Dissociation is an adaptive response to threat and is a form of “freezing”.
The freeze response, which makes the body immobile. You might feel paralysed or unable to move. This response is most often linked to dissociation. Dissociation in humans is like when animals freeze when they're in danger.
When a child or an adult uses dissociation or the freeze response by “checking out,” “going to the ceiling,” or disconnecting from their body during abuse or a life-threatening situation it helps them manage and survive physical pain, confusing sexual feelings, terror, rage, or the devastating emotional betrayal that ...
Freezing is often associated with traumatic experiences and can leave us paralysed in fear. In such distressing situations, the physical impact of our stress hormones are magnified, causing intense negative emotions including extreme shock, anxiety, panic and terror.
If you often feel disconnected or numb when faced with stressful situations, this may be a sign that you're going into the freeze response. Some other signs of the freeze response include: Feeling like you can't move your limbs. Feeling paralyzed in fear.
One of the three most commonly recognized reactions of the stress response, and the initial response to danger in which fight or flight is temporarily put on hold. The freeze response involves an immediate stilling of movement, with vigilance to the threat, and in preparation for active fight or flight response.
Eye contact is broken, the conversation comes to an abrupt halt, and clients can look frightened, “spacey,” or emotionally shut down. Clients often report feeling disconnected from the environment as well as their body sensations and can no longer accurately gauge the passage of time.
As the salt molecules dissociate, they extract heat from the water, while at the same time reducing its freezing point so that the mixture can get very cold without freezing.
Dissociation is an adaptive response to threat and is a form of “freezing”. It is a strategy that is often used when the option of fighting or running (fleeing) is not an option.
Even years after the traumatic event or circumstances have ceased, certain sights, sounds, smells, touches, and even tastes can set off, or trigger, a cascade of unwanted memories and feelings. When they do, the survivor might react with an adrenalin-charged fight-flight-or-freeze response or by dissociating.
If someone with the disorder is experiencing ongoing trauma, then dissociation can become “fixed and automatic” outside of one's control, with some people reporting that they've been stuck in a dissociative period for weeks, months, or even years at a time.
Awareness 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.
For many people, dissociation is a natural response to trauma that they can't control. It could be a response to a one-off traumatic event or ongoing trauma and abuse. You can read more on our page about the causes of dissociative disorders. Dissociation might be a way to cope with very stressful experiences.
Dissociation functions as a coping mechanism developed by the body to manage and protect against overwhelming emotions and distress 6. This can be a completely natural reaction to traumatic experiences, and can be helpful as a way of coping at the time.
Symptoms of dissociative disorder can vary but may include: feeling disconnected from yourself and the world around you. forgetting about certain time periods, events and personal information. feeling uncertain about who you are.
Dissociative Amnesia
localized – unable to remember an event or period of time (most common type)
As the therapist, our client may be dissociated if we notice: Our mind goes blank. Feeling dizzy/spacey. We pull away.
Being in a dissociated state may feel like spacing out or mind wandering. There may be a sense of the world not being real. People might watch themselves from seemingly outside their bodies. There is also a detachment from one's self-identity.
From the outside, someone who's dissociating may appear disconnected or non-responsive as you interact with them, adds Halpern. "They might seem to space out, and their face may go blank," she says.
Due to having impaired executive function, people with ADHD can become overwhelmed more easily than those without it, and can experience “overwhelm freeze.” Feeling overwhelmed can be perceived as a certain kind of threat, even if it's just to your mental well-being, causing a freeze reaction much like others might ...