Help Disassociating

[dark_side_idea]

I'm in pieces, l constantly feel like l'm hunted, and l feel so disconnected from myself that even the think of death doesn't help me anymore, l can't find my agency and when l try to "get better" something bad happens like l lost control of my body who starts hurt himself, SH always been something mine, something l was in control of, same as the desire to die, now l don't know how to come back to reality anymore.
Is there someone in here experiencing something similar? How do you get out?

 

[Ash]

Grounding techniques work particularly well for bringing me back if I'm alone.

 

[dark_side_idea]

Grounding techniques work particularly well for bringing me back if I'm alone.

What are those?

 

[Ash]

Using your senses to connect you back to the real world. They vary from quite ethereal to practical, depending on your tastes. Personally, I to do things like

• 3 things I can see, 2 I can feel, 1 I can hear
• run my hands under cold water
• things I can see that are blue (a common colour; might need to do grey if outdoors in a town or green if in nature)
• identify the different objects around me (sometimes very basic like wall, chair, carpet etc!)

There are LOADS of techniques out there. You can adapt each one to you tastes. My 3, 2, 1 is taken from a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 as it's also meant to include taste and smell but my taste and smell are rubbish so no good in this situation. They're meant to be quick and easy and very a little bit more difficult as you "come to". If you can't answer, skip it and move on. If you overwhelm your brain, it'll retreat back into disassociation. If you keep it too easy for too long, it'll stay in in the comfort zone.

Some people respond better to touching things, some do better from looking and describing, some from listening. We're all different and there is no right way, so long as you're slowly inching forwards along that precarious rope bridge.

Disassociation, incidentally, is your brain's way of protecting you. Coming back to reality is a bit like tempting a frightened cat down from the top of a tree.

 

[dark_side_idea]

Using your senses to connect you back to the real world. They vary from quite ethereal to practical, depending on your tastes. Personally, I to do things like

• 3 things I can see, 2 I can feel, 1 I can hear
• run my hands under cold water
• things I can see that are blue (a common colour; might need to do grey if outdoors in a town or green if in nature)
• identify the different objects around me (sometimes very basic like wall, chair, carpet etc!)

There are LOADS of techniques out there. You can adapt each one to you tastes. My 3, 2, 1 is taken from a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 as it's also meant to include taste and smell but my taste and smell are rubbish so no good in this situation. They're meant to be quick and easy and very a little bit more difficult as you "come to". If you can't answer, skip it and move on. If you overwhelm your brain, it'll retreat back into disassociation. If you keep it too easy for too long, it'll stay in in the comfort zone.

Some people respond better to touching things, some do better from looking and describing, some from listening. We're all different and there is no right way, so long as you're slowly inching forwards along that precarious rope bridge.

Disassociation, incidentally, is your brain's way of protecting you. Coming back to reality is a bit like tempting a frightened cat down from the top of a tree.

I can't thank you enough for the effort on giving me those tips...I really appreciate it, my problem is the l can't really escape the feeling of being a guest in my own body even when l don't disassociate and when l do l don't have the time to realise it soon enough to engage any of this behaviour

 

[Ash]

Oh, it's not instant. I've lost hours at home on my own until I've started to come round. And once managed to build a chair fort in the MH outpatients in a room after I was left alone by someone who then assumed I'd gone home and was in there for about 3 hours, completely oblivious, before scaring the hell out of the next person who came in to use the room.

 

[justpeachyyyy]

My disassociation got so bad I can't even leave my house now. It's been years and only recently I was able to finally try to get started on meds (I have a fear of taking pills and I don't really like talking about what's been going on with me to anyone). They haven't helped yet but it's only been a week and I'm determined to find something that makes me feel normal again.
With what Ash said, the only things that have helped me were running my hands under cold/hot water or anything related to physical feelings like that. I don't mean to do anything related to self harm but it helped bring those senses back to me for a little bit.