[sognaz]

does anyone have any experience w/ schizophrenia & using dissociation as coping skill? And then it just keeps rolling around and stop working properly?

Hi Sognaz - welcome to PC! It takes a while for your first 5 posts to show so they might get missed. We're not intentionally ignoring anyone: we're a friendly bunch really!

I don't have schizophrenia, but I have dissociated before as a coping mechanism. My mind just checked out to protect myself. It wasn't consciously controlled though and hasn't happened in a very long time.

I don't really understand what you mean by "just keeps rolling around and stops working properly" though - could you explain further?

All the best,

*Willow*

[sognaz]

Im pretty sure that I keep dissociating on consistently regular basis. Anxiety, during conversations; daily?? I don't know how to stop & keep self destructing.

That sounds like it must be really hard to deal with; for me it was very rare

For that level of anxiety, I would recommend seeing a therapist and/or talking to your dr about medication. Your psychiatrist should help you distinguish between standard anxiety (possibly needing anti anxiety meds) and paranoia (possibly requiring an increase or change in antipsychotic). A therapist can teach you relaxation, mindfulness and grounding techniques and help you recognise when you are starting to get anxious or dissociate so you know when to implement then. If access or cost etc is an issue, there are loads of self-help resources on the internet for both anxiety and dissociation, and we have forums specifically for those aspects here on PC. I know when I started to dissociate, grounding techniques like using my senses (touch was especially helpful for me) brought me back to the present.

I hope that helps a bit. All the best,

*Willow*