Coping Mechanisms – Dissociation
What is Dissociation?
A coping mechanism is what you might use to help you cope with difficult emotions. Dissociation is a coping mechanism that is used at the time the abuse is taking place.
It is an adaptive defence in response to high stress or trauma characterised by memory loss and a sense of disconnection from oneself or one’s surroundings.
It can be a reaction to early abandonment, severe sustained pain, near-death experiences and/or prolonged neglect.
What is Dissociation
It is a way in which some survivors (specifically children under the age of 7) survive abuse by escaping mentally while the abuse is happening.
It is the opposite of ‘association’ i.e. when two things are associated, they are in relationship with each other, they are linked and connected. When two things are dissociated, they are disconnected from each other.
It is a response to severe relational trauma in which an individual adapts the survival mechanism of ‘friend, fight, flight, freeze and flop’ and dissociation is the flop response.
What happens when someone Dissociates
The body and the mind seem to separate.
Whilst the body is being hurt, the survivor no longer feels it because the mind manages to “escape” to a perceived safe place.
Different survivors may dissociate in different ways. One example is “leaving” the body and floating on the ceiling over the bed where the abuse is occurring. The individual may even watch what is happening but it is as if it were happening to someone else.
The survivor is able to feel nothing. So even though they may remember aspects of the abuse experience it is as if it happened to someone else.
Observations of Dissociation
An averted gaze; Eyes hidden behind hair; Peeping out; Staring at something intensely;
Drooping or fluttering of eye-lids; Jumpiness; Not hearing you; Things do not add up
e.g. the indivdual functions well in certain circumstances, but collapses in others;
Inappropriate childlike speech, behaviour, feelings and body language; Sudden change of mood.
