Dissociation in contrast is to habitually try, at some level to space out and forget what is really going on with oneself.
Often when driving in a car listening to music while stuck in traffic, for example, we may fantasize with the music we are listening to about being some other place other than traffic. There are varying degrees of dissociation. Everyone dissociates to a degree, in other words we all space out now and then. Whether it’s watching TV or sometimes ignoring someone really unpleasant. However with people who have trauma, dissociation can become a debilitating habit. So much so that most people who have some form of complex trauma or long-term PTSD have received diagnosis such as ADD or ADHD. This is common because dissociation looks like ADD. However when a person needs to dissociate just to survive, one learns how to space out to survive not because of a biological malfunction. In fact, we might need to become very focused at work, but when we come home we need to space out in order to survive the attacks that we fear will come.
Anyone who has trauma struggles with some level of dissociation, however the extreme end of this is what is known as a dissociative disorder. Someone who has a dissociative disorder will sometimes experience what is called, dissociative amnesia. Dissociative amnesia refers to periods of memory loss. This is also sometimes experienced as time loss. In other words, later this evening you’re having dinner and you realize that you don’t recall anything at all about what you did before dinner. It’s sort of like a blackout but without drugs or alcohol.
