Dissociation does not exist

.....that is what my new T said.

Thoughts?

Did T say more?

Dissociation is being deep in thought and disconnected from your surroundings. It happens when we are lost in a book, so into the movie we're watching that we don't notice what's going on in the room, when we sit on the beach on vacation but our thoughts are 'a million miles away'.

Did she mean she dissociative disorder does not exist?

ECHOES, that's what I've heard too. Like if I am driving down a familiar road and just zone out because I'm thinking of other things. I don't even know I'm driving--I'm on autopilot. I've been told that is dissociation. So I too am curious what your T means, Tollhouse. Maybe it is just semantics, and when he/she says "dissociation", it is not the same as what I understand it to be. Don't we all just zone out sometimes?

She meant in terms of it being a protective mechanism.... (so that would be dissociative disorders and the symptoms of trauma related disorders)

How did you respond?

Hmmmm....Thats very interesting. I wonder what brought her to such a firm concusion...........

What do you think about that, Tollhouse?

And how many bags of CRACK does your T smoke a day?

This is my system (yes, I have DID) saying WTF, and they would like you to share this picture with your T!!!

(This program brought to you by the number 1)

I know that this is not YOU saying dissociation doesn't exist...and I am not pissed at you in any way....but I would love to hear how your T invalidates scientific research and data and poo poos all of us that have been diagnosed with a Dissociative Disorder.

I will be sure to let my DID therapist know that Dissociation doesn't exist and that somewhere there is a T who has a really bad CRACK problem!!!

LMFAO ~ Dissociation doesn't exist!! ~ LMFAO

Much Love,

Elysium's Troops!!!

so, this t doesn't think DID or other dissociative disorders exist? do you know what type of therapy she practices?

Interesting--so when someone dissociates or "zones out" as a protective mechanism, what does your T call it? Or does your T think it is more of a deliberate action than an involuntary response, like, "I'm scared so I'm going to not pay attention to what's scaring me," vs. not being able to control the dissociation (it just happens when triggered)?

This "new" T would be my "EX T if she ever said that to me.

..ok, everyone, take deep breaths before reading.......



....T believes it is manipulative behavior that can be controlled which clients use to "resist" and "get attention"



I sat in awe and felt really degraded.

LOL!!! I think T was using her denial to manipulate you!! If she can convince you that dissociation does not exist and get you to "fall" for that....it would just give her more control over a situation that she has obviously not been educated to manage.

Believing in DID is a choice....having symptoms of DID is not!!

One can as easily say that depression or bi-polar disorder, or schizophrenia does not exist...but the science and the evidence shows that it does.

And until ANYONE can PROOVE that it doesn't exist...I think I will keep my mind open. An open mind is easier to escape from!!

omg. . . wtf ! Of course it exists. That thing your T said it so wrong. It makes me angry that there are T's like this. How do you feel about it? Are you still going to see her.?

i think this t got her degree from a mail order company...for underwear. i assume you're not going back? so sorry you had to go thru that. it seems to be "crappy t month" around here for a number of people.

^^^agrees!^^^

I am too!!!

Oh puhh-lleeeze!!!!

I know who your therapist is now! I swear to god she sounds exactly like a therapist that was at an outpatient group I went to. I called her the "virtual therapist" because she was clearly in her own little universe. I spent a half hour finally complaining about her to the manager saying you really need to sit in and hear the ******** she spews. One of my favorites lines to me, "well if you would quit thinking about your [dead] boyfriend the flashbacks would stop". Lady I don't sit and stew until I have a flashback. I have flashbacks when I see the side of a state trooper's car because there were a half dozen of them sitting in my yard the day I made the abuse end.

I knew that the virtual therapist had left the program and I wondered whose head she was screwing up next. Looks like she headed your way. I suppose there has to be somebody graduating in the bottom of the class...

I once had a therapist say that to me. I didnt argue the point i just stood up, opened her websters dictionary to the word dissociation, opened her DSM IV TR to each of the dissociative disorders, and I opened her Oxford Dictionary to dissociation. and then said "well thats your opinion. all these professional references recognize that dissociation does exist. I think I will stay with my opinion that it does exist, I see Im in good company with siding with the fact that the american psychaitric association, Websters and the Oxford says it does exist, thank you for all your lack of support and help". Then I walked out the door, went home and opened the phone book and within an hour I had an intake appointment with another mental health person.

T sounds like a Behavioral Therapist.

Of course it's a protective behavior. The important part of it is what brings it into play, what prompts the need for protection, what is happening in the patient's internal world right before or as the dissociation begins. The pathology of it is that it keeps the patient from experiencing the here and now.

Benign dissociation is similar. Like Sunny mentions about driving down the road, a person is going about their day and something brings up (triggers if you will, although that term is SO overused I prefer to avoid it) a re-direction of the person's thoughts. Something as benign as a billboard that mentions a holiday like Thanksgiving, for example. The person notices the billboard and the mention of Thanksgiving re-directs their thoughts to the holiday, to preparing for company, shopping for the meal, getting the house ready for guests....and before they know it they are 10 miles down the road.

Pathologically speaking, a person protectively 'removes' themselves from a here and now experience that feels extremely threatening because something re-directs their thoughts automatically in the same way. It isn't a billboard at the side of the road, but a flashing DANGER sign in their internal world. The can't 'be' here, they must 'go' someplace else where the threat does not exist. Fear is amazingly powerful.

Speaking of fear, this is a very scary thread. Hard to believe there are people practising therapy who think that way. Be very very careful with this person Tollhouse! As in get the hell out of there!!

pardon me for inserting a slightly comment but Yoda - your computer is fixable - apparently it just has irritable vowel syndrome


seriously - about dissociation - resistant silence (conscious refusal to talk or respond) is not dissociation, which just happens. It is so soundly established. If this T cannot accept that, but interprets a dissociating client as resistant and manipulating (ouch!), she needs a new job IMO - maybe computer repair or something similar. She sure doesn't know much about people.

Get another therapist!

hmm.
dissociation definitely exists - both in the normal and ultracool (that's us!) population.

re: DID - i think some therapists are starting to change the way they think about it as a disorder, but this is still a very new thing and i dont think it's 'out there' quite so much just yet. but from what i've read, it seems quite intuitive and not invalidating. just a different way of thinking about the 'identities' component in DID.

if you really are dissociating and your T thinks you are being manipulative, then that's her problem. i guess the bigger question is - is it dissociation, or is it... something like that? e.g., sometimes (with my old-T) i would simply switch off when he was talking because i didn't like hearing what he had to say. to him, however, it would have looked like dissociation. he also questioned me on whether it was something i kind of "controlled" or not. in some instances, yes, in other instances - no.

i am just trying to rack my brains on why anyone would come out with something like this. it's confusing that someone who has (apparently) trained as a therapist would deny something so well established.

Yikes! I'd be looking for another therapist.

I also believe your therapist is WRONG! I have dissociative symptoms, and both my husband and my t know it isn't self-caused to get attention.

Maybe your t had a client who faked dissociation, so now she thinks everybody fakes it.

I'd get a different therapist if it was me.