eli5 what is disassociating? Tried looking online but I don’t understand.
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Mental health professional here. My ELI5 answer:
“Disassociating” (known more often as “dissociating”) is typically experienced by most people either as feeling “outside of your body” (i.e. seeing the things you are doing/happening to you as if watching yourself in a movie) or feeling as if things are not “real” (i.e. you have a sense you are in a dream but you are still inside your own body). This also typically happens as a result of very difficult feelings related to trauma.
More in-depth (non-ELI5) answer, including definitions from the DSM-5 and ICD-11, here:
https://estd.org/what-dissociation
For ease of access, here are the DSM-5 and ICD-11 definitions:
DSM-5: a disruption of and/or discontinuity in the normal integration of consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, body representation, motor control, and behavior
ICD-11: involuntary disruption or discontinuity in the normal integration of memories, thoughts, identity, affects, sensations, perceptions, behavior, or control over bodily movements
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