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.
Everyone spaces out from time to time. While spacing out can simply be a sign that you are sleep deprived, stressed, or distracted, it can also be due to a transient ischemic attack, seizure, hypotension, hypoglycemia, migraine, transient global amnesia, fatigue, narcolepsy, or drug misuse.
Experiences of dissociation can last for a short time (hours or days) or for much longer (weeks or months). Dissociation may be something that you experience for a short time while something traumatic is happening. But you also may have learned to dissociate as a way of coping with stressful experiences.
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.
Technically, spacing out like this is a form of dissociation—a coping mechanism in which your brain checks out from the present moment. However, spacing out from ADHD is a milder case that's not necessarily linked to trauma. In people without ADHD, it can happen during periods of sleep deprivation or stress.
An absence seizure causes you to blank out or stare into space for a few seconds. They can also be called petit mal seizures. Absence seizures are most common in children and typically don't cause any long-term problems.
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.
Intrusive memories
Recurrent, unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event. Reliving the traumatic event as if it were happening again (flashbacks) Upsetting dreams or nightmares about the traumatic event. Severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic event.
Dissociation is a state of mind that occurs when someone separates themselves from their emotions, and is a common trauma defense mechanism in people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Dissociation can feel like an out-of-body experience or like disconnection from the world around you.
Dissociation during times of stress is one of the main symptoms of BPD. It's also associated with acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), both of which can co-occur with BPD. It's important to note that not everyone with BPD experiences dissociation.
The pupils of the patients with PTSD not only showed the exaggerated response to threatening stimuli, but also to stimuli that depicted “positive” images, such as exciting sports scenes.
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.
Shutdown dissociation simulates central nervous system neuropathy. Peripheral neuropathy describes the damage to the peripheral nervous system. Peripheral damage affects one or more dermatomes and thus produces symptoms for specific areas of the body.
Anxiety leads to numbing or zoning out. This is a way for the mind to protect itself from experiences that may be too overwhelming for our brains to process all at once.
The most common words associated with zoning out are having trouble focusing, spacing out, or daydreaming. For someone with ADHD, it can be an instance when we feel lost in the present moment because our brain is elsewhere.
(2006), one-thirds of children with ADHD who reported abuse had a comorbid dissociative disorder. Matsumoto and Imamura (2007) identified that childhood ADHD symptoms persisting into adulthood revealed significant associations with adult dissociative symptomatology.
Dissociative disorders usually result from trauma and stress in childhood, not adulthood. They stem from chronic trauma (for example, repeated episodes of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse).
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.
We can notice if a client may be dissociated if we look out for the following cues: If the client feels in a fog. The client consistently asks therapist to repeat the questions. The client feels as though they are a long way away.
Emotional overreactions are a common symptom of trauma. A victim of trauma might redirect their overwhelming emotions towards others, such as family and friends. Because these unresolved emotions are always bubbling beneath the surface, any incident that brings feelings forward can unleash these pent-up emotions.
Most people are indeed entirely unaware that they are suffering from trauma at all. Many put their symptoms and negative experiences down to stress which is often vague and unhelpful, particularly when trying to get to the core of the problem.
A person with BPD is constantly in emotional distress or zoned out when their mind is in distress. Some of us externalise the distress (act out) while some keep it internalised (act in).
This can be caused by overworking, lack of sleep, stress, and spending too much time on the computer. On a cellular level, brain fog is believed to be caused by high levels inflammation and changes to hormones that determine your mood, energy and focus.