The Dissociation Spectrum + What Causes Dissociative Disorders?

I don't do well with confrontation you guys know that I immediately my brain pulls a rip cord I have zero memory of that event did you know at least 50 percent of people report having at least one dissociative episode in their life yet it's not something that we talk about that often or even understand which is why today I want to answer this question about dissociation and its causes if you're new here my name is Katie Morton and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist and today we're going to answer a question that I received online Katie I have a question about dissociation does it have to be caused by trauma or are there other things that can cause dissociation I thought this was a great question because we often think of dissociation as a response to trauma now if you don't know what dissociation is let me explain when our nervous system becomes overwhelmed right with what's happening in our life and I said overwhelm because everyone is going to be different right everyone's ability to weather life storms is going to be different depending on how much sleep we got how many coping skills we have what our support system is like all of those things are going to weigh in in our ability to ride out what is happening to us or around us okay so when we become overwhelmed meaning what's happening to us is too much for us to manage our brain oftentimes pulls the rip cord on reality meaning it pulls us out of self and or environment we call that depersonalization being removed from self or derealization being removed from environment this experience can feel like watching yourself like you're on TV or in a movie it can feel like you're in a fog it's like hazy or you can feel like you're like watching yourself do things just slightly out of body almost like you don't have any control over what you say and do now all of that experience is what we like to call dissociation now that overwhelm that I talked about is often connected directly to trauma and that makes sense right because trauma in and of itself is that overwhelm it means what happened to us was too much for us to manage in the moment we feared for our own life and safety or the life and safety of someone else that we see or care about and we're traumatized right so can something else other than trauma cause dissociation and the short answer is yes now I like to think of dissociation on a spectrum starting off with what I call the space out have you ever left from a really stressful interview or work presentation or just had a really really long day and you don't remember how you got home I think of that as like the lowest level of dissociation we're not really present we're removed from self we don't have any memory of it which is usually an indicator that some dissociation has happened what that's called is a dissociative Fugue which is a part of what I talked about earlier the dpdr the depersonalization or derealization okay I want to make sure we're following because I know this can be a lot to take in so that low level when we don't have any memory I think it's always a little red flag where we think hmm maybe I was removed from myself I don't remember how I got home and this also cannot be induced by drugs or alcohol okay I just like spaced out and made my way home we also find a lot of people when we feel overwhelmed by our life let's say things are stressful at home or at work and we Daydream a lot like we create almost like an alternate reality of our life of what we wish would happen it's not just daydreaming where we're like I'll be nice to be on a beach right now that would be really relaxing it's more like imagine if I had a different life and my life looked like this and it's like we play it out we even create whole personas for ourselves and other people in this Daydream that's what's known as Mal adaptive daydreaming and I believe again we're going on a spectrum right we have kind of the space out then we have maladaptive daydreaming and all of this is part of dissociation and I would argue that the other end of the spectrum is what we call did or just associative identity disorder which used to be called multiple personality disorder I have videos about that if you want to learn more but I just want you to think of dissociation on a spectrum because I think that better helps us answer this question so if we are traumatized it's overwhelming that can cause dissociation our brain is going to pull the rip cord on reality because it's too much for us to tolerate and our whole goal of our person like our nervous system our body is to survive and get through so in order for us not to be even more traumatized or more overwhelmed our brain's going to pull the rip cord we can feel out of body out of environment until it feels better to come back now that can take minutes that can take hours that can take days some people that can take weeks and months everyone's experience is different however that same overwhelm can be attributed to non-traumatic things now remember traumas when we fear for safety or life of ourselves or someone else that means that the overwhelm could be I had a really really intense work meeting and I'm afraid I might get fired super stressful right I can dissociate I can get into an argument with a loved one and I can dissociate there are a lot of reasons that our brain will pull the rip cord essentially because the goal of dissociation it's honestly adaptive coping skill because we don't know what else to do right the the situation we're placed in feels like too much for us to manage what are our options I don't know why right we pull out and so anything that feels overwhelming to us or we don't feel like we have the resilience or the what they call the window of Tolerance right what we can't weather our brain can remove us so that we don't have to maybe witness anything more stressful it feels too overwhelming our system doesn't get even more overcharged so that we don't become traumatized like I said it's an Adaptive coping skill to help us get through without it getting worse okay and so that whole goal is just really protection it's almost like our brain is going I don't hear it I don't see I don't want to be part of it and that's also why we often don't have memory of it does that make sense I hope so and so the short answer this question is yes other things that aren't trauma can lead to dissociation although I would argue that the most common cause of persistent dissociation is some sort of trauma and persistent meaning it's happening throughout your life like with with some consistency like I said for some people they feel like they're in a dissociative episode for weeks maybe months that's most often caused by trauma but for everybody in the world they estimate that at least 50 percent of people have experienced at least one dissociative episode it's not always caused by trauma I can even personally tell you an experience that I had when I was in my early 20s that I know I dissociated because I legitimately don't have any memory of the event but it was so incredibly stressful I had gone to an event with a couple of friends of mine and one friend got upset because she wasn't part of what we were doing even though we asked her to she got mad because she felt like we ditched her at this portion of the event because she wanted a drink and we didn't want to okay it's not really important but just set it up we come back to the hotel where we're all staying at the end of the night and she proceeds to pick a fight with me and another friend now it was the name calling and the shouting I don't do well with confrontation you guys know that I honestly immediately my brain pulls a rip cord I have zero memory of that event until probably the next morning when we went to denny's to get breakfast but that was so stressful for me that my brain just was like you know what we can't really be present for this we have to kind of take take a break and so notice if you have experience if you're wondering hey have I ever had a dissociative episode do you have any portions of your life where all of a sudden it's stressful and then Boop you don't have any memory that's an indicator um if you often feel spaced out and like it's hard for you to bring yourself back that's another indicator if you struggle to like experience things you can't feel your body sometimes that can be another indicator those are all things that I would look for kind of look for the disconnect and the the could be disconnection from you know our bodies our brains the memory right all of that is just a good indicator that that is happening but overall know that most people I believe have experienced at least one episode of dissociation and those of us with difficult past or presence could experience them more frequently and be more aware that that's what's going on but I hope that kind of helps you better understand what dissociation is what the spectrum of it is and I have tons of videos on my channel to further explain that if you want more detail thank you so much for watching I hope you have a wonderful week and I'll see you next time

Channel: Kati Morton

Views: 325,641

Keywords: kati morton, kati morton dissociation, kati morton dissociative identity disorder, kati morton dissociative amnesia, dissociation spectrum, dissociative identity disorder, what is dissociation, what is dissociative identity disorder, what is dissociative disorder, dissociation explained, dissociation causes, dissociation symptoms, types of dissociation, types of dissociative disorders, types of dissociative amnesia, dissociation kati morton, dissociative fugue

Id: g2F_jJv4GmA

Length: 9min 42sec (582 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 08 2023