Peatogenic
Member
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2017
- Messages
- 746
I was diagnosed with dissociation about six months ago. In trauma research, dissociation is always a byproduct of trauma and therefore seen in PTSD, CPTSD, and some other personality disorders with trauma at their root.
So what is dissociation? It's kind of an enigma, but the best description I've found is that it's an "altered state of consciousness". It's heavily associated with the freeze response to threat where animals just kind of fall over and "leave their bodies". In humans, it's described similarly.
In dissociation you lose sense of time, sense of "identity"...and in my case I lost a lot of my five senses. In recounting traumatic events, my eyes would glaze over, I'd become very tired, and my speech would be impaired. So there was these more overt displays of dissociation...but also the "loss of physical sensation" which I was not aware of until I started doing this experimental treatment with a dissociation researcher.
She would lay bag weights over parts of my body as I scanned the room and scanned my body for how I felt. Within ten minutes I would feel this "life" coming into my limbs...I had no idea that I was not feeling my body the way most people do. This would then extend to my vision changing and colors becoming more vivid, sounds becoming louder, temperature changes, etc. On top of that, I would develop incredible focus, incredible calm. All from some weights being draped over my body. After a couple days of doing this, I could stop and still feel a "half life" effect where I would still feel my feet, etc. very clearly...but if I went too long without the therapy I would gradually lose sense again.
I started thinking tonight about elevated Cortisol in trauma disorders and dissociation (I came across some studies regarding cortisol and dissociation). It made me also think of the "barefooting" (or grounding) movement and the science pointing to it lowering cortisol.
Can anyone think of a mechanism that cortisol would diminish sensory perception? Even more, how these mechanical methods have such a profound ability to lower dissociation. My curiosity is if the cortisol plays a role in "numbing" the body and creating this twilight zone-y altered state of consciousness.
Diet alone can't heal this kind of thing. It's certainly part of it. But in the same manner, doing this therapy feels as if it rapidly decreases my cortisol and somehow teaches the brain to slowly adapt to being fully "in the body". I started losing weight, sleeping better, having vivid dreams, etc.
So what is dissociation? It's kind of an enigma, but the best description I've found is that it's an "altered state of consciousness". It's heavily associated with the freeze response to threat where animals just kind of fall over and "leave their bodies". In humans, it's described similarly.
In dissociation you lose sense of time, sense of "identity"...and in my case I lost a lot of my five senses. In recounting traumatic events, my eyes would glaze over, I'd become very tired, and my speech would be impaired. So there was these more overt displays of dissociation...but also the "loss of physical sensation" which I was not aware of until I started doing this experimental treatment with a dissociation researcher.
She would lay bag weights over parts of my body as I scanned the room and scanned my body for how I felt. Within ten minutes I would feel this "life" coming into my limbs...I had no idea that I was not feeling my body the way most people do. This would then extend to my vision changing and colors becoming more vivid, sounds becoming louder, temperature changes, etc. On top of that, I would develop incredible focus, incredible calm. All from some weights being draped over my body. After a couple days of doing this, I could stop and still feel a "half life" effect where I would still feel my feet, etc. very clearly...but if I went too long without the therapy I would gradually lose sense again.
I started thinking tonight about elevated Cortisol in trauma disorders and dissociation (I came across some studies regarding cortisol and dissociation). It made me also think of the "barefooting" (or grounding) movement and the science pointing to it lowering cortisol.
Can anyone think of a mechanism that cortisol would diminish sensory perception? Even more, how these mechanical methods have such a profound ability to lower dissociation. My curiosity is if the cortisol plays a role in "numbing" the body and creating this twilight zone-y altered state of consciousness.
Diet alone can't heal this kind of thing. It's certainly part of it. But in the same manner, doing this therapy feels as if it rapidly decreases my cortisol and somehow teaches the brain to slowly adapt to being fully "in the body". I started losing weight, sleeping better, having vivid dreams, etc.
