[lucky2001]

I finally told my therapist about dissociation. It was very hard to talk about but she was very nice about it. So now every session, she asks about it, like if i dissociated last week, when, how it happened and what it felt like. But i can't talk about it. Sometimes something triggers me to dissociate and sometimes there's no trigger. Last night it was very bad. I literally froze when i dissociated, couldn't feel or move my arms and legs. It also lasted a long time. I know what triggered it and i want to tell my therapist at the next session but i don't know how. I don't want to write something and give it to her cause that is even harder than talking :/ any advice??

[CantExplain]

((Lucky))

I hope at some stage you will feel OK about dissociating in front of your T. It should be a safe place to do that and your T should understand.

PS:

Have you looked at the Dissociative Disorders forum? I took a quick peek and I didn't see your name there.

I think if the therapist is already aware that you dissociate than there's no real reason to have to detail every occurrence. It will 'turn up' in your therapy at some point anyway.

[Littlemeinside]

If you know what triggered it...please tell the T. Perhaps just the way you wrote it here. It could be important information for the T and you to talk about what may have caused it.

[BlessedRhiannon]

Originally Posted by lucky2001

I finally told my therapist about dissociation. It was very hard to talk about but she was very nice about it. So now every session, she asks about it, like if i dissociated last week, when, how it happened and what it felt like. But i can't talk about it. Sometimes something triggers me to dissociate and sometimes there's no trigger. Last night it was very bad. I literally froze when i dissociated, couldn't feel or move my arms and legs. It also lasted a long time. I know what triggered it and i want to tell my therapist at the next session but i don't know how. I don't want to write something and give it to her cause that is even harder than talking :/ any advice??

Why not just print out your post and read it to her. You've already written it, and it will generate discussion on what triggered it.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by lucky2001

I finally told my therapist about dissociation. It was very hard to talk about but she was very nice about it. So now every session, she asks about it, like if i dissociated last week, when, how it happened and what it felt like. But i can't talk about it. Sometimes something triggers me to dissociate and sometimes there's no trigger. Last night it was very bad. I literally froze when i dissociated, couldn't feel or move my arms and legs. It also lasted a long time. I know what triggered it and i want to tell my therapist at the next session but i don't know how. I don't want to write something and give it to her cause that is even harder than talking :/ any advice??

I*m wondering if maybe your therapist is trying to figure out what you mean by dissociate....

the word dissociate has many different meanings/symptoms/problems...

example

when i would say to my therapist...I dissociated this week. thats not telling my therapist what I mean. that just says I am using the word dissociate to describe "something"

kind of like saying ..I like the color red....there are many different shades and meanings to the word red...crimson red, fire red, blush red, anger red, ...my using the word red doesnt tell anyone what I mean and leaves it open to interpretation..

if I say I dissociate to one therapist to them that might mean I am foggy minded, to another that means I felt numb, to another therapist that meant I was feeling like I was in a dream, to another that means I switched into an alternate personality...

see what I mean...the word dissociate can mean any number of things..

your therapist may be trying to figure out how you are using the word and it may be differing from how the therapist thinks of the word..

so my suggestion is start with you and your usage of the word..what does the word dissociate mean to you. doe sit say you feel numb, does it say you are hallucinating, does it say you feel like the world is going slow or fast, does it say you have a sort of pain somewhere, does it say you feel foggy minded, .....these are all examples of what dissociation can mean here where I live.

instead of using the wording ...I dissociated this week...try the wording ....

I felt.........this week and fill in the blank how did you "feel"

people usually know they feel foggy minded, numb, slow or sped up especially if they know how to use the correct terminology for what is happening to them..

question....how do you know you are dissociating...in order to know you are "dissociating" you must know what symptoms you are feeling in order to use the term dissociating with your therapist.

(unless the person is copying something they heard/read or was told.... I know someone who kept saying they were dissociating because someone else told them thats what they were doing but it turned out they were not dissociating they were experiencing vertigo with an ear infection)

once you connect what you are feeling with the correct psychological terms the talking about it will come easier because you and your therapist will be on the same page.

if you are using the term dissociated then you know what that word goes to, so maybe you can try saying when this happened I felt .....(numb, foggy headed, what ever the feeling was)instead of using the word dissociated.

I used the word "dissociate" and "dissociative" with our marriage counselor, and then later when my H started talking about the "switching" the MC was like, "What, WHAT? Whoa. Back up." He was thinking "dissociate" as in space out or go numb and not dissociative as wholly leaving and having someone else take over. amandalouise is quite correct that the terms do not mean the same thing to each person.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by lucky2001

I finally told my therapist about dissociation. It was very hard to talk about but she was very nice about it. So now every session, she asks about it, like if i dissociated last week, when, how it happened and what it felt like. But i can't talk about it. Sometimes something triggers me to dissociate and sometimes there's no trigger. Last night it was very bad. I literally froze when i dissociated, couldn't feel or move my arms and legs. It also lasted a long time. I know what triggered it and i want to tell my therapist at the next session but i don't know how. I don't want to write something and give it to her cause that is even harder than talking :/ any advice??

I just went back to your past posts...it says you have problems with psychosis, hearing voices, hallucinations, delusions, panic attacks, depression, suicidal feelings/plans, you are on quetiapine and zyprexa, you have over dosed in the past couple months, you have a history of self injury, ....

now Im even more thinking maybe your therapist doesnt know what you mean when you use the word dissociation...

example the literally freezing can be part of anyone of your problems even medications can cause a person to become catatonic (unable to respond, freeze, feeling robotic (posted in another post)

it may be your therapist is trying to figure out how best to help you but they need more information like what you mean by saying you dissociated.

a suggestion...when you have noticed you have in your word dissociated write it down, when you notice what triggered you (one thing about dissociation is that it always has a trigger, in most if not all cases the dissociation type triggers are very easy to find, its what ever made you feel in your words dissociated) a word, or action that caused you to feel what ever it is that you are using the term dissociation for.

after you write it down it may be easier to tell your therapist what you mean by you dissociated last week. you will have the paper you wrote it down on to refresh your memory on what happened.

[lucky2001]

Thank you all for responding. Your responses were really helpful. When i told my T about dissociation, i didn't use the word "dissociation" basically because (1) i don't really like to self diagnose (2) i didn't know what i felt was dissociation. She had asked me why i had self injured at the time and i told her it was because of going numb, feeling like i was in a dream, etc. and then she told me it was deprsonalization/ derealizaton, which is a kind of dissociation. I still don't use the word dissociation with her (i used it here for the sake of keeping the post relatively short and for the sake of explaining my situation). But she asks me every session if i felt like i was in a dream that week and if i say yes, then she asks me when it happened, how it felt like, etc. i just don't like explaining the way it feels so it's extremely hard for me. Even when i think about those times, i might dissociate and i don't want to do that in front of her. anyways, sorry for the essay :/