Medication – Although there are no medications that specifically treat
Talking therapies are the recommended treatment for dissociative disorders. Counselling or psychotherapy can help you to feel safer in yourself. A therapist can help you to explore and process traumatic events from the past, which can help you understand why you dissociate.
Treatment for Dissociation
There is no specific drug to treat dissociation, but it's possible to get better with a mix of medication and counseling. Your doctor will tailor your care based on how severe your symptoms are and their cause.
Dissociative amnesia
You've had one or more episodes in which you couldn't remember important personal information — usually something traumatic or stressful — or you can't remember your identity or life history. This memory loss is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.
Some anxiolytic medications reduce hyperarousal and the intrusive symptoms of dissociative disorders. SSRIs are also commonly used to treat anxiety and are good choices for people with dissociative disorders. Benzodiazepines are typically contraindicated because they typically exacerbate dissociation.
Dissociative disorder clients typically spend many years in treatment. Many are hospitalized repeatedly over time.
Dissociative disorder treatment is often required when severe dissociative disorder symptoms, such as amnesia or alternate personalities, are present. Treatment for dissociative disorders may include hospitalization, psychotherapy and medication.
Mental illnesses such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder may cause similar symptoms to a dissociative disorder. The effects of certain substances, including some recreational drugs and prescription medications, can mimic symptoms.
Feeling like you're looking at yourself from the outside
Feel as though you are watching yourself in a film or looking at yourself from the outside. Feel as if you are just observing your emotions. Feel disconnected from parts of your body or your emotions. Feel as if you are floating away.
People with dissociative disorders are at increased risk of complications and associated disorders, such as: Self-harm or mutilation. Suicidal thoughts and behavior. Sexual dysfunction.
Dissociation can also be an emergency survival tactic during intense pain or trauma. It cuts you off from your experience, making you numb when pain or panic would otherwise overwhelm you. This means that in the short-term, dissociation is necessary for survival.
Treatment typically involves psychotherapy. Therapy can help people gain control over the dissociative process and symptoms. The goal of therapy is to help integrate the different elements of identity. Therapy may be intense and difficult as it involves remembering and coping with past traumatic experiences.
Dissociation involves disruptions of usually integrated functions of consciousness, perception, memory, identity, and affect (e.g., depersonalization, derealization, numbing, amnesia, and analgesia).
If you have a dissociative disorder, getting help and support is an important part of the recovery process. Talking to your partner, family and friends about how your past experiences have affected you can help you come to terms with what happened, as well as helping them understand how you feel.
They can happen to us all sometimes. For example, during periods of intense stress or when we're very tired. Some people also find that using drugs like cannabis can cause feelings of derealisation and depersonalisation. Dissociation is also a normal way of coping during traumatic events.
While dissociation is not a symptom of ADHD, the two are closely related because they are often comorbid. 123 People with dissociative disorders may also show symptoms of ADHD and vice versa.
There are five main ways in which the dissociation of psychological processes changes the way a person experiences living: depersonalization, derealization, amnesia, identity confusion, and identity alteration.
Dissociative identity disorder is a severe form of dissociation, a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity.
Too much dissociating can slow or prevent recovery from the impact of trauma or PTSD. Dissociation can become a problem in itself. Blanking out interferes with doing well at school. It can lead to passively going along in risky situations.
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.
Dissociation happens when a person feels a disconnection between oneself and his or her body. 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.
So remember -- you are absolutely safe when driving with Depersonalization! Yes, feelings of dissociation while driving can seem scary initially, but don't let anxiety stop you from doing any of your day-to-day activities, and that 100% includes driving. Get into your car and drive, even if it's for a short distance.
It affects one's consciousness, identity, memory and awareness of themselves and their environment. This can result in detachment from self and environment, identity concerns or memory loss. This is different from psychosis because the person dissociating is aware they're feeling detached.
If someone with major dissociation does not seek help, Dr. Hunter says it could get worse over time. She explains that you may find it difficult to feel safe or maintain a healthy long-term relationship.
Evidence suggests that dissociation is associated with psychotic experiences, particularly hallucinations, but also other symptoms. However, until now, symptom-specific relationships with dissociation have not been comprehensively synthesized.