Many people may experience dissociation (dissociate) during their life. If you dissociate, you may feel disconnected from yourself and the world around you. For example, you may feel detached from your body or feel as though the world around you is unreal. Remember, everyone's experience of dissociation is different.
Dissociative disorders are rare. About 2% of people in the United States have them.
Lots of different things can cause you to dissociate. For example, you might dissociate when you are very stressed, or after something traumatic has happened to you. You might also have symptoms of dissociation as part of another mental illness like anxiety.
Up to 75% of people experience at least one depersonalization/derealization episode in their lives, with only 2% meeting the full criteria for chronic episodes. Women are more likely than men to be diagnosed with a dissociative disorder.
Dissociation may be a normal phenomenon, but like everything in life, all in moderation. For some, dissociation becomes the main coping mechanism they use to deal with the effects of a trauma response in anxiety disorders, such as PTSD, or other disorders, such as depression.
Zoning out is considered a form of dissociation, but it typically falls at the mild end of the spectrum.
Mental illnesses such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder may cause similar symptoms to a dissociative disorder. The effects of certain substances, including some recreational drugs and prescription medications, can mimic symptoms.
Dissociation is a way the mind copes with too much stress. Periods of dissociation can last for a relatively short time (hours or days) or for much longer (weeks or months). It can sometimes last for years, but usually if a person has other dissociative disorders.
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a rare psychiatric disorder diagnosed in about 1.5% of the global population. This disorder is often misdiagnosed and often requires multiple assessments for an accurate diagnosis. Patients often present with self-injurious behavior and suicide attempts.
Dissociation is a disconnection between a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions or sense of who he or she is. This is a normal process that everyone has experienced.
Dissociative disorders usually develop as a way to cope with trauma. The disorders most often form in children subjected to long-term physical, sexual or emotional abuse or, less often, a home environment that's frightening or highly unpredictable.
Too much dissociating can slow or prevent recovery from the impact of trauma or PTSD. Dissociation can become a problem in itself. Blanking out interferes with doing well at school. It can lead to passively going along in risky situations.
In extreme moments of traumatic stress, a person might suddenly “space out.” Whereas they seemed fully present, talking, and participating, they suddenly become vacant, staring into the distance. At such times, they are likely to need help reorienting.
It can affect your sense of identity and your perception of time. The symptoms often go away on their own. It may take hours, days, or weeks. You may need treatment, though, if your dissociation is happening because you've had an extremely troubling experience or you have a mental health disorder like schizophrenia.
One's mind going completely blank. A sense of watching oneself from the outside. A disconnection from surroundings. Glazing over or feeling lost.
Can dissociative disorders go away without treatment? They can, but they usually do not. Typically those with dissociative identity disorder experience symptoms for six years or more before being correctly diagnosed and treated.
You suddenly feel confused and as if you can't think clearly. You feel like things are unreal but can't describe exactly why. For some reason, you feel odd, unusual, and that something is not as it should be. You feel something is out of sorts but don't know what it is or how to describe the feeling.
Too much dissociating can slow or prevent recovery from the impact of trauma or PTSD. Dissociation can become a problem in itself. Blanking out interferes with doing well at school. It can lead to passively going along in risky situations.
Living a normal life after experiencing a mental health condition, like dissociative identity disorder, is possible. People who learn ways to healthily cope with dissociative disorders can increase their chances of living what they consider to be a normal life.
There are five main ways in which the dissociation of psychological processes changes the way a person experiences living: depersonalization, derealization, amnesia, identity confusion, and identity alteration.
When you dissociate, you may feel disconnected from yourself and from the world around you. You might feel like you are separate from your body, or you might feel like the world around you isn't real.
Dissociation can occur in response to traumatic events, and/or in response to prolonged exposure to trauma (for example, trauma that occurs in the context of people's relationships). Dissociation can affect memory, sense of identity, the way the world is perceived and the connection to the physical body 3.
Evidence suggests that dissociation is associated with psychotic experiences, particularly hallucinations, but also other symptoms.
The process of dissociation usually occurs outside your own awareness, though you may also realize it is happening, particularly if it is in the context of anxiety. The experience involves a disconnection between your memory, consciousness, identity, and thoughts.
Dissociation involves disruptions of usually integrated functions of consciousness, perception, memory, identity, and affect (e.g., depersonalization, derealization, numbing, amnesia, and analgesia).