[ThisWayOut]

I think I may have lost time recently, but not sure. Things I thought about doing have somehow been done, and there's no one else that would have done it. The only other time in the last 10 year's I remember losing time that completely was a 2-day period when I wound up in the hospital and i had no idea how i got there or what happened in those 2 days. Nothing had happened to warrent the hospital this time, but I'm completely unaware of following through on the thoughts. How do you figure out What happened if no one notices the dissociation?

[volatile]

if no one is around to ask then you may never know. i heard hypnosis might work though if you see a therapist that does those things.

[Jen31]

I am going thru the same thing right now. Unfortunately I still haven't found out and it was months ago. Do you know how long your episodes lasted?

[ThisWayOut]

Jen, I'm not sure. I can't imagine it being very long or some of the stuff my family said would have made me question it. Out had to have been within the last month, but I'm not sure when. It's frustrating. I can't even ask my family because they have no idea when it happens, I act normal.

[Jen31]

Yea I understand. It's so hard to ask about something when you weren't even aware that it even happened! If that makes sense. It sucks. Well at least you did the things that needed to be done? That's the bright side of it.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by MdngtRain

I think I may have lost time recently, but not sure. Things I thought about doing have somehow been done, and there's no one else that would have done it. The only other time in the last 10 year's I remember losing time that completely was a 2-day period when I wound up in the hospital and i had no idea how i got there or what happened in those 2 days. Nothing had happened to warrent the hospital this time, but I'm completely unaware of following through on the thoughts. How do you figure out What happened if no one notices the dissociation?

I have had many what you call ...time loss.... which here in NY is now called .....time distortions..... to match the new DSM 5 diagnostics for dissociative disorders.

my time distortions have ranged from very short spaces of time to months and years where I have had no recollection of what went on during those spaces of time.

my own treatment providers called it dissociative Amnesia, depersonalization/derealization and other terms depending upon what caused the problem.

to answer your question....

Originally Posted by MdngtRain

How do you figure out What happened if no one notices the dissociation?

I used the question answer route....asking myself questions...starting with something like....

ok so I have lost time again how do I know that?

in order to recognize/know I have lost time there has to be something, some evidence that points to that such as ...

its a different day or time on a calendar or clock,
the conversation is different,
Im doing something I dont remember starting to do,
my clothes are different
wearing make up when I wasnt before
theres a cup of coffee in front of me that I dont remember ordering/making
Im at the kitchen table when the last I remember I was in the living room.
the tv show is different
I have a writing utensil in my hand and writing something
theres more groceries in the fridge than I remember
the twins are in their cradle dry, clean and sleeping instead of nursing
theres a paper and my check book in front of me, its a bill

there is always some sort of "evidence" that tells a person they have experienced a time distortion.

once I consciously notice all the "evidence" that told me I had lost time, that "evidence" usually adds up to what went on during the time distortion...

putting all the "evidence" that told me I experienced a time distortion together I know that I lost about 4 hours and during that time distortion I got dressed put my make up on, we went grocery shopping, I nursed the twins, diapered, changed their clothes, put them down for their nap, and now Im sitting at the table writing out the checks to put the bills in the mail while talking with my wife having a cup of decaf coffee.

my suggestion look at the evidence that told you, you had experienced a time distortion and that will tell you what happened when you have no one there to tell you.

[ThisWayOut]

T seems to think it was the medication, because I sent him an email this weekend that I have zero memory of sending (normally I can trigger a vague memory of things once they are mentioned). The thing I think happened would have been a while ago tho, and I really don't have anyone to ask. Hopefully I can talk to him about that some on Friday when I see him again.
Amandalouise, what if you have no real evidence to work with?

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by MdngtRain

T seems to think it was the medication, because I sent him an email this weekend that I have zero memory of sending (normally I can trigger a vague memory of things once they are mentioned). The thing I think happened would have been a while ago tho, and I really don't have anyone to ask. Hopefully I can talk to him about that some on Friday when I see him again.
Amandalouise, what if you have no real evidence to work with?

then you would not be aware that you have lost any time.

example how does a person know they sent an email to their treatment provider....evidence is the email the treatment provider has.

how does a person know they took their meds or not.....evidence of how many pills are still in the bottle, how fast or slow the meds run out.

how does a person know whether they went shopping or not....evidence sales slips/reciepts/bank account balance/new items in their house.

how does a person know whether they went to work or not....evidence...their time cards, employee file, how much their paycheck is..

everything we do even logging in online has some sort of evidence....you know you came on psych central because you can see your posts and your profile says when you last visited and your computer cache/history shows that you logged in to psych central..

the only way in which there would be no evidence of doing anything is if a person stayed in bed, ...but wait even that would have evidence because the bed would get wrinkled and body odored blankets/sheets and after so much time in bed a body develops rashes/bed sores/ and other problems.

lets look at your first post in this thread....

Originally Posted by MdngtRain

I think I may have lost time recently, but not sure. Things I thought about doing have somehow been done, and there's no one else that would have done it. The only other time in the last 10 year's I remember losing time that completely was a 2-day period when I wound up in the hospital and i had no idea how i got there or what happened in those 2 days. Nothing had happened to warrent the hospital this time, but I'm completely unaware of following through on the thoughts. How do you figure out What happened if no one notices the dissociation?

you think you lost time...ok what makes you think you lost time? thats evidence

things you thought about got done....ok how do you know that?......thats evidence.

theres no one else that could have done it...ok how do you know that....thats evidence

this has only happened to you once in the past 10 years.....how do you know that? ....thats evidence.

nothing had happened to warrent the hospital this time. how do you know that? in order to know that you must have an idea of what happened? or what tells you, nothing happened to warrent the hospital this time....thats evidence

everything a person does leaves some sort of proof /evidence that they did something..it just takes time and practice to notice the proof and evidence.

I am glad for you that you and your treatment provider have discovered what was causing your time distortions. now that you know it was your medications you and your treatment providers can fix it.

[montanan4ever]

I look for clues in my environment that explain what I was doing in times when "I" wasn't aware. If the clues fit into my usual life patterns, I don't worry about it. If something bizarre shows up, it's grist for the therapy mill.

After all these years of therapy, I've decided that I have lived my life pretty well even in times for which I have little to no memory, so I'll just keep on marching and trust all aspects of "me" to do what they do best. We get by :-).

[ThisWayOut]

The thing I'm worried about doing is def something to discuss in therapy... it relates to self-harm that I may or may not have done (and I really don't feel like going into detail, but suffice it to say that I am unsure if it's self-harm or something else)... I hate the loss of time. It has mostly been a self-preservation thing in the past, not to self-harm. :/

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by MdngtRain

The thing I'm worried about doing is def something to discuss in therapy... it relates to self-harm that I may or may not have done (and I really don't feel like going into detail, but suffice it to say that I am unsure if it's self-harm or something else)... I hate the loss of time. It has mostly been a self-preservation thing in the past, not to self-harm. :/

maybe this will help...here in NY self harm is purposely doing something that causes yourself harm ....a conscious choice ...to do harm to yourself because of or with a direct purpose.

Example

one of my self harm situations was if I got angry at myself I would cut. I would do this of conscious choice because I knew I would feel the pain then feel ok for a while. by ok I mean that euphoric feeling of released anger and my body automatically release of endorphin's. the combination of released anger and endorphin's is a feeling of light headedness, foggyness, spacciness, total relaxed type feeling for me. I preferred that feeling to feeling angry. I chose to cut so that I would have that feeling rather than the feeling of anger. Yes sometimes it did make me lose track of time because I was more focused on my internal feelings that cutting gave me rather than what was going on outside myself. Sometimes I would literally lay down and black out from it. My treatment providers didnt call it a dissociative time loss though, they called it an addiction black out similar to the kind of black outs that a person with an alcohol or drug problem would have.

I did have types of alters that were abusive/self injurers and when they were in control and would self injure my treatment providers did call that a dissociative type memory problem where I would not be aware of the self injury act but my alters would be able to tell my treatment providers about it, why they did it.

I am glad that you will be discussing this in your therapy. from having this problem myself I can tell you it is very hard to figure out what is what and which problem is what problems and all.

[tiggerandcrew]

I guess I am also in a similar situation. When I loose time, it is normally an alter that has taken over. I have worked long and hard to have a report with them so I can ask. Usually one will know or/and will tell me. Now however it is the core self that is repressing the time for some reason. I know, like all the alters, that it is repressed for a presieved survival technique but I have to figure out what it is that I see as a threat and then work with it. Not sure if any of my journey can help you but at least know you aren't alone in this.

[jk2833]

Hi there I also have this problem, sometimes it can be for only a couple of hours or so. Another issue I have is where I believe say my husband has been gone for a long time and its literally been thirty minutes or so which makes me feel stupid if im honest.
It's very rarely I know what day it is but that could be due to me keeping the same routine day in day out which consists of mainly been at home.
Anybody else out there with similar goings on?
J