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Dissociation

Dissociation is a reaction to a traumatic situation, such as childhood sexual abuse, in which a child feels psychologically threatened. Dissociation begins with the child's ability to take their mind away from their body.

Some children repeatedly exposed to severe trauma, for example physical, emotional or sexual abuse - develop the gift of 'dissociation' (a creative survival strategy that enables children to switch off psychologically from the traumatic experience). Over time, however, dissociation can develop into a conditioned response to any stressful situation. Therefore, what served well as a survival technique for a child who was being sexually abused, can become a debilitating condition that may seriously affect healthy adult functioning.

An instinctive reaction to childhood sexual abuse is fight or flight. However, neither works when children are being abused by sadistic adults. The only option left is to freeze, and take flight through the mind. A common initial coping mechanism is to escape the body. It is the beginning of dissociation, which allows a blocking out of an unbearable reality. A dissociated experience can be split up to store the emotions separate from bodily sensations, and these sensations separate from the traumatic event.

When the abuse is over, the original self "returns" and resumes "normal" life, having little or no conscious awareness of the traumatic event that just took place. If severely abused children were forced to experience the trauma they just lived through, the likelihood is they would probably not survive.

Some children manage to split their everyday life from the abusive episodes in order to cope with the reality of what is really happening. They may be seen smiling in family photographs and videos and perpetrators often use such material to prove their ‘innocence’. As sexually abused children grow, their problems usually begin to escalate. The load on their unconscious becomes enormous, and they can become overwhelmed. As some identities stay out more and more, they may begin to take over the child's day-to-day life. If the sexual abuse continues or increases, the original self may stay out less and less and, in time, stop coming out at all. The survivor of sexual abuse is then functioning through identities who "switch" to cope with day-to-day life.