You might start feeling numb or emotionally unavailable. You might also begin to feel a sense of unreality, as if the world around you or even you aren't real. Often, you'll find yourself “checking out” involuntarily or “spacing out” in the middle of doing something.
Research has linked dissociation and several mental health conditions, including borderline personality, ADHD, and depression.
Examples of mild, common dissociation include daydreaming, highway hypnosis or “getting lost” in a book or movie, all of which involve “losing touch” with awareness of one's immediate surroundings.
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. In some cases, dissociation can be marked by an altering of your: personality. identity.
Usually, signs of dissociation can be as subtle as unexpected lapses in attention, momentary avoidance of eye contact with no memory, staring into space for several moments while appearing to be in a daze, or repeated episodes of short-lived spells of apparent fainting.
Zoning out is considered a form of dissociation, but it typically falls at the mild end of the spectrum.
It's possible to have dissociation and not know it. If you have a dissociative disorder, for example, you may keep your symptoms hidden or explain them another way. Common signs you or a loved one should watch out for include: Rapid mood swings.
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.
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.
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) used to be called multiple personality disorder. Someone diagnosed with DID may feel uncertain about their identity and who they are. They may feel the presence of other identities, each with their own names, voices, personal histories and mannerisms.
Dissociation – feeling detached from yourself, like in a dreamlike state, feeling weird or off-kilter, and like everything is surreal – is a common anxiety disorder symptom experienced by many people who are anxious.
At worst — especially when we can't escape the overstimulating stimuli — it can cause disassociation and extreme emotions. If you regularly experience overwhelm from stimuli, it might be worth looking into the autistic experience of “meltdowns”.
Spacing out, zoning out, or blanking out are all ways to describe that experience of involuntarily losing your focus on a task. While attention fluctuates from moment to moment even in neurotypical brains, people with ADHD are prone to spacing out often.
However, there are studies into the effects of Adderall on dissociation. For instance, a case study involving a woman with depersonalization and derealization disorder was reported in 2020. It showed that mixed amphetamine salts, the active ingredient in Adderall, noticeably reduced the dissociative symptoms.
Triggers are sensory stimuli connected with a person's trauma, and dissociation is an overload response. 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.
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.
Dissociative disorders are characterized by an involuntary escape from reality characterized by a disconnection between thoughts, identity, consciousness and memory. People from all age groups and racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds can experience a dissociative disorder.
Shutdown dissociation includes partial or complete functional sensory deafferentiation, classified as negative dissociative symptoms (see Nijenhuis, 2014; Van Der Hart et al., 2004). The Shut-D focuses exclusively on symptoms according to the evolutionary-based concept of shutdown dissociative responding.
Dissociative episodes in which someone suddenly stares into space and becomes unresponsive is derealization. Detached from reality, they enter a different place in their head, which could seem like hours to them. Derealization can lead to a “zombie” like feeling of going through life unaware and unawake.
Although there are no medications that specifically treat dissociative disorders, your doctor may prescribe antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications or antipsychotic drugs to help control the mental health symptoms associated with dissociative disorders.
There's no DID test or quiz to identify the symptoms of the condition. Only a trained mental health professional can make an accurate diagnosis. In general, they will follow DSM-5 criteria, which are: changes or disruptions in identity or sense of self, marked by at least two separate personality states.