[Focus62]

I have some questions, just for the sake of my own curiosity and I thought someone might be nice enough to answer them for me . I do not struggle with DID though I have been reading about dissociation due to PTSD. I often wonder what it looks like to the therapist when people dissociate. I wonder if it looks like the person is just sort of zoning out and has a blank stare on their face? I guess I've wondered how they can differentiate between someone deep in thought, taking a moment of silence to gather their thoughts, and someone who is dissociating. I mean there must be something that gives it away, right? Does anybody here have an inkling of what it looks like? Can you still hear things and respond even when you've dissociated?

What do your therapists do when you guys dissociate? Just say your name to bring you back and then have you ground yourself by perhaps saying what you see in the room, etc? Are there other things they do? I am unsure if I have ever really dissociated for any reason other than just daydreaming, though I am also wondering if flashbacks are a form of dissociation... I am quite curious about this topic. I find it interesting, I hope you all don't mind my questions.

Have a wonderful day!

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Focus62

I have some questions, just for the sake of my own curiosity and I thought someone might be nice enough to answer them for me . I do not struggle with DID though I have been reading about dissociation due to PTSD. I often wonder what it looks like to the therapist when people dissociate. I wonder if it looks like the person is just sort of zoning out and has a blank stare on their face? I guess I've wondered how they can differentiate between someone deep in thought, taking a moment of silence to gather their thoughts, and someone who is dissociating. I mean there must be something that gives it away, right? Does anybody here have an inkling of what it looks like? Can you still hear things and respond even when you've dissociated?

What do your therapists do when you guys dissociate? Just say your name to bring you back and then have you ground yourself by perhaps saying what you see in the room, etc? Are there other things they do? I am unsure if I have ever really dissociated for any reason other than just daydreaming, though I am also wondering if flashbacks are a form of dissociation... I am quite curious about this topic. I find it interesting, I hope you all don't mind my questions.

Have a wonderful day!

it doesnt look or seem like any one way to a therapist..

everyones internal system is set up different with different memories, how they respond to triggers, what posture they have....

example my therapist says when I dissociated into "Rainy" my face scrunched up with squeezing my eyes shut, my mouth dropped open and I cried. the reason I looked this way was because that part of me was sad and her job/purpose/reason for being was to cry when I wasnt able to do so for fear of retrobution, when I dissociated into being Sunny I looked carefree and happy because my body was reacting to those characteristics that was sunny..happy, fun and carefree.

when I dissociate now I still look many different ways..sometimes I look spacey sometimes not, sometimes I look glassy eyed sometimes not, Sometimes my voice changes sometimes it does not.

I know somebody who when he dissociates he squints his eyes as if the sun is in his face, I know someone else who's mouth lines tighten up when he dissociates, I know someone who goes completely relaxed when she dissociates.

Everyone has their own way of dissociating and what causes them to dissociate so they are going to look different from each other of those that dissociates.

to the outside world some look different and others dont. again this is because everyone has their own reasons /triggers that cause them to dissociate and everyone has their own ways in which they react to things.

sometimes there is no differentiating between someone deep in thought and someone who isnt the reason for this is because even being in deep thought is a form of dissociation.. dissociation is a normal activity to do that the human brain does every day of every human persons life. therefore the dissociation scoring includes such things as normal dissociation as well as abnormal dissociation.

treatment providers can tell the difference by testing their clients. there are psychiatric tests for mental disorders here in the USA. some of those tests are for dissociative disorders. The client completes the tests and the treatment providers tally the scores and then lets the client know whether they are dissociating to the normal levels or dissociating to the abnormal levels.

no there is not always something that gives it away. I had the most severe form of dissociation and am a treatment provider. you would think with having dissociative disorders myself and my training I would see it but I did not "see" that one of my clients with the crisis center had dissociative issues. the only reason I and my coworkers discovered this person was a dissociative to abnormal levels was because she is prosecuting her abuser, the court ordered her to take part in a psych eval so that the court could decide what restitution to place upon the abuser. Dissociation isnt always what you see in movies. it can be so subtle that the line between normal and abnormal is a hair line between the two and no outward signs.

responding while dissociated? some can and some cant and some have a mixture of can and cant hear/respond when dissociated. again it all depends upon each persons own internal system, reactions to triggers, severity and such...

what Im trying to say there is no uniform way of being dissociated, read the posts here, you will see that even here among those that dissociate each of us have our differences.

[IowaFarmGal]

I'm unsure how they tell or how it looks, because those are external things. I know that it frightened me and I disliked losing even little bits of time. When I hear them speak in my head there are vocal differences to do with age. There are personality differences, but from the outside that might just appear as mood. The anger one moves and speaks differently than I ever would. I have come back when they used my name or asked a question that belonged to me. It's like swimming up from underwater for me.