Posted by Ensign Viyara Nazeen (Scientist) in Counsellor’s Office - Thus things continue to unfold

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (CNS) in Counsellor’s Office - Thus things continue to unfold

(snip)

Janna nodded slowly. “It can feel a lot of different ways, and it appears differently for each person, but there’s a name for it. We call it dissociation. It happens when our bodies get so overwhelmed with emotions we’re not able or ready to process in that moment, so the brain does what we can liken to pulling a rip cord on a parachute. It’s an escape and a way of coping in the moment. Our brains want to protect us from big bad scary things, and when we experience trauma, often our own emotions become associated with those big bad scary things. It’s a completely understandable reaction but it’s also one that isn’t helpful to us in the long run, because it separates us from parts of our life that might otherwise be moments of growth for us. Does that makes sense?” she asked, watching Viyara carefully.

~Janna Kingston, CNS

Viyara listened carefully, trying to understand what Janna was saying, while the frown on her face deepened. “I think so,” she replied hesitantly. “But it sounds more like one would feel nothing? But I did feel something, didn’t I?” She was feeling confused. In a way it made sense. Even if she had always tried to pretend it wasn’t there, there had been trauma in her life. A lot actually. So it made sense for her body and brain to try to protect themselves. But why now?

~Ensign Nazeen, Scientist

“The exact way dissociation shows up for is very individual. Some feel a tingling in their feet and feet, a ringing in the ears, a sense of being outside of our body and observing our own actions, feeling disconnected in general to the world around us, loss of memory and or a sense that things are happening and we can’t account for them, numbness… the list can go on and be a multitude of things and it might not always look and feel the same, though in general our particular set of coping mechanisms will reappear when we are triggered in some way.” Janna was watching carefully to see if there were any signs of outwards recognition to the basic list she had given. It wasn’t exclusive but this is where a framework for describing something could help a person identify what they did and didn’t feel.

~Janna Kingston