Known to ‘Zone Out’? The Dangers of Dissociation

I had a driving test, at first I was extremely nervous and could seem to settle my nerves with breathing techniques, I started convincing myself I had already failed, then straight after a tricky manouver I zoned out and right before a round about with 2 cars turning right, my examener had to put the brake on me actually failing, I told him I convinced myself I had failed and he told me I hadn’t. But it was the zoning out that got me worried.

Hey i have a problem zoning out alot and sometimes not realizing that i did sometimes i see something like visions and alot of times its blank. I always feel numb emotionally. My gf worries cause i zone out alot in a very short time period like im in a trance. She said i zoned out for mins at a time and she has a hard time snappin me out of it. Is there a way i can get control of it?

I have major moments that I do not remember. Like my sister says I was there for the birth of her 3rd child. I don’t remember it at all. No matter how hard I try. When my family talks to me I tend to zone out. There have been moments where I have been on such a euphoric high its like I am completely and uncontrollably drunk and don’t remember all the details. I have had sex and not remembered.

Unfortunately the term can be vague unless you clearly and obviously check out, or do something out of the ordinary when conflict arises.

The phrase “zoning out” isn’t appropriate in my opinion, and it could be easily confused with having alot on your mind, lack of brain nutrients, problems with sleep which are more likely the issues.

I am under pressure at work.
The other day, at my desk, I would be working, and then drift off. When I “awoke” it was as though I was “coming to”. Only to find my coworker puzzled…handing me a stack of papers saying she didn’t know what to do with them. Then she told me I got up from my desk, stood in front of her desk, shuffled her papers, then handed her mine saying she needed to do the work. I have no memory of this what so ever.
Later, I was on the phone with tech support. I don’t remember any of what was said until just before hanging up I said Thank you.

I was taken to the hospital,heart and brain checked out. Discharged with orders to rest for a couple of days of returning to work. I’m kind of freaking out here.

I feel zoned out most of the day, I have been to work but felt like I was in a daze all day by the end of the day I couldn’t bring myself to talk to any of my colleagues and when then spoke to me I just stared at them but couldn’t really understand what they were saying . I feel like I’m going a bit crazy

I went through someone really hard as a child/ teen and I went to therapy for it. I was doing better but I’ve been noticing that I’m getting more anxious and nervous lately and I’ve been zoning out a lot. When I was in school I would to tend to zone out a lot therefore leading me to be behind in most of my classes and my grades to drop. Now that I’m driving and am taking driving school I notice that I’ll be doing a good job and have no problem focusing but out of nowhere without me noticing I zone out leading into me either almost running a red light or almost hitting something. I’ve also started to get the habit of peeling my skin off from my fingers and shaking my legs a lot. I would like to know what I can do to help me not zone out that much that way I can become a better driver and not as anxious anymore.

When i was in the 4th grade both of parents passed away in 5-6 months. First my dad then my mom. After that i did lots of moving from state to state living with different family members. I am currently 14 years old and i find myself to zone way to much. I cant seem to concentrate in class i just sit there thinking about absolutely nothing and don’t realize it until there is commotion or a lot of movement in the classroom. When i get home i cant concentrate on doing my homework i kind of just sit on my bed for hours just staring into space. I also get frustrated very easily and when i do get frustrated it normally ends up in me crying. I was looking into why these things happen and i was wondering if it sounds like i have dissociation. As i was reading this article i realized i had quite a few of the symptoms. But i am only 14 years old

Hi I “zone” out in class all the time. I tried useing music to stay focussed, but that stopped working, then I turned to drawing, but it’s not working anymore. I’ve tried explaining to my mother that I can’t controll it, and I’m trying, but she just say’s that I’m allowing it, and need to stop. She won’t get the help I need, because she says it’s all fake. What do I do?

Hey, I was just wondering how common it is. I zone out quite a bit but nothing too serious, every other day I won’t zone out but I feel as if I’m watching myself go through moments. If I’m walking down the street I might zone out and just start believing that I’m watching/thinking about walking down the street. It usually takes me five or so minutes before I realise I’m actually in life, I guess? It doesn’t happen so much that it’s going to jeorodise my education or ruin my life or anything, I just wanted to know how common it was. Thank you for your time x

I space out sometimes, almost everyday, i dont think about anything, just a long hard stare at the wall. My boyfriend tries to get me out of it but he has to touch me or get in front of my line of vision because i dont hear him calling my name right next to me. I sometimes do the same thing when i wake up only i dont know where i am and have a goal of trying to figure it out looking out windows and trying to recall my memory of ever being there, and like staring at a wall it takes a lot to get me out of that trance.

Hi I am not sure if I have asked this question in the past or not so I will say sorry for repeating myself if I have. I read about dissociation on your website and was wondering does it have to be linked to something that happened in childhood or can it happen for the first time to an adult who went through a stressful experience in adulthood? Hope that makes sense

I zone out all the time, even when driving the car. I almost reared ended someone once but at the last second I snapped back and hit the brakes. I am really over it. I had a rough childhood/teenage years – never really felt with it and never fit in anywhere at school, or home really.

My adult life isn’t much different. Sometimes I can feel great and the day flows really well and I don’t forget anything and have a good day…That only occurs 1 out of 100 times. Every other day is the same. Exhaustion, Zoning out constantly, overthinking and under-achieving, lack of motivation in my work and in my hobbies, and no drive to try something new or push myself in a new direction. I really need some help don’t you think?

Hi, I grew up a happy child and had great parents, my childhood was normal and thankfully without major losses or traumas. But I still have zone out, compared to my sibling I don’t remember much about my childhood not even events and trips that lasted for weeks. and I tend to zone out a lot when I’m around people but lately it started to affect my work, apparently I skip entire conversations and important details. So how do I deal with this? because even though all the reasons mentioned in the article are logical but never applied in my case.

I wasn’t really sure if my ‘zoning out’ was a symptom of my ADHD or not. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child but I also had a pretty difficult childhood growing up, separate from the whole ADHD issue, (and I am certain that I have some form of phobia to yelling now too) but I’m pretty sure I had always had a zoning out problem, even when I was really little? Anyways, now that I’m older, I tend to zone out of conversations all the time, without any memory that I had participated in them, and I also zone out while I’m driving a lot too. My job is pretty high stress and I have to constantly check with people to make sure I heard them right before continuing with a task I was given because I have zoned out when my coworkers have spoken to me before. Should I consider it a form of dissociation? Or am I just over thinking things?

I think i have been suffering from this “zoning out ” since i was 9. I am 16 now but still at times i find myself looking at a person and realizing i cant hear or process anything they are saying.Sometimes when i am in the middle of sentence ,i stop short suddenly and just stare absentmindedly.Later people tell me what i did otherwise i cant remember at all. I did suffer from sexual harassment and abuse when i was small.I alse take a lot of time to complete something that is quite easy.I have a hard time concentrating as well.Is this dissociation or something normal?

Since I was about 10 years old, I started to hold my breath where I do completely zone out. Typically tilt my head to the left, place my fingers on my neck and hold my breath. I can’t see anything and my hands will twitch or make weird movements – it will last for 20 seconds or so. If someone talks to me I am unresponsive even though my eyes are open and snap out of it. In school I didn’t have the control to control when I do it, it just felt necessary. Moving into some college, I trained myself never do it in front of people and only sitting down. If i do this standing up, most likely I would fall. I am 31 and suffer from a lot of anxiety from different places in my life. I also do this about 10-20 times a day depending on my activities. I have never met anyone nor have doctors ever defined it. It’s intentional, but not in an OCD type of way.

I have a husband who is under a lot of stress with his work. He is not happy about it.
One day he came to my bedroom and tried to strangle me and I almost got killed if i didn’t defend myself. I wasn’t talking to him for few days because i was so shocked and angry.
Last night we talked about it and he doesn’t remember the whole day incident.
Is he having problem with his brain or is it due to too much stress. He could not believe what he did to me other day.
Now I am really worried. what should we do about this? Do you think he needs to see a therapist?

I’m really struggling with zoning out. I feel like I’m just going through the motions and always in a battle with myself to stop zoning out. It’s like I’m on autopilot and I’m just a body, as my mind is somewhere else vaguely worrying or not really thinking anything. I’m so tense all the time, I get angry at myself for being in this state so often. I feel scared to be around people in case they notice or I shut down and can’t respond in the way I need to. I’m getting worried about driving as well, when I zone out and I almost feel a bit reckless like I know I’m not fully paying attention but I can’t stop and let it happen.

I’m not sure if this is me or not. I check out for all the symptoms but it seems like my entire life is on autopilot instead of just zoning out here and there. (There was a scary moment when I was driving but the speed limit was 25mph so it wasn’t too scary but a bad sign that I zoned out behind the wheel. I’m already a teen driver this is just what I need!) I’ll just be day dreaming constantly and even now my head feels foggy but I’m still obviously in control for this. I look at my schoolwork and I know it’s easy, I’ve gotten months of work done in only a few days before, but I try to read it and my brain shuts down and suddenly hours have gone by. I was conscious the whole time just not getting any of it. I found out last year that my family religion is actually a cult and since I can’t remember anything or dates and sometimes say something happened a long time ago when really it was just last week or something was recent but it was months ago, a friend online who has been helping me with coping that I’m not going to die in Armageddon said I might have disassociated myself (its pretty common actually) and that’s why I can’t remember names, faces, times, places. It’s all random of what I can and can’t remember. Most of my memory is gone when it pertains to my family, or things brought on or affected by the religion aka everything. And it effects my schoolwork too and family life which is a problem because I have to pretend I believe in this cult for another year so that I don’t depress my mom. (She’s got depression and has tried to commit suicide multiple times since I was 3 over much smaller things than her last chance at being a successful parent leaving her religion aka believing her living child is dead) of course, it’s not all bad. I still remember lyrics to weird al songs and can recite lines from cartoons with my brother with perfect memory! Things like being at school before I went homeschool I can remember quite well, albeit mostly memories of how stressed I was because I’m not allowed to be friends with worldly kids unless they want to listen to me preach. I also have great humor about this and now that I seem to have all the bugs in the system identified I just need to figure out how to get my brain working like it should be… I’m smart enough to get this far as a 17 year old, I should be able to do my friggin homework. So far my memory has improved after I stopped beliving in my religions strict rules and I’m trying to stop isolating myself, but schoolwork and social gatherings still have me in outer space. Is it disassociation? Or something else? I really need to solve this because until I can focus on school and driving I can’t get a job and without a job I can’t be independent. I’m a Jehovah’s Witness btw.

Having been diagnosed with dissociation, my husband is awaiting an appointment to see a psychologist to gradually explore his childhood traumas. I believe he possibly has ptsd too as he is easily startled (he is a retired Police Officer), I also thought that dissociation was a sub-category,
but the psychologist disagreed as he doesn’t have flash-backs. The severity of his dissociation has increased to the detriment of our relationship as well as that of the family. I can leave a room & when I return he’s briefly dissociated; conversation is nigh on impossible. His diagnosis has taken years as no one would believe me & professionals thought it was anxiety; consequently I have read just about everything published on the subject & have noticed so many articles speak about ‘grounding’. Over the years I have tried all sorts of techniques to help my husband, but he doesn’t actually realise when he’s dissociating & also doesn’t believe me when I tell him – going as far as to imply I’m lying. This is what causes most of the arguments & puts enormous pressure on me. My issue though is ‘grounding doesn’t work for him, so how do I deal with this when he doesn’t know or accept that he’s dissociated?

My wife zones out a lot. Once she was walking home blindly and almost got run over. There are times when friends are talking to her and she blocks out and sometimes starts crying when her friends are joking around and laughing. I have been seeing this since she was in 8th grade, but it seems as if it is getting worse. What should I do?

My traumatic experience, my son died seven years ago in an accident at home. Earlier this year, around his birthday, which is the hardest time of the year for me, I thought my client was going to say something about the death of my son, at HER court hearing. I couldn’t handle it. I was supposed to testify at the time and my brain shut down. Since then I’ve had several episodes of what I would call kind of “spacing out” when stressed, but not in the sense of ADD, it’s like my brain’s trying to escape and I don’t feel grounded. That can happen right at my desk, but the worse part is when I have to speak publicly, like at a meeting, or court, my brain wants to do the whole shit down thing—voice & breathing restriction, blood pressure slows, (I think), and sick to my stomach when I’m really trying to fight it. From looking things up, I’ve wondered about addrenal fatigue—or maybe PMDD, because it’s worse then it seems. I think all of it seems to be related to fight or flight, along with PTSD, because I have the jumpiness at night when I wake up and can’t get back to sleep. Also, any research on long term effects of the drug that’s in Benadryl, that could be related? I’ve been using that to help me sleep a few times a week the last seven years. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

I zone out, forget things, and miss details on a regular basis. I feel like I’m in a fog or on autopilot a lot of the time. I constantly feel like an idiot. Today I even ran a red light. A SOLID red light. In my hometown where I know my way around. I was reading a sign on a billboard and… I don’t even know where my head was. Naturally, I tried to be extra focused on my driving all the way home. After having a close call, this would normally be easy. This time, it wasn’t for some reason. I’ve had this problem to some degree all my life, but it’s gotten worse throughout the years. My husband thinks I have ADD, which could be true, as it is similar to this. I didn’t have a perfect childhood. I had depression, few friends, and the way my mom treated me would probably qualify as emotionally abusive at times. It wasn’t what I would call a “bad” childhood though. I wasn’t traumatized or physically abused or anything. I’d like to go to counseling, but my insurance doesn’t cover that, and there’s no way I can afford it.

Hi just read this information. I find myself with tired mind, no thoughts, just heavy. My body has energy, I find my self existing just quiet. I am a survivor of childhood sexual, mental, emotional, physical abuse. Was on the street since I was 12. Heroin addict and my mind feels like I am high. I have been clean 27 years. I also experience colors brighter and leaves on trees animated. I know to just sit still. Its happening more often the older I get. I have a new psychologist she is young and I at times feel as if I am talking but not heard. I am sure I am but just my thinking. This article had information that was simple and helpful. I just want to learn to walk through it without meds. Thank you for the info and everyone who shared!

Hey, I don’t just zone out when something is wrong. I always do it. I could be in the middle of a sentence and just zone out and stop talking. Today I almost zoned out while at the mall, not thinking about where I was going. Luckily my cousin started talking to me and brought me back to reality. I’ve always zoned out a little bit. But now I’ve been real stressed so now I zone out a lot more.

hi there, I have been diagnosed as having ptsd from childhood. as time goes on im finding that I zone out quite a bit. when stressed. im a musician and sometimes when I feel stress, I zone out duing the event as im playing im still playing but ignoring the other musicians, the have brought that to my attention. more recently, my new girlfriend notices that I zone out during kissing. now that I look back on my life I can see that when things get stressful , I do zone out. I have been through also of trauma as an adult as well. my ex husband, father of my children tried to commit suicide in front of me , both of our children also tried to commit suicide. any suggestions, ive been to a psychiatrist who says I have ptsd but dont see them regularily..

I didnt have the most normal of childhoods when i was younger. My dad left when i was a toddler and I have experienced my mum in both physical and emotional abusive relationships. I was bullied extremely and spent allot of time moving houses and schools and i was extremely down as a child.
I was always described as a day dreamer throughout school and college and was told that i would just zone out and be completely vacant. What i find strange now is that my life is going great I have a great job and a beautiful girlfriend but I find myself quite frequently zoning out and having periods of feeling numb, its getting more serious. The other day i was driving home and i managed to zone out by the time i zoned back in I had already rear-ended another car. luckily everyone was okay and im in the process of sorting out my insurance. Im just at a loss as what to do. I dont have time in my everyday life for therapy but i can go on feeling numb and zoning out all the time.

I was diagnosed with fugue states over twenty years ago, dissociation is a new term for me but makes more sense. I didn’t at the time have any help in how to deal with what was happening. It wasn’t explained to me that it was triggered by stress and anxiety, therfore nobody helped me deal with things differently. I never saw anyone with any knowledge of the condition, I always had to try and explain it to them!
I suffered childhood abuse and if this is the cause then after all this time I don’t think it’s fixable. There is no way I am prepared to see a psychologist now to dig all that back up again and run the risk of it creating even more dissociative states.
So my question is, does it actually matter if the person experiencing the condition isn’t wanting to resolve it anymore? It’s being managed and monitored and that’s the best I can do. I can’t face dealing with it. It feels too late to be resolved.

Hey, first of all I admit that I do need help but the think the issue is ‘help with what’ most of the time in class, with my friends, at home I usually zone out and I start thinking about something else maybe something I should have said or done but didn’t and I start up a conversation in my head with d person then I say it to them and I form a response but I’ll still be bothered and when I see the person I won’t be able to say how I really feel or point out what I think hurt me and even if I do(rarely) I end up crying and my chest then hurt. I like to say that I’m a strong and can’t be intimidated but most times if I have something to say to someone it just pops in my head but I say something else and I end up bottling it up because I feel it might hurt them or they might judge me. I don’t think i have a shady childhood but I do know that am used to keeping things to myself because what I say or how I feel never matters, and they always told me how to act and what I’m might to do and not. Am not allowed to talk back and my opinion is always wrong to people. It’s just like no one sees me like am just living in a different world hoping to meet someone who understands and sees me. Most nights I cry my self to sleep because no one to talk to that really understands me that’s why all I do when am in a tight situation is just to cry and never talk about it but its still in my heart but good news is that am learning to forgive people its still a work in progress. Most times I feel like I’ll die of loneliness, I stopped hanging out cos I always see me self in a negative way and I always talk with in my head and sometimes say it out loud , I just zone out of life a lot. Please I will really appreciate it if you can help this is my first time saying this and I really wish I could find out what my real issue is because its affecting my whole life in general

Hi first of all, i can’t thank you enough for replying, I almost thought u wouldn’t. But nope there isn’t someone I know of that’ll understand me or even listen. Well maybe I haven’t tried but from judging from my previous school its total a bad idea. Uhmm the thing is that psychological therapy isn’t taken serious in my country, i mean i havent heard of one. Which brings me here, think you can still help?

When I “zone out” i typically have a hard time focusing on the outside world even though I can still hear and see everything. If I zone out in a serious conversation with my boyfriend I can hear him but I never have an immediate answer because I cant think of anything to say or how I feel. When I zone out I usually get super tired and yawn a lot, feeling like all I want to do is sleep. Other times when I zone out my eyes will lock on something without me focusing but i cant turn away unless I really think about turning. My mind is always blank though.

Hi. My names Ann. I’m 17 years old and I’m worried. I’ve been zoning out since I was a child and for the past 2 years it seems I’ve been zoning out way more then usual (about 13 times a day) I wasn’t so worried about it because I didn’t think zoning out could be a bad thing until I was sitting in the car and zoned out while looking out the window to the clouds and I just saw the home I was raised in from when I was 5 to 11. The sun was shining bright like it was the middle of a summer day but then I walked inside the door of the house I was raised in and all of a sudden the sun just went away and it was pitch black, not a star in sight. It felt like my whole world fell apart, I hear my parents yelling, my mom yelling for help and all of a sudden I couldn’t move, I couldn’t go help my mom. Then it was like I was in the future about 2028. It seemed to be I had no where left to go. You see I’ve been failing high school since last year (my freshman year) and everytime and I zone out in class a lot so I thought homeschooling would be good for me but I started suffering depression in 8th grade and recently it’s felt like it’s not there until I go to sleep. But on to the other zoning out thoughts. I failed high school, my boyfriend left me, and my family hated me. And I just came back to reality. And started searching for something that’ll help me realize what’s going on.

I zone out all the time. People often comment about the glazed look in my eyes and know not to talk to me when I’m like this. People have had full blown conversations with me and I’ve not realised. Thankfully all my friends just accept me like this and tend to find it funny. I am also an extremely jumpy person. My partner often asks me why I’m jumping or flinching. I have been through stuff and think this is a reaction to that. It would be nice to engage better with people.

Do I have this? I’m a teenager with a period, and I switched to online school this year after a year of normal high school. Some mornings I feel fine, but I’m not the computer for a few minutes and I get all odd feeling again. I feel like I’m watching a movie most of the time, to the point where I can’t remember what I was just asked to do (clean the cat’s litter box) and have to be reminded a few times. I also stress clean. When my grandma passed away a few years ago after Alzheimer’s I cried for 5 minutes tops and then (since I went and sat in the car) I read a car mauel. I was fine. I visited her a lot, towards the end, with my dad in the nursing home, made sure her sheets were clean, etc. I cry when a close family friend dies, but then the feeling goes away in a few days. I haven’t gone through anything that I would say was bad or horrible, just stress. I pull almost straight A’s in school, and I volunteer at an elementary school a few times a month. I can spend a whole 8 plus hours on the computer and get two assignments done some days. Finally downloaded two apps to track where I spend my time and to lock my browser down. This movie experience seems like it’s gotten worse this semester – my dad and I cleaned a friend’s wound (skin graft, stitches, etc. No gore) with no difficulty. Never felt sick or icked out, and his wife was having a difficult time with it. I run calls on the fire department, nothing crazy, just a broken leg, heart issues, dog bite, closed head trauma (no gore). Doesn’t bother me. I just worry about getting in folk’s way or doing something dumb. I usually cry at least twice in the week or two weeks prior to my period and I argue with my brother a lot (PMS or no PMS). I just feel like I’m stuck in a movie and if I mess up too bad, everybody will “reset” themselves to redo the scene. I eat well, and am in good physical condition. I saw my GP the other day, all seemed normal. Is it ADD? Weird PMS? Lack of nutrients? Just a teenager brain? Am I just a shallow person?

Hi, i noticed i have been packed with work (and being a junior i know it is normal) but my stress is at a all time high! Four project due in one week….FROM ONE CLASS!! I notice that i zone out when i speak or after i speak. My vision seems to get foggy or i stare off on something, if feels comfortable and i want to stay that way but i feel like i look weird so i force myself to stop staring into space. EVEN AS I TYPE IM SPACING OUT ON THE LETTER T.

i have a habit of hearing only key words and replying accordingly, without any link like how, why, when or where, its just like some topics name….and then i start telling stuff about it, just to get involved in the conversation.

Hi, I don’t know if I have this, kind of just stumbling on the internet for what it could before I really want to spend the money to see a doctor. I sort zone-out but I realize when I’m doing it and try to snap myself out but it’s getting harder to do that, it seems like I have no control over my own conscious. I had a traumatic childhood which has sort of haunted me all my life. So the stress is definitely there. I also have been getting really aggressive and angry towards all myself, friends, and family when I really don’t mean it. I just don’t think as sensitivity lately. I also seem to “talk” to myself but it feels like its not me… It’s like a verbal voice I can’t control.

I’m 14 and I grew up in a very abusive home with no father and my mom Is CRAAZZZYYY i was at a friends house when it happened and her and her mom got into a slight argument and I just felt like I went out I was looking at myself from the outside my friend said that I was even responding to a yes or no question after a few seconds and I only heard mumbling in the background where gthe fight was happening my mon always says I have these crazy diagnosis even when I dont when I was 6-7 I was put on extreme medication that basically zombified me and eventually gave me voices she would always say around me this kids so crazy one day she might even burn down this house with everyone in it most of my problems are situational and I almost feel like shes putting these problems on me so she doesn’t have to focus on her own also shes so 2 faced in front of normal people shes a amazing mom of 2 mentally I’ll kids who works and goes to school and her life is so hard when behind closed doors shes actually abusive and treats me and my sister as slaves I’m only 14 but I feel like im 18 the things I have gone through no one will know how they feel til their 60 if you have any advice from someone a bit older please tell me also do you know if this could be dissociation?

Hi. To the outside world I seem like I’m really easy going and relaxed, but in reality I fear that this is just a way of coping with the fact that I don’t really know who I am. I would like to be somebody that can distinguish like from disklike but I often am not in touch with my feelings enough to know. For example my family is going through a big change at the moment, I’ve been saying I’m fine (as I always do) for months, then the other day somebody asked me and it was as if somebody pushed a button and I was crying uncontrollable, but before that I didn’t even know I was sad. I have a huge fear of losing touch with my self and spend so much of my time obsessing over this, whether what I am doing is authentic and ‘me’. It can be really tiring. I also find it extremely difficult to wake up in the morning, I think I feel overwhelmed by the day ahead and prefer to play out situations in sort of controlled dream-like state (I then get frustrated with myself when I do finally wake up because I have wasted the day and feel horrible and lazy). I am 21 by the way.

Another thing is that I sometimes struggle to speak and get mind blanks, particularly when talking to more than one person- like if im talking to a small group or table, I will suddenly freeze and not be able to speak/act naturally, which often results in me going bright red, even when im not really that embarrassed, its just like an automatic reaction that I can’t control. I don’t know, its like that part contradicts a lot of the detachment I feel, its like im suddenly hyper-sensitive.

I came across this article/website and instantly related. In my most recent relationship, a few times now where we have had a disagreement (normally over something quite small) I then somehow find myself thinking how did it get to here? It feels almost as if it’s gone from 0 to 100 & I have no idea how, I don’t remember things I’ve said until my partner reminds me & then I realise I was in the wrong. I had a great childhood but I did have an emorinally abusive relationship previously, could this be why?

Wow. I suspected that I might be struggling wth dissociation but didn’t want to self-diagnose too quickly so I’ve been going through lots of readings on the subject and this is by far the best article I’ve come across. It’s clear, concise, informative and a near perfect description of my experience, which is a bit scary to be honest.

I’ve taken quite a bit of time to observe my patterns overall and I’ve noticed this dissociated state is generally triggered by feelings of overwhelm, shame, loneliness / disconnection or fear.

What tends to happen when I slip into this state is that I have this very strong need to be distracted with YouTube/Netflix etc. as well as play a game on my phone at the same time because just 1 of them isn’t enough. I isolate myself, stop replying to messages from friends/family and it’s almost as if I lose access to my social skills because my ability to have a conversation goes down the drain; I can’t think clearly, critically or make associations at all (the inability to make associations hurts the most because I lose my wit and cannot participate in banter whatsoever). I get tunnel vision and sometimes my vision will get blurry — as if it’s easier for my eyes to slip into a blurry vision state and it takes more effort to refocus to seeing clearly. In general, I don’t wear glasses and have no eyesight issues; I just have this ability to make my eyes “change focus” similar to using a DSLR camera. I start to avoid eating and generally only eat what requires almost no thought or preparation (aka unhealthy processed snacks, frozen dinners, ordering delivery etc.). My memory goes out the window and it becomes very difficult to remember what my priorities, goals or even daily tasks are, I have a hard time remembering the names of things (e.g. a water jug or an oven) and who the people I have in my life that I can lean on (like friends and family). Learning / retaining information becomes incredibly difficult, I stop exercising completely and end up rotting in bed / on my couch / in my office chair, my breathing becomes shallow, I become afraid of interacting with people around me and quite often feel very jumpy around others. Overall, I just ended up wasting hours, days, weeks on end doing nothing while being zoned out.

Over time, I’ve observed that certain life events that could’ve played a contributing role:
— Growing up around verbally / emotionally abusive narcissists (did not know what a narcissist was until my old therapist asked me to observe my environment generally to identify my triggers. When I presented her with my recordings, she was shocked because I never mentioned them because I didn’t see anything wrong with how they treated me. I thought that was normal). I’ve cut them out of my life now but there were in my life from the time I was born to age 24.

— Moving to a city 2 hours away half way through high school. I was terrified of meeting new people despite wanting to connect with others so badly. This resulted in a significant increase of avoidance behaviours, loneliness and not making many friends, which was a new experience for me because I’d always had lots of friends prior to this moment in my life. Also, one of the most painful things was that I felt largely rejected by my old group of friends (out of a group of about 30, only 2-3 stayed in touch). When I’d go back to visit, a loud minority in the group would tell me that I don’t belong with them, to go back to my new city and that I’m not part of the group anymore, stop trying to be but obviously in a much less pleasant way. This went on for a few years because I didn’t want to break off from the group but the separation from this group of old friends caused me a few years of emotional pain. Also, not having anybody I could talk to at this stage in my life wasn’t helpful either (couldn’t trust family friends as they were the narcissists, couldn’t tell my old school friends that I was struggling to make friends at the new school because of my ego and was unable to talk to my parents or my sibling because our relationship at the time was pretty bad. We didn’t have any other family around us nor did I have any other family members overseas that I had a close connection with.

— Going to a university where I knew nobody. I made a few friends but largely, the loneliness and isolation and feelings of not belonging became more chronic, and anxiety + depression took over.

— My first job out of university which I’m still in 2.5 years later has been a big source of being excluded and not feeling like I belong on a daily basis. The environment isn’t toxic, the people are kind people, but I’ve played a big role in ruining this environment for myself by being socially awkward due to being in a dissociated state, excluding myself so I could avoid feeling rejected and other unhelpful behaviours. Lacking a core group of friends both in my personal life and work life has had serious impacts on my career progression.

Connecting with others is something I’ve noticed that can reliably get me out of a dissociated state, into the present moment and back to being my outgoing, social, witty, intelligent, high performing, productive, healthier (physically and mentally) self.

However, putting myself in situations that allow me to experience connection (i.e. not isolating myself) and being in a positive enough state of mind so that I can have regular conversations that aren’t negative, depressing or socially awkward/repelling in some way has been a major struggle over the past decade. I’ve succeeded in pushing through in moments here and there but not consistently.

I’ve been through group and 1:1 therapy where I’ve made loads of progress in other areas but haven’t been able to solve this dissociation problem yet. At the moment, I’m looking at EMDR therapy in hopes of solving this issue — what are you thoughts around EMDR and my situation in general?

Sorry for the long incredibly long comment but I just needed to get this off my chest. Thank you so much for writing this article!

I was searching the web for something I could relate to…and I finally found this article. Whenever I go driving, I get nervous and can’t seem to focus. I zone out and don’t see or hear anything…it causes me to run stop signs and run myself off of the road. I don’t know what to do, I’m scared…nobody believes me. Please help 🙁

I haven’t had any trauma in my life. But I zone out/lose focus a lot when talking with people, and often miss out on a lot of pieces of important information even when I think I am actively listening. I notice this especially when I see video or hear audio of the conversion that was taking place. The process is similar to re-watching a film and noticing loads of information you missed before. I also realise it takes a lot of mental energy for me to actively take in what people are saying sometimes and so I zone out to regain my focus. I could also relate to a lot of the ‘signs to look for’ sub-heading.

hi. im kind of freaking out because this is the first time this has happened to me and i dont know if it was dissociation or not. i was sitting in my shower just about to shave my legs when i zone out on a tile of the shower. i started to get tunnel vision and see a fading purple to green light. then a few minutes later (i dont know if it was a few minutes actually. it felt like my entire concept of time was gone) i get this fog/mist coming to my face and dissipating repeatedly. it kept happening until my entire vision of my body was kind of clear/ silver like. i could see my stomach hyperventilating because i didn’t know what was happening and i was scared. i couldn’t pull my self out of it though. i finally managed to get up almost 45 minutes later. i guess i had a somewhat traumatic childhood and have and am still struggling with depression. (not diagnosed or medicated) but i just would like an opinion on this or anything to help because i am scared that this might happen again and i have absolutely no clue what it is. thank you so much.

Hello, I was diagnosed with Schizoaffective bipolar. and anxiety, BPD. I am noticing that i space out i feel like i leave my body. my memory is terrible, basically no child hood memories and i do know from just glimpses i was physically sexually emotionally abused. my teenage years were just as bad. Now life is great but I seem to just be floating around in and out. what is going on?

I often zone out where my vision just goes completely out of focus, I’m aware that I’ve zoned out but can’t snap out of it. I’ve never experienced childhood trauma (that I know of at least) but struggled with having no friends and slight bullying when I was younger. I’m an extremely self conscious person and struggle with social anxiety and possible depression (I struggle to talk about my feelings so have never told anyone). I’ve also often experience the ‘out of body’ experience where I feel as though I’m watching myself and am not controlling my movements, often when I’m with a lot of people or sometimes at random times with friends. I also don’t really have any close friends still (I’m in high school now) and have been experiencing the zoning out a lot recently, it’s kind of frustrating when I’m in classes and can’t focus.

Hello! I found this article when I was searching around today. It seems very similar to me. While at work I often feel foggy and I say phrases mindlessly without thinking. I will answer the phone and mean to ask “How can I help you?” But actually I’ll say something like “Can you verify your address?” Both phrases I say over and over again through the day but it worries me that sometimes I am that out of it enough to say the wrong one. I also won’t be able to recall small situations at work like what someone has said or they explain something to me I nodd and say I understand but am left not knowing what I need to actually do. I ask for information but then they say it but I don’t always listen and have to ask again. Some days are worse. The things I’m really wondering about is when I’m sitting still starring at nothing. I’ll sit and stare in a general direction but my eyes will be unfocused such as a camera that is not focused. It’s like my eyes slightly cross and It’s just a blurry picture. It makes me feel good and happy and numb and I stay like this for up to 5 minutes sometimes. The first time I remember I was doing this I was about 8 and we just got home from school. Everyone else hopped out of the car but I was sitting there just in a state trance basically. I wanted to stay like this but someone was like come on you have to get out. I have now done it many many times when I get home and sit in the car but also other places a lot as well. I try not to do in the presence of other people too much because I know it looks weird. I’ll be doing it and my mom will ask me to do something and ill say ok but I don’t want to get out of my state so i stay there not moving a minute longer and she’ll be like “are you gonna do it?” And I’ll answer yes just give me one second. I can not answer questions truthfully usually. Someone asks me how my days is, how I am, anything of the such I smile and say great even though it’s not. I think of things I should have done differently later and usually understand a situation minutes after it has ended. I make the punch line after it’s not funny anymore. I can’t respond to yelling or most serious convos without freezing and crying. I am very jumpy. I feel like this probably what I am dealing with, what do you think?

I think I have bpd or dissociatio disorder. Reason being is because im a trauma victim with anxiety/depression and i ddidnt start zoning out or struggle to focus and put the right words in order to speak until 8-9th grade. I will sometimes be happy and hyper in the beginning of the day and then super tired with a headache and can’t focus by the end of the day. It doesn’t matter if im playing video games with friends, working all day, or even a long conversation. I will always start to feel hazy and zone out without knowing or finding it hard to fully retain the present information and remember what i was going to say and just stumble over my words. I will get a headache and extreme fatigue and cant fully say a sentence or process info correctly and in order. After that happens ill feel tired with a headache for the rest of the day. Also my depression mood can last 2 weeks and then the next 2 weeks ill be positive and happy and motivated and bubbly. If something bad happens like a disagreement, failed plan, arguments, it will ruin the rest of my week or however long that mood lasts. Ill suddenly feel unmotivated and want to isolate my self. There are also times where under a lot of stress i will enter a childish like state and be super giggly and sensitive and just wanting love and some one to play with. Im a 20 year old trauma victim and i never started “slipping” into that mind set until after my tramatic experience. I dont understand i feel like some more than anxiety/depression is happening… Any answers?

Hi. A lot of times when someone unexpectedly talks/ asks me something I zone out. I know that they are talking to me but it’s like I can’t understand what they are saying. Or if they ask me something I am not sure of but I know that I have to answer I get stressed and want to zone out. My vision goes to unfocus, sometimes the mind goes blank too but a lot of the times my vision just won’t focus when I’m alone. And I know that it’s not because I have bad eyesight. Does it fall under dissociation or is it something completely different or unrelated? Thank you.

hi, so I’ve just searched like “zoning out” on google thinking it would be from a lack of sleep or something, but I’ve been reading other peoples comments on here and I experience the same symptoms. I’m still in high school right now but when i just sit still in class my head will take me somewhere else or even at lunch time i will completely zone out and my eyes go all like foggy and i feel stuck in time. It evens happens is well when I’m behind the wheel or even sitting at traffic lights. But the thing I’m concerned about is that I’ve never really had any traumatic experiences or anything in my life. And at this point in time i just feel so clouded in my head all the time and my eyelids feel heavy even though i have a good amount of sleep and eat good foods.

Hi, I have BPD, CPTSD, and few others mental illnesses. I have been experiencing different levels of dissociation for quite a while now. But I’m not quite sure about one thing that happens when I’m really distressed and then “zone out”. When it happens it’s been described to me as just be curling up somewhere like in a corner or in bed, or somewhere. I shake, but I can’t move, I can’t hear anything, I can’t really see anything. And once someone tries to snap me out of it so to speak, by touching me, it turns into a massive panic attack. Is this situation dissociation? I’m just not quite sure. It’s so confusing and embarrassing. Thank you

Hi, I’m 15 and have recently started ‘zoning out’ mainly at school. It started about 3 months ago. I am PTSD diagnosed from when I was 9 but have never zoned out until now. I’m not aware when I go into the ‘trance’ but I know I have been zoned out when I come out of it. Sometimes while I’m zoned out I will have thoughts of past events but not always. Is this to do with PTSD or another problem?

I get this when I smoke weed. If I’m not high I’m fine if I am then I feel this problem one hundred percent. I used to get bullied pretty badly and usually it was when I was stoned. Do you think this reaction from weed is based on how I felt when I used to smoke? Like I cover up my true feelings when I’m high as a defense mechanism. Is there anything I can do about that? Is there any way I can smoke weed again without getting disassociated?

So I’m aware that I suffer from disassociation as my ‘defense mechanism’ when things get rough. I shut down emotionally and my energy is gone, but I somehow keep going on “auto-pilot” because I have so much to get through every day (2 schools and work afterwards!) My biggest issue is that I know what is causing me to disassociate (at least, what triggers it the most often and the most severely.) but, I can’t do much about it at the current moment because my biggest trigger is my environment/the people I live with. I only have a few more months until I finish this semester of school and leave for good, but, I’m finding it incredibly hard to keep going now. I’m weeks behind in an English class I’m taking online and my work is due weekly every Sunday night but I’ve literally just laid in bed all day (today is my one and only full day off from work and school) and I can’t even think – like seriously, the thoughts won’t even come to my head – about the class or the work I need to do at all.

I don’t know what to do because I’m aware of the outside factors that are causing me to feel so ‘gone’ and I’m not sure how to get it together until I can truly separate myself.

I just thought someone maybe interested in my experience of living with my husbands dissociation.
My husband suffers from dissociation caused by trauma in his childhood. It has got a lot worse in the last 10 years (although thinking back I always knew there was something, but it was like a quirkiness & didn’t really affect the family, but became noticeable around 15-18 years ago. Consequently it has had a huge impact on our marriage, & daily life can be very difficult. I cannot ask or tell him anything spontaneously, I watch & wait for the right moment, but often get it wrong & when I speak he’ll get up to do whatever is in his mind, however trivial. When he ‘goes’ he says thoughts enter his head that are impossible for him to remove & then cannot speak coherently, listen or follow direction. He will often answer a question with whatever is in his head – It is too frustrating to pursue the question further as he also has anxiety. He once almost gave his bank account details to a woman collecting for a charity before he suddenly realised. The other day, & not for the first time, he drove in the opposite direction to our house & despite saying, he had ‘gone’ & couldn’t hear or listen – eventually he came to & realised. He said he was thinking about the car sunroof he’d opened before he drove off.
It has taken many years to get any help & 5 therapists later, we are currently now trying to get a referral to a specialist hospital from a psychotherapist who diagnosed him, but is not sufficiently experienced in dissociation to continue. Unfortunately I think he now has an alter – his 6 year old self.

Thank you for your kind reply.
Last September, & after many years, it all got too much for me & I broke down. My GP arranged support for me, although I don’t think she realised how long this would take. In March I received 50 minutes of counselling support once a week for 6 weeks. Truthfully, it didn’t really help but it may have done last September when I desperately needed it. Still, I continue to live in hope & keep smiling.
Thank you for understanding.

Hi, i recently have been having problems with my bf bc i tend to get lost in my thoughts and sometimes ignore him when he speaks to me. I didnt realize I would do this as often as i do until we moved in together but I really dont try to like at times I respond in my head and completely forget to verbalize it. Whenever he tries to confront me about anything I feel like a complete idiot bc idk what to say and that has been leading to a cycle of me crying and going to sleep whenever we fight. And like a couple minutes later ill suddenly know how to respond, but its too late. (he says im stubborn and only want to talk about things when i want to). I really love my boyfriend and i know hes tried to improve himself for me and i just want to do the same but lately Ive just felt like such an airhead bc i know he is frustrated with me and i dont know how to fix this since we have talked about it multiple times. 🙁

Hi,

My girlfriend has what I do believe is dissociation. She zones out and just look at one place for a couple of minutes. She also have “fitz” on a daily basis, where she starts twitching in a pulsing type of way if that makes sense. Then when she snaps out of the fit or zone out she becomes confused and such. She’s been through a lot in her life and have had traumatic experiences. I try my best to support her and be there for her. She don’t really have an idea of what I could do to make her calm or avoid these things. Me as her boyfriend care a lot about her and I don’t know what to do to prevent these things, or what to do when she is having these things. She is talking to a counsellor but is not having any success and she’s taking a small dose of antidepressants (she just started out taking them). So my question is: What should I do? It brakes me to see her not doing well.

i feel “zoned out” 24/7, it’s a constant thing it never stops. i don’t know what to do about it and it’s really scary and causes me to have anxiety and break down a lot.

I can’t actually explain what’s wrong with me but it has been happening since I was 11, I think. It was worse when I was younger but it still happens. I can be talking to person or crossing the road and I just completely stop. My brain shuts down and I don’t even remember anything until someone forces me and brings me back. It’s like a switch is flipped off inside my brain and all programs just shut down and when I come back, I don’t remember what I did, I just know it from the situation or if someone tells me. Not mention, Sometimes I can’t reall names or faces or places I’ve been. I can laugh it off sometimes but it’s really affecting me a lot. It’s worse on the phone, I’m talking to someone and in the middle of my sentence, I zone out, I can’t remember it, it’s like a blackout and then the other person then cuts the call. And sometimes I feel like I have to force myself to talk, to react and it all just seems to fake and forced. I feel like a puppet, forcing myself to act normal, to react. It’s so foggy and I can’t sleep or concentrate on anything. Went to the doctor when I was 12 and they said it was normal for a kid growing up. But I’m almost 20 and fed up with this thing. Whats wrong with me?

Hey I’m not sure if you’ll get to this.. but I’m always spacing out and deep into thought while I am. I can snap out of it a little and listen or talk, but my eyes will still be staring. It’s so weird and it bothers me but it happens a lot, a little too much. I actually do this through most of my day honestly.. Sometimes I think I’m positive about something but then I argue with myself and end up putting myself down. I look in the mirror and I don’t believe I should be this person. I dont know who I am. Or if I’m just mentally ill. I dont want to ask my family because they’ll just laugh. I just think something is off with myself.. I don’t know where to start.

While I was reading the article my heart sank, I got anxious because its like you were describing my life. I’m 20 years old and growing up I’ve experienced most types of abuse… I think it plays a part on why i space out all the time. While spacing out, I feel like I’m watching a life that doesn’t belong to me. It is really like a movie. I’ve tried reaching out to family members but they say things like “well maybe you should just go to a mental hospital ” it hurts. So I stopped letting them how how I feel. Thank you for responding, thus article encouraged me to reach out to someone even if it isn’t my family.

hi! I’m a senior hs student and am enrolled in a preschool program. Whenever I try to focus, it feels as though theres a wall blocking me from fully focusing. Sometimes I’ll just sit and unconsciously detach myself. I’ll remind myself that i need to start, but it’s hard to find reason and the strength and the will to bring myself back. I don’t know if I’m experiencing apathy or disassociation. I am tired most of the day despite not doing anything my feet and legs ache. Idk if its my tiredness or lazyness thats keeping me from fully interacting or something else. Is there something serious going on?

Hi, I have always had disassociation ever since I was 3 or 4. As of lately it seems to be getting worse, I have had a really bad childhood since I was born till I was 14 and I’m am 15 now I was recently taken out of the bad environments and I have been out for a little over a half of a year. But my disassociation seems to be getting worse, I have had a counselor since I was 9 but never trusted any of them, but my example of it getting worse is when I was 13 or so I would be talking to someone and apparently say something and I would say the same thing again and the person I was talking to said I already said that but I had no memory of saying that, i thought i thought of it in my head and then said it once, and as of lately I am forgetting whole events that happened 1 to 3 days ago, and instead of me forgetting I said a small sentence, i am forgetting i said a long paragraph to some one, and I’ll be in the car with my aunt and she’ll be talking to me but I wouldn’t hear a thing the whole time till she gets mad and starts yelling at me for ignoring her and being disrespectful, and then most recent big event is the other night, I couldn’t sleep my head hurt and my mind was racing it got to about 3 am in the morning I had to go to the bathroom so I get up do my thing and lay back down in bed I don’t remember getting back in bed or what I was thinking before, but I remember my mind was racing but not of what I was thinking, it was like my mind was racing but it was blank everything was blank, my eyes were open but I wasnt seeing the whole time, my eyes were in one place everytime I remember I had my eyes open, and I couldn’t feel or hear anything not even the buzz of the fan on in my room or my cats walking around, me when I finally came back to it, it was 6 am, it felt so weird like i was asleep but i wasnt asleep at all because i had small memories of things that happened during my zone out, and when I looked around I noticed my laptop had fallen and my cats were all around it sniffing it, they don’t do that unless it had just moved/fallen (they pushed it off where it was sitting) but I hadn’t heard it fall or anything so I was confused on what was happening. I came to the conclusion that when my laptop fell it pulled me out from the trance like state with the loud slam of it hitting the hardwood floor, but I didn’t register the sound in my brain at all. I also have been sick for the past 2 weeks running a fever and I’ve been to the doctors but no one knows what it is, and my sleep has been crap as of the 2 weeks and I can’t sleep with out my sleeping meds, and the night this happened I had taken all of my meds but my sleeping one. Also right before I got sick I had a really bad disassociation event, the whole night I couldn’t sleep and my stomach was weird like butter flies and when the sun rose so did I and I felt like I was dreaming and nothing was reap and it felt like things around me were spinning and i also felt like I was watching myself from above me and I wasnt in my body, I had this before but never in the moment only when looking back at the moment, and the feeling I’m my stomach was getting worse and my legs felt like jello and it was hard to walk, I was getting breakfast and then I all of a sudden felt a tear fell down my face, and a sudden urge of intense sadness hit me, I broke down and I legit fell to the ground i was screaming and crying and murmuring stuff i don’t remember me I sat there like that for about 1 or 2 hours and then I couldn’t cry anymore so I went back to my room, I don’t remember if I ate or not that morning I think I did before it happened but I cant remember and the whole time while I was sitting on the ground crying I felt like I was looking at myself from the back of me, like I saw my back and the back of my head and everything around me, and the rest of the day I noticed I was acting weird and I felt like some of the thoughts in my head weren’t mine and I would never normally think them it felt like something had changed in my head and body but nothing had changed, I noticed while hanging up clothes I was thinking weird things and I was just like uhhh whut… I thought it was weird, I have had things like that before where the thoughts aren’t mine and there are two voices talking and fighting each other one would say one thing quietly like a whisper and what they said I didn’t like and it upset me and the other would be louder than the other and it seemed more familiar to what I hear in my head all the time and it was saying shut up over and over and over again i talked to my counselor about this and she said it was fine and it was normal but it hasn’t happened before. Also there was nothing leading up to these moments nothing has happened, no major life events or minor life events there was nothing.

hi so im having a lot of trouble staying focused or I spend too much energy and effort on one thing completely unaware of everything around me or even what im doing, it feels as if im in a cyclical loop and my emotions are like sudden and strong but at the same time I feel disconnected to them. I have been diagnosed with adhd, mdd, gad, bpd, severe ocd, ptsd, and im on medication for depression and ocd and adhd and have been for a while but ive just felt so numb and tired again like how I did before meds and therapy. im feeling motivated to do school work then get to it and feel completely exhausted to do anything unless its due immediately, which it usually isn’t, and by that point Ill have just pushed it off until I stress out about turning it in the night before. any tips on how to stay motivated or grounded and feel more energized? thank u so much

I noticed recently that I zone out. Some days, i don’t remember where i am going to. I find myself wandering or i am watching my life. Some days, I am very excited and some days, I get angry for no good reason. Or i get very sad to hours then happy and sad again. It’s been happening for a month now. I heard journalling helps but how can you journal when you don’t remember? What can i do?

I sometimes find zoning out at work. I work in an office on my own, my job is desk based and I’m in front of a screen for the vast majority of the day. The information I work with is hyper sensitive and requires total accuracy so I have to concentrate really hard and I’m constantly checking and rechecking. I get tired quite easily and it feels as if my brain gets to a certain point and then either shuts down completely or my subconscious minds take over and my brain is full of random thoughts or scenarios that have no relation to any part of my day. On occasion someone has come into my office (I think it must look like I’m frozen in sleep mode or something) and asked if I’m alright. I take medication for hypothyroidism, iron deficiency anaemia , anxiety and low Vitamin D but aside from that I’ve had blood work to rule out any physical causes and they all came back clear. Do you have any ideas what might be causing this and/or how I might over come it? Thank you so much.

Hi. I am a seventeen-year-old girl who has already been diagnosed with anxiety, but I’m presently also awaiting the results of an ADHD evaluation. Now I’m wondering if I actually have a problem with dissociation. Please note that, although some of them have gotten worse with the onset of COVID, I’ve been experiencing these symptoms for my entire life.

I have very few memories of my childhood, though to my knowledge I have never undergone any severe trauma or abuse. Often I can’t even remember any details of what I did yesterday or last week. I misplace things several times a day and I often realize that I have no idea what I was doing only a moment ago. Usually my mind feels numb and full of fog–I am only rarely conscious of my thoughts–and I don’t often notice fluctuations in my mood or mental health until other people comment on them. Sometimes I feel very out of touch with my will and out of control of my own actions. I know that as a child I would constantly tell myself stories in my head, but nowadays I am mostly too tired mentally, so instead of being aware of my surroundings I listen to music or mull over the last book I read. I’m just not as there, in my daily life, as I wish I were. Does this sound like dissociation? Do you have any advice for me?

Hi why is it when I am in a meeting or studying for a test my mind seem to go numb and doesn’t take in information

i understand that it is normal to zone out but i often do it even in the middle of a conversation. if something makes me even slightly upset or jealous it happens. it feels like i am unable to process things properly, when people try to talk to me i can not understand what they are saying. i can not think properly either and i feel like i am unable to speak. it can happen for over minutes at a time. sometimes i can not think at all, like my brain is foggy. other times, when i feel like i need comfort, i imagine i am someone else completely, like it is a happy place. is this normal?

It just happened for the first time.. I zoned out, my eyes blurred and I wasnt able to move at all….I could feel and hear but not move or see .After i kept zoning out for about 5-10 seconds around 3 times every 2 minutes. I understand you cannot diagnose over the internet but what do you think it may be? My life is not the best i use to hurt myself but i have stopped myself from going down that path again so im no where near that. But can you try and help?

Hi ,its katie again but I just want to inform you im 12 (this comment goes with my last recent one ) so im a little bit embarrased to even tell anyone about it even with a GP. Also its been happening more and i havent been diagnosed with anything because people think im doing it for attention but I have panic attacks and i made my school promise not to tell my parents same with my friends also really sometimes i just want to “off” myself… So I would rather get help online, thank you though :)…

Could a long operation and being away from my mam and terrified at the age of 13 be enough trauma to cause dissociation, or does it have do be something from early childhood. Or could a scary experience in adulthood even cause dissociation for the first time

Hello, I’m Ari. I’m 13. I’m writing this on a school iPad, but don’t mind that. I have severe trust issues, and severe loneliness and I lack proper, supportive friends and family. and I fall into dissociation a LOT. People have asked me if I’m ok mid convo and I’m always confused because I just.. stare. I can’t make proper eye contact to strangers. I can dissociate intentionally. I don’t have any major trauma, like “oh my parents died”. Just trust issues… I think. I don’t know— I can’t even remember what the f has happened to me over the years, my mind is surpressing things from me, I know there’s more than just trust issues but I can’t remember it. The dissociation just warps my sense of reality, and I forget easily too. Sometimes I can’t process, I’ll only fall out of dissociation if a strong sense occurs, like the smell of perfume, an alarm or too much commotion. It’s hard to focus on school bc of it. some tell me I’m mature for my age, but even now I’m questioning if that was me dreaming or not. I have insomnia. Sometimes I fall into dissociation unwillingly, but usually when I couldn’t sleep the night before. I know what I’m going to say here but I just don’t remember all of a sudden. I just pause, and forget. I saw another post here and they took the words right out of my mouth, it’s like I’m living two lives. I’ve tried hinting my parents towards it but I’m told I don’t have anything and I’m overreacting. I fall into it intentionally sometimes to escape reality, and I’m constantly on auto pilot unless forced into “manual” like when someone engages conversation. If I dissociate while eating, I’ll mindlessly power through it and only when I’m done eating and have nothing to nom on is when I wake up. Because people, and I mean most of everyone I’ve ever known because no matter where I am im never liked, excluded out of things, and unwanted, always called weird (Is that trauma?) To make it look more normal I look outside or try to make it look like I’m doodling, im too scared of things now. I just feel numb when I dissociate, or put myself in some sort of fantasy world. I’ve got a lot of symptoms of quite a lot of things, like BPD. It’s like sleeping with my eyes open. My bad if this doesn’t make sense, I’m having a hard time remembering what I’m even writing right now, it’s just a vent page to me at this moment. Do I have this?