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Not Dissociation?

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Chem Lady

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On this site I've read a lot about dissociation and I don't think I dissociate based on what others have said. Someone described it as either being in the backseat of a driving car or being in the trunk of a driving car. I don't feel like I lose control of my body like that, but I do experience something that is hard to define and I was hoping others could add some thoughts to help me out.
This happens to me typically after spending time in social situations with people who I am not totally comfortable with (read: everyone but my husband and our one good friend). I find social situations incredibly stressful because I learned to be hypersensitive to people and I'm constantly reading body language, tone, word usage etc. and I worry about how my contribution is being received. At a certain point I find myself receding into my body. I can still hear what people are saying, but it feels fuzzy and I find myself so deep inside myself that in order to respond in any normal kind of way I have to muster up a huge amount of energy just to reply. Once I get like this I make sure to hole up inside my house where I can allow myself to be so incredibly distant. I just feel completely disconnected from the world. I usually watch brain-dead tv until I come out of it. Sometimes it takes me 8hrs, but sometimes it takes 48hrs before I feel like I made it back to the surface of myself and I can connect with people again.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
Hey, fellow canuk! I spoke with my psychiatrist about this because I don't *flashback* as it's described. According to him, dissociation is considered to be a type of flashback. And mine sounds like yours. Something in the kool-aid, maybe...? ;)
 
So, it is a form of dissociation? Is that what your therapist said, or does it fall under some other category?
Why is there no maple leaf emoji? They never have the emojis I want.
 
It is dissociation, and the psychiatrist said that dissociation is considered to be a flashback. And he's one of the few people I trust, so I hope he's right.

Never a maple leaf around when you need one...
 
Disassociation is a spectrum. Ranges from completely within your control (daydreaming), to being on "autopilot" driving the same road you've driven hundreds of times (blink blink, crap!)... Both of which are normal/everyone on the planet experiences these to some degree or another... All the way to the DID descriptions that you were describing at the very far end of the spectrum.

What you're describing sounds like disassociation + overwhelmed & isolating + disassociation.
 
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