Posted by SLS on January 9, 2001, at 8:41:59
In reply to Re: derealization » SLS, posted by judy1 on January 8, 2001, at 22:57:41
Hi Judy,
> Well, I probably can't let this go by since I'm being forced to confront it now. I know I have experienced dissociative symptoms during panic attacks (which always occur during depressive episodes) that last as long as the attack. I also experience severe dissociative states during periods of high stress that involve self injury.
> It seems that this particular symptom is the one most associated with childhood trauma and is the category I fit into.
Which symptom? The self-injury or dissociative states in general?
It sounds like you are referring specifically to self-injury. That is very interesting (and tragic, of course).
As I said, I know nothing of dissociative disorders. If you are implying that, contrary to the abstract I found, childhood trauma is a necessary link to dissociative states, I think I would like to learn more about it.
One study does not the Truth make.
The association may be valid. Perhaps the "disciplinary" beatings or some other set of events during my childhood that I don't recognize as being especially traumatic may have contributed, along with several other environmental stressors, to produce in me depersonalization and derealization when such would not have occurred without these adverse physical experiences. I would not have made a good candidate for the study I cited because my history regarding abuse might be considered equivocal. I will say this, though. During a recent conversation I had with someone in which I described the details of my physical beatings, I was told that they were indeed considered abusive. I just didn't know any better.
Still, it doesn't *feel* like I was abused. However, I do feel that the beatings acted in concert with the many other dysfunctional aspects of my family life, and the cognitive and emotional confusion resulting from a lack of nurturing and guidence, to help trigger my bipolar depression and probably kindled it to be more severe and treatment resistant that it would otherwise have been.
I read that both depersonalization and derealization are considered to be dissociative states. I know that both often occur in people who seem to suffer from uncomplicated and spontaneous severe depression, both bipolar and unipolar, for which there seems to be no comorbid anxiety disorder, post-traumatic components, or any identifiable history of psychosocial or environmental pathologies. It would be interesting to pursue the notion that when dissociative states emerge in such cases, whether it is the stress and trauma of the depressive experience itself that precipitates these states.
> If anyone is experiencing this, Marsha Linehan has developed a program that has proven efficacy (good luck finding a local practitioner) and EMDR has it's advocates. I guess there is an entire spectrum of dissociation from mild to severe (DID), and the other lesson I learned is not all people who SI are automatically suffering from borderline personality disorder. Quite the mess.
I would still like to gain a better understanding of what dissociative disorders proper are, what causes them, what they feel like, and how they are most successfully treated. I guess I'll just have to do some homework.
:-)
Take care,
Scott
poster:SLS
thread:50957
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001231/msgs/51240.html