Let’s Talk about Vestibular Dissociation

Dissociation is a disruption in how your brain perceives information.

If you dissociate, you may feel disconnected from yourself and the world around you. 

 Symptoms include:

Depersonalization (aka: Alice in Wonderland Syndrome)

Described as a feeling of being disconnected from one’s own body as if they are dreaming or not in reality. It can feel as if you are floating away and having an outer body experience.

Derealization

Described as a feeling of disconnection from the environment around you. It’s like looking at the world from a fishbowl perspective.  It can cause delusion and alteration of what’s really going on around you. Hallucinations can occur and take form of seeing lines, colors and lights as well as distortion of space and size of objects around you.

I have personally had some horrific experiences dealing with dissociation and its symptoms.

I remember being in the ER and having to describe to my doctors what I was feeling. This was in the beginning before I was diagnosed and would get flares that would send me to the ER looking like a crazy person.

Every time I would describe my symptoms, they would rush me to the CT/MRI and ask me if I had a history of concussions or seizures.

When I am at my worst my symptoms can take on full hallucinations.

Because of my hyperacusis issue in my left ear, sounds around me, including voices or people talking to me will cause me to almost become paralyzed.

I remember not even being able to write or say my name to the ER doctor that did my intake because I was so confused about reality.

I kept telling the doctor “I felt weird, like I was on drugs.”

It was hard for me to enunciate words and at the same time I would be having a full-blown anxiety attack and vomiting all over the place.

 I looked psychotic.

 I luckily haven’t had an experience like that in a while, however; I do now know how correlated dissociation is with stress.

Sometimes when I experience an extremely stressful moment, I will get small glimpses of dissociative symptoms. It actually happens quite frequently, but its mild and short lived.

Before when I had anxiety, I didn’t experience this, and it wouldn’t produce this type of effect on me.

But for some reason, because of my vestibular disorder, anxiety now affects me in a whole other way.

Symptoms of Dissociation That I Experience:

·       Photophobia

·       Lightheadedness

·       Anxiety

·       Blurred Vision

·       Hyperacusis and Sound disorientation

·       Out of Body Experience- arms feel disconnected from body and face/tongue numb

·       Confusion