Relaxation & Dissociative Disorders

Hi ,

I was wondering how others have reacted to relaxation exercises in therapy. i tend to be a bit fearful about it. Does it set anyone off? or make you dissociate more? or lose yourself?

Depends on the type of "relaxation exercise"
That which is just a guided "feel your leg relax, feel your arm relax..." etc is just to make one aware of each muscle group and relax the muscles and tension in them.
There is also guided relaxation where you imagine yourself in a safe place and can learn to go to that place if things get scary.
There is the relaxation where you can learn, like deep breathing, concentrating on your breath when you feel you are begining to panic or have anxiety...
There is also meditation exercises much like relaxation.
I do have to remind myself to breath when in therapy and to be aware of my body, what it feels like, etc. Helps grounding.

any and all of the above. my T is really into trancework, hynotherapy, relaxation and stuff

I use relaxation with my therapist and at home on my own. the act of dissociation is a person relaxing themselves through the use of daydreaming, imagry. If you can control your amount of dissociating for example be able to relax to the point where you are comfortable but not to the point of not being aware of the here and now you will be fine.

The way I learned to control my dissociating and use of relaxation was by first paying attention to my triggers and how I felt when I started to dissociate.

First I was in the here and now one second and the next I was off floating in la la land.

But then I started recognizing when I was upset and feeling floaty and far away relaxed and numb feeling (my tunnel area) and I would use grounding techniques of paying attention to how things feel - what my cats fur felt like, the blanket I had around me, the chair I sat on.

and soon I was able to hold myself at that space where I was floating relaxed and feeling far away but not enter my la la land.

By using the grounding technique of focusing on my therapist voice I was able to teach myself to pull myself back out ot that floaty far away feeling that I call my tunnel area.

Once I had those two things down consistantly I started doing the same thing with relaxation type music. I focused my attention on the music to the point where I got that floaty far away relaxed feeling and hold myself there and not go to the point of entering la la land for one song and then pull myself out of it to full awareness again. Then I did it for two songs then three and so on.

Now for the most part I can follow my therapist voice when doing relaxation visualizations during therapy sessions and by listening to the tapes we recorded of those sessions.

As far as I know using hypnosis (relaxation and visualizations) do not "set" DID people off. If it did they would not be DID. DID begins in childhood and children avoid painful things so if using relaxation was painful and upsetting children would not be daydreaming themselves out of the situation.

As for dissociate more. Not for me Any therapist that I know that works with DID and uses relaxation techniques have told me the focus of those activities is to relax while remaining aware if the client does not have the ability to remain aware they use and teach grounding techniques first before they engage the client in the focused relaxation visualization activities.

Lose myself no I cant lose myself or forever be gone. A DID person remains unaware only while they are upset and triggered. relaxation activities are geared to calm an upset person so if anything the person will gain more awareness not dissociation by using relaxation visualization activities because they are learning how to calm their self at the same time as remaining aware of their surroundings and what is happening in the present. So for me I had no fear of loosing myself.

im not DID just dissociative, but thanks for your input. I fear losing control. im not sure why. i guess its just a wierd part of me, but i was wondering if it had to do with dissociation and not wanting to be pulled under.

Do you mean like having someone tell you to do something? like on some tv shows they have people quacking like ducks and so on.

If so I promise you will not do anything that you would not normally do when fully awake. In fact during one of my relaxation visualizations my therapist was using progressive relaxation and one of the things she said was to focus on loosening various type of muscles. and she got to my abdomen and said "is your bowels relaxed, check to see if your blatter is relaxeed. and in that secod I started instantly to become more aware and started giggling because in medical not psychological terms loosening the bowel and bladder is what happens when a person uses the bathroom. those muscles loosen and instant relief so to speak. LOL So when she said that even in my hypnotic trance I knew loosening those muscles would NOT be the thing to do so I automatically became more awake.

A great book to read and activities to try if you are interested in trying relaxation techniques is Nancy J Napiers books - "Recreating Yourself," " Getting through the Day" and also "Sacred practices for conscious living" they all explain hypnotic techniques, and how it relates to dissociative disorders and has relaxation visualization activities to try.

You can get the books in any book store or on her website and on amizon.

Her website has many many terrific relaxation techniques and activities. She has them listed as - meditations, and weekly practices.

http://www.nancyjnapier.com

You can also find relaxation visualizations by Belleruth Naparstak that you can do and listen to at

http://www.healthjourneys.com