Disassociation

Dissociation, often spelled disassociation, is a disconnection between your thoughts, feelings, memories, sense of self or surroundings. It runs from everyday zoning out to feeling unreal, watching yourself from outside, or losing stretches of time. It’s a common response to stress and trauma, and at the severe end it’s part of the dissociative disorders.

Also called: zoning out; depersonalisation (detached from yourself) and derealisation (the world looks unreal). A “notice of disassociation” in business or law is unrelated.

This is a short definition. Our fuller guide, Dissociation: Feeling Unreal or Far Away, covers what it feels like, why it happens and when it needs treating.

Signs and symptoms

Watching yourself from outside, or your hands and voice not feeling like yours
The world looking flat, foggy or fake, as if behind glass
Arriving somewhere with no memory of the journey; conversations you can’t recall
Feeling nothing when you should feel something

Brief episodes are common: in surveys, between a quarter and three quarters of people have felt detached or unreal at some point, most often during a traumatic event. About 1 to 2 in 100 have it badly enough to count as a disorder.

Causes

Switching off during something overwhelming is a normal defence. It becomes a problem when it continues after the danger has passed, or starts under ordinary stress. Common contexts: trauma, especially early or repeated; panic attacks; exhaustion; depression; cannabis; early grief.

Types

The dissociative disorders are depersonalisation-derealisation disorder, dissociative amnesia (which includes fugue) and dissociative identity disorder.

In Nigeria

Feeling unreal or outside your body is often given a spiritual explanation first. Faith and treatment aren’t opposed, but dissociation has a psychological explanation and a treatment.

Dissociation vs psychosis

With dissociation you know it’s happening and that the world is real; it just doesn’t feel real. In psychosis, the person usually can’t tell that what they hear or believe isn’t real.

When to get help

Dissociative disorders often go with self-harm. If you’ve hurt yourself or are thinking of ending your life, get help now: call 112 (or 767 in Lagos), or Safe Place Nigeria on 0800 800 2000. The full list is on our helplines page.

See a therapist if episodes are frequent, last hours, cost you time, began after a trauma, or come with flashbacks. Talking therapy is the treatment, and many people recover fully. You can book a licensed therapist on Mytherapist.ng who works with trauma and PTSD. In the moment, name five things you can see and press your feet into the floor.