Dissociation Without Trauma?

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Does anyone here dissociate under specific triggers, without having any known trauma associated with the trigger? If so, what?

Is dissociation a common problem for autistics - almost like another form of a meltdown?

By dissociate I mean the "physically here, mentally elsewhere" response to certain stress. Not DID - another personality doesn't "tag in".

Autistic people tend to live in their heads, so I'd say it's normal.

I'm seldom here.
I'm always mentally elsewhere.
I don't feel tethered to my body or the physical world.

I don't know any other way.

When I went with my mom to the grocery store, I frequently dissociated, probably due to sensory overload. I remember asking my mom why I didn't feel real when we were at the grocery store. She of course had no idea what I was talking about.

I still do that in crowd situations (a big reason I avoid crowds), but sometimes it just seems random.

I feel like I'm always me, being static and thinking.
The backdrop changes when I go places but I don't feel like it's real.
It's kind of like on Flintstones or old hand-drawn cartoons.
The characters stand still and the background scrolls past them on repeat.

I'm not dissociated from being me.
I know who I am and where I am, but I'm a million miles away in my head.

I space out a lot
I call it autopilot. Where I say and do things on instinct rather without the usual high level thinking that goes on in my head.
Some times it's really calm. Like being able to socialise without the anxious thoughts in the background
Some times I don't like it, like at a job interview where one needs to thoroughly think of responses.
Funny thing is, I don't get to choose when I go onto autopilot. I could be at one interview and be on auto, and I could be in another and be fine. That's why I have to think about responses to social situations before I go to them, because I can't guarantee my brain would be "on" when I am there

I don't know how to script or preplan anything social.
I free-fall every time, like it's a brand new experience.
I don't even learn from past failures.

Dissociation without trauma is simply dealing distress without semi-permanent stupid head strain to make it do it again.


There's zoning out. Which is a common daily occurrence in humans.

Then there's dissociation.
Without trauma, it takes a form of addiction or dedication... Or higher levels of stress.



My own levels of dissociation is very much to do with my overall dissatisfaction with life.

It's not my head that's fleeing automatically.
More like, I really don't want anything to do with whatever and I'd rather have some sort of choice to do otherwise.

I choose a lot of daydreaming because I liked it, not because the outside world is terrifying -- far from it.
More like boring, incoherently confusing and disappointing -- the same sort of boredom out of incomprehension over a disinteresting subject.

I crave certain novelties in life, but real life couldn't provide that.

Now it's an addiction -- which it wasn't run by some unresolved crap like trauma, but out of sheer habit and autopilot.
Maybe nostalgia and longing, but who knows how long until that desire and those feelings are over.

The difference is as different as someone having insomnia from someone hating sleep because sleep is troublesome than hyped.. I'm the latter.


And I know how to separate the bits that have to do with trauma from those that do not.
The former is more subtle, and very involuntary. It can use the good things into something twisted.

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What you are describing is the exact reason I sought out an ASD diagnosis in the first place. I believe it's much like a meltdown, except instead of an explosion, it's an implosion.

There is only one time I dissociate, and that is when I am in a state of sensory overload. Usually in restaurants, bars, and grocery stores. I have memories of this happening to me from pretty early in my childhood.

I have no notable trauma (at least, not to rise to the level of PTSD) unless it is so repressed that I cannot pinpoint it.

Do you know anyone, particularly on the spectrum who has never been traumatized? I don't. Trauma doesn't need to be severe enough to reach the level of pathology to cause dissociation.