A lesson on dissociation/dissassociation:
Dissociation can be difficult to understand, especially if you haven’t had much experience in knowledge of it. Dissociation in basics represents a disconnect among one’s thoughts, emotions, behaviors, memories, and identity. Below is a list of classic signs that you are dissociating.
Depersonalization: Depersonalization is the experience of feeling separation from yourself and your body. People who experience such a feeling usually observe that they feel like they are watching their own body from the outside, or from another perspective.
Derealization: Derealization is vaguely similar to depersonalization, but it is a feeling of detachment from the external world, such as other people or objects. Derealization may cause familiar things to become unfamiliar.
Amnesia: Some people who experience dissociation have fluent periods of amnesia, of which they are feeling as if they don’t know who or where they are. There can be any amount of time in which they are awake and alert but cannot remember what they were doing.
Identity Confusion: Probably the most common experience, this occurs when a sufferer experiences an inner struggle about who they really are, their identity, what their personality is, why they are alive etc.
Identity Alteration: This is an experience of a person who senses that they act like a different person some of the time, creating a personality tailored to take place around each specific person in one’s life. Things like voices, clothing and interests differ amongst each loved one.
A common occurance of dissociation in everyday life is zoning out. You might be walking along the street, listening to music and you become so unfocused on reality and so focused on a thought or image that you miss a section of conscious walking. And to your surprise, you’re still upright and walking.
All of this is very common in bpd, and it can be quite frightening if it’s never happened to you before. The first step is accepting that you do dissociate. We have experienced a series of traumatic events and our minds try to block it out in an attempt of protection. You will have to accept that in a stressful environment, memories of the trauma will try to come back, but it is only a natural way of your brain reminding you of the danger and as a result we dissociate to stay safe. Many will not have the ability to face those traumas right then, however that does not mean you never will. But, a dissociative episode can be dangerous depending on where you are, so it’s definitley best to try your hardest to refocus and rettach if you can. Stay safe out there.
