Is This Dissociation?

[NIKI]

When you just sit for 10 or more minutes staring at a wall or out the window and you are completely lost in your mind in very bad memories unaware of other things going on around you but I know that it is not happening right then as I am thinking about it but I "see" it very clearly in my minds eye...like a movie in my mind and it brings me to tears thinking about bad things that happened in childhood and I remember and go over and over what was said and what was done in those moments so long ago...is that dissociation or daydreaming? This happens to me everyday all through out the day.

Also, while in the middle of a conversation with my husband I will follow what he is saying at first but then drift off in my mind to something totally unrelated (a bad memory from childhood) while he is still talking and I have to ask him to repeat the last part of the conversation. Is that dissociation?

Thank you for any replies.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Daydreaming is a type of dissociation. (Everybody dissociates to some degree.) Are you asking if it's daydreaming or another type of dissociation?

 

[NIKI]

I'm wondering if what I described I am doing is more than just daydreaming. Thanks

 

[Chava]

For me dissociation is absent of thoughts and feelings. But there are many shades and it's hard to know sometimes because mine can sometimes be connected to body memories. Flashbacks, dissociation, rumination, and just thinking or daydreaming are all different. If bad memories are plaguing you daily and disrupting your regular life, it might be good to consider talking to your doctor, evaluation, or therapy (and there you might get a more clear answer). Have you talked to any professional about it?

 

[Senecia]

I learned I dissociate fairly recently. Like Chava, it's absent of thoughts and feelings. I just....blank out, and I don't hear anything anyone is saying to me. I genuinely cannot remember what people have said, and they are confused and sometimes even mad. When I look back, I'd say I even dissociated during a presentation once. I just blanked out. I don't remember what I said, really, but everyone else does. So strange how it just goes blank like that...I'd think you're dissociating.

 

[Gadgie]

Yea! I used to think I was just day dreaming, but it's the same as you said, I just drift away into another world?

I'm also becoming very forgetful, for example, I will go into another room, then totally forget what I went there for?

It's getting to the stage now, where it's not funny any more, it takes a while, then I will remember what I went for, yet other times I have no idea, and it never comes back to me?

 

[Senecia]

@Gadgie...ugh me too. :(

 

[iwannadeletethis]

I used to do that!! They were like flashbacks then I'd come to and realize I'd been gone for a minute. I had to ask myself "is something triggering this?" If you can find the trigger.. Maybe you can figure it out from there!! Otherwise.. I definitely recommend finding someone to talk to.

 

[circe47]

For me dissociating starts with a mood, then an abreaction. After, I am somewhat conscious that "another me aspect" (what I call my dissociative states) has taken control. I am what is called co-conscious. This means that I am semi-aware of what's happening, but I am disconnected to the point that I can't control my reactions.

Later, upon reflection, I see where I behaved in a manner that is not congruent with who I KNOW I AM authentically. Authentically, I am kind, thoughtful, funny, intelligent--but somehow, there are different aspects that present that are able to do what the authentic me can't or wouldn't do.

Getting lost in your head is part of the continuum of dissociation. For me, when I get lost inside my head, I can't understand conversations or my own language. It is as if what is being verbalized or read is as foreign as Greek. As an English speaker, Greek might as well be Venusian. It also means going "huh? what did you just say? and "I still don't understand," though it has been repeated multiple times.

 

[Lullaby_Blue]

When you just sit for 10 or more minutes staring at a wall or out the window and you are completely lost in...

I think the first part you mentioned is just flashbacks but when you are talking to people and then dissappear in your mind that is dissociation

 

[Jbrown62]

When you just sit for 10 or more minutes staring at a wall or out the window and you are completely lost in...

It's what I go thru. I say yes

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Yes it is @NIKI it will be okay and you will learn and grow in the process. It is kind of scary and confusing to keep catching oneself doing this. Some of it could also be preoccupation and if that is what is happening, breathe and focus on the one thing in front of you.:hug: