As a kid I had a rough time growing up. My mother was a mean drunk and to cope I would allow myself to slip into a semi comatose state while still being awake. It made the time pass and made me feel safe. However, this habit is so hard to control. I do it almost all the time and I find it super hard to concentrate. Does anyone have any tips on how I can stay present and stop falling into this void?
How do I stop disassociating from reality due to past trauma?
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Have you tried therapy?
I’ve had to journey through the same.
EMDR helped. Focused trauma therapy such as Cognitive Processing Therapy and Dialectical behavioral therapy helped.
Ketamine helped but there is a huge caveat involved as it can make it worse by making you dissociate harder. It is literally a dissociative anesthetic, and offers dissociation and depression relief as a combination. I needed the depression relief, but the dissociative aspects worked against me by furthering my ability to dissociate and detach when dealing with life. It made everything grey even though depression did this already in its own way. I would advise a great deal of caution and proceed with communication if pursuing this.
Sorry you had to go through that. Nobody should have to. Therapy works and will help you in the long run. But in the short term I read a Tony Robbins book called Awaken the Giant Within (cheesy I know) that legit changed my life. He has a section in there about Neuro-Associative Conditioning that basically teaches you how to rewire habits like this. I’ve listened to the audio book like 100 times and it seriously helped me turn my life around from a path that likely lead to jail or death.
If you’re interested here’s a pdf version I found for free. But I would get the audio book and go on some long walks and listen. Walking will help you avoid the comatose state while you listen.
Wishing you the best 🫡
https://teacherspage.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/awaken-the-giant-within-anthony-robbins1.pdf
Idk man ask a therapist
Trauma therapy. Somatic Experiencing in particular proved very helpful for me. Prior to going into it I was pretty much living in a dissociative state because physical sensations would set my PTSD off.
A licensed mental health professional. This is not something Reddit can solve.
I have an idea what’s going on.
When your physical reality became unsafe, you retreated into the one place that was safe from her: your inner world. Do this so many times, and it becomes automatic. The brain likes to make shortcuts.
Sometimes, conscious effort over the next few days does the trick, but if it’s a constant loop, then there may be a part of you that still believes it’s living under a potential of that environment and is running in the background to keep you safe at all times in case something threatens you again.
If the latter is the case, you need to find the you that exists in that core memory of the abuse and walk them out from the past into the present. If this doesn’t work, I’ll need feedback to figure it out more closely.
Keep in mind that I’m not a mental health therapist and am just sharing what I learned about psychological programming from personal experience. Ask questions if you want to know more.
same boat brother. meditations been helpful. if only i could stick to it smh.