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Disassociative state

Warmheart

Warmheart

Something nerdy this way comes
V.I.P Member
Does anyone else experience a disassociative state when greatly overstressed? It feel like I am floating through space, completely disconnected from my body. I have to fight to get my body to move as I need it to.
My awareness and perception is completely strung out, scattered, and disconnected from all events as they are happening. I feel disembodied, float-y, anxious. I try hard to hide that this is happening as others will not understand. Everything feels far away, fake, and it's a struggle to get stuff done.
I want to feel in my body again.

Will do some sitting meditation.

Anyone else experience this weird phenomenon?
 
Warmheart said:
Does anyone else experience a disassociative state when greatly overstressed? It feel like I am floating through space, completely disconnected from my body. I have to fight to get my body to move as I need it to.
My awareness and perception is completely strung out, scattered, and disconnected from all events as they are happening. I feel disembodied, float-y, anxious. I try hard to hide that this is happening as others will not understand. Everything feels far away, fake, and it's a struggle to get stuff done.
I want to feel in my body again.

Will do some sitting meditation.

Anyone else experience this weird phenomenon?
Click to expand...

Maybe you have ptsd
 
Warmheart Yes. If I find myself unable to handle something and I can't remove myself from it, for whatever reason, then that happens to me.
It is a problem I'd like to be able to switch off, and get back to perceiving and most importantly communicating normally. (Normally for me I mean)
~ k
 
I do, maybe not to the extent you describe, but when stressed, cornered or put on the spot, I will get that disembodied feeling. What is actually happening seems as if it isn't, where I am is not where I'm at.
 
Thanks all for your input. It feels weird to live one's life this way for stretches at a time.
Think I'll look into supporting the brain with vitamins B12 and B6.
Dunno what else to try. I meditate daily, do T'ai chi, this is just weird.
 
Warmheart said:
Thanks all for your input. It feels weird to live one's life this way for stretches at a time.
Think I'll look into supporting the brain with vitamins B12 and B6.
Dunno what else to try. I meditate daily, do T'ai chi, this is just weird.
Click to expand...

If life seems unmanageable you may have a repressed trauma. You could look into seeing a counselor or doctor
 
Warmheart said:
It feels weird to live one's life this way for stretches at a time.
Click to expand...

How long are these periods? Mine generally only last as long as the pressure is on, like 5-10 minutes. Once off, I am back to normal, as if nothing happened. In fact I sometimes feel a bit buzzed, like on caffeine.
 
Warmheart said:
Does anyone else experience a disassociative state when greatly overstressed? It feel like I am floating through space, completely disconnected from my body. I have to fight to get my body to move as I need it to.
My awareness and perception is completely strung out, scattered, and disconnected from all events as they are happening. I feel disembodied, float-y, anxious. I try hard to hide that this is happening as others will not understand. Everything feels far away, fake, and it's a struggle to get stuff done.
I want to feel in my body again.

Will do some sitting meditation.

Anyone else experience this weird phenomenon?
Click to expand...

Yep, i get like this whenever i am anywhere with lots of colour, overlapping noises and sensory stuff going on, even when there are multiple conversations going on around me at a restaurant, pub, at friends houses or my place. I just space out and go on autopilot, it is soooo frustrating especially when a group of people are talking about something i find really interesting and i cant articulate or even come close to expressing my thoughts or explain that i really like how someone explained something interesting or funny etc and because i can only pick up bits n pieces of what is being said i can never pick a moment to enter the conversation.

I have been at the supermarket and had people i know come up to me to say hello and not even noticed they were there as i feel too detached due to all the fridges humming, bright fluorescent lights, chatter, just being bombarded with sensory information n stuff.

If you manage to work it out please let me know how as this limits how much i can involve myself in things i enjoy and my general quality of life, oh yeah and then have people say that i was very rude for snubbing them or being aloof or whatever gahh sucks.

Your not alone in this anyway for what its worth, hang in there
 
I struggle with dissociation, probably more often than not at some level or another. My therapists have been teaching me grounding skills to help me reconnect with my surroundings.

From what I've heard and read, meditation can actually make dissociative symptoms worse if you don't know how to manage the dissociation while meditating. When I meditate, I rarely close my eyes, and one thing I can do is focus on bridging the gap between my inside world and my outside world and just, sort of, sitting in that space. That helps reduce dissociative symptoms rather than making them worse.
 
This lasts a day, several days, or even a few weeks at a time. Kinda like The Granddaddy of All Shutdowns. :p
 
This lasts a day, several days, or even a few weeks at a time. Kinda like The Granddaddy of All Shutdowns. :p
 
DogwoodTree said:
From what I've heard and read, meditation can actually make dissociative symptoms worse if you don't know how to manage the dissociation while meditating.
Click to expand...

So I was at my Pdoc's yesterday in the waiting room. There were two older guys waiting, one of whom was getting upset about the length of his wait (he kept saying he had to pick up his grandson, couldn't afford to drive back if he missed his appointment, lived on a limited budget, then swearing). I had to "get out of there" so to speak, because I could feel his voice send shivers and shocks through my body. I started meditating, my old technique, Vipassana. It helped. When I went in to see my Dr. he apologized for the disruption, and I told him I had meditated and was able to pay it no mind. It was the first time in a long time I have used meditation to distance myself from something that I was immersed in, but had nothing to do with.
 
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I seem to randomly get like this whenever I'm not doing much. Happened twice today. It's not that I'm stressed or anything, I don't know why it happens. It's always short and go back into my body quickly. But this is just a constant thing - at least every few days, I'll have a short amount of time where I disconnect and it's incredibly weird. What else can cause this sort of thing, or is what I'm describing just normal?
 
On the Inside said:
How long are these periods? Mine generally only last as long as the pressure is on, like 5-10 minutes. Once off, I am back to normal, as if nothing happened. In fact I sometimes feel a bit buzzed, like on caffeine.
Click to expand...
Yes, I get it as described in this post. It often lasts longer than 5-10 minutes. At the same time, I feel very anxious.

If I have a sudden change in environment, I get this, when indoors for a long time and I have to go out again, or at the cinema, or I go to the supermarket at night and everything is bright. Everything feels weird adn not real.
 
The state can last for days or weeks. It depends on how overscheduled my life is, how much emontional stress I am under, and how much physical pain may be going on, too.

Unfortunately, during this state, I am very prone to wandering/elopement. It means I am very soothed by motion, and walking is almost hypnotically soothing, all fogged out in Inner World. I am not very mentally clear, not truly present.
This is a sort of walking-without-knowing. It doesn't always happen when I have disassociative state, but often it does.

The only way I can think to manage this is streamlining my life, not taking as much on, meditating for emotional stress, and trying to support my brain with vitamins B 12 and B 6.
 
Try to be present in your body. I don't know, you could try wearing an elastic band around your wrist and to snap it against your wrist to bring you back to the present. Doing yoga is good for grounding too. I have the same problem as you. There are various ways to ground yourself. Some seem a little flakey but each to their own.
 
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