[nottrustin]

For those who disassociate what does it "look like". Are you able to recognize it is starting to happen? How often does it happen?? At any point do you realize it is happening or happened? Does you T know it is happening if in session?

[healinginprogress]

I know I'm dissociating when I start to have a really hard time recalling anything including mundane details. Or I have a hard time finding my words. I so will just stare at something even while I'm talking. My T can tell most of the time. It's easier for me to tell now that a year ago. But I'm still learning how to cope.

[ChickenNoodleSoup]

I start to feel like I'm not in my own body, I zone out and just stare at some random place. My T usually notices because I won't answer questions anymore, or ask him to repeat them (because I can't focus enough to understand the whole question). He also notices when I start staring.

It usually happens when I get very stressed, it used to happen quite frequently early on in therapy, maybe every third session (outside of therapy it still happens, just whenever I get stressed enough). Now that my T knows more or less what might trigger it, it happens less and he's able to catch it early enough so it doesn't really happen.

[satsuma]

I find this to be a horrible experience. I definitely know when it is happening. I feel totally unreal, as if I am walking around like a ghost, and totally disconnected from the world around me. Like a ghost wandering through a film set or something like that. For me it is a scary and horrible experience.

T used to not seem to think it was very serious. I think he was modelling a response of not panicking! But it sometimes seemed like he didn't really take it seriously. However it can be serious because as well as it being a horrible experience, I can be more likely to harm myself at those times and I think T realises that as well now.

Thankfully this happens to me less often than it used to. Also T taught me a technique which works well for me, which is repeating to myself "My name is Satsuma. I live in x. My job is y. My friends are a b and c and something I really like about them is... etc., you see the idea!

[zoiecat]

I dissociate all the time in therapy. My therapist said it mainly happens when your emotions get too intense for you to handle. Kind of like a fuse, it blows and your brain shuts down in order to protect you. I usually will get really numb when I dissociate. I tend to stare off and I have a hard time speaking in a hard time comprehending anything that is said to me.

My therapist can usually tell now and he always ask me how present I am then he works on bringing me back. He also sometimes hands me a cold Coke can from his refrigerator and I hold that helps me come back to the present.

I really don't mind dissociating I kind of like it but it's upsetting when I dissociate doing EMDR because then he has to stop EMDR to bring me back into the present. He said your brain stops processing an EMDR when you're dissociating. That makes me mad because I basically feel like I'm wasting my time.

I actually had to change where I sit in the room I used to sit on the couch and stare out the window I would dissociate every single time I stared out that window now I sit in the chair on the side so I have to look straight at the therapist or around the room which makes it harder for me to stare out the window.

[nottrustin]

I am just starting to learn about dissociation. EMDR thinks I do it a lot more than I realize. I have recognizes I have disassociate a couple times lately but it has been after I "came to". My and T's goal is to know it is happening earlier...cant imagine.

[zoiecat]

Before I started therapy I didn't have any idea what dissociation was or that I ever did it. Now I realize I have dissociated more than half my life. As you and your therapist get more familiar with your symptoms sometimes there are little signs. For mea telltale sign is when I start repeating my words or it will take me too long to respond when he asks me a question. If I take too long he calls out my name in a really low serious voice, sometimes it startles me back. I described it as going down the rabbit hole or sometimes I described it as becoming the timid rabbit I feel really young and quiet in weak. He lets me record sessions since I dissociate so much and miss a lot of things and I can hear it right away in my voice I hate hearing myself talk like that. Sometimes if I go in session and I really don't want to dissociate it helps me to try to stay a bit angry when I keep that emotion in my head I can usually fight off dissociating not always though.

[kecanoe]

I have learned to sometimes realize that I am dissociating. But that took a while, and I still don't recognize it all the time. Lately I have been talking with T3 about "freezing"; I have been doing it a lot in her office. She is pretty good at noticing that I am dissociating, but she sometimes misses it.

It is a very automatic thing-and hard to recognize. I think you will learn to realize it more quickly; sounds like your Ts can help with that, based on the fact that they can recognize it in you.