Make Dissociation Productive & Positive

Dissociation is the most creative survival power the human mind possesses. It can help a person get through horrible situations, emotional hurt, physical pain, and life-threatening experiences.

Dissociation, when enforced if needed, allows a person to escape the reality he or she is in, not be aware of the hurt, pain or threat which is happening at the moment, and numb or ignore the overwhelming physical and emotional discomfort. It is so misunderstood. 

Helping professionals have designated this PTSD symptom as negative, a part of a disease and a character weakness. Nothing is further from the truth.

Why does everything associated with survival viewed as negative? Once out of abuse, trauma or combat situations or environments and the survival aspect is no longer needed, can't post-traumatic symptoms be looked at as productive and positive? 

Dissociation is Normal and Natural

Dissociation is a healthy and natural beneficial reaction to life-threatening situations, such as abuse, trauma, or combat situation(s). Dissociation is an after-effect of experiencing harrowing experiences. Dissociation is a protective adaptive skill that allows anyone to avoid hurt or pain mentally, emotionally, physically or living in an untenable environment as well as a situation.

The psychological meaning of dissociation is a mental process of disconnecting from one's thoughts, feelings, memories, and sense of identity by focusing intently on a spot or object to escape, when the "whole" of you are threatened with harm, hurt and pain on a mental, emotional, physical or spiritual level. 

Therefore, dissociation is the ability to instinctively, and creatively focus to mentally / emotionally block out the present to escape and survive what is happening in reality. Probably, since abusive, traumatic, and combat experiences are viewed as negative, horrible and overwhelming the resulting symptoms are seen as negative, and terrible. 

Dissociation is misunderstood by many professionals causing the general public to fear it, and survivors to be confused by it.

Tips on Making Dissociation Productive and Positive

Tip #1 Dissociation does not have to be negative. 

Dissociation is an adaptive survival skill. It saves a victim's lives. It has long been conveyed to survivors as bad, negative, pathological or maladaptive when not in trauma. But the truth is dissociation can be a positive, productive and powerful adaptative skill. Dissociation is the ability to divert focus inward, adapt, and adjust quickly to survive any overwhelming and possible life-threating situation.

Tip #2 Dissociation can be a Productivity Tool

Dissociation, if no longer feared, embarrassed, cultivated, and practiced, can be used as a productive focus tool. When combined with other elements like intuitive breathing method and mindfulness dissociation increases in power. All three combined increases productiveness significantly.  Dissociation can result in increased task completion, for better performance in classwork, job, and school, for sports performance improvement, and job projects and general health improvements to aid in improved daily function.

Tip #3 Make Dissociation Positive 

To make dissociation positive you have to change your mindset. Change the way you view dissociation. You have to change your mindset from viewing dissociation as a pathology symptom to seeing dissociation as productive and as an advantage.
Once you make the change then practice your mindset change a lot.

Tip #4 Positive and Productivity Tips

Here are some symptoms of dissociation combined with how you can change each to be positive and productive.

⦁  A feeling of being disconnected from yourself

    (Make your experience productive and positive by reconnecting with yourself and increasing
     your relationship with yourself)

⦁  Problems with handling intense emotions

    (Make your experience productive and positive by embracing your emotions, instead of ignoring them or disconnecting from them. It is better to learn how to experience your feelings rather than running from or numbing them out. Emotions are only painful if you believe they are.)

⦁  Sudden and unexpected shifts in mood – for example, feeling very sad for no reason.

    (Make your experience productive and positive by learning your triggers. Recognizing
     your triggers reduce your inappropriate response to them and how to neutralize their
     power and influence over you.)

⦁  Depression or anxiety problems, or both

    (Make your experience productive and positive by breathing exercises, meditation, mindfulness, being in the moment and learning intuitive breathing to reduce depression and anxiety.)

⦁  Feeling as though the world is distorted or not real.

     (Make your experience productive and positive by checking out your environment by asking yourself these questions. What is my sense of what is happening? Then determine if your gut sense is real or unreal? Is it true or false? Is it productive or unproductive? Your answers will help you focus and achieve clarity in your thoughts.)

⦁  Memory problems such as flashbacks, forgetting crucial personal information and significant memory lapses

     (Make your experience productive by journaling thoughts and feelings and taking notes on your memories as they come to you. Take your information and check them against your history as you know it to be)

⦁ Other cognitive (thought-related) problems such as concentration problems, like forgetting crucial personal information or wandering thoughts

   (Make your experience positive and productive by remaining mindful and connected to the moment. Find a point in the present that will assist you in focusing your attention on what you are doing, therefore, enhancing the ability to stay present.)

⦁ Feeling compelled to behave in a certain way.

   (Make your experience positive and productive by reducing impulsiveness, sense of acting and being mindful. Ask if what I am doing will help?)

⦁ Identity confusion – for example, behaving in a way that anyone else would usually find offensive or shocking.

   (Make productive by checking your beliefs and change the one which is harmful. Rescript your identity into the identity you want to have now. Your traumatic experience changed your character, so it is your power to correct it in your favor. Your personality has a right to change.)

⦁ A feeling as though a negative attitude is your default.

   (Make your experience positive and productive by deciding an appropriate mindset toward dissociation.)

Subtypes of Dissociation

More Information: Two Subtypes of Dissociation

There are subtypes of dissociation many mistaken as dissociation. Both of these subtypes of dissociation are byproducts of experiencing intense anxiety as a result of experiencing abuse, trauma, or combat events. These both cause self-judging of yourself and your environment. Severe anxiety, doubt, stress, second-guessing, and overthinking result from living through life-threatening experiences. 

It is essential to understand if you are in a state of self-judgment, you are not in a state of self. You are therefore losing connection with yourself and your surroundings. Both subtypes can develop as a result of a lesser degree of experiences and without the development of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. 

1. Depersonalization

Recent research evaluating the relationship between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and dissociation has suggested that there is a dissociative subtype of PTSD, defined primarily by symptoms of derealization (i.e., feeling as if the world is not real) and depersonalization (i.e., feeling as if you not real).

An ‘out-of-body’ or depersonalization experience during which individuals often see themselves observing their own body from above can create the perception that ‘this is not happening to me’ and is typically accompanied by an attenuation of the emotional experience.

2. Derealization

Similarly, states of derealization during which individuals experience that ‘things are not real; it is just a dream’, creates the perception that ‘this is not happening to me’. Derealization decreases a person's emotional intensity to life or helps create a state of emotional numbness.

Questions to Enhance Enlightenment about Making Dissociation Positive and Productive 

The following ten questions can help you further overcome dissociation. Recognizing your mind and body reactions can reduce the power, and of the dissociation. You can become more mindful, more intuitive, more positive, and make better decisions to be more productive. Your answers can help you to be more compassionate and create a positiveness toward yourself.

1. Ask yourself "What is your mind telling you?"

2. What is your body telling you?

3. What is your feeling telling you?

4. What is your intuition telling you?

5. What are you running from?

6. What are your top 5 fears about myself?

(Break down your list from top 5 into your top 3. Then evaluate your top 3 by answering the following questions; Are my biggest fears true or false? Is it real or delusional? What can I do right now to change it?)

7. What are your top 5 fears about life?

(Break down the top 5 into top 3. Then which is the biggest fear? Then evaluate by answering – Is my biggest fear - true or false? Is it - real or delusional? What can I do right now to change it?)

8. What are your top 5 core beliefs about myself?

(Break down the top 5 into top 3. Then pick which is the number one core belief about yourself? Then evaluate this #1 core belief by answering the following – Is it - true or false? Is it - real or delusional? What can I do right now to change it?)

9. What are your top 5 core beliefs about life?

(Break down the top 5 into top 3. Then pick which is the number one core belief about life? Then evaluate by answering – Is my most important core belief - true or false? Is it - real or delusional? What can I do right now to change it?)

10. How can I take what is going on inside of me or in my environment and make it positive and productive?

Takeaway

Making dissociation positive and productive can be achieved after you are no longer are in an abusive, traumatic, or combative situations or surroundings as well as willing and ready to shift your point of view and change your mindset.

           Coach Bill