The Dissociative Continuum-Includes Us All...

 Why, then, do we exclude, fear, judge, alienate individuals who are known to be on it?  One of the most obvious reasons is that, because of the stigma, many of those who are ‘doing well’ and functioning are not ‘coming out’ about their disorder.  Therefore, we only hear, or know, about the individuals who are not able to keep the big white flag of (seeming) normalcy flying above their heads. However, the dissociative spectrum is alive and well all over the world, ranging in manifestations such as DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder, formally known as multiple personality disorder) to PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). On the lesser end of the spectrum is ‘everybody else’, and I mean everybody. We all dissociate, as this is an element of having a human brain. Think of driving hypnosis, where you get home but do not exactly remember the drive. Think of when you get so absorbed in a movie that you block out what is going on around you.  
 
People who dissociate ‘clinically’, do so because of a habituation of this typical brain response. These individuals learned to use this tool, at an early age, to manage trauma and adversity. In many dangerous situations, it is safer to dissociate than to react in fight/flight. Children find this an especially true fact, because they are vulnerable and do not hold the power necessary to enact a successful fight/flight in these types of situations.  Also, dissociation looks like compliance, settling down, calming (though it is actually shutting down), and is seen as an appropriate response to an adult who may value these qualities in a child. It can be the most adaptive, available response to the child at the time.  Over time these survival tactics become the primary response to all manner of stressors, unique to each individual, and a habitual state of coping.
 
The media has done great damage to the fairly large group of people higher in this dissociative spectrum. The inadequate, and sometimes dangerous representations of movie and series characters has created additional layers of misunderstanding above an already mysterious phenomenon.  Additionally, the field of psychotherapy does not include adequate training on dissociation when training new providers, often stating historically, that dissociative disorders are ‘rare’ or 'controversial'. It is stated statistically that 2.4 % of people in the industrialized populations in the world meet the diagnostic criteria for complex dissociative disorders. For perspective, 5.9 % of people in the United States are diagnosed with depression in 2021 so far (world population review). 
 
Nevertheless, it is because of this general misunderstanding that the individuals who seek help for their ‘puzzling’ experiences often have a difficult time landing with a clinician who understands dissociation.  The field must improve in its ability to properly train providers in recognizing the signs, at least, and to refer individuals to therapists who can properly pace and treat the unique representations of any particular client. We must get better at realizing that the client is the expert of their unique experience, and the clinician is, but a guide. And us, as the “civilian public” must get better at recognizing the stigmas and at informing ourselves with the truths currently available. These truths will primarily come from the adaptive survivors, whom have been previously misunderstood. 
 
There are a plethora of great resources for those, curious at heart, and a couple are posted below to further explore this subject.  It is an exciting time to be both clinician and client, when our understandings of neuroscience and effective therapies are continuing to merge.  The pandemic may be serving to further break the stigma around receiving therapeutic help as well, as many people are realizing how helpful therapy can be with or without a ‘serious’ mental health disorder. Many on the higher ends of complex dissociating do not frame their experience as a disorder, but an adaptation to a disordered world. Part of being trauma informed, is that we are changing the language that proliferates these stigmas we have held for generations because of our own dissociative tendencies. But, more on that topic later on.  Until then, be well and have a trauma informed day. 
 
https://aninfinitemind.com/resources.html#dissoc
https://www.isst-d.org