You Know You've Been Dissociating/being Absent Minded When...

[HypnoticallyChaotic]

...you think you're just spacing out, and suddenly come around to realize youre outside smoking a cigarette, and theres other people out there too so you just act like you know what you were doing and hope nobody talks to you.. and then get nervous that someone will, so you move to the side of the building.

...you space out, then come back around and find out you were ripping a book apart.

...you walk outside to go smoke a cigarette, and realize when you try to light it that you forgot the cigarette.

 

[Ellabella44]

You go to pick up your sick kid at school and arrive at his school he went to until third grade. And when he walked out the door that morning he was a 7th grader.

Your husband asks several times a day who you are. (When my symptoms started)

When during a meltdown you hold a stuffed animal and hear yourself saying please don't make me go see the bad people.( meaning my parents)

 

[Friday]

- Pants pants pants! Where are my damn pants? Fukkit. Who needs pants anyway?

- What day is it? Blink. Month? Blink. Hmmmm...

- When you get somewhere 15min early, and are still 5 minutes late. // When the earlier you get somewhere, the more likely it is you'll be late! Zoning out in the car.

- When you read something you wrote that you had no recollection of writing... Well. That sounds like me, anyway.

- When your toddler freaks out in the car as you start to drive off... Because you didn't run back inside to grab what you've forgotten... And that's as much part of the driving 'ritual' as seat belts & starting the engine. Mom! Wait! You didn't go grab what you forgot! We can't leave, yet! :facepalm:

- When you meet more WWII & Vietnam vets... Because they caught you staring off into space at the grocery store... And they know that look.

- When your first thought at realizing you've lost time is how to cover it up, rather than to be upset by it :P

 

[ladee]

Looking at your meds and wondering if you have already taken them..

 

[barefoot]

Ha! Great thread!

- when you suddenly realise the person you're with is sitting looking at you expectedly so you can only conclude that they must have been speaking to you but you've no idea what they've said...

- when you can hear someone talking to you but it's as though they're speaking to you in a foreign language and you can't make sense of any of it.

- when you can hear someone talking to you and you can hear that they are definitely speaking your language because you recognise the words...but you still can't make sense of any of it.

- when you can hear someone talking to you and you can hear and understand what they are saying. But you can't even begin to try to organise some words to form a sentence and then actually speak them.

- when you have no concept of what day of the week it is.

- when you've no recollection of your journey home - but you know it would have taken a few stops on the underground, two trains and a walk.

- when you're suddenly aware that you're sitting in freezing cold bath water with very wrinkled skin and when you check the time you've been in there for three hours.

- when you're walking along and then suddenly start panicking that you've lost your phone. Frantic hunt through bag ensues, panic rising at an alarming rate...finally dawns on you that music is playing in your ears...because you have your headphones in...and your headphones are plugged in to your phone...which is in your pocket...

- when you've been in such a deep trance that when you finally come out of it you have to go and sleep it off as it was so exhausting sitting doing nothing for all that time!

 

[The Albatross]

When you drop a paring knife and it is sticking out of your foot and you don't feel anything and calmly set yourself about the business of first aid.

When you pick up hot items on the stove or in the oven with your bare hand(s).

When you find that time has passed you by and you find yourself in a new location and are not sure how you got there and what happened before.

When you "hear" people but can't understand what they are saying cuz they sound like you and they are "underwater".

When you are surveying a situation from another place in the room... next to yourself, on the ceiling, in another corner of the room.

When you "know" you are carrying on a conversation during a stressful or triggering situation (mine is mostly physical pain) but you have no idea what was said and you are surprised when you "come back" it's over and you find 25-30 minutes are missing.

 

[HypnoticallyChaotic]

...when you've been talking to someone in a lengthy conversation..... when you are in the middle of typing this sentence and space out and suddenly see the phone in your hand and cant remember what you were typing...

...when you're in a conversation with someone else, and suddenly you feel like you said nothing at all for hours despite knowing you just said something.

...when you post something on a website and barely remember doing so at all.

...when you 'wake up' to find yourself talking to people online.

...when its not even nine in the morning but it feels like its past noon and you have to repeatedly look at your phone clock to remind yourself of the correct time.

...when you do this and lose your phone while its in your hand..

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I went to get my favorite pair of levis off of my bed and cannot find them still, have no clue where they went I hate the panicked and scared feelings I get when I do things like this. This is a really great thread and I can relate to everyone here who has shared. Yes I really do have PTSD.

 

[Ellabella44]

When you write a really brilliant statement about facing challenges, someone quotes it and you wonder who wrote it and where did that person find the quote.

And it leads to a deja vu moment where you look at your profile and see it written there. And then you remember you left it in your status the day you wrote it so you wouldn't forget it.

 

[HypnoticallyChaotic]

...when you repeatedly drain the water bottle you keep in the fridge for cold water, note that its empty and needs refilled, but put it back and walk away... and then go back later because you know you have a full bottle of water in the fridge and its empty.

 

[HypnoticallyChaotic]

...when you black out somehwere, and then end up somewhere else nearby, and you have no idea what went on or how you got there or how long you were there...

that happened today. im getting kinda worried now..

 

[Justmehere]

...when you put the milk in the cabinet and the ice cream in the fridge