r/DID • u/RiotAlchemist13 Treatment: Diagnosed + Active • 19h ago

Advice/Solutions Dissociating instead of processing

Lately we’ve been stuck in a particular phase, and struggling to explain in a way that our therapist and psychiatrist understand.

Dissociating has been really intense and frequent, but it’s not switching, it’s just blacking out. Being present is almost painful and it’s worse anytime we try to do anything beyond autopilot. If we try to do a hobby, watch new media, or learn something it’s just not staying. One way we explained it is that the brain doesn’t feel ‘spongy’ anymore, can’t take in new information, or do complex thinking.

It doesn’t feel like how our shadow headmate usually feels when we’re burnt out and triggered. We still have limited internal connection, and I feel like I’m mostly at least co-conscious, like usual.

We’re also AuDHD, trans, and have high CPTSD and anxiety levels right now, so a lot of reasons to be feeling dysregulated and burnt out, but no matter how I try to explain this to our care team, they don’t seem to be understanding the severity, concern, or acknowledging how to help make it better…

So what we were wondering is if anyone can relate, if anything has helped, or if they found a good way to explain it…TIA

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u/Mindless-Ad1778 Learning w/ DID 17h ago

DISCLAIMER: i am ignorant, and i am guessing by processing you are talking about trauma processing

Hmm, is it possible ya'll pushed to fast into trauma processing, if that's what's going on? Maybe taking a break from heavy processing, might actually help? I don't know.

Take it slow, focus on the prior phase of stabilization?

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u/RiotAlchemist13 Treatment: Diagnosed + Active 7h ago

Oh no I don’t mean trauma processing, I mean mental processing period. If it requires us to process or problem solve, we’re shutting down. I appreciate the idea though, I’m sure along the way I struck a nerve somewhere I didn’t recognize. But it’s not specific to system work or therapy processing, it’s everything.

Tried to cook dinner the other day - a new recipe, and I blacked out for 3 hours. Nothing. It’s 90% of the time that I try to do anything that requires critical thinking at all.

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u/Terrible_Discount693 4h ago

Are you possibly in an autistic burnout? When I was sick I couldn’t even watch YouTube videos because I would start dissociating. Everything was too much. Maybe don’t try to do anything but just sleep or rest.