Do I Dissociate?

Many people go through periods of dissociation at some point during life and everyone experiences it differently. Dissociation is defined as disconnection or detachment from one's sense of self (depersonalization) or one's surroundings (derealization). It may feel like a disconnect from yourself and the world around you, such as feeling detached from your physical body or like a spectator in your own day. Examples include driving a familiar route and arriving at your destination with no recollection of the journey or being absorbed in a book or show and being unaware of your surroundings.

Dissociation can be a response to a traumatic event or can be part of a mental health condition. Symptoms of dissociation can interfere with every aspect of mental functioning, including memory, identity, emotion, perception, and behavior. Dissociation can last for a short period of time, hours or days, or for much longer, weeks or months.

And while many people experience dissociation, a much smaller portion of the population develop a dissociative disorder. Dissociative disorders are considered to be underdiagnosed. Some diagnoses that have associations with dissociation include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, and Substance Use Disorder.

If you are wondering about your own relationship with dissociation, you can learn more. You can speak to a mental health professional about a diagnosis. One tool that is used to identify more about dissociation includes the Dissociative experiences scale (DES), which could be administered by a professional and provide useful information. There are also many accessible resources to provide educational information including The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, MD, or Dissociation Made Simple: A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Daily Life by Jamie Marich. You can get support to address your symptoms and create healthy coping skills, we are here to help!

Rachel Brown, MSW, SWLC

References

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17749-dissociative-disorders

https://www.nami.org/blogs/nami-blog/