Anybody else dissociating? How do you stop it?

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Oh yes. It happens to me all the time too. It's hard to pay attention when I am in an over-stimulated environment and when I know there's a chance that people will be mean to me.

The first time I can remember doing was after a traumatic event happened during early childhood. I remember the memory as if it were a dream and I was looking at myself from up above.

I dissociate on a daily basis, sometimes 3-4 times a day. It only lasts about 30 mins, but in the past, when I was going through hell when I was 16 to 19, I'd dissociate for months at a time. I dont remember much. I think I've done it for years before I was 16, but the furthest back I can remember doing it was then. I am in the process of being dxed with borderline personality. I guess they dissociate so maybe its from that?

I had disassociations years ago. It was caused by being extremely overwhelmed with things going on in my life at the time. I was on psych meds for that & lots of other things & the meds didn't really help & had lots of side-effects some of which seem permanent. What helped me get over it was changing my life circumstances & taking a more active approach to living life

This sounds like being numb as a coping mechanism to block out all the hurt. i was like this for a long while. you need to let your self be sad instead for running from it. which might take some time to realize your sad because you run from it without even noticing, its a knee jerk reaction.

Let your self feel instead of running form it , but do this with therapy so you can make peace with the bad stuff, or find a more positive way to deal with it.

Just my theory. but it is quite common in people who are numb.

I've taken a lot of dextromethorphan and ketamine and experienced quite a bit of dissociation. couldn't imagine that feeling while being sober lol.

When I'm in a public place, and I feel an anxiety/depression kick in, this sounds like what I do. I call it going into 'automatic' mode where I just....go automatic, don't think, feel, and I'm able to get through it to a place where I can be alone and actually think and cry/go through my anxiety. It's like I'm sort of watching myself in the back of my head function. I've noticed when I do this, time seems to go by faster as well, so I've learned to start doing it when I'm waiting.
I have an OCD thing about being early or right on time. I can't stand to be late to anything, and so that tends to create the whole waiting effect. Also, when I went on long trips where I didn't drive, I'd have to either sleep or bring a book to keep myself going. The last trip, I didn't sleep once while not driving. Instead, I went into automatic and it went by fast. I'm guessing this is dissociating?

I have it right now, it comes in waves for me. I've never known how to fix it, I just wake up one morning and it's gone. Such a relief when that happens.

Open up to people, and take risks (approach people with a risk of rejection), and learn to trust, even if it doesn't make sense to (unless it's potentially dangerous). Believe that there are good people out there, even if you don't see it. Make lots of mistakes and, it's OK to feel bad when you get it wrong. Allow yourself to feel lonely and down sometimes - you need that. It's what makes you feel alive, and allows for the better emotions too. You can't have the great emotions without the bad ones, or you end up feeling disconnected from them.

Hope that helps.

I have always daydreamed or spaced-out, ever since I was very young.

Usually I am in a very boring or stressful situation, my eyes get glassy, I stare into space and enter a dream-like state.
It happened much more when I was younger, but still happens on occasion.

It freaks people out because my eyes are open, but glazed over and I tune out my surroundings, so people will have to actually touch me/and call my name in order for me to "wake up" out of my trance.

Does anyone else have this kind of thing happen? Is this like disassociation?

I've had some problems with daydreaming or "spacing out" too, which were made worse by depression. I tried different antidepressants, but nothing seemed to help. Some major changes in my life situation seemed to improve things a little, but I was still having problems getting even basic tasks like laundry done because of an inability to focus. My therapist suggested mindfulness meditation, which actually seemed to work well for me, and I actually noticed that I have been getting more things done in terms of school, housework, etc.

Like other posters earlier in this thread have mentioned, it seems to make me more conscious of breathing and my environment, and helps me stop thinking about other things, like daydreams or ruminations on negative things that happened in the past. It also seemed to help me cope with overstimulating environments. Looking up calming/breathing exercises related to mindfulness on the Internet and in self-help sections in bookstores actually seemed to be getting some results for me, although it seemed a little too New-Agey at first.

I think it might work just because you're consciously trying to tell yourself to be calm and mindful, and sending yourself that message might help with unconscious and autonomic feedback, since there have been studies where monks practicing meditation showed altered brain waves and changes in cortical activity. I think it's worth a try, but I can't say whether it would be equally effective for every individual who struggles with lack of focus or dissociation.

A lot of times I can't remember where I parked my car. Must be those parallel universes where in each universe I chose a different parking spot.

This is very interesting that disassociation is linked to autism. I have experienced or can relate to everything said here. I think I have been in a state of disassociation for quite a while now and it's starting to affect my current relationship (it completely ruined my first/previous one, sadly). I desperately want it to stop.

Truthfully, the only thing that helped me in the "mutliple perspectives" is meditation, and it helped soo much. Now at will I turn my mind off, and just listen to the silence, it's a rare thing that I'm glad I learned, I hope you too, decide to learn it.

I can't remember what shirt I'm wearing sometimes and I space out a lot too

I don't know about all the official terminology or different forms of dissociation but a few I found with a cursory google search sound familiar. Some are just things I wouldn't have thought of like staring off into space or driving somewhere on autopilot then not remembering parts of the trip. One thing I have happened to me twice in my life years ago might have been depersonalisation or something similar. I've found descriptions that come close.
Here's what it felt like for me. I know it was early/mid winter because the annual Rugby League football series, the State of Origin, was on or coming up soon. A travelling display was going around my state, New South Wales, in the form of a big truck and some other vehicles. The back of the truck was rigged out with memorabilia and you could walk inside and look at framed jerseys, old photos and stuff like that and there were food vendors and stuff outside.
I vaguely remember getting there okay and feeling alright but maybe the crowd and cramped truck triggered me off. I all of a sudden didn't feel "real" any more. Like my body was there and it was walking through the crowd with a blank expression on its face but all my movements just felt beyond my control like someone took over for me and just did the most basic normal functions so I didn't have to be there. An analogy would be, it was like getting into the back seat of your own car while someone else takes the wheel and still drives to all the places you drive in the same way you drive. You're just sitting back there seeing things from a slightly more distant and slightly muted point of view (tunnel vision?).

since early 2009, first I was in a car, and the dash looked all blurry and like i wasn't able to touch it, then after a very stressful event at the end of the year, i started to get moments of extreme dissacoiation, where my vision would blur when i tried to do simple tasks but had a bad thought or memory of the event. I haven't felt ''clicked in'' since that first time, i am aware of how much time has passed since then, but i don't really remember a whole lot of it, i recall big memories from last year and this one, but it was just mas 2010, now its december again? It's different to a time flies feeling. Almost like my brain won't allow me into reality for fear of further damage. The only time's I've felt here since then are when I've been scared of being attacked, and when I saw my brother crying. I think its the way our brains deal with stress, like when you experience some form of trauma, you block it out, doesn't feel real so it can't hurt you. Like an constant version of that