Heres a reminder for you that being dissociated isn't limited to the common misconception where you are frozen in place, incapable of doing anything or even thinking, or experiencing a significant time gap,, those things.
And while its hard to spot the milder signs when you're dissociating, don't worry i got you covered by bringing awareness, im showing what those signs could look like:
- Dazing/blanking out several times
- Hands looking weird (depersonalization)
- Surroundings also looking weird (derealization)
- Feeling detached emotionally, physically, or both
- Light-headedness
- Less reactive in responding
- Forget things more often
- Unable to focus or keep concentration straight
When you have multiple of those signs at once, then chances are you are dissociating (extra note that it can also co-occur with derealization/depersonalization). While it can be caused by various factors, i would like to add that it may or may not get worse as time passes and no one wants that thing to snowball until it got too bad (remember, preventing now is better than dealing later) so having a few tips would help:
- Grounding (sensory): listening to music, feeling different textures, paying attention to things in your surroundings, trying different fragrant or scents, have some snacks to occupy your senses
- Grounding (physically): feel your chest as you breathe, get your body moving to redirect focus, splash some cold water, hold something you can squeeze (such as a stress ball)
- Practice being mindful. As it can help you re-anchor back to reality faster, regulate better, building more resilience, increasing awareness of oneself's state
Sometimes we go do our day without giving a thought that were detached from reality, usually by going autopilot and scrolling through social medias without being aware (well, atleast for me) and forget lots of things while being dysregulated at the end. So by being aware of the mild signs and incorporating grounding skills im sure memory gaps and those funny aftermath stuffs won't be a problem anymore, have a good day peeps.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that another sign is your hearing feels muffled, that you can hear sounds feel more distant despite close, i thought it could be grouped with the “less reactive” before.
- j
Other things that tell me that I’m dissociated that I don’t see talked about a lot:
- Feeling like the world is spinning / severely dizzy even while sitting still.
- It seems like the world is for someone larger or smaller than I am.
- Thinking feels like swimming through molasses.
- When looking around, it feels almost like I’m a couple “frames” behind.
- More specific than just forgetting things: Missing seconds at a time that immediately just happened (i.e., saying hi to someone and immediately forgetting even just a second or two after I did) or being surprised at changes that have happened recently (i.e., looking at my hands and having to take a few seconds to process that my nails are painted because I forgot that I did that).
- My days run on “autopilot,” so while I may remember how I got to work or class, I don’t remember making the concious choice to do it or the details involved (I hear about the more drastic version of this where you “wake up” or “come to” without knowing how you got there, and I find that this version is a lot more common than that one. I can usually remember how I got somewhere, it just feels like someone else was playing the video game to get me there).
- Breathing gets shallower / becomes something I have to consciously think about.
- Tastes are duller, colors are duller, generally duller senses like the edit says.
And a few other reminders that I think are important:
- Depending on how severe your dissociation is, your “base state” may be dissociated already and grounding may not be as effective, if it works at all, for you. I don’t say that to be scary or negative, it’s just an object truth. That tends to be more likely if you’re on the secondary dissociation spectrum (BPD, OSDD, DPDR, C-PTSD etc.) and very likely if you’re living with tertiary dissociation (DID). The good news is, when your dissociation gets bad, it does get better again. Processing and healing and integration and therapy and all that fun stuff helps with this, too.
- Emotional grounding can be a really good tool to use against dissociation, too. If you have severe dissociation and difficulty feeling emotions, when you do feel something, trying to sit with it and even just acknowledge how it feels in your body is a great way to help bring yourself back, even if it’s just by a little.
- Recovering from dissociative disorders takes years and years and tends to get worse before it gets better. It sucks. You’ll get there, though.
Thankyou for contributing <3
