if you have dissociation how do you know???

i have gad, ocd, and major depression, so when it comes to this type of mental health i know little to nothing so if someone with dissociation could answer my question i'm just curious and no i don't think i have it i'm really just wondering.
if something happens and your not sure about it how would you even know you have dissociation?????
does that question make sence???

<font color="blue">Sure it does, and sometimes it does take help from a T to point out to you when you dissociate even in therapy!

Everyone dissociates, ok? When someone drives a familiar course, and their mind wanders, and next thing they know they are "at" their destination--- they dissociated. There are plenty more examples.

It can become a problem if it happens so much that you can't stay safe, can't stay on track with a task, or "pay attention" enough to be part of life going on around you.

Do you gaze off into space... have to have someone wave their hand in front of your face to bring you back.... "lose" time in that you truly DO wonder where time went....recall being in a heated argument but don't recall what happened... then you might be a dissociator.

Is this any help?

Everybody dissociates. When it hinders normal day to day functioning, that's when it becomes an illness. You know you've dissociated when (like for me) things are "just" done, my husband is mad at me for some strange reason ('cos somebody inside fought w/ him), you lose things a lot. A lot of people have these things, that is normal, but as I said, when it interferes w/ your daily living & happens a lot, that's dissociation as the illness.
Hope this helps.
Love,
RhysMadison

<font color="green"> I don't have it that severe but I do seem to lose time and miss things that others say and do when I dissociate. Sometimes I can feel it coming and resist but generally it seems to be a reaction to something around me that is too scary to deal with. Then 'I' am gone and that is that. </font>

For most of my life I couldn't tell and didn't even know that I was doing it. However, these days I get a feeling of detachment like I am going "back of the bus" and becoming a watcher not a doer. I get dizzy, light headed and feel like I am falling asleep or like I am drunk which bites cause I hate the drunk feeling.
At this point I try to do something that shocks my body systems like a cold shower, drinking ice cold drinks, I have also found that when my husband and I have intimate relations that forces me into the present as well and helps me maintain control.
Hope this helps

~AngelsRUs~

I had two big clues... I went to work one 'Tuesday' and clocked in as normal and got to work... it was a small, family owned retail store that I loved. That day was weird though The person who usually worked with me on Tuesdays wasn't there another woman I worked with was and not one person came over to say good morning to me. After about 15min one of the owners came up to me with the strangest look on her face and said we needed to talk, could we go outside. I said sure, put down my stuf and trotted out the back door. She stood REALLY far away from me with her eye on the door as she explained: We told you yesterday that you were fired and not welcome back in the store. After the violent, destructive fit you threw for no reason Tuesday I don't see how you could just show up today like nothing happened!" I explained that today was Tuesday and I had no idea what she was talking about and it was out of character for her to joke so could she please tell me what was going on... She said she didn't want it to end this way but I needed to leave the property now or she would call the police.
That was my first clue! Then I called some friend because I was crushed over not only losing the job but upsetting people I cared so much about and not knowing how. Well then each and every one of my friends had at least one story of when I did something with them and then when they went to talk to me about it I had no clue what they were talking about. One was a masters level psych student who finally brought up DID and said she had been wondering for a while but now she was sure.

I am a bit slow to catch on

its just one of those things you automatically know about from doing it.

example do you know when you are daydreaming?
do you know when you feel numb?
do you know when you feel foggy headed?
Do you know when you feel spacey?
Do you know when you feel like you are moving in slow motion?
Do you know when you are having trouble concentrating?
Do you know when you are having trouble staying focused?
Do you know when you feel something is just not right?
Do you know when you feel like the world around you isnt real?
Do you know when you are in school and not paying attention to what the teacher is saying?

These are all examples of dissociation.

You may not know the term "dissociation" but from the time you are a little kid just learning how to walk crawl talk your parents have taught you about how to tell them when you feel sick, unhappy hurt, you are taught from the moment you start recognizing things how to express what you are seeing, feeling and thinking and feel about those things. you are taught from the moment you play lets pretend how to use your imagination and daydream.

dissociation is something that you grow up automatically doing. the term may be relatively new but the action of doing it is not new.

Interesting thread and some great explanations. I never really understood what dissocioative disorder is.

I've definitely had those moments where I did something without realizing it or walked into a room, then left and realized I never did what I intended to do in that room. It doesn't happen much and it doesn't interfere with my daily life. I probably don't have this condition.

Right now, bipolar is about all I can handle.

For me, I denied I had any type of "multiple personality disorder" even after a college T said he thought I had it. I just thought I was forgetting things and people. Even though I had my "friends" inside my head, I didn't know they could just "take over" and control "my" body.

Sometimes I would start getting into it with a roomy and then I would be blank - just not there - but would "snap to" and be eating out somewhere sitting at a table and I had no idea where I was... not just what restraunt, but what STATE! Also, at college I would have people come up to me and ask how I was doing and start talking to me like they were my best friend. I would just look at them without a CLUE as to who they were. They would stop and ask me if I was so and so (they actually were using my middle name which one alter uses) but no one knew that about me (or so I thought!). Then they would dismiss themselves with an apology and tell me I had a twin running around campus.