What is Dissociation? Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment
May 15, 2023
Updated May 28, 2025
7 min read
Why do we sometimes feel like a passenger in our own body?
Written by Irina Neagu and Simon Spichak
Do you catch yourself zoning out all the time? Daydreaming? Lost in your thoughts and absent from any feelings? You might feel disconnected or dissociated from your mind and body. These dissociative experiences are difficult to navigate.
What is Dissociation?
Dissociation is an involuntary detachment from yourself and your surroundings. It disconnects you from your thoughts, memories, sense of identity, and environment. It can be a normal one-off occurrence.
For some people, dissociation is a bigger problem triggered by physical or emotional trauma. It can occur intermittently throughout the day. It becomes difficult to remain present or focus for a few minutes or hours. For some, it might last days or even weeks. Some develop a disorder with symptoms lasting years.
Treatment for dissociation is personalized depending on the cause of your symptoms. With the right combination of therapy, medications, and support, you can start to feel better.
What’s the difference between dissociation and disassociation?
Dissociation is a term used by mental health professionals to describe the experience of disconnecting from yourself and the world. The process of dissociation is involuntary and may be disruptive to your daily life.
Disassociation, on the other hand, is a voluntary process. It describes detaching or separating from a person, activity, or emotion. In some contexts, it can also be bad for your mental health.
What Causes Dissociation?
The exact cause of dissociation isn’t always clear. However, it can often affect people after they experience traumatic events. It may be an emotional reaction to feelings and experiences that are difficult to process and tolerate.
Risk factors and reasons you might dissociate
There are a number of risks and experiences that might make someone more likely to dissociate, including:
Age. For more than four in five individuals, dissociation occurs before age 20.
Recreational drug use. Ketamine, cannabis, cocaine, alcohol, and hallucinogens like “magic mushrooms” can cause dissociation.
Other mental health conditions. People with depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, migraines, and a host of other mental health conditions may be more likely to experience dissociation.
Trauma. This includes traumatic childhood experiences, war-time trauma, or trauma from natural disasters or other intense events.
What dissociation feels like
Dissociation sometimes feels like you are watching your body from a distance. It’s almost as if you’re controlling a video game character that is detached from yourself and your identity. It can also alter your perception of your surroundings.
Are you aware that you’re dissociating?
In most cases, people are not aware that they are dissociating, especially if it is caused by a dissociative disorder. They’ll only recognize they went through this disconnection after the out-of-body experience.
Can I stop or “snap out of” dissociation?
It may be difficult to snap out of dissociation on your own. However, there are some therapeutic approaches that a friend or loved one can help with.
Five senses is one such strategy. It involves asking the person experiencing a dissociative state to describe what each sense is currently experiencing. What can you hear right now? What do you see right now? What do you feel around you? What do you taste?
When the person experiencing the episode starts focusing on their sensations, it may bring them out of the dissociative state.
Signs and Symptoms of Dissociation
Since dissociation causes you to disconnect from your body and environment, you might start to notice gaps in your memory.
Other common symptoms include:
Feeling like the physical world isn’t real
Feeling like you aren’t real
Believing you’ve left your body and are observing yourself from third-person
Feeling like a completely different person
Increased heart rate
Lightheadedness
Feeling detached, emotionally numb, and having trouble with concentration
Feeling less pain than usual
Altered sense of time
Realizing you don’t remember how you got to a location
Tunnel vision
Immobility
Hearing voices in your head
Becoming absorbed in your own world or zoning out
The disorientation caused by these symptoms could lead to anxiety or depression
Common Types of Dissociation
There are many different manifestations of dissociation, which include:
Dissociative Amnesia. After intense emotional or physical trauma or suffering, people may experience forgetfulness. This amnesia can last anywhere from minutes, hours, to days. Disconnecting from these events may be the brain’s way of coping with the stress.
Depersonalization Disorder. This condition makes people feel like they aren’t in control of their own body. They can watch the emotions and actions take place but don’t feel like they are present.
Dissociative Identity Disorder. People with this rare condition feel like they have multiple identities. Each one has its own personality and mannerisms. It affects roughly one in every 300 people. These identities function independently of each other. Switching causes people to temporarily “zone out.”
Can I dissociate without having a dissociation disorder?
Some people experience dissociation without having a dissociation disorder. These experiences are brought on by recreational drug use or conditions like epilepsy or depression.
How Are Dissociative Disorders Treated?
The treatment for dissociative disorders and conditions is personalized, often involving some form of therapy and sometimes medications. The goal is to make sure you’re better equipped to cope with the trauma.
Here are some common modalities of treatment:
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This form of talk therapy helps people talk through their feelings and better understand the underlying causes of their condition. A therapist can help someone develop a set of cognitive skills and coping tools to help them better deal with their trauma.
Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). This form of talk therapy helps people learn new skills to cope with stress, manage emotions, and improve relationships. It is useful for treating some conditions, like depression, that may cause dissociation.
Exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. This form of therapy is designed for OCD but can also help process trauma. It involves progressively exposing someone to events and stimuli that trigger anxiety and stress in a safe setting, to desensitize the brain.
Medications. There are no specific medications for dissociative disorders. However, people may be prescribed antidepressants (Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac) or antianxiety drugs (Xanax) to help cope with symptoms and adjacent conditions like depression and panic attacks.
Finding Support After Trauma
We can’t prevent stressful or traumatic events that might trigger these disorders from happening. But we can control how we respond to the challenges life throws our way.
Finding a sense of community and a peer you can speak with alleviates some of the burden. A strong network of social support can uplift you and also help you avoid triggers and unhealthy relationships. Friends, family, or even doctors can help us get the tools we need to maintain healthy connections and develop proper coping skills.
Takeaways
Struggling to regain control and stay present within yourself is not something to be ashamed of. Difficult and upsetting experiences happen to us all, but they don't have to define us.
These experiences don't have to derail your life. They don't need to make you feel like you have no control over your actions. Resolvve provides low-cost therapy options that could help. If you’re ready to make the next step, book a free consultation today.
**Please note, this article is not therapy or a replacement for it. Engaging with it does not constitute a therapeutic relationship of any kind with the writer. Please seek professional help if needed.**
