Dissociative Techniques?

Hi. I'm new here.

I have a laundry list of issues -- most officially diagnosed, a few not (because they're not high on the priority list) -- but my most challenging one is Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD, which I diagnosed but my doctors confirmed it almost a year ago). In January (or at least that's when I started noticing it), I began having episodes of depersonalization when I became overwhelmed. During the episodes, which last until I can sleep it off, it's like someone flips a switch and my emotions turn off; everything becomes mechanical and purely logic-based. Other things that happen to me during an episode -- I feel numb and dizzy, things seem fuzzy, all of my senses dull immensely, and I usually don't remember anything specific afterward -- may be part of it and/or can be learned behaviors as part of my Somatic Symptom Disorder. Either way, it really sucks.

I've researched how to help alleviate/end individual episodes but nothing works for me. The problem is that everything wants to ground you to reality via your senses... but what if your senses don't work properly? I'm pretty sure I have Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD, a diagnosis on the back-burner, although maybe it won't be for much longer) which is getting in the way of the suggested methods. For example: I can't feel anything but light pressure after touching something for ~15-20 seconds without moving and after touching ice for even 5 seconds, whatever touched the ice goes numb and I can't feel anything -- even the cold or pressure -- until the area warms back up. That definitely doesn't let the "allow an ice cube to melt in your hand" method work. I even made a joke to myself that my senses are so off that the only thing I can taste is vinegar... which actually inspired me to try it when I dissociated and it did help a tiny bit (5 shot glasses of balsamic vinegar later).

Maybe a month, a month and a half ago, I realized that techniques I was starting to use to help the BPD-caused dissociative episodes were based on the same ideas as those for SPD. I began trying the same techniques to help *prevent* the episodes. I can't really tell if it's working though.... I'm having many more episodes (almost daily), with some starting in morning (whereas in the past they would only ever start after work) but now they're way less intense and the ones that begin in the morning can (if I catch it early enough and do promptly do something about it) fade away as the day wears on. However, as I said before, the episodes are brought on by feelings of being overwhelmed and that's happening a lot more now thanks to work's increasing stress levels (due to my boss' bullying and a constant subconscious fear of being fired, regardless of my conscious mind's lack of caring/knowing that it'd be healthier for me to not work there anymore). Anyway, I think the SPD techniques are working but there are too many variables to definitely say yes or no.

I'm open to anything that may work... I spend all of my so-called "off time" either working or dealing with health crap, with the health issues causing so many problems that I'm falling behind with work. I have to do something to deal with this properly because this is just setting off a snowballing cycle: I'm behind on work --> I get more stressed out --> I get more instances of my health problems to deal with --> I fall even further behind --> I get even more stressed out... so on and so on. This has to stop before it gets any worse.

Hi Paper Heart and welcome to PC!

I’m sorry for your ailments and condition...it’s a crappy way to live, but it is the life we are to live. Anyhow....

What works for me is sometimes a good hard focus, looking at and noting my surroundings....giving a hard look at to stay focused. Sensory overload, multiple alters yammering at the same time, anxiety or stress, flashbacks, switches, surprises, conflicts, boring moments, all can trigger all the time every day.

I don’t rely on tactile sensory input because that’s hard to do while driving and I don’t carry ice cubes with me every where I go.

For me...good ol mental work is what it takes. In super markets (loud, noisy, colorful, smelly, bright lights....) I usually grab a product and start reading the labels noting color, size, content.....move then check out another...till I calm down and collect myself. Even when driving I start reading signs, license plates, looking at sign colors noting the reflection, shape, material....looking at the bugs stuck on the windshield....anything to get the juices flowing again. It isn’t immediate, but after awhile I do come around.

All methods of focus and distraction. Sure it feels like pulling out of molasses’s, but eventually one can escape molasses.

Hi and welcome. It sounds like tactile grounding techniques don't help you but there are other kinds to try. Intellectual ones help me a lot. Counting objects in the environment works well for me (counting books on the shelf, panes of glass in all the windows in the room, number of ridges on a cushion, anything really). Talking about my job tends to call forth a very grounded part in me so that's good too. Certain movements work for some people but not so well for me.
If you research on the net you will probably find lots of other non-sensory grounding techniqes like controlled breathing, tapping, visualization and things like that.

Tactile grounding (sadly) has had the best results for me yet. For over a decase, presumably due to the Psychosomatic Symptom Disorder, any ackowledgement of my breathing causes it to become less involuntary and/or causes me to hyperventilate. The very first thing therapists inevitably try (and this is going back to the start, about 20 years ago) is visualization but it has never worked.... I've blamed my ADHD for being unable to focus on the images long enough for them to be effective. Watch TV works until I realize how much time I've lost so I start panicking. Counting has proven to be a mixture of things.... Either the ADHD won't let me focus or if itbdoes and I count high enough, I start panicking over the time suck. Pretty much every suggestion I've found online is based on breathing, visualization, sensory stuff, or time sucks that throw me into a panic attack, hence my problem. I guess the Psychosomatic Symptom Disorder has really dug in deep.

I've been at trying to use these techniques for stress management since the start and I've gotten nowhere with it.