Understanding dissociation

Many of us feel detached from our bodies, minds or surroundings at times. But when these experiences have a big impact on our lives, it can become a mental health problem.

We're here to help you understand what you're going through.

On bad days, I'm in a daze. Unable to connect and feel present. As though there's a barrier between me and everything and everyone else. 

What is dissociation?

Dissociation is the feeling of being detached from our bodies, minds or surroundings. Many of us dissociate during our life.

Everyone’s experience of dissociation is different. For example, you may feel:

• Detached from your body
• As though the world around you is unreal
• Like you have periods of time you don't remember
• That your identity shifts and changes

Dissociation can last for a short time – minutes, hours or days. Or for much longer – weeks or even months.

There are many reasons it can happen. It's one way our minds cope with too much stress, such as during a traumatic event. In situations we can't physically get away from, dissociation can protect us from distress.

What are the signs of dissociation?

Different people experience dissociation in different ways. It can feel hard to describe.

Psychiatrists have tried to group these experiences and give them names. This can help them diagnose specific dissociative disorders.

But your experiences might not fit neatly into these groups. And you can experience dissociation even if you haven't been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder.

Here are the most common signs you're dissociating:

Forgetting important things about yourself or your life

You might:

• Have gaps in your memory where you can't remember certain events
• Not be able to remember important information about yourself or your life history
• Forget how to do something you've been able to do well in the past
• Find that you have items that you don't remember ever owning

Everyone forgets things sometimes. A psychiatrist might call this dissociative amnesia.

Usually this is if:

• It doesn't seem to be ‘normal’ forgetting (for example, you still can't remember when you're reminded)
• It's not related to injury, drugs, alcohol or another diagnosis

Not knowing how you got somewhere

You might travel somewhere and forget how you got there. You may forget important details about yourself and take on a new identity during this time.

A psychiatrist might call these experiences dissociative fugue.

Most people who experience dissociative fugue also experience amnesia.

I have had a whole month, several times in my life, that has disappeared.

Feeling like the world around you is strange or unreal

You might feel:

• Detached, distant or separate from the world around you
• Disconnected from reality
• Like you're living in a dream
• As if other people are robots (even though you know they aren't)
• As if objects are changing in shape, size or colour
• As if time is speeding up or slowing down

You may see the world as ‘lifeless’ or ‘foggy’. Or as if you're looking at it through a pane of glass.

A psychiatrist might call these experiences derealisation.

I did not recognise myself in mirrors. The people I loved and who were closest to me looked like total strangers.

Feeling disconnected from yourself or as if you're not real

You might feel:

• As though you're watching yourself in a film
• As if you're looking at yourself from the outside
• As if you're just observing your emotions, not feeling them
• Disconnected from parts of your body or your emotions
• Numb or unable to feel physical pain
• As if you're floating away
• Unsure of the boundaries between yourself and other people
• As if you're looking at someone else in a mirror

A psychiatrist might call these experiences depersonalisation.

If I am in a situation where I get anxious, that's when I go as if I'm not real.

Feeling your identity shift and change

You might:

• Feel as if ‘you’ are more than one person in the same body (these ‘people’ are sometimes called identity states)
• Switch between these different identity states
• Speak in a different voice or voices
• Use a different name or names
• Feel as if you're losing control to ‘someone else’
• Feel as if ‘you’ are different people at different times
• Act like different people, including children

A psychiatrist might call these experiences identity alteration.

Some people with dissociation also hear voices. If you do, you may hear your different identity states talking to each other. Or voices that are completely separate to your own identity.

Read more about identity states on our page about dissociative disorders.

Difficulty defining who you are

You might:

• Find it very difficult to define what kind of person you are
• Feel like your opinions, tastes, thoughts and beliefs change a lot
• Feel as if your thoughts and actions change so much that it's hard to know what is the ‘real you’

A psychiatrist might call these experiences identity confusion.

Spending a long time daydreaming each day

You might:

• Spend most of your time in intense, vivid daydreams and neglect your everyday life
• Do this to avoid difficult feelings or problems
• Have a blank expression while you're daydreaming
• Feel addicted to daydreaming and want to do it most of the time

Some psychiatrists might call this maladaptive daydreaming. But this isn't an official diagnosis.

Some of us have experiences of dissociation for a long time without realising what it is. Sometimes just putting a name to an experience can help. But if you want more support, we have information on dissociative disorders, treatments for dissociative disorders and coping with dissociation.

Video: Talking about dissociative disorders

Watch Paul, Anamoli, Hayley and Paul talk about what life is like with different types of dissociation.

What causes dissociation?

There are lots of reasons you might dissociate.

Dissociation can happen because of things going on in your life right now. Or it can develop as a way of coping with things that happened in your past. Certain medications can also cause dissociation as a side effect.

For example, you might dissociate:

• In response to something traumatic or very stressful that you can't control
• When under the influence of alcohol and drugs
• As a side effect of certain medications, or when coming off medication
• As a symptom of certain mental health problems, such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychosis and schizophrenia.

You may also dissociate as part of some cultural or religious practices.

What's the link between trauma and dissociation?

Experts think that dissociative disorders may develop partly as a response to traumatic events, often in childhood.

This is because after a trauma you may:

• Learn to use dissociation to cope with any stress or trauma
• Have flashbacks to the trauma which can cause you to dissociate

Researchers aren't sure exactly why this is. Some evidence suggests that trauma may change parts of your brain. But more research is needed.

For more information see our pages on dissociative disorders and trauma.