Health Dissociation and psychedelics

[BenzosBudOrBooty]

Anyone else dissociated because of childhood trauma or any trauma and later took psychedelics to treat it?

I had absolutely no insight at 18 because I was in a very dissociative state of mind. I’ve been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder but I’m thinking I might just have dissociative PTSD. I started dissociating at 14 and it was VERY intense until at least 19.

Well the point is at 18 I started smoking weed and it helped my disassociation greatly. At 19 I tried LSD and even though I didn’t know what I was treating it helped this anxious depersonalized feeling that I was elsewhere at all times. It connected me to reality. Unfortunately I had a horrible trip the 9th time I did acid maybe partially due to mental health problems and partially environmental reasons but it still really helped this dissociating even though the bad trip caused other issues.

Today I’m 35 and I feel I don’t dissociate at all anymore. I do credit psychedelics in assisting me in overcoming these symptoms. I always said psychedelics brought me into reality. My mental health isn’t perfect but it’s an entirely different experience than it was when I was a teenager or early 20s.

I assume DID is more permanent and can’t be fully removed plus it was caused by more severe trauma earlier on. But I still had a serious trauma at 11 years old that caused me to dissociate for a while. I never really had full on amnesiac memory problems. But you can say alters and disconnected from reality to be in another world for a while.

 

[Pissed_and_messed]

Yeah I developed severe persistent low-level dissociation eventually for various reasons, including trauma and depression, and combined effect of psychotherapy and LSD/shrooms started a path that eventually led to satisfyingly resolving most of issues. I still can react with dissociation to severe trauma triggers and shit, but it is a lot better now.

I mean, I still have some issues, but I am past the point where my mind tries to chronically protect me in such primal way, preventing me of processing issues.

 

[BenzosBudOrBooty]

I should’ve mentioned I’m on 100 mg naltrexone and 1.5 Vraylar too so it’s probably not just psychedelics!! I had a minor dissociative episode last summer but it’s been a year since I’ve felt much at all of these symptoms. It feels like it’s a thing of the past. Maybe if I’m triggered it’s come up again but ya it’s much better like you said

 

[someguyontheinternet]

dissociation is a very common symptom of PTSD I've experienced it myself as well as everyone I've spoken to with PTSD

the serotonin system, which is the dorsal raphe nucleus, has some really important regulatory roles. one of these roles is to provide regulation to the locus ceruleus which houses the cell bodies for (nearly all?) noradrenergic neurons in the central nervous system

the noradrenergic system (or NE for norepinephrine) is another regulatory system which has roles in maintaining attention as well as projections to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) which is heavily involved in responses to fear and pain

changes in these regulatory circuits impact how we interpret and react to certain stimuli that may be similar to that which caused the PTSD

thankfully now that we understand these systems a little better we can now use targeted therapies, one of the better ones for managing hypervigilance, anxiety, and dissociation are SSRIs because they help to stabilize the DRN<->LC regulatory circuits. for me this took around 1-1.5 years of being on an SSRI

of course you mention psychedelics, and they can actually have similar circuit level mechanisms for the reduction in anxiety, hyper vigilance, and dissociation

based on my current understanding of this relatively new research, one of the changes is a reduction in 5ht2a receptors which are associated with anxious behaviors

of course there's a lot more going on but psychedelics are currently being heavily studied for treating PTSD and a few other mental health issues but it is very likely that you're correct that psychedelics have improved your dissociation

I'm glad you were able to improve your life!

 

[Esperighanto]

Brain damage from a surgery that went awry at the age of 13 left me with severe dissociation that I didn't even realize I had until I was maybe 16-17, but it got better with cannabis use, and then permanently went away around age 22 when I began using psychedelics.