DISSOCIATION VS DEPERSONALIZATION MANUAL

Some 2017 research tells us that dissociation can be a symptom of many mental health conditions. Sleep might also play an important role in the frequency of dissociative events, with poorer quality sleep potentially making dissociation more likely.

substances like phencyclidine (PCP) and ketamineĪ 2018 case study focusing on one 55-year-old woman identified that her dissociative events - in her case, alternating personalities - were triggered by stress and substance use.

Possible triggers of dissociation can include: There are some potential physical causes of dissociation as well, like:įor those who begin to dissociate once they’ve already reached adulthood, physical conditions are more likely to be responsible, including:ĭissociating might be considered a form of protection in these traumatizing situations, shielding you from unbearable or overwhelming experiences.īut in some cases, dissociation can become your go-to defense mechanism. The overwhelming consensus among researchers and mental health experts is that traumatic events - particularly in youth - may be the most common underlying cause of dissociation and many related disorders.Ĭhildhood trauma leading to dissociation could include: Unlike many other mental health events, genetics likely play little to no role in a person’s tendency to disassociate. In milder forms, this could be a sense that you are or have acted in a way that doesn’t align with your true identity. You may adopt a different personality, voice, behavior, and sense of self. This is despite a maintained logical awareness that your surroundings are, in fact, real. The world around you seems unreal, including other people. It may feel like you’re watching yourself from an outside perspective. This is a detachment from your thoughts, emotions, body, or life altogether. This is a form of amnesia involving physical movement, in which you travel from one place to another with no memory of how you arrived there. The central symptom is loss of memory - forgetting entirely or misremembering details about specific events, periods of time, or your own life history.

losing track of the road as you’re drivingīut the more severe types of dissociation - those typically associated with mental disorders - take many forms, including:.

Situations that can be considered dissociative include: Most people have experienced dissociation at some point in their lives. There’s generally a broad spectrum in the severity of dissociation. While some people have no recollection of their dissociations, others can remember when it occurred and what it felt like. One first-hand account describes a woman who reported being told that she had said and done things that she had absolutely no memory of. You might feel as though you’ve become a different person altogether with different attributes and thoughts.ĭissociation can take place during a traumatic or stressful event and can sometimes continue in the days or weeks after, such that your memories and events recounted to you might not line up.

In some cases, dissociation can be marked by an altering of your: You could feel as though you’re observing yourself from the outside in - or what some describe as an “out-of-body experience.” Your thoughts and perceptions might be foggy, and you could be confused by what’s going on around you.

You may suddenly lose your sense of identity or recognition of your surroundings. But what’s typically consistent in most cases is a sense of departing from reality.Ī participant in a 2021 study explained their fragile relationship with reality, saying, “It’s kind of like walking on thin ice, it can break at any moment.” Disassociation can act as an emergency escape route, preventing your mind from focusing on an overwhelming or traumatizing stimulus.Īpproximately 73% of people who endure a traumatic incident experience dissociation during and directly following the event.īut in protecting you from trauma in the short term, dissociation creates negative consequences in the long term, like:ĭissociation looks and feels different for each person who experiences it. On a psychological level, dissociating can be an involuntary means of coping with acute stress, such as physical abuse.

These components of your cognition may not come together as they should during dissociative events, which could last for just a few minutes or years, in extreme cases.Īwareness of yourself and what’s going on around you can be compromised during dissociation, which might feel like an unwelcome and frightening intrusion into your mind.

DISSOCIATION VS DEPERSONALIZATION MANUAL

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), dissociation is generally defined as a disruption or discontinuity in:

Dissociation vs depersonalization