hey everyone, welcome back. this weeks video I talk about disocciation
and disocciative disorders. what are they and what do we do? so stay tuned
so like i said this weeks topic is disocciation. now i know that many of you
struggle with this or you know someone who has
many of you have had disocciative issues in your past recurrant, some of you have had like one episode
and others of you wonder what the heck is that? why do i not remember whats happening
we get all stressed out, right cos it can feel very very uncomfortable.
so there are a bunch of disocciative disorders, and if youre interested, you
can look online under the DSM but i decided that for this video i wouldnt read from the DSM
because this isnt something that really matters that much
as far as diagnosis goes, it matters more to me that you understand whats going on for you.
does that make sense? so disocciation is most commonly as a result of a psychological trauma
that could really be anything. a lot of my clients who struggle with this have been
sexually abused in their past, or physically abused. a lot of them have come from alcohol or drug abuse homes
and because of all that going on and that psychological stress and trauma thats happening,
our mind, and its quite clever to be honest. i dont know, our minds want to protect us
they want to keep us safe right? and so all these coping skills that we've come up with,
whether its self harm, depression, anxiety, ED whatever it is, thats our minds way of coping
and disoccation is just another way to cope, so if all that stuff is going on, and we're like a teapot
right and we are ssteaming we are about to blow, we're so overwhelmed
it just floats out of our head and we dont even know whats going on, we dont even remember that time period
and a lot of you will say it felt like you woke up but you werent sleeping and then youre back wher you were
and it can be really freaky and scary, but its really our minds way of helping us take a break, because everythings overwhelming
emotionally, psychologically overwhelming, ok? so thats what disocciation is.
and it is normal to feel like youre watching yourself, from like out of body experience.
its normal to feel really numb. some people even have like tingles in their fingers
or their feet almost like their hands are falling asleep or their feet are falling asleep
its normal. it can be normal to feel really cold, i get clients who report having chills
and kind of feel really cool when this happens. its normal like i said to not remember and its normal
to feel like you kind of woke back up ok? so dont think whats happening to you makes you crazy
cos its a normal respponse to disocciation ok? so thats happened to me OMG OMG OMG now what do i do?
and there are many things we can do, so rest assured. the first being talk therapy, like im seeing my clients, like i talk to you,
like you talk to one another, and the main goal for talk therapy when we talk about disocciation is
helping us feel empowered over our emotions and our experiences that cause those emotions.
so with my clients, and i know this sounds terrible and youre like kati i hate this and i never want to do this
is actually talk about all those details of what happened, so anything, any trauma that you think is causing the disocciation
we'll try to find out what that is, and then we'll talk about that in detail and try to keep you here as we talk about it.
because the more we talk about all those nitty gritty details, the easier it will be for us to kind of shut the book
on it and kind of move passed, and have things come up and we wont disocciate anymore
because we are enpowered. we are in control of our response to those emotions and we have coping
skills and outlets and ways to vent off those feelings, so that we dont feel overwhelmed, ok?
so talk therapy is one option, but please please please please try to find a therapist who is kind and gentle
and patient and has some kind of trauma background. whether they specialise in trauma itself, or
theyre a CBT therapist. CBT therapy ties really well in with the treatment goal and the treatment planning
for coping with disocciation, so those are the things that i would look at. if you have that luxury, because i know some of you dont
but thats something to keep in mind. and make sure that they can work with you ling term
because a lot of this takes a while, and thats ok. ok? now the second thing that we can do and
what i talk to a lot of you about are grounding techniques, and that can be anything from breathing
exercises which, hey, guess what? i did some videos on them a long time ago, so you can check those out.
so, go back and look at those, and they can help ground us. that deep slow breathing can help bring us back to the present.
so thats one kind of option of grounding technique. another one is something ive talked to a lot
of you about and thats using our five senses to bring us back. smell something really strong smelling
it can be anything from like stinky blue cheese or like oh i dunno what smeels strng? its hard to come up with things willy nilly!
even orange juice. something that is a smell that you can smell right away and you associate with something
good, you can do that. we can run our hand into something that is sharp or strong. dont use this as self harm,
but doing anything like that can really help. also feeling, what do i feel? i feel a hard chair, i feel a pokey microphone. what
do you feel on your body and going through that. so use those kinds of senses to bring you back. and i
find in my experiences that those are the easiest and the best things to use. as well as reaching out. if theres someone
we can call to say hey im freaking out and need to vent. but i find in the moment that
using your five senses to ground you and the breathing techniques are the best.
one of my patients actually squeezes ice in her hand and that really helps, so think about those
things because disocciation is something that our mind does to protect us. its a defence mechanism.
its our body's way of saying woah, too much is going on. i dont know what to do, and so it removes us.
but know that this is a normal response. its protective and there are ways that we can work through
it and get passed it, and we just have to fight. ok? and share whats worked for you
i know im always telling you to do that, but thats how our community grws and thats the way
that we help one another, through our experience and id really really appreciate it if you share the
tips and techniques that have worked to keep you grounded. what grounding techniques work best for you, cos im
just giving you my experience but everybodys experience is different.
and dont forget to subscribe to my channel, and if you like this topic, cos many people have requested this
if you want me to keep touching on it, just give it a thumbs up, cos thats kinda how i gauge
what i'll do next and what i'll do more of. cos thats an easy metric for me to keep track of ok?
and keep working with me keep checking back and we'll keep working towards a healthy mind and a healthy body.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm somebodys gonna get hurt really bad. i dont have the energy to fight
rub my feet instead. make me sandwich beach. ohh my leg. its cramping. i dont know why i tuck
it under my body like this its not normal. its like in kindergarten where you stand up and you like
crumble to the floor like a weirdo. hohhh. sitting cross legged. ok..
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