Question - Please Help

[Skye3]

I met with my therapist and she said she was pretty sure it was some form of dissociative episode. She talked to me during it. I only vaguely remember one or two things during the conversation, but don't remember anything else. She said that she was trying to ground me through talking to me on the phone, but that I wasn't able to understand or hear her. I think she is concerned in the sense that it has now happened three times within several weeks, however, I think she is more concerned with helping me figure out what triggers it to see if I can figure out ways to prevent this happening in the future. I felt a lot better after talking with her as she still feels very hopeful that I am getting better and making progress.
Thank you all for all of your encouragement!

 

[Shellbell]

It sounded to me like dissociating as well. I struggle with this and particularly in therapy. It is a normal coping method your brain uses after trauma. Grounding is how to lesson or avoid it, but that takes a lot of practice.

I'm really glad you feel better after talking with your T. It really helps when they are encouraging and validating of your concerns.

 

[Violet03]

Unfortunately, I feel like know what you are talking about. I have never had one last as long as your did, but I have lost hours of my life. For me it starts of with dissociating. Then during this dissociative state I also experience flashbacks. I cannot talk, cannot respond to anyone, and sometimes do not know where I am. I will do what you said, be able to see & hear a little of my present, but later not remember it.

One time during one of these episodes I actually sent a text message to a friend. She got worried about me so her and her husband came over and stayed with me until I came out of it.

I have come to realize I go back to a time in my past during my trauma. I basically relive that time. When I come back to reality I am often very confused. I am also overwhelmed with emotion. I remember the flashback I had during that time but I was "gone" so much longer that some things just do not make sense to me.

I am not on any medication for my PTSD so I know it has nothing to do with medication. My therapist has told me it is all a part of the mind trying to get out and make sense of the trauma I have suppressed so long.

 

[All The Blessings]

I am wondering, as matthios was, what medications you are on? If it is lorazepam or ANY other form of Benzodiazepines (xanax, valium, klonopin, ativan...) please read this!

My husband has complex PTSD. He was prescribed lorazepam and temazepam for it in 2010. If you don't know, studies on lorazepam have found that it is only to be used over a period of four months at the most. My husband was on it until November 5 of 2012. Towards the end of his period on lorazepam, the dosage he was taking was upped in response to tragedies happening in our lives. Almost immediately after his medication dose was upped, he started having the exact dissociation episodes you talk about. There would be a small trigger and a few minutes later he wouldn't know who I was, or think he was years back unable to control himself. Hours later or even the next day when he would come out of these episodes, he would have no recollection of what had just taken place. In a period of four months, he was admitted to the hospital on six separate occasions, as well as numerous police calls that did not end in a hospital stay and episodes that were dealt with as best as possible on our own. On October 31st, my husband had a dissociative episode after his childhood past was brought up. During the episode, he took the entire bottle of his Ativan which was filled that day and wrote a suicide note. We did not know he had done this or even that he had the Lorazepam on him but fortunately due to the nature of his dissociation the police were called in time to save his life.

He was admitted to the Mental wing in the Veterans hospital a day later. What we found out there has changed everything.

My mother-in-law and I went to talk to his doctor stating that we didn't want him to be released until he was going to be safe and things were going to get better. We also talked to him about the thought that my husband might have an addiction problem to the lorazepam. In an off-hand note, the doctor stated the lorazepam may be the cause of his episodes. We looked up information online and what we found was disturbing. A day later, the doctors took my husband off of lorazepam and after a week without, it was like a switch was flipped. My husband has not had a single dissociation episode in the entire month he has been off of the medication. Life as we knew it, has been able to start again. He still struggles with symptoms of PTSD but in his words, "Compared to what was happening before, the issues I struggle with now are at least bearable and I know I can overcome them instead of a heavy blanket that overwhelms everything."

This is a brief note as I am trying to summarize, but my husband was to the point of suicide on these medications and the medical studies behind the benzodiazepines support that it wasn't my husband going crazy or just his PTSD symptoms. Please read the article Benzodiazepines: What they do in the body by Professor C H Ashton, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University in the UK. I cannot stress how important this information may be to you.