate to severe identity confusion and often identity alteration. For instance, a person travels to a new location during a temporary loss of identity. He or she may assume a different identity and a new life.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - this person may experience flashbacks, reliving the trauma repeatedly, which causes extreme distress. This, in turn, triggers a dissociative, numbing reaction.
Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (DDNOS) - different types of dissociation may occur, but the pattern of mix and severity does not fit any specific dissociative disorder.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) - sometimes called Multi-Personality Disorder (MPD). Someone with DID experiences shifts of identity as separate personalities. Each identity may assume control of behavior and thoughts at different times. Each has a distinctive pattern of thinking and relating to the world. Severe amnesia means that one identity may have no awareness of what happens when another identity is in control.
Dissociation was used by many of us to deal with the abuse as children and adults. In situations of trauma dissociation is an automatic process. It protected us as children or victims in situations where we could not run or fight. For many of us it saved our sanity.
Faced with overwhelming abuse and their inability to flee or fight to protect themselves, it is not surprising that children would psychologically flee (dissociate) from full awareness of their experience. Understanding dissociation and its relationship to trauma is basic to understanding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Dissociative disorders. Dissociation is the disconnection from full awareness of self, time, and/or external circumstances.
All of the disorders are trauma-based, and symptoms result from the dissociation of traumatic memories.
Dissociation, Abuse Recovery Page - Lee Marsh
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