Understanding Dissociation: Can Someone Explain It to Me?

I use hobbies or my cell phone to disassociate. I don’t know if that’s what you’re talking about though. It’s a way to just not have to think or anything just zone out and do mindless things

I describe it as being in a hot air balloon or an air plane and looking down and seeing yourself. Almost like watching a movie and being disconnected at the same time

I tend to get a pretty intense pressure headache, and then when I try and do anything, I feel like i’m being controlled from the outside, like a sim character. lots of times it’s too intense for me to do anything, so i’ll sit and draw or play on my phone, or talk to people close to me

For me it almost feels like my insides (including my thoughts and soul) are pulling away from my skin and going farther into myself. Looking in the mirror becomes like a weird fever dream, where I see myself and I KNOW it’s me but it doesn’t FEEL like I’m seeing me. There’s a disconnect between myself and everything around me. Also, dissociation is definitely on a spectrum. If I’m only slightly dissociated, I’ll have some brain fog and just feel “off”, but if I’m severely dissociated I’ll have trouble doing anything except watching TV or playing games on my phone. It’s different for everyone so don’t invalidate your own symptoms if they don’t line up with other people’s.

To me it feels like I'm not really there. Like I'm there and I know I'm there but it feels like a dream. So your mind will trick you into thinking it's not really real. I used to have it a ton but now it's went down a ton so I no longer experience them as much as I did

What do you do for this though?

@ radiantobdcurity I usually feel really tall or shorter than usual. Why i dont know just happens

I suddenly feel like my body is really big and I'm really small inside it, drifting farther and farther away from myself and reality.

Zoning out seems really normal to me. Like day dreaming

Precisely. You're on a movie set, makeup artist left early, costume designer called in sick, and the camera's broken. It's really, really strange.

^ exactly. And when you’re looking around it doesn’t feel like anything is real.

Very much. I feel like I'm looking at my body from outside of my body. It's incredibly weird and I don't feel like me anymore.