Dissociating is one of the most common responses to abuse and trauma. It involves
feeling numb, detached or unreal and (while it happens to everyone once in a while) is experienced more frequently and severely in survivors. Dissociating people vary widely in symptoms and may experience any or all things from the following list.
Types of
dissociation:
Depersonalisation
Common: “I feel strange / weird”, “I felt as if I was floating away”, “I felt disembodied / disconnected / detached / far away from myself”, “apart from everything”, “in a place of my own / alone”, “like I was there but not there”, “I could see and hear everything but couldn’t respond”.
Derealisation
“My surroundings seem unreal / far away”, “i felt spaced out”, “it was like looking at the world through a veil or glass”, “i felt cut off or distant from the immediate surroundings”, “objects appeared diminished in size / flat / dream-like / cartoon like / artificial /
unsolid”.
Other
dissociative symptoms:
Memory: “I drove the car home / got dressed / had dinner but can’t remember anything about it”, “I don’t who I am or how I got here” (
fugue state), “ I remember things but it doesn’t feel like it was me that was there”.
Identity: “I feel like I’m two seperate people/someone else”.
Other: “I felt like Time was passing incredibly slow/quickly”, “I get so absorbed in a fantasy/TV programme that it seems real”, “I felt an emptiness in my head as if I was not having any thoughts at all”.