How I think about DISSOCIATION

[@DrSyl]

Hi team, thanks for watching. You may have noticed that the audio is a little glitchy at times in this one... Sorry about that! There was a loose connection.

[@chance5745]

I didn't notice... I disassociated. Kidding. Enthralling, as ever, Sir.

[@JinKee]

Hi @drsyl? Could you react to the new Demi Moore / Margaret Qualley movie “The Substance”?

[@fart_restoration]

Dr Syl. I've been away from the channel for a while, I think because your videos were hitting too close to home. Since then I've been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. I was going months at a time hardly or completely unable to get out of bed. I let myself deny what was happening for so long. Your kind manner and kind voice are so very sweet and caring. This channel is a healing place for me. Thank you so much for this content.

[@limner123]

As someone chronically dissociated, experiencing derealization and depersonalization, and in touch rarely with my emotions or body, I thought this was great. Often that ‘lesser’ degree of problematic dissociation is skipped in these discussions, which feels invalidating. So I’m pleased you talked about it too. Life changes and therapy are decreasing my dissociation, but for most of my life, everything was either a video game or a movie. I also have chronic pain, and while I know being more in touch with my body is an important part of being more in touch with myself, it’s a benefit to be disconnected from negative physical sensations, mostly.

[@HavaRamalho]

Your videos helps me A LOT to learn more about psychology/ psychiatry! You speak very clearly about this topic. Hi from Brazil!

[@mozhdehbesharatifar1999]

I had my first dissociations when i was a child at school, and it was really scary, i didn't know what to do and was unable to put it in words to tell my parents. Later as i got older, i just googled it exactly these terms (feeling reality is not real, not feeling reality) and finally could find a name for my experience, depersonalization, derealization. I have had episodes of dissociation (mainly for me derealization) throughout my life and still it happens but now i know what it is and try not to freak out.

[@whatsthestorymorningglory96]

I dissociate when emotions get too intense for my nervous system. I experience my dissociations as quite relieving and convenient in a way. It’s like being on drugs without the bad stuff that goes along with it. When I dissociate I don’t give a sh… about anything. This gives me some kind of freedom and autonomy which is pretty enjoyable to me.

[@kairisbeaumont]

As someone who has struggled with depression and anxiety and experienced significant proglonged episodes of depersonalization while I was self-harming in my teen years, I truly appreciate your discussion. I'm intrigued by the idea of dissociative amnesia. I have huge chunks of time missing from my childhood, and memories from my later years feel like they're stories I heard second-hand rather than experiences I actually lived. I always wondered if the memory gaps and distance were caused by medication or trauma or a blend of the two, but no one has ever mentioned dissocative amnesia as a possibilty (I'm wondering if it could be just based on my history of other dissociative symptoms). In any case, a great discussion and lots to think about as always!

[@TheVortexCollective]

thanx for not stepping and taking controversial takes on this, it's refreshing

[@soreavermeulen6203]

Also - in case you are worried about it - you don’t have to “remember everything to be able to fix it”. I have great swathes of my life I cannot remember and therapy helped even though a lot of it I simply cannot remember. 😊

[@meganwaters7772]

Nice to see you keeping on with the channel Dr Syl. Haven't dropped in for a while but enjoyable video as always, so close to 100k now!! I would be interested in a video on risks of long term benzodiazepine use vs. other anxiety medicines if you haven't already done one.

[@katc6128]

Thanks Dr Syl! I relate to this topic and is very timely in my life right now

[@p0std3]

I went all ears on you until 3min-ish when I started organizing my conversations for the upcoming family christmas evening🎄 😅

[@AliceSylph]

I have FND and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (functional seizures). My main triggers for a seizure is high stress (but usually after the "threat" has passed), overstimulation like bright lights, ill in some other way like a bad cold or migraine or infection, or I have tachycardia and my heart is going crazy. The main threats to me with it are drop seizing as I have very little internal warning (I have trained my dog to alert me a good 5 minutes before though), dislocations because of the movements as I have eds, and my heart beating too fast for too long. The way I explain it best is it's like a computer, imagine you open 25 tabs and have 3 programs running and you're also watching a video on it and working on a document; it gets to the point where the computer can't process all that information, so it blue screens and tries to restart. That's what my brain does, and in that shut down and restart I have a seizure as the brain is trying to regain control of itself. Worst thing about it is there isn't really any treatment. I can get treated for my pain, my heart beating too fast, muscle relaxants if it's been going on too long to stop the physical side of things, but the actual seizure in the brain we just have to wait it out and it can take over 24hrs before I'm able to fully move and talk and function again

[@patroy2691]

Thank you Dr. Syl! I’ve been “blessed” with DID, and it’s so wonderful to see a thoughtful explanation of dissociation by a professional. Kudos for the mention of the Benzo trap: sort of the one drug that’s magic for the disorder has such a gigantic back-end price the relief isn’t worth it. So interesting that Australia leads the way in clinical recognition and the development of treatment guidelines. Do you think it’s because of generational trauma from transportation and historical treatment of the indigenous? Here in the States there are still so many clinicians who still disbelieve in DID or are ignorant of how to treat it. 🙁

[@fixxundfertig]

Great video. Thanks for posting it. Very insightful.

[@betsywilliamsonms]

I have experienced trauma. About 2 months ago I experienced dissociative amnesia. I was driving when it happened. I wasn’t lost in thought. I remember the last thing I saw and thought. Then when I came back I didn’t know where I was. I had to check my map app. It was like a curtain was raised when I came back. It was freaky. This happened one other time when I was in 4th grade. I’m in my 40s now. I also experience depersonalization.

[@anatman6304]

Is the "freeze" response an example of dissociation?

[@alphadog3384]

Can medications cause you to be dissociative in mood or environmental factors? Would this be a different category for cause? Had to take steroid for asthma, (burst) completely lost track of what and when!

[@hucklejoseph6974]

For one of my psychotic breaks I was dissociating pretty bad for a month. I don't exactly know what was going on. I'm no expert, but the way I saw viewed it was my brain would shift into different keys like in music and my consciousness would shift like drugs. And It was like I had some thought disorder where I couldn't stop having conversations with myself. It took me everything I had to change how I thought, and break the pattern. It was pretty annoying.

[@J--V]

Derealization is so uncomfortable. It happens at work a lot, I work in a very stressful environment, and I will just be doing my work and not feeling like I actually am. It feels like I'm experiencing everything very slowly, like molasses, but it's actually in real time.

[@J--V]

It is very hard to describe in a way that makes sense and that truly captures the experience

[@goblin1226]

I struggle with really bad derealisation and depersonalisation. Do you by chance have some tips on how to get out of those states? I'm starting to lose all hope. I've talked to my psychiatrist and therapist about it. I sometimes get scared that there is something wrong neurologically, because it's so bad. I have a paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis and my psychiatrist already increased my antipsychotic dose in hopes that the dissociation may subside. So far it hasnt worked tho. I lost my dad very abruptly to a heart attack last year and a few months later the dissociation started. Pretty sure there is a correlation. I'm sorry for this long comment, but i'm really losing hope.

[@foolishlyfoolhardy6004]

Ah yeah. An antidepressant did this to me - I just watched my own body move around the world, and sensations were all delayed and fuzzy. I didn't even really know it was happening until it stopped. I think it was happening for the better part of a year. It's scary to think I probably drove like that at some point, I would never have forgiven myself if something happened. And I also really don't know how I passed university. Maybe I didn't, I can't remember. Got my degrees somehow 😅 Speaking of, I'm finally on an antidepressant that is working phenomenally (lucky number 11), and I've noticed how much better my memory/cognitive ability has gotten. I was really struggling, and topped off with an iron diffusion I'm working at full capacity again. Have you done a video on these less well know effects of depression? If not it would be interested to hear about some of the mechanisms/theories of why this kind of stuff occurs with MDD.

[@kierstymiller6305]

Hi Dr. Syl, DID has its controversies yes, however it is not as 'rare' as often thought with a prevalence of around 1 to 1.5 'worldwide'. Wild huh? ✌️

[@mattgrislis2815]

Ahh yeah, it's strange but I'm usually daydream very easily while in situations I shouldn't. Thanks again Dr Syl. Also Rens dropped new music.... Some of Jelly Rolls new songs are great too such as past yesterday with Skylar Grey

[@dmtdreamz7706]

You don't get it. It's just you. I'm you. I'm you talking to you. I will keep dissociating until you realize that your me and that i'm you. I don't have my own consciousness. I'm you. I'm a fragment of your consciousness. You imagined that I have my own consciousness for the purpose of fooling yourself into thinking that your not alone, that your not God.

[@mikokennoob5032]

I dissociate a lot, I just stare into space sometimes for an hour without realizing it's been an hour, just in the same place, almost everyday. It's like going inside a cloud or cotton where I am vaguely existing. I don't know how else to explain it. Just like vaguely existing. I also have social anxiety due to childhood trauma, and I am still waiting for my psychologist consult, but a doctor said I am diagnosed with social anxiety.

[@ArtyAntics]

Whenever someone talks about dissociative seizures and psychosis it makes me angry. They are very much different things. Dissociation is not a break with reality where we are suddenly convinced that a different reality is true. We know we are disconnected and or experiencing reality differently. If this wasn’t the case we wouldn’t be able to use reality to ground ourselves. The seizure thing is even more infuriating. Dissociation is a shutdown protective process, a seizure is extra electrical activity in the brain. Literal opposites, that sometimes look the same but are fundamentally different. I recently had my driving licence removed because doctors cant get this stuff right. It’s not good enough to say they don’t know the cause because we do, it is structural dissociation of the brain due to childhood trauma. The research is there they just refuse to see it because it is inconvenient.

[@DorothyInBedford]

❤❤❤

[@BrianaVaguirre]

Thank you for all your informative videos! Ps: You should react to “Joker” by Dax

[@kandymich4861]

I meet some with DID who is allergic to something (I forgot what it is) but her of identity [from DID] was not allergic to that thing. The body is odd. It can split your identity and also be allergic to something only in one identity and not the other.

[@foolishlyfoolhardy6004]

No. The body cannot work like that. They might have an aversion, some people label their aversions allergies just so no one tries to give it to them, and when they are dissociated the aversion is gone. But you cannot alternate between being allergic to something and then not, that really is not how the immune system works, and I cannot think of a possible mechanism that would allow that to be true. Other then I suppose intermittent rhinitis (hayfever basically), or perhaps Stress induces hives/urticaria. But please don't mess around with allergies. If someone says they're allergic, treat them like they're allergic even if they decide tell you they're not for whatever reason. Allergies are no joke.

[@kandymich4861]

@ I’m going off of what the person told me

[@foolishlyfoolhardy6004]

@@kandymich4861 yes, I believe you. And I really hope they don't have an allergy because it could be really dangerous if they had a dissociated identity that did not acknowledge that allergy, because you really can't switch between having an allergy and then not. You can grow out of some of them. That could potentially also be what's going on as well, it happens commonly with penicillin and people will believe they're still allergic when actually they're not anymore. Trust me, if allergies could be resolved through mental health care and treatments that would be great, but while stress associated with mental illnesses (and in general) can have significant effects on our immune system, one of those effects isn't really creating allergies only to have them resolve when you aren't stressed anymore.

[@BillEye6334]

​@foolishlyfoolhardy6004 The body absolutely can work like that. There are cases of altars having different allergies or none compared to another altar. A google search shows immediately. I've also read similar statements too, with one altar the eye color changed.

[@Juno3AM]

sorry, i dissociated when the intro started and then came back to reality when you started speaking again lol

[@Human_givenss]

God help me :3 all I do is maladaptive daydream.

[@Ehecatl1111]

Twelfth

[@emms44]

are you single?