Dissociative Disoders

I am going off the dome here, you can't verify that, but everything on this site is off the dome, unironically. Dissociative disorders sit squarly under trauma and crisis. Usually this is trauma based or medical in nature. I have two main topics to talk about on this page: stigma and lived experiences. I am going to talk about Depersonalization and Derealization as well as a perceptual account on the Dissociation page. 

I have actively withnessed providers miss dissociation in session because god knows. That's for them to reckon with. People who experience dissociation are just regular degular folx. You cannot 'notice' dissociation because it is purely perceptual to the person experiencing it. Catatonia is when a person is unmoving and perhaps 'maniquin like'. 

There are three types of dissociation to talk about and they are all not experienced. Take the whole structure of the mind into your view. All of your memories and experiences that you can hold. How far back does it go? Are there times you cannot remember in your life? Have you ever slept? Bam, now you know what it is like. Do you know what you do when you sleep. NOPE. Someone else has to tell you. 

I am going to start at the deepest form of dissociation. Imagine if someone else has to tell you every detail of your life. You are present in this moment. You are experiencing in this moment. But you have no recall of yourself at all. You know facts of the world, you can speak, you can read and write, you can comprehend language. But moment to moment there is no stable self to be recalled. This person would live entirely by external context. 50 first dates. She forgets every day. Fuckkkk. Did you see the end of that movie. She wakes up in the middle of the atlantic and with a husband and child, and her father is visibly aged. Did you see how she experienced that? Oh my god. What a beautiful soul, truly. I am in tears. 

Obviously, memory issue versus dissociation, but the impact is the same. I can talk about theory all day, but this is so much better, I think.