Unhealthy Dissociation

How do you control it?

Photo by John Noonan on Unsplash

Dissociation is a normal part of the human experience. Road hypnosis, where you travel distances without remembering doing it, and hyper-focusing on a movie in a theater are only two examples.

One of the most well-known characteristics of dissociative identity disorder (DID) is dissociation. The things people living with DID experience while dissociated vary from person to person, but always the issues that arise are involuntary because an alter has taken over.

This article will examine unhealthy dissociation, when it might begin, what causes it, and ways to mitigate its influence over you.

Unhealthy Dissociation in a Nutshell

Dissociation is a way to handle boring or frightening situations by splitting off what is happening to a person from the waking self. As stated above, all people dissociate at some point in their lives. Dissociation is an evolutionary adaptation that served us well when approached by predators before we became wholly human.

However, sometimes dissociation takes over one’s life, leaving one confused and frightened of what will happen next. A good deal of mental health disorders have a dissociative component, but dissociative identity disorder is by far the issue that most people think of when…