Symptoms

What're your symptoms when you dissociate?

For me, I don't lose track of time but more feel like I'm losing myself and feeling outside my body. I did this in session Tuesday and my therapist noticed. She had to ground me by asking questions such as where was I and the date, etc. I'm aware I do this, but my mind and body automatically go to this response. I find it more emotional dissociation so I don't have to deal and feel with hard stuff. Can anyone relate or what experiences have you had?

Some triggers make me feel floaty, dizzy, and like my physical brain has been replaced by noisy fuzz.

When I dissociate from an injury I feel very calm and unemotional, and the injured part of my body feels like it is no longer there. I just don't feel it or any pain. I always feel curious about the lack of pain. Somewhat amazed.

Before a switch into an alter with whom I don't have co-consciousneess I feel dizzy, and then like I am rolling away. (It actually feels like am being pushed backwards and then my head rolls off, and when I videoed myself switching it was interesting to discover that it looks like that too!)

Sometimes I feel separate from the body and just observe what goes on.

I dont really know, still think maybe I have a brain tumor... or 'something' really wrong with my brain, such as traumatic brain injury from the multiple times I was hit in the head..

This is a good thread thanx Annabelle!
Tough one tho too... as we experience many different types of dissociation...and I don't think that every part experiences it the same...gonna mull this one over for a bit and get back to you! -Lost

To us, we feel like we take a step back into our head, our vision dazes, we freeze, time stops, and everything is foggy. Sometimes it turns into panic mode and we snap back once we realize that we left the present- especially like when we are in the process of driving.

there are a lot of different ways for me. it can be just feeling far away from things but still being able to hear, see and move. it can be hard at times to move or speak. it can feel like my head is fuzzy. sometimes my head has a pressure feeling across my forehead or sides of my head. my vision can get blurry, and my ability to walk can be affected. i can sometimes feel like i'm falling asleep or going in and out of consciousness.

there are probably more things i don't remember as there are variations that can include depersonalization/derealization which may or may not be related specifically to DID and the others or it can be.

tunnel vision much
time 'lapses'

Love your quote , i am just reading up on this stuff now, trying to figure out if there is an actual reason why i can not remember a lot of things, my friends remind me, can not remember most of child hood either. Hit menopause and all hell has broke loose in my brain/personalitiy or am i just waking up , not sure at this point.

I feel like I'm leaving my body and floating away. Everything seems to move in a different motion, can be slow or fast. Minutes seem like several hours.

We do experience depersonalize and derealization or into a dissociative trance as you describe. Im sorry to hear but welcome to our little part of the digital world.

For most of my life I never knew I had symptoms. My Dad was a Medical Doctor. He never told me that I was mentally ill so I did not know. I blamed myself for my Brother's abuse of me because my Mom told me it was normal. She had me programmed to accept the abuse by the time I was three or four.

I always knew I was not like other people. I just believed it was because I was a weak male/man. I was emotionally and psychologically unstable but I did not know it because no one in my family communicated in a sane way with me.

Later during college and after college, I saw problems with the communication in my relationships. But my lovers/wives did not communicate any better than my Father, Mother, or Brother did so I did not know I was dissociative until 1991 when I was 36.

Even at 36 I had no real memories of the other states. From 1991 until 1999 the dissociation began to increase or at least I began to remember the other states more often.

So I would have to say that amnesia or memory problems is my most common symptom.