[freefallin]

I see people say they disassociate on here a lot. I am not familiar with this concept. I tried Googling it, but the Wikipedia article just confused me lol.

[HealingTimes]

I have wondered the same thing!

[freefallin]

Or maybe it's dissociate. I forget which now.

[Kiya]

dissasociation (if it is a word ) would be no longer associating with others.

Dissociation is where you are separate from your reality or your body or your mind/ memories/ time... There is a LOT of good info out on the net. Google or Wikipedia will give tons more info than I can, even though it is my experience.
Cheers
Kiya

Yeah, dissociation.

It's a kind of altered consciousness where you separate yourself from what is happening.

Maybe this link will help: Dissociation FAQ’s

[rothfan6]

I found this therapist's explanation helpful.

The fourth paragraph down he talks about it.
http://brettnewcomb.com/working-with...hat-do-you-do/

He's wrote a few other posts about it here. http://brettnewcomb.com/?s=Dissociative

[someone321]

I think there are quite many "versions" of dissociation... The most "obvious" one is when someone loses time, e.g. goes by by bus and misses the bus stop or suddenly realizes that is in a place but doesn't remember how to they got there. Like they separate from the body, they might not here other people, they might think that are somewhere else etc... I do not fulfill these criteria but according to my T I am still dissociating a lot because:
- I am chronic (maladaptive) daydreamer
- I have problems with focusing, if someone is talking too long (which might be even 3 minutes) I stop listening,
- in stressful situations I am calm as I pretend that I'm somewhere else, that nothing can happen to me,
- sometimes when my T is saying something disturbing, the room starts spinning and I have to remind myself where I am and that I am supposed to listen... etc...

For instance there is no excisting diagnosis like c-PTSD which is actually the only one which I would get if it existed. For this reason if I needed any for the insuranse, I would either get PTSD but I don't fulfill all criteria, or my T would prefer DDNOS - Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified...

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by freefallin

I see people say they disassociate on here a lot. I am not familiar with this concept. I tried Googling it, but the Wikipedia article just confused me lol.

short version is that words mean many different things depending uponones own location, language.....

if you are here in New York (the one in the USA, as opposed to other locations dis association means to purposely not associate with something, purposely stop what you are doing...

Examples....

I disassociated myself from being a member of the soft ball team ....meaning I purposely quit the team

I disassocated myself from my job for two weeks....meaning I purposely stopped myself from working for two weeks.

I did not like the movie I was watching so I disassociated myself from it....meaning I purposely stood up and changed the channel rather than sitting there continuing to watch something I did not like.

if you mean what is dissociation which is different than disassociation here in NY.....

here in NY dissociation is a reaction to a trigger....feeling numb, spacey, foggy minded,

example

I saw someone that reminded me of my abuser. when that happened I felt numb, like I had no emotions.

[iheartjacques]

It's a defence mechanism when your mind blocks out what's happening right now because it can't handle the reality of what's happening right now, or the memory of what happened - something extremely traumatic.

[blur]

this therapist has an easy to understand description of dissociation.

[JustShakey]

I dissociate emotionally. Means I might be really upset (and it might be obvious to others around me that I am) but I won't be aware of it til later or sometimes not at all.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by freefallin

I see people say they disassociate on here a lot. I am not familiar with this concept. I tried Googling it, but the Wikipedia article just confused me lol.

It might be confusing to many because there are different facets of 1 concept.

Dissociation can be:

cognitive
emotional
physical/somatic
sensory (sight; hearing; taste, touch, etc.)
time oriented
memory
personality
affect
? maybe more

I've had every type I listed, including out-of-body experiences, so I've experienced and read a lot about this. It's more of a neurological reaction as it's not an 'emotion'. I think the link below might help?

CLINICAL TYPES OF DISSOCIATION

One of the dilemmas of classification of symptoms of dissociation is that these symptoms assume many and varied forms and expressions. They may be emotional, perceptual, cognitive or functional. They may involve altered perception of time, space, sense of self and reality. Emotional expressions may vary from panic to numbing and catatonia. Altered sensory perceptions may vary from anesthesia to analgesia to intolerable pain. Motor expressions frequently involve weakness, paralysis and ataxia, but may also present as tremors, dysarthria, shaking and convulsions (Please see discussion of conversion reaction later). Cognitive symptoms may involve confusion, dysphasia, dyscalculia and severe deficits in attention. Perceptual symptoms include ignoral and neglect. Memory alteration may appear as hypermnesia in the form of flashbacks, or as amnesia in the form of fugue states or more selective traumatic amnesia. The varied symptoms of dissociation therefore mimic the intrinsic bipolar nature of the defining symptoms of PTSD (arousal, reexperiencing, avoidance).

Time perception is often greatly altered, most commonly characterized by a sense of slowing of time (Terr, 1983). Altered perception of self (depersonalization) may manifest as an out-of body experience, or a sense of intense familiarity (de ja` vu) (Pynoos, et al, 1987). In its most extreme expression, depersonalization may encompass perception of several separate states of self in the form of distinct and separate personalities (dissociative identity disorder), each with distinct personality characteristics and even physical attributes (Mayer-Gross, 1935). Strange persons or events may appear familiar, whereas familiar faces and scenes may appear alien and strange.

Trauma Information Pages, Articles: Scaer (2001)

eta: I briefly read some stuff from wiki, etc., and I can see why it's confusing. All it really means is that one thing is disconnected, detached, or separate from another thing/process. If you look at the items I listed, you can get a feel for the bigger picture and context. Many sites talk about 1 facet of dissociation, such as memory or emotional, but if you look at all of them, you can better understand to overarching concepts.

[freefallin]

Thanks for all of the responses now! I remember we did discuss this topic in my abnormal psych class now. I specifically remember the driving somewhere and not remembering how you got there example. I definitely have issues with dissociating based on some of the links you all provided. Seems like a ton of different behaviors count as dissociation.

[SabinaS]

I do this quite a bit. Is it generally linked to trauma or can it come about from other issues?

[Kiya]

Dissociation is a spectrum; "autopilot" is on one end, getting lost in a book or a project and losing time..... all the way to a trauma or accident where a person can't remember the details or if they try they "go away", can't connect to it..... to the other end of the spectrum of prolonged trauma, POW, etc where the info can't be accessed or if the person remembers something, the mind may react and "go away" to get away from the remembered fear or pain or threat of death. In these instances, it is harder to get "back in body", or even to have any connection to the body. For years parts of my body didn't have feeling. I didn't know it, until now when they have feeling. I also didn't know I had a selective mute state as well as a selective "smell" ability until I had reason to note the difference.