dissociative

Severing conscious awareness

Dissociative describes a psychological state in which mental processes become disconnected from each other or from reality.

In clinical contexts, dissociative disorders involve disruptions to memory, identity, or perception: dissociative amnesia, dissociative identity disorder.

More casually, dissociative describes a detached or zoned-out feeling: I get dissociative when I'm stressed.

The term also appears in chemistry, where it describes compounds that break apart into components.

psychological

depersonalization

Detachment from one's identity

derealizationPerception that surroundings aren't real
fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
splittingDividing into parts

amnesia · fugue · identity · trauma · flashback · compartmentalization · numbing · disconnection · disintegration · alteration

detachment

disconnection

State of being severed

numbnessLoss of sensation
estrangementEmotional separation between people
alienationState of being isolated

withdrawal · distancing · disengagement · depersonalization · out-of-body · unreality · fogginess · autopilot · hollowness · blankness

escape

daydreaming

Idle mental wandering

fantasyImaginative mental wandering
absorptionProcess of taking in
zoning outLosing conscious attention temporarily

trance · reverie · autopilot · spacing out · checking out · tuning out · dissociating · fugue · avoidance · coping

dissociative

depersonalization

disconnection

daydreaming

dissociative

Opposites

Phrases

Categories

Family