Dissociation
Dissociation is a mental process which produces a lack of connections in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, and sense of identity. During the period of time when a person is dissociating, some information is not associated with other information as it normally would be. For example, during a traumatic experience, a person may dissociate the memory of the place and circumstances of the trauma from their ongoing memory, resulting in a temporary mental escape from the fear and pain of the trauma and, in some cases, a memory gap surrounding the experience. Because this process can produce changes in memory, people who frequently dissociate often find their senses of personal history and identity are affected.
When confronted by an overwhelmingly traumatic situation from which there is no physical escape, a child may resort to ‘going away’ in his or her head. Children use this technique as an extremely effective defence against acute emotional and/or physical pain. By this dissociative process, thoughts, feelings, memories and perceptions of the traumatic experience can be separated psychologically, allowing the child to function as if the trauma had not occurred.
Dissociative disorders are highly creative survival techniques because they allow individuals enduring hopeless circumstances to preserve some areas of healthy functioning. However, when a child has been subjected to repetitive physical, emotional or sexual assaults over an extended period of time, defensive dissociation becomes reinforced and conditioned. The dissociative escape is so effective, the child who is practiced at it may automatically use it whenever they feel anxious, frightened or threatened, even if the anxiety-producing situation is not abusive. In an adult who has experienced this dissociation becomes part of their fabric. This causes difficulties in present life and living and can often result in feelings of not being really present, in unaccounted losses of time, in sudden eruptions of unexpected and overwhelming feelings disproportionate to the present situation.
People often wonder if there is any cure for these experiences. Yes there is! Dissociative Identity Disorders are responsive to individual psychotherapy although the course of treatment may be long term, intensive and at times painful as it involves remembering and reclaiming the traumatic experiences and the part of the self that was dissociated by that experience.
