By David Joel Miller

Does Dissociation really happen? What cause it?

Personally I think there is more misunderstanding around this condition than most other mental health issues. First off Dissociation is way more common than most people realize. It comes in varying intensities; much of it is mild and goes unrecognized, denied and undiagnosed.

Dissociation, particularly Dissociative Identity Disorder has so much stigma around it that when we see it in clinical practice, I believe most clinicians call it something else more acceptable, like stress or Posttraumatic stress Disorder and let it go at that. This leaves people with more severe case of dissociation with less than adequate treatment. 

My view is that milder forms of dissociation are a normal protective behavior for most vertebrates, humans included. Under stress the brain stem engages the “F’s” and takes over the functions of the brain to ensure survival.

Dissociation in its milder…