How do I stop catastrophizing when I'm having a bad dissociation episode?
I can deal with mild dissociation pretty fine and it doesn't bother me that much but I occasionally have episodes where I dissociate really badly and I start thinking about how I'll never be myself again and that I'm about to develop an alter and and and. My usual attitude and experience with recovering doesn't help at all in times like these because I just lose my true self.
Relaxing then feels counterproductive because it feels like giving in and just letting the dissociation take over but sometimes I just can't resist it...
Posted Mar 27, 2018, 5:16 PM UTC
77
Take a walk. Get out of the house. Connect with nature. Do small mindfulness exercises while you walk. Consciously refuse to indulge those catastrophic thought patterns, instead replacing them with mindfulness and positive appreciation for your life.
Ok I'll try that next time, thanks
What usually works for me when I fall into a catastrophic state like that is verbally identifying and shutting down my critic. I usually end up saying something like “you know what critic? All you’re doing right now is mimicking my mother’s verbal and mental abuse patterns and I’m sick of it. I deserve better than this. Go away.” Lol
Yeah that works for me in flashbacks but in bad dissociative episodes where I completely lose myself it's just way out of control. I don't know why but they usually happen when I allow myself to relax after a stressful period of events.
Well that’s good that you’ve noticed that it usually happens when you relax. That implies that it’s related to relaxation somehow. Maybe you have an internalize core belief that you aren’t allowed to relax or you don’t deserve to. Being conscious of that can give you more specific ‘ammo’ to use against your critic in the moment.