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

[Ronin]

When you forget several years of injuries and then are genuinely surprised something manageable is making you panic so badly.

Then you're happy as you finally understand why you wanted to punch people touching you there so much more viscerally than at other touch.

When you're able to forget pretty much everything under the sun as long as it's just about you and not other people. Other people considering you important to them, and that memory to be kept and person to be cared for, still leaves you wild-eyed.

Also when managing trauma and dissociation transforms so much of your life if you told the you of a few years ago, they wouldn't believe you.

When you are happy to go back to your *typical* dissociation patterns, as opposed to the atypical one and typical only for very bad situations. Ha. Got it. Back to feeling more me.

 

[trying2movefwd]

You drive yourself to a mental hospital and don't recall doing so!:meh:

 

[Friday]

Thank you @Ronin! I have just NOT been able to find this thread :banghead: Removing all words too common to search = it's only trying to search 'disassociating'. Aaaaargh. It's not like there's half a million posts using that word. I'd just looooost this thread. Lost. >.<

LOL... Back on target... & speaking of lost <cough>

 

[Friday]

...are trying to figure out what the hell you've injured, and when (how long has this been going on for???) because you've been limping -badly- when you realize? You're only wearing one shoe. :bag: Oh. That explains the "limp".

Part 2, it takes you a day to find where you walked out of your shoe, and just didn't really notice at the time :facepalm:

(This is also why I tend to only own boots -can't walk out of them- and flip flops -mix&match makes never no mind- Cough. I have noooo idea why I thought shoes would be a good idea. Come to think of it? I don't really remember buying them. Or how long I've owned them. Huh. As we were! Moving along. Nothing to see here!)

 

[Friday]

When you're grateful ^^^ isn't your pants. Again.

 

[RavenGirl]

When you're at the store and can't find one of your gloves, so you walk around looking for it on the floor. When you don't see it, you frisk yourself to find it in the wrong pocket of your jacket.:meh: You take it out to put it in the correct pocket, to put it in the WRONG pocket once again! :O_o: (Third times a charm. ) And that's why I don't go shopping on Black Friday!!!

 

[Tabbycat925]

- When you're doing a task but you have no idea what that task was supposed to be
-when you have to count your pills cause you don't know if you already took them, and then recount because you forgot what you were doing
After a blackout you've trained your friends to recite the date, time and location of where you are currently at. (honestly I don't know how they deal with me)

 

[Ronin]

You know time of other people's events but have no idea about yours.

Right. Clue me in by what was pissing me off that day hence ended in conversations. Thanks homie. :hilarious::happy:

 

[Ronin]

When... Very low traffic on here forum, it must be Tuesday :D

(I'm not sure if I'm the only person thinking of that flow of posts as a pattern, but y'all are a damned good calender :D Sorry Oz & Japan friends, I know my Tuesdays proclamations are very useless in Wednesday-already.)

 

[Lola Nocheprieta]

When you have both ADHD and PTSD since early childhood, and the only difference between them is that spacing out due to ADHD just makes me feel guilty afterward, but waking up from a dissociative fugue with something wet leaking down my face leaves me feeling simultaneously panicked and spacey for the rest of the day and night.

When the difference between ADHD distraction and dissociation distraction is the difference between "Ooh, shiny!" and "Ooh, scary!"

When the "ADHD pat-down" works just as well for misplacing items or forgetting to put on necessary articles of clothing due to dissociation as well as for ADHD absent-mindedness. <Oh, we're leaving now? Where did the time go? What did I miss? Standing up to leave already? Look back at chair. Look under chair. Pat self down from head to toe. Glasses? Check. Cell phone? Check. Go out to car. Where's my keys? Aw, ffs!:banghead:>

When it doesn't f*cking matter if it's ADHD or PTSD, they both come from faulty wiring caused or at least contributed to by early childhood trauma, and anyway, the management techniques are the same. I would just much rather space out to a lovely daydream then lose time trapped in a past memory. :(

When you're stressed at work because you're behind, and stress makes you more prone to avoidance and dissociation, and you're behind at work because you've lost time. So you're stressed, and ...

When you carry post it notes with you while walking down the hall at work ... Just in case.

When wifey knows to come look for you if you get lost staring at yourself in the bathroom mirror. <Seriously, what's up with the leaky face? Why was I crying? Forget it, I don't need to know.>

When your wife shouting "Squirrel!" at you is a grounding technique.

When you ... OOH, shiny! :roflmao:

 

[Ronin]

When the difference between decompensated ADHD and PTSD spacing out are like follows:

Compensated / working for me: ADHD: Oh, shiny! PTSD: Good, nothing bad, or that bad, in my world, the world rocks :D

Decompensated / not working for me: ADHD: Bored and lost whole week long. PTSD: .... why did I wake up here, where is here, can I get out, do I even care to get out, oh shit I'm supposed to care, voila merde f*ck it all to nine hells.

 

[Deleted member 28403]

When you are just laying and wondering where the past few months went, with no memory of the past few hours.