What to do with dissociation?

Have you ever felt like you were having a conversation with someone while being distracted or that no matter how much you read a text you couldn’t understand its content? Have you even returned home without being aware of having traveled the way back? This is known as dissociation.

But what is dissociation? Is about a mechanism that allows us to “escape” our reality, which may have been influenced by a period of emotional alteration, although this dates back to childhood. Dissociating can be understood through the typical expression: “with a body present, but with an absent mind.”

Is dissociating always dysfunctional? The answer is no, although It is often associated with an anxiety response.

Some mental health professionals consider dissociation to be a defense mechanism of the unconscious.

What can we do with dissociation?

It should be noted that dissociation can occur along a long spectrum, from not remembering moments of our day to daydreaming. Now, what can we do with it?

Use our senses

The first proposal is to help us with one or more of our senses in the present moment, how? For example, we can touch something we have (e.g. a jacket, a wall), smell a bottle of cologne or even press the ground with our feet.

Thus, Engaging our senses helps us “feel connected” and be present. The important thing is to be aware of what we are doing at the moment. Progressively, our senses can help us work on dissociation and be able to focus our mental attention on the activity, place or person we want.

Another interesting idea could be to practice the well-known aromatherapy. How can it influence us? Well, through the olfactory bulbs in the nose, which send aroma information to the limbic system, which is the part of the brain that processes our emotions.

Breathing exercises

Breathing, an important tool we have, It can help us manage different emotional states. that cause us discomfort. Additionally, performing breathing exercises can help us stay connected to our reality.

This is a practice that we can implement progressively. It is not necessary to dedicate a large amount of time to it, and for this we can use certain instructions or videos.

Progressively, we will develop greater ease in having these breathing patterns as our own tools that we will learn and which we will be able to put into operation immediately.

Carry out activities that make us feel “present”

Some activities can help us stay in the present:

Describe our environment: You can start by indicating the place where you are, and progressively describe more specific details. Thus, little by little, you will recover the connection with those that are happening to you now.Playing sports: find a sport that makes us focus our attention on it for the duration of it.Perform conscious eating: dedicate our attention to the moment we are eating, listening to our physical and mental sensations.Practice meditation or mindfulness. He mindfulness It aims to practice awareness in the present moment. Being able to stop paying attention to thoughts of the past or future. Jon Kabat-Zinn, world leader in mindfulnessdefines it as:

Therapy and dissociation

There are techniques to manage the characteristic symptoms of dissociation. We can look for a specialized professional who will give us more specific tools for our dissociation.

In therapy we also often come to know the reason for our experiences of dissociation., that is, the cause. Very valuable information to design an intervention plan that really helps us.

In this sense, we cannot forget that each person is different, so so is each person’s dissociation. Each dissociation has implicit behind it a historywith different experiences, emotions, factors and thoughts.

But do the above recommendations need to be followed? The key is not to carry out each of the aforementioned activities. The important thing is to carry out an activity that motivates us and makes us focus our attention on it. and in our present moment, in order to contribute to improving these episodes of dissociation.

Isn’t there a single alternative? No, it is about looking for the alternative that helps us the most and adapts to us.

So what really helps us feel connected to the current moment? Our full consciousness, what is meant by living and feeling the current moment. Although we cannot forget that it is another skill, which takes time to acquire, and that does not mean we should throw in the towel.

Some people may benefit from running; On the other hand, others draw. It is true that we can put several of them into practice, not just those that do not cost us effort. Perhaps we can combine others, which can help us, but it would be interesting to establish them as a habit progressively.. We have mentioned before that dissociation moves along a spectrum, as do the possible tools to manage it.

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