People respond to trauma in a variety of different ways because no two people are the same. Our brains are all very unique, and while some people respond with a type of panic response, others are only able to offer a blank stare and minimal conversation. Perhaps you’ve been through a traumatic event in your life, and you’re someone who responds with the blank expression and the flat tone in your voice. This is known as depersonalization.
What is Depersonalization?
Depersonalization is your way of coping with your trauma. It happens because of dissociation, which is when the various parts of the traumatic event become fragmented and disconnected in your brain. In a sense, it’s like your brain and your body have frozen in time and you’re reliving what happened to you all over again without any type of outward expression.
Depersonalization often happens because, although your brain is responding to one traumatic event, it is being transported back to a time when you experienced a different one. It’s possible that something traumatic happened to you during your childhood. Depersonalization is a coping mechanism or a survival technique that your brain has come up with to protect you from harm. This is regularly seen in people who suffered from some sort of childhood trauma, such as physical or sexual abuse, or even parents who argued all the time.
In a sense, when you depersonalize, it’s as if you have made yourself invisible.
How is Depersonalization Treated?
The challenge that is presented with depersonalization is the fact that the person who is experiencing it is virtually absent from life in general. Just talking about the event doesn’t seem to be very beneficial because that blank state is so easily returned to. Instead, it often helps to use physical sensations to reawaken the mind and the body to what is happening in the current moment.
All too often, people who depersonalize because of their trauma fall through the cracks, in a sense. This is evident in the difference between children who act out because of something that happened to them and children who become withdrawn. Those who act out are given plenty of attention, while those who withdraw or depersonalize are overlooked and it’s assumed that they’re fine.
They are not.
Can you relate to depersonalization? If you can, it’s important for you to understand how dangerous it is for you to continue living that way. You deserve to have a life that’s filled with wonder and joy and excitement. You deserve to be able to live in the present without constantly disappearing because of what happened to you in the past.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be stuck in the past and depersonalization does not have to rule over your life. Help is available to you if you would like to find the freedom you need to heal from your trauma.
I can help you. Please contact me to make an appointment.
