Grounding During Disassociative Episodes?

[blackswan]

Hi there wonderful people,

At his request I sat in on Boyfriend's therapy session a couple of days ago. Amongst the many things that were discussed, Boyfriend and his T identified that the sudden tiredness and yawning he experiences when pushing himself emotionally is likely a disassociative/escaping coping strategy. In addition to the actual disassociation he sometimes experiences. He's pretty phobic about tiredness (can't be hypervigilant when the batteries are low, and for him not being hypervigilant = all the bad things) and recovering from a year-long episode of major depression that has manifested predominantly as exhaustion (which means feeling tired also triggers worries for him that he's not getting better), so this was quite challenging for him to hear. This wasn't the focus of the session though so they didn't delve into it at all.

I've seen a couple of people here mention similar tiredness disassociative experiences so I was wondering, for the in between before his next session in a couple of weeks where he can ask her about it directly, does anyone have any tips or tools for coping with disassociative tiredness? Or tips or tools for dealing with disassociation in general?

He's doing so amazingly and any ideas to help with this part of the journey would be greatly appreciated :)

 

[KwanYingirl]

My therapist says that my yawning is like a dog sighing , it resets the internal systems to flow freely. He doesn't consider it as part of the dissociation spectrum.

I'm pretty attached to my ability to dissociate, but for my healing, I must learn to cope without it. There are tons of grounding techniques, I forget most of them, but what I use a lot is to really notice what my body is feeling. I was having reiki the other day and was starting to drift off so I concentrated on feeling every body part that was touching her table. Not judging, just awareness. It worked I stayed present for the session. Holding mountain pose is a good one for me. Holding ice or just running cold water onto my wrists settles my system. My sense if smell is broken from a chemical injury so I can't call on that sense. Drinking ginger ale calms my nausea.

Everyone has to try methods and find what works for them. I have been steadfast in practicing grounding. My reiki master told me my root chakra is finally spinning. It took about six months to adjust it.

I have to admit that when I'm working I tend to dissociate when my clients are agitated I don't do conflict well. My whole childhood was conflict and the only relief was zoning out. It served me well.

 

[blackswan]

Thanks @KwanYingirl :)