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Sufferer Disassociation A Problem

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Thank you for your advice. Actually had a better day today. Some days I feel like a totally different person in my body!! Sometimes things don't feel real and it's like it's all a dream too.......
 
Unfortunately I don't have any answers since my being forced to deal with this (rather than try to pretend otherwise) has come to a head. I've always felt the dissociation but I thought at the time it was advantageous--giving me an emotional 'edge' over others, so to speak. Where others cried or felt sad, angry, etc. I was able to simply feel detached, which allowed me to continue to function for a while.

All that has a price, however--and in recent years I've come to find this. Dissociation isn't precisely useful in school (if anything, quite a disadvantage), and detachment doesn't allow you to build the bridges you may need in times when you may need help. You feel like you can deal because you've dealt via dissociating/detachment for so long, but then it becomes acute and what once was functional detachment becomes (especially in the midst of something such as an anxiety/panic attack) erratic dissociation, where you feel nothing is real, you yourself aren't real, etc. Logically, you know things are real, but *you* don't feel real and you feel almost as if you're dreaming or in slow/fast motion. It's a disconcerting feeling.

Anyway, as far as advice goes: you do need some form of talk therapy, not too intensive at the beginning (I can't imagine a therapist worth his salt would pelt you with questions knowing you have PTSD--mine and I are just getting to them and I've been seeing her for almost three years). CBT would also be beneficial, as well as medication (for anxiety, or depression, or whatever other symptoms/issues you may have that cannot be sufficiently dealt with via therapy alone at this point in time).

Hang in there, is all I can truly say. Dissociation is a very weird feeling and you never quite get used to it.
 
Thanks @HarryOsborn it is very weird. I have had two years worth of councilling which helped loads to actually talk about my abuse. Then have had a gap of about 4 years. And in that time have got worse. And finally this year got refered to a psychiatrist and started new meds and now about 4/5 weeks into CBT. But already she is delving too deep. I feel I need to stable my here and now before I start dealing with me has a child. I just wish I could have help to deal with the trauma first.
 
[QUOTE="Emsy.77, post: 730438, member: 27273". I feel I need to stable my here and now before I start dealing with me has a child. I just wish I could have help to deal with the trauma first.[/QUOTE]

Perhaps you should voice these concerns to them if you have not yet done so. You *do* have a say in your treatment and if someone is being too aggressive with you, that is cause for intervention on your part. Perhaps she does not perceive herself to be that way? Mention you are just starting on new meds and are not quite ready to delve as deeply as she presently desires, but are willing to do so once you feel like the medication is granting you some chemical stability. I am pretty sure she would at least be receptive to hearing you out, and if she continues to disregard your desires/comfort, honestly, find someone else.
 
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My therapist is really nice and I have spoke to her today about how I feel and she is gunna help me with here and now before anything else. It's my psychiatrist that is off or rude to me with her terms and very harsh!!! She just doesn't get it @Harry Osborn
 
My therapist is really nice and I have spoke to her today about how I feel and she is gunna help me with here and now before anything else. It's my psychiatrist that is off or rude to me with her terms and very harsh!!! She just doesn't get it @Harry Osborn

Do you mean your psychiatrist tries to do therapy with you in addition to your therapist? Sorry, confused here -- I thought you were talking about your therapist, in your first posts... Such setups differ between countries I've heard...
 
Do you mean your psychiatrist tries to do therapy with you in addition to your therapist? Sorry, confused here -- I thought you were talking about your therapist, in your first posts... Such setups differ between countries I've heard...

In my situation, my psychiatrist does medication monitoring/management/diagnosis. He has a medical degree. I see him once every two months barring something being wrong, which requires me making an early appointment.

My therapist only provides regular talk therapy, she is not qualified to diagnose anyone or prescribe medication. She's more for coping skills, etc. I see her 1x week.
 
My Psychiatrist does my meds and my Therapist does my counselling/cbt and talk through things with her. But it's my Psychiatrist who is the one who I feel doesn't believe my symptoms and talks down to me. My regular Gp I see her once a month she's good too. I spoke to my Therapist she is gunna talk more about my disassociation when I see het next week!!
 
Yup, was the same for me too... my therapist / group was for talk therapy once a week (I also had a specific military sexual trauma therapist I saw in the womens center about every 2 weeks), and my psychiatrist was for medication management once a month, oh and then also my GP who I only saw every few months because of other stuff.

But it was all done at the VA, and so no matter who I saw, all my medical notes were in one place for them to all be able to see what the other was doing / thoughts on my progress etc. Not that my medication ever got sorted out...after almost a year on the same dose of Zoloft, and me telling her that it was not having any effect on me, she kept saying its not instant and will take time. It was very frustrating because I was thinking, a year is not instant...and everything I was reading online, people were feeling some sort of change after a few months at most. So I ended up giving up on the meds, I figured, if its not doing anything for me anyway, and she wasn't going to change anything, then why bother taking them. But I digress...
 
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