I saw my neuro-psychologist today again about my problems with trying to remember stuff when I am in class or studying. We are sure the problems are related to PTSD and the dissociating that occurs with that. I don't lose time but I do dissociate more than the average person when I am feeling triggered. The flight or fight takes over and I can't concentrate on things and have trouble studying. He is going to have me talk to this psychiatrist about treating just the dissociation, maybe with anti-seizure meds or beta blockers. Has anyone had any experience with this and is it working?

I am going through desensitization therapy with EMDR for the trauma stuff I have encountered so he doesn't want me to be too numbed out for that when I am working with my T or nor does he want it to interfere with me learning because I am in college. He is going to send me to a guy he knows specializes in PTSD, I am not on any other meds other than allergy meds and haven't even been to see a psychiatrist before. So this is kinda weird for me. Any advice?

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by exoticflower

I saw my neuro-psychologist today again about my problems with trying to remember stuff when I am in class or studying. We are sure the problems are related to PTSD and the dissociating that occurs with that. I don't lose time but I do dissociate more than the average person when I am feeling triggered. The flight or fight takes over and I can't concentrate on things and have trouble studying. He is going to have me talk to this psychiatrist about treating just the dissociation, maybe with anti-seizure meds or beta blockers. Has anyone had any experience with this and is it working?

I am going through desensitization therapy with EMDR for the trauma stuff I have encountered so he doesn't want me to be too numbed out for that when I am working with my T or nor does he want it to interfere with me learning because I am in college. He is going to send me to a guy he knows specializes in PTSD, I am not on any other meds other than allergy meds and haven't even been to see a psychiatrist before. So this is kinda weird for me. Any advice?

There is medication that treats anxiety (flight or fight symptoms) like xanax, atavan, lexapro, paxil, valium, depakote, klonopin, some of which also helps with having Epilepsy ( some places call it seizure disorder) but there is nothing out there that treats dissociation. the way my doctor explained it to me when I asked him for meds, he said shutting off someones ability to dissociate is shutting off their ability to use their imagination, to think for their self, to day dream, to reach REM while sleeping. Dissociation is a naturally occuring event. its just that some people like me have learned through experiencing trauma to use that natural ability to the extreme. I took prozac for a while but it didnt stop my dissociating. it did slow my thinking down to zombe slow motion and kept me from getting depressed or anxous, just kept me in the no feeling no reaction zone. what did help with my disociation was learning Yoga which taught me to be in touch with my body and how I was feeling so that I could control how I was reacting to things.

[DLHsSystm]

I have been a dancer all my life despite my finding out at the age of 34 that I had DID (MPD at the time) and so in some ways I was in touch with my body and the way it reacted to emotional stimuli however when I wasn't dancing (ballet) I had to self medicate to keep anxiety and intrusive, overwhelming emotions from getting in the way of functioning in life. My old way (dissociating) was starting to break down. I think that wpowers in another thread mentioned blushing. I used to blush at the drop of a hat and not know why exactly before I could "hear" what my alts were saying. I knew that they were saying something that made me embaressed but didn't know what :/. When I started therapy for DID my therapist/psychiatrist put me on klonapin for the fight or flight, startle reactions I was having and an SSRI for underlying depression. The klonapin helped immediately and did not interefere with my dancing after 3 days (first couple of days pirouettes (turns) were a little off) and the antidepressant started helping in a month or so.
Hope this info. is helpful.