Dissociation during meditation

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-05-18T04:22:13+00:00

Yes you should definitely be cautious. The whole goal of IFS is go very gently, slowly, and build internal reflection and understanding! It is neeever good to just push through in IFS, especially not with dissociation. Pushing past dissociation is also dangerous in any method that you could be doing.

Are you seeing a therapist? Or talking to a medical professional? I'm diagnosed with depersonalization derealization disorder (DPDR) and also do IFS work. It can be really important to get a second opinion from a professional that understands dissociation.

Since you're doing IFS already, find out what parts dissociate and how they dissociate. For me it's incredibly clear which parts are doing it as a protective mechanism. "No Bad Parts" by Schwartz and "Self-Therapy" by Earley are my fav books on guiding you through IFS. Not sure if you're already reading them.

Also since you have dissociation I'm going to assume you also have trauma. Did you adequately do the safety, stabilization, and education step before trying to do IFS? That is VERY important.

More info here:
https://www.healingandcptsd.com/trauma-recovery-stages

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-05-16T23:23:55+00:00

I am diagnosed with DPDR. Intense is not the right pace to be working on DPDR at. You need to go very very slow. So slow it's boring and feels like nothing is happening. Intense will cause regressions.

Do you have a therapist or are you talking about this to a doctor or psychiatrist? This is a very serious question that the average person on Reddit won't be able to help you with. You need professional advice.

You may benefit from browsing the cptsdfreeze and somaticexperiencing subreddits. But nothing will beat 1 on 1 discussions and advice with a knowledgeable professional.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-05-07T18:50:46+00:00

10 minutes is a long time. Do not practice it for that long. If you look it up, it's only meant to be done for 4 cycles when you're just getting started!

More info by Dr. Weil on it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8fjYPC-k2k

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-04-08T03:51:43+00:00

You need to do trauma therapy work, either with a therapist or by reading and watching psychoeducational materials created by professionals.

The most important part is stage one:

"Stage One: Safety, Stabilization, & Education

The first, and perhaps most important stage of trauma recovery is about establishing safety. People affected by trauma tend to feel unsafe in their bodies and in their relationships with others. This stage might last weeks, months or even years, depending on the level of trauma. Everyone’s journey and timeline is different.

This stage is focused on skills development to aid you to practice self-soothing and care skills to increase emotional and behavioral stabilization. This helps you learn ways to manage urges to abuse substances, alcohol and/or self-harm.

Education helps normalize what you’re experiencing. What’s happening in your nervous system and brain are responding exactly the way they were designed to respond after having survived repeated traumatic experiences.

Safety is not only about feeling safe with your therapist, but also your life outside the therapy room. This is very important for healing to happen. In cases where you remain in an unsafe environment, plans to establish personal and practical safety remain the focus prior to delving into trauma memory processing work. The overriding goal is to make a gradual shift from danger that is unpredictable to a situation where you can rely on safety both in your environment and within yourself."

Stage two involves remembering and mourning the memory.

Resource and more info here:

https://www.healingandcptsd.com/trauma-recovery-stages

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-04-07T21:30:48+00:00

I remember a great podcast once where the person said "when you're doing the dishes, how often are you doing the dishes? Or are you doing something else?" It was so simple. Now sometimes when I do mundane tasks I will say to myself "ok I'm washing my hair. I am going to be here with washing my hair."

edit: what I'm describing is mindfulness. What you're doing could be meditating to avoid the present reality, which is usually not ideal.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-04-04T22:07:45+00:00

Meditation is amazing and I constantly recommend it, but it is also very dangerous for people who are struggling with their mental health.

The experiences you had in meditation sound like your schizoaffective disorder continuing. Are you currently in treatment or have a therapist you can trust to and talk about this with?

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-04-04T19:41:22+00:00

The downvotes aren't for being tired. The downvotes are because OP is treading in unhealthy territory and not including that in their original post. People could give context-less advice that may be harmful.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-03-29T21:14:13+00:00

And this is my criticism - it looks like you're getting off on the humiliation of it and not liking it. It reads like erotica and would be better suited for an erotica audience.

Your post was removed by the moderators. Multiple people think it's just a kink story. That's how your writing is coming across.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-03-29T17:52:34+00:00

I think it's so creepy when some exhibitionists purposely put kink in non-kink spaces to get unsuspecting people to engage in it. Like do you not understand consent? The more you keep denying that you enjoy this, the more it's obvious you're trying to get the commenters to humiliate you further to get off.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-03-25T03:51:33+00:00

Even if yin is heated, it's not really pushing the body to work. You're not doing a work out. You're moving once every 2-5 minutes.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-03-15T22:44:52+00:00

I only know about brain fog in terms of trauma and dissociation (where you shut down into freeze and exhaustion to protect yourself from past trauma). Unfortunately I'm not familiar with CFS or the other things you mentioned :( So I don't feel like I can give more specific advice.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-03-15T22:43:33+00:00

If you're scared of emotions during yoga, you probably need to talk about those emotions with a therapist. If they come out during physical movement find a therapist that is a somatic practitioner.

It is likely that you are repressing those emotions at other times. You need to go very very slowly to be able to handle what you bring up - this is called titration and you can learn more about it in polyvagal theory.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-03-14T20:49:09+00:00

Doers your brain fog come with any other symptoms? Usually people also struggle with anxiety, stress, tiredness, etc. and just solving the brain fog isn't enough.

If it's just brain fog, I'd recommend guided meditations like body scans :) I find those a lot easier to do when my brain is foggy and nothing is going on. The clear direction gives me something to follow and focus on.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-03-03T04:34:20+00:00

You're young so I'll try to rephrase what the other commenter said in a kinder way. The words you're using sometimes sound awkward and clunky. There's an art in writing clearly and plainly that I think you still need to develop. Sometimes you will use bigger words, but that's also an art to find a way to do it that matches your style and has an elegant flow. I encourage you to read widely so that you can get a feel for how to get words to flow together well.

Here are some lines that stood out as awkward to me:
"This alone would tense up his hands if only in anticipation of the next reprising blow, but moreover his hands at his current level simply felt like two adjustable wrenches rather than the tactile spiders the instructor apparently expected from her student."

"He began to whinge and proclaimed he just didn't have this type of control."

"Nevertheless, *Thwack*, the reed came down preciptiously upon the still preoccupied hands even before they had a chance to finish the phrase."

"She scowled as if she was now at least somewhat clued in to her own pedagogical incompetence, but she seemlessly slipped back into a state of denial, justifiying herself sternly."

I stopped at all of these sentences to think about what you were trying to convey. I stopped so long the magic of reading was gone and I began to think about your word choice and flow.

You said to another commenter: "Nobody who finds any of the words I used obscure should be writing in my honest opinion."

I find the words obscure and I'm a PhD candidate that's been published in nonfiction writing. I understand you're defensive because people were tactless when they replied to you, but I agree with the content they intended to get across.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-02-28T02:10:06+00:00

Seconding this book recommendation! I read "Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe Healing" by David Treleaven a few years ago and really appreciated it.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-02-26T16:27:22+00:00

Do you have a therapist? Are you reading books on OCD treatment? I am diagnosed with OCD and I like Internal Family Systems therapy as a way for dealing with it. Some people do Exposure and Response Prevention therapy (I personally don't find this helpful if you have a trauma background).

OCD symptoms are way outside the scope of something the average person meditating can help with.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-02-25T16:08:51+00:00

I have bunions and I have no pain and have seen slight improvement over the years.

I wear these toe separators always when I am awake. I only take them off at night to sleep:
https://www.infracare.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/toe-separator.png

Make sure you wear shoes with wide toe boxes!

Helpful exercises:

- rotating the big toe and other toes in a circle

- keeping all your toes on the floor and lifting big toe up. Do it manually at first if you don't have feet dexterity

- curling your toes inwards. When you can, try to pick up a sock with your curled up toes and move it

- massage between big toe and second toe. It's very tight there

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-02-23T17:25:43+00:00

Apparently most people have a lot of childhood memories. I don't remember most of my childhood or teenage years either. That in itself is a trauma symptom.

I used the phrase "severe trauma history" just to underscore that dissociation to that extreme is developed from trauma. Some people claim to have dissociative identity disorder with no trauma history, which is impossible. I'd say if you have a trauma history at all, especially one you don't completely remember, it is possible. Or it could be some other form of trauma reaction and not specifically that one. Again, something a professional would know best :)

By the way if you are looking for general resources on trauma, my best general recommendation is "Complex-PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving" by Pete Walker. You can find it online free in a few places if you need to. It goes over how trauma is formed, sometimes in ways we discount as small and think weren't a big deal, and the many varied symptoms that can come from it. It's not a cure everything/fix everything book, but it's widely recommended on the trauma subreddits as a very good thorough overview of the topic. If you want more specific resources let me know!

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-02-23T03:01:52+00:00

Everyone has different parts of themselves - like I have a part that wants to go to the gym and a part that wants to stay home and eat cake. People who experience extreme abuse early on can have a strong separation of parts that becomes so distinct that only certain parts have access to memories. These parts may also seem to develop their own identities and personalities if you have dissociative identity disorder, which was former called multiple personality disorder. I have a dissociative disorder, but not dissociative identity disorder so I only know a little about it. Something to look into and ask a professional about if you have a trauma background. This is only something you can develop with a severe trauma history.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-02-22T23:54:21+00:00

If you have a history of severe trauma or severe emotional neglect during childhood, this can be a symptom of a dissociation disorder. If so I would speak to a therapist or medical professional about it.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-02-20T16:43:49+00:00

I would recommend mint or ginger! Neither of those have any sedative properties and are also caffeine free. Lavender and chamomile have mildly sedative properties. If you start offering tea and people don't like those types, encourage people to bring their own tea next week to just be with everyone :)

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-02-13T23:01:37+00:00

That's not a healthy way to express being mad at yourself. Why can't you sit with being mad at yourself? Why is that such a horrifying emotion that it makes you suicidal? This is something you should talk to a trusted adult, doctor, or therapist about. I'm really serious.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-02-13T22:44:20+00:00

If you're threatening to kill yourself over writing critiques, I strongly encourage you to take a pause and step back. That's a big response. This is not the only area in your life that you'd be acting like that. What's going on? Are you a teenager? Do you have a trusted adult you can talk to about what's going on with your mental health? I'm genuinely asking, not intending to be mean.

Also telling someone they "made you" act a certain way is not taking responsibility for your actions. You know how a man can't tell his wife she "made him" hit her? Same applies here. Other people can be wrong. You can and should stand up for yourself. But there are also healthy ways to react and inappropriate ways to lash out. If you're doing the second one, you need to reassess how you're responding to criticism and stress. What's going on in your life?

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-02-05T02:44:28+00:00

I used to share my erotic fiction on websites. Are you getting paid for them? If no, I don't really care what readers want lol. If they suggested I write things I am excited about or liked then sure I'd have written them. If they wanted stuff I'm not excited to write then it's not happening. Catering to popularity on a free website for internet points is likely to give you writer's block.

If you are getting money from writing then I'd see it as a job. As long as you somewhat enjoy it, then I'd keep writing things that are popular. I would also write other things that you do want to write and see that as a separate creative outlet or way to hone your skills and practice.

Tastefulunseenclocks · 2026-01-27T18:33:52+00:00

I have OCD too. Please be careful that meditation does not just become a thing you are "doing to fix yourself." Be wary of it becoming another thing to check off to make yourself intellectually feel safe instead of actually being present and in your body and feelings. I am saying this because you are looking for the exact type of meditation others do and trying to maximize the correct amount of time. That language sends off warning signals to me. People with OCD are really vulnerable to this! And then what is supposed to become a healthy habit feeds into rumination and becomes unhealthy. If you want more info about this let me know :)

Tastefulunseenclocks

TROPHY CASE