Trauma and Time Traveling: Strategies for Managing Dissociation-induced Time Traveling
This blog post is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, please seek help immediately.
Some days stress can kick down your door and hold you hostage.
Stress is more than an imagined concept. I picture it as a person who is highly skilled, insanely fit, trained in espionage, and ready to force their way into my life at the most inconvenient times.
When stress is holding you down, where does your mind go? How does your body hold the tension? Are you able to stay in the present moment or do you time travel?
Okay, the actual concept of time traveling is not what I’m talking about. But rather the ability our mind has to float through space and time when we encounter overwhelming distress.
Clinically, this phenomena is called dissociation. Under extreme stress or traumatic situations, as a survival technique, we have the ability to separate our minds from our bodies for hours, even days at a time.
This can look like: memory loss, feeling like you are watching the world from outside your body, detached from emotions, feeling like the people and things happening around you are surreal, blurred sense of self.
Often, victims of physical and sexual abuse use dissociation as a tool to survive. Sometimes, the stress ninja kicks down your door and your mind dissociates. It is not something that can be controlled, especially if you have been dissociating since childhood. However, because dissociation is a coping mechanism, we can bring awareness to it, shed light on the normalcy of the symptoms, and provide different ways to handle extreme stress.
One of the ways that dissociation can manifest is through a sensation of "time traveling," where a person feels like they are in two different time periods at once, or that time is moving in a disjointed way.
This sensation of time traveling can be incredibly distressing and can make it difficult to function in daily life. It can feel like you're constantly shifting between different eras, or that you're stuck in a time loop. It can also make it hard to remember what's real and what's not, which can lead to confusion, anxiety, and depression.
It's important to understand that dissociation is a normal response to trauma and that it's not something you can control. However, there are things you can do to bring a sense of normalcy to the experience of dissociation. Here are a few tips:
Grounding techniques: Grounding techniques can help bring you back to the present moment and can be helpful when you're feeling dissociated. Examples include deep breathing, counting objects in your environment, or squeezing a stress ball.
Mindfulness: Mindfulness practices, such as meditation and yoga, can help you be more aware of your thoughts and feelings and can help you to be more present in the moment.
Journaling: Writing down your thoughts and feelings can help you process your experiences and make sense of them.
Therapy: A therapist or counselor can help you work through your traumatic experiences and develop healthy coping mechanisms.
Support groups: Joining a support group can provide a sense of community and can help you feel less alone in your experiences.
It's important to note that dissociation is a complex symptom and it may take time and effort to find what works for you. It's also important to remember that dissociation may be a symptom of a more severe condition like PTSD and it's vital to seek professional help.
It's important to remember that these tips are general and that professional help should be sought if you're struggling with dissociation or have a history of trauma. A therapist or counselor will be able to provide a tailored treatment plan.
We are in this journey of life together. Keep trucking through.
Until next time,
Sources:
"Dissociation" by the National Center for PTSD, https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/related/dissociation.asp
"Dissociation and Trauma" by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, https://www.isstd.org/dissociation-and-trauma/
"Dissociation and Grounding Techniques" by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, https://www.istd.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Education_Training/Dissociation_and_Grounding_Techniques.pdf
