Dissociation
As of today on dictionary.com, Dissociation is the disconnection or separation from something else or the state of being disconnected. What does that mean? In order to answer this question we have to go more in depth on dissociation. There are three types of dissociative disorders; Dissociative identity disorder, Dissociative amnesia, and Depersonalization- Derealization disorder.
Dissociative disorders can involve problems in areas as memory, identity, emotions, perception, behavior, and sense of oneself. When having these disorders some may feel as though they are watching life through a movie, they also might feel as though they are floating. In some cases, people feel as though nothing is real and what they’re living right now is a dream. This also includes feeling outside of one’s body.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is also formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder. It is when a person’s personality is fragmented into pieces and has a different distinct personality states. People with this type of dissociation are often linked to a past of sexual abuse. This disorder can manifest at any age. In most cases people who have DID also have PTSD, which include nightmares, flashbacks, and night terrors. There is no exact reason to this day as to why dissociative disorders exist, but many psychologists believe it ties in with physical or sexual abuse during adolescent years.
The primary treatment for DID is Psychotherapy with a goal of deconstructing the different distinct personalities that have manifested and fusing them into one personality coexisting. DID is also found in women nine times more than males. The treatment choice for Dissociative Identity Disorder is a long-term relationship based therapy. The three common stages of is 1. Establishing safety, stabilisation and symptom reduction 2. Working through and integrating traumatic memories 3. Integration and rehabilitation. There won’t be a linear graph of healing in this method with this disorder, there will most likely be a spiral after each base is being surpassed.
In phase one of the treatment it is recommended to establish therapeutic alliance, then educating the person on their disorder including symptoms, and explaining the process of treatment. The main goals to hit during phase one is to maintain personal safety, controlling symptoms, managing stress levels, etc. Phase two is much more difficult to handle due to the fact that the patients have dealt with dissociation throughout their whole life and to bring back the traumatic experiences they lived through and may still live through can be triggering. An example of this can be: imagine you’ve been drinking a soda every day since forever, and one day you decide I’m going to stop drinking soda. The first day is the hardest to go through because you’re going through withdrawals. You can get symptoms such as sweating profusely, migraines, etc. When people are forced to talk about traumatic experiences such as physical and sexual abuse they can be triggered and/or relapse.
During Phase three, they help the victim through with coping healthily on accepting and healing. The patient now trusts the therapist in helping them make lifestyle changes to create a healthy environment. Many people nowadays can’t afford to get a therapist and/or meds. If this is the case you can always find Grounding Techniques online to help cope with it on a day to day basis. There are several different types of grounding techniques such as: sensory-based and movement-based. Running cool or warm water on your body (or take a shower), eat something, hugging another person are a few Sensory-based grounding techniques. Breathing deeply, counting your breaths, grabbing tightly onto your chair or press your feet against the ground as firmly as you can are a few examples of movement-based grounding techniques.
What is Depersonalization-Derealization disorder? This disorder occurs when people have persistent feelings of observing oneself from outside the body. This also ties in with the person feeling as though they aren’t real, as if everything is just one big dream. Having these feelings happen once or twice is considered normal for a person. But if you continue to have reoccurring feelings of this matter it could be you have this disorder. Psychologists say that this disorder is more common among people who have experienced traumatic experiences.
Symptoms that occur with Depersonalization are: feeling like a robot-not having control over one’s body, actions, or words, Emotional or physical numbness of your senses and responses to the world around you, and a sense that your memories lack emotion and that they may or may not be your own memories. On a day-to-day basis a person will struggle on focusing on miniscule tasks, and if ongoing and untreated it can ultimately interfere with work and relationships.
Symptoms that occur with Derealization are: feelings of being alienated from or unfamiliar with your surroundings, surroundings that appear distorted, colorless, blurry, you’ll have a heightened awareness of your surroundings and clarity of your surroundings, and you’ll have a distortion perception of time such as recent events feel as the distant past. This disorder can be caused by relating factors of severe stress, or childhood trauma. These disorders can cause anxiety, depression, and a sense of helplessness.
How are Depersonalization and Derealization Different? Depersonalization is feeling disconnect from oneself. While, Derealization is the feeling of disconnect from the world around them. People who experience Depersonalization could look in a mirror and not recognize themself, they could also hear their name and it doesn’t feel like their name. They know it is them but they can’t emotionally connect it together. People with Derealization felt as though they were watching the world from the outside or from a window. They’re there but not really there. Physically they are there but emotionally they felt as if they were someone else. With Derealization people also experience crippling existential thoughts. Combining those two can be lethal. Having people feel helpless and creates a huge amount of anxiety.
People who have Dissociative Amnesia are separated from their memories suffering abnormal memory loss in ways that significantly impact their lives. It ranges from forgetting a specific event to forgetting who they are along with personal history. The person with this disorder may or may not be aware of their memory loss. DIssociative Amnesia is not the normal of forgetting and misplacing items. It can be as severe as forgetting one’s name and/or address, to blocking out traumatic events, or their whole life in a severe case. The underlying causes of this can relate to PTSD, abuse, trauma, extreme stress. There can also be a genetic link if the person has a family member with the disorder. They can receive the gene but they don’t necessarily have to have the same symptoms as one another. As of now there is no evidence based treatments specifically for this disorder. Techniques such as hypnosis, and drug-assisted question-and-answer sessions may jog the person’s memories and they will slowly recall them. These memories may also come back as flashbacks and at sudden times.