Dissociation is a psychological defense mechanism that involves a disconnection or disruption in the normal integration of memory, identity, and perception of the environment. It is a way for the mind to cope with overwhelming or traumatic experiences. During dissociation, people may feel detached from their thoughts, emotions, sensations, or surroundings. They may experience gaps in memory, which causes them to feel like they are watching themselves from outside their body (depersonalization) or to experience the world around them as unreal or distant (derealization).

Dissociation exists on a continuum, ranging from mild dissociative experiences that are common in everyday life – such as daydreaming or realizing you have driven home without remembering the journey – to more severe dissociative disorders. In dissociative disorders, such as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), dissociation becomes more frequent and severe, significantly affecting a person’s daily life and overall well-being.

It is important to note that dissociation is complex and nuanced, and its causes and manifestations can vary widely among individuals. Dissociation can be temporary and transient, or it can become a coping strategy that persists over time. Therapeutic interventions, such as trauma-focused therapies, can help people experiencing disruptive and problematic dissociation to process and integrate their experiences, which fosters healing and recovery.

Understanding the Language

Dissociation: Dissociation is often connected with trauma. It can be understood as a temporary escape from a deeply distressing or traumatizing event, or memory of that event, that causes a person to wall off and separate from the memory. The memory is, therefore, fragmented, split off, and compartmentalized in the brain. 

Depersonalization: Depersonalization is a specific type of dissociative experience that causes people to feel detached from themselves or their bodies. During depersonalization, it is common for individuals to feel like they are observing themselves from outside their body. This can lead to a sense that they are disconnected from their own thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations.

Derealization: Derealization is another form of dissociation where a person experiences a sense of detachment from the external world. During derealization, the surroundings may seem unreal, dreamlike, or distant, and the person may feel like they are living in a fog or watching the world through a filter.

Both depersonalization and derealization are commonly associated with anxiety and stress, especially in response to traumatic events. These experiences can be distressing; in some cases, they can become symptoms of dissociative disorders that require professional intervention and support.

Dissociation Triggers

Triggers are sensory stimuli that are linked to an individual’s trauma, and dissociation is an

overload response to these stimuli. For months or years after a traumatic experience, certain feelings, sights, sounds, smells, tactile experiences, and even tastes can trigger a cascade of unwanted feelings and memories. When this happens, the survivor might react with an adrenaline-charged, fight-flight-or-freeze response or dissociate and become emotionally separated from the trauma and, sometimes, from the setting of the trigger. Triggers are often reduced to very generalized and easily understood stimuli, such as the way fireworks can trigger war veterans or how the smell of a specific aftershave can trigger a sexual assault survivor. 

However, triggers can often be much more context dependent and nuanced. Some lesser-known triggers include:

• A sense of being ignored
• Aggressive behavior
• Angry facial expressions
• Bright lights
• Colors
• Completing forms
• Crowds
• Darkness
• Disorder/chaos
• Lack of choices or options
• Long waits for services
• Loud or abrupt noises
• Conflict (including non-violent conflict such as a dispute with a trusted partner)
• Not being believed
• Physical pain 
• Certain dates or seasons
• Lowering defenses 
• Stressful situations (such as a critical boss)
• Odors
• Requests to repeat one’s story
• Signs and images
• Small spaces
• Songs
• Tone of voice

It’s understood that traumatic experiences activate the stress response, which triggers a cascade of biological adaptations, including changes to heart rate and “deactivation” of the cortex and limbic system in order to prioritize reaction time and blood flow to the parts of the body necessary for fleeing danger or fighting an attacker. When the cortex is shut off, memories cannot be stored as they usually would. This means that memories of a traumatic event are stored in the amygdala in the so-called reptilian brain, where there is no connection to time or association with other memories or knowledge.

Triggering stimuli range from external to internal, including both environmental information and sensory information. As they are processed by the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which quickly recognizes the association with the traumatic stimuli, the information often does not reach the prefrontal cortex or limbic systems, which are responsible for complex functions like problem-solving, emotional expression, and, perhaps most prevalent in trauma therapy, memory. When the cortex is shut off, memories cannot be stored as usual. Instead, the memory of the traumatic event is stored in the amygdala, leaving it disorganized and without a connection to time, reasoning, or other memories. The traumatic memory is stored in the reptilian brain, the part responsible for basic automatic functions like breathing, regulating heart rate, and communicating sensory information to the limbic system and cortex. When the reptilian brain detects sensory information related to the traumatic memory, such as the sound of a gunshot, a connection is made with the memory before the sensory information is passed to the limbic system or cortex. 

While this may be useful for human survival by ensuring the fastest possible response to a threat, it prevents the cortex from evaluating whether the sensory information is an actual threat or just a scent associated with a traumatic memory.

Signs of Dissociation 

Knowing the signs of dissociation can help you recognize when it’s happening and help you formulate a response. Common signs include:

• A stiff or still body
• Being slow to respond 
• Having flat emotions or feeling numb
• Inattention
• Disorientation
• Robotic behavior 
• Missing conversation 
• Desentitivity 
• Gaps in memory 
• Looking dazed
• Having a blank stare 
• De-realization 
• Rapid blinking 
• Self-soothing

Grounding Techniques

Grounding techniques anchor you in the current moment or bring your attention back to the present situation. They can be used by either the person who is dissociating or those who notice that they are dissociating. Some helpful strategies include:

Questioning

This entails asking the person who is dissociating to name items in their environment, who the president is, and what their name, age, or address is. You may also ask them how the chair underneath them feels against their body, encourage them to touch objects nearby, and remind them that they are safe. 

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Once you find your breath, go through the following steps to help ground yourself:

5: Acknowledge FIVE things you see around you.

4: Acknowledge FOUR things you can touch around you (go and touch them if you want)

3: Acknowledge THREE things you hear.

2: Acknowledge TWO things you can smell. 

1: Acknowledge ONE thing you can taste.

Body scan

During a body scan, you intentionally focus on different parts of your body. Take a deep breath to start, then begin with the feet and work up toward the head, squeezing your muscles and releasing. For example, take a breath in, squeeze your toes as hard as you can, then release as you breathe out. This helps you notice and release tension in areas where you are physically storing stress, as well as acting as an anchor to the physical sensations of your body.

Tapping

Similar to the body scan, you start at the feet and work up to the head, tapping, patting, or stroking the body. Use this intuitively; sometimes, it might be a gentle stroke, and other times you might feel the need for a more powerful tap. 

5-5-5 method

To do this, you breathe in for 5 seconds, hold your breath for 5 seconds, and then breathe out for 5 seconds for as long as necessary.

Dissociation can be scary, but with the right support and strategies that work for you, there is hope of overcoming it. It is possible to regain control by working with a mental health professional to identify your triggers, underlying causes, and signs of dissociation.