I honestly thing the fact that I was so heavily dissociated for so long was actually helping to mask my autism because it was helping me regulate my sensory overload. When I started working on recognizing the dissociation, grounding and feeling present in my body, I became less and less able to just dissociate out of reality (at least to the same level of intensity) and, all of a sudden, the world just felt too bright, too loud, too smelly. If I had never addressed my dissociation and worked on getting it under control, I honestly don't know if my ASD would ever have been seen.
There is this dissociative quality to ADHD, particularly as a kid, but still there as an adult. I have this busy brain head that just checks out somewhere. Actually, if you ever listen to the comedian, Trevor Noah, he describes it well when he discusses his own ADHD. Sometimes I like drifting off. My head is always going somewhere during a long, typical drive, for example, but it can get you in trouble when that happens at inopportune times, like during an important meeting. As I reflect back during times in my life I experimented with drugs or enjoyed cannabis, I now realize it was that dissociative, dream-like quality my head was after. Perhaps living in a world too overstimulating in many ways, it gave me this sense of being distanced from it all, like in a dream....safe, cozy, untouchable. Numbness was pleasure. [I am actually very late diagnosed AuDHD]
There's a sensory dissociation. I had a physiological sense of dissociation when exposed to excessive sounds and bright lights, and it caused me to feel like I was floating. In reality, it was just the brain's way of dealing with sensory overload. The psychological dissociation is different. This often comes from emotional trauma. I work with forensic psych patients, and some have dissociation due to severe childhood trauma. This is not the same thing here. I think what Henley is referring to here is more of an existential dissociation that many autistic people experience, in which we question our existence and place in this world.ere's a sensory dissociation. I had a physiological sense of dissociation when exposed to excessive sounds and bright lights, and it caused me to feel like I was floating. Now I realize that it was just sensory overload.
Loved the little disconcerting intro… it’s quite accurate. Ps just got my AuDHD diagnosis today… thanks for being a part of my discovery journey! What you do is good and useful!
Such an interesting topic! For me, it was going to therapy to attempt to address chronic dissociation that led to my autism diagnosis, in my 40s and to my extreme surprise. I was a decade plus into a career as a neuroscientist at that point and had never before considered my own neurotype for even a second, even with all the struggles. Brains are absolutely wild sometimes...
I really like how you visualized the layers of perceptions-and when I had to "be numb" to the environment, it created a much nosier inside. It's been refreshing to finally seeing so much discourse around this without having to dig through esoteric, philosophy, psychological paths to understand the autistic mind. Building these bridges to understand ourselves and our unconscious cultural commonalities, is a path towards feeling like we do "belong". I saw recently a post that "neurodivergence overthinking is just thinking" and that has lingered. Thank you for your time and take on this!
wow I love how you speak so slow and don't use so many cuts like in a lot of other UA-cam Videos for other people. I didn't even notice until now how overwhelmed I can get. And I can focus a lot better on you talking and don't feel rushed!
This brought a lot of awareness into my consciousness. I didn't realize how much I have dissociated out of self preservation. Recovering from CPTSD, in addition to realizing I'm autistic in my mid-30s has been a major integration. I have had anger outburst and experienced exhaustion when overstimulated. I've isolated myself intentionally to better understand , and watching videos like this has helped tremendously. I have often felt out of body and have had to learn how to integrate a lot of disciplines to stay grounded. Never a "harsh/recreational" drug abuser, but have def used cannabis/nicotine to cope/self medicate. With all that being said, thanks for your content bro!
I've got a very vivid memory of the first time I experienced derealization as a child. It was such a strange experience, I couldn't describe it to anyone in a way they understood. As if the world had just... Hit pause. I had jumped right as it started and felt like I was frozen in the air. Everything slowed to a crawl. My vision felt incredibly vivid, but also just... completely wrong. At the same time, it felt like someone had forced some particularly thick earplugs into my ears and I could barely hear. And then it went away, just as quickly as it had started (and I hit the deck hard, being too confused to catch my fall). It was only years and many similar episodes later that I learned what this was. Unfortunately, I'm often left with varying degrees of nausea after, which isn't fun. I suspect that's because it hits my vestibular sense as well, but that first episode was too short for me to notice that. For me, the most likely trigger seems to be a sudden change in visual input, especially if I'm not expecting it. I've had it happen in other sensory overload situations, though. The unfortunate part of this is that I don't usually get any warning - it's pretty much always been as sudden as the first time it happened. However, these episodes don't usually last very long and I can mostly keep it together if it happens in a potentially unsafe environment.
Social isolation in people with autism can exacerbate existing depression and dissociative experiences or trigger dormant ones, which explains why there's a strong relationship between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mental health conditions.
Thank you. After recently discovering and accepting I'm on the spectrum at 45, I feel this has always been my life, I've smoked weed the majority of my life and have pretty much depended on it, I've hit rock-bottom multiple times and lost myself along the way. I feel I am now recently starting to understand who I am better and am currently trying to find out who I actually am. ( I still laugh, talk and argue with my brain. It can be funny as hell but its also my worst enemy at times ). Thanks for every video I've seen, they have all been great. Still one I need to back to though. Sorry for the long mess 🤣👍
This is what started to happen when I was teaching and it alerted me gradually that something was wrong, and led me eventually to leave the classroom in June of 2024. Thanks for talking about this.
Yes! So much, so often. As a kid, it happened every time I was a:bused. It's so often I feel like I'm sitting alone in the cinema, and my life happens on the screen.
This is very relatable and everyone in the medical field should learn from you! Also you are very important to us in the Autistic community but you already know that. Thank you for a great video as always.
I'm not autistic but find this both faciating and confusing which keeps me coming back for more of the autistic world. Thank you Thomas for helping me understand. My great neice is waiting for an assessment and in the meantime I am learning and seeing how it effects her.❤
Far end of dissociation is DID and natural lack of connection and dependence on others. we turn inward in traumatic and high anxiety situations. It's more than one person can handle so we find help. So we find help within.
Sometimes, shutting down inside is the only safe place to hide. I have lived deep inside all my life to escape from controlling people. They are everywhere. There is no physical place of escape.
When I have experienced depersonalisation I get a sense that my self doesn’t fill the space inside my body. I had the feeling several times before I actually learned the name for it.
I distinctly remember 6yo me lying in my bed and inventing the concept of matrix. I came to the conclusion that i am an nps and still can’t shake this feeling off 20 years later
can this be related to changes in perceived time? sometimes i lose track of time or feel like I've slipped through time. feels like it's more than simply having fun/being distracted.
When things are bad, I make up my own world and people who will give me what I need when the world will not. I fully immerse myself in my fantasy world every chance I get, and any interruption makes me extremely annoyed. I know which world is real and which is fantasy; it's just that my fantasy world is more important to me than the real one. Is that dissociation, or something else?
I'm under mild dissociation most of the time, but it was severe for 6 wks after getting COVID. I felt like I was floating in the air over the Atlantic (I flew back home from overseas just prior). People want to see this as only psychological, but mine is very much a product of brain inflammation.
I honestly thing the fact that I was so heavily dissociated for so long was actually helping to mask my autism because it was helping me regulate my sensory overload. When I started working on recognizing the dissociation, grounding and feeling present in my body, I became less and less able to just dissociate out of reality (at least to the same level of intensity) and, all of a sudden, the world just felt too bright, too loud, too smelly. If I had never addressed my dissociation and worked on getting it under control, I honestly don't know if my ASD would ever have been seen.
Having Dissociative Identity Disorder and AuDHD can be a nightmare sometimes, I didn't know there was a crossover between my Autism and my DID
As a child I grew up in a trauma induced family home. Dissociated a lot. Poverty, abuse, and what not .
There is this dissociative quality to ADHD, particularly as a kid, but still there as an adult. I have this busy brain head that just checks out somewhere. Actually, if you ever listen to the comedian, Trevor Noah, he describes it well when he discusses his own ADHD. Sometimes I like drifting off. My head is always going somewhere during a long, typical drive, for example, but it can get you in trouble when that happens at inopportune times, like during an important meeting. As I reflect back during times in my life I experimented with drugs or enjoyed cannabis, I now realize it was that dissociative, dream-like quality my head was after. Perhaps living in a world too overstimulating in many ways, it gave me this sense of being distanced from it all, like in a dream....safe, cozy, untouchable. Numbness was pleasure. [I am actually very late diagnosed AuDHD]
There's a sensory dissociation. I had a physiological sense of dissociation when exposed to excessive sounds and bright lights, and it caused me to feel like I was floating. In reality, it was just the brain's way of dealing with sensory overload.
The psychological dissociation is different. This often comes from emotional trauma. I work with forensic psych patients, and some have dissociation due to severe childhood trauma. This is not the same thing here. I think what Henley is referring to here is more of an existential dissociation that many autistic people experience, in which we question our existence and place in this world.ere's a sensory dissociation. I had a physiological sense of dissociation when exposed to excessive sounds and bright lights, and it caused me to feel like I was floating. Now I realize that it was just sensory overload.
I dissociate when people speak at length without getting to the point, and/or when they are condescending. As I kid I dissociated quite a lot.
Loved the little disconcerting intro… it’s quite accurate.
Ps just got my AuDHD diagnosis today… thanks for being a part of my discovery journey! What you do is good and useful!
Such an interesting topic! For me, it was going to therapy to attempt to address chronic dissociation that led to my autism diagnosis, in my 40s and to my extreme surprise. I was a decade plus into a career as a neuroscientist at that point and had never before considered my own neurotype for even a second, even with all the struggles. Brains are absolutely wild sometimes...
I used to dissociate all the time when I was a child. I think it’s how I survived all of the abuse.
Sadly we have to face a lot of difficult experiences in our lives... I'm sorry to hear that :(
@ I’m 💯 sure I experienced more abuse bc I am autistic.
Me to
@@CircaBEFOREfuck this world
I definitely dissociate when I'm overwhelmed. I never thought about it in terms of autism. Great video Thomas!
I really like how you visualized the layers of perceptions-and when I had to "be numb" to the environment, it created a much nosier inside. It's been refreshing to finally seeing so much discourse around this without having to dig through esoteric, philosophy, psychological paths to understand the autistic mind. Building these bridges to understand ourselves and our unconscious cultural commonalities, is a path towards feeling like we do "belong". I saw recently a post that "neurodivergence overthinking is just thinking" and that has lingered. Thank you for your time and take on this!
wow I love how you speak so slow and don't use so many cuts like in a lot of other UA-cam Videos for other people. I didn't even notice until now how overwhelmed I can get. And I can focus a lot better on you talking and don't feel rushed!
This brought a lot of awareness into my consciousness. I didn't realize how much I have dissociated out of self preservation. Recovering from CPTSD, in addition to realizing I'm autistic in my mid-30s has been a major integration. I have had anger outburst and experienced exhaustion when overstimulated. I've isolated myself intentionally to better understand , and watching videos like this has helped tremendously. I have often felt out of body and have had to learn how to integrate a lot of disciplines to stay grounded. Never a "harsh/recreational" drug abuser, but have def used cannabis/nicotine to cope/self medicate. With all that being said, thanks for your content bro!
@@zenvibrations4688 how do you stay grounded tho constistantly
I've got a very vivid memory of the first time I experienced derealization as a child. It was such a strange experience, I couldn't describe it to anyone in a way they understood. As if the world had just... Hit pause. I had jumped right as it started and felt like I was frozen in the air. Everything slowed to a crawl. My vision felt incredibly vivid, but also just... completely wrong. At the same time, it felt like someone had forced some particularly thick earplugs into my ears and I could barely hear. And then it went away, just as quickly as it had started (and I hit the deck hard, being too confused to catch my fall). It was only years and many similar episodes later that I learned what this was. Unfortunately, I'm often left with varying degrees of nausea after, which isn't fun. I suspect that's because it hits my vestibular sense as well, but that first episode was too short for me to notice that.
For me, the most likely trigger seems to be a sudden change in visual input, especially if I'm not expecting it. I've had it happen in other sensory overload situations, though. The unfortunate part of this is that I don't usually get any warning - it's pretty much always been as sudden as the first time it happened. However, these episodes don't usually last very long and I can mostly keep it together if it happens in a potentially unsafe environment.
Social isolation in people with autism can exacerbate existing depression and dissociative experiences or trigger dormant ones, which explains why there's a strong relationship between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mental health conditions.
Thank you. After recently discovering and accepting I'm on the spectrum at 45, I feel this has always been my life, I've smoked weed the majority of my life and have pretty much depended on it, I've hit rock-bottom multiple times and lost myself along the way. I feel I am now recently starting to understand who I am better and am currently trying to find out who I actually am. ( I still laugh, talk and argue with my brain. It can be funny as hell but its also my worst enemy at times ). Thanks for every video I've seen, they have all been great. Still one I need to back to though. Sorry for the long mess 🤣👍
This is what started to happen when I was teaching and it alerted me gradually that something was wrong, and led me eventually to leave the classroom in June of 2024. Thanks for talking about this.
Arguably one of your best videos. Experience well described. Love the humor!
i like the surrealists part at the stat it draws you in and get the point across
Dissociation was the only thing getting me through school. Thanks a lot for this video!
Yes! So much, so often. As a kid, it happened every time I was a:bused. It's so often I feel like I'm sitting alone in the cinema, and my life happens on the screen.
Never really considered that most people aren't dissociated, now the world makes a lot more sense, lol
Dude, I had this same thing, then I knew I'm not bipolar. That's how I found you all. So happy I did tio
This is very relatable and everyone in the medical field should learn from you! Also you are very important to us in the Autistic community but you already know that. Thank you for a great video as always.
I'm not autistic but find this both faciating and confusing which keeps me coming back for more of the autistic world. Thank you Thomas for helping me understand. My great neice is waiting for an assessment and in the meantime I am learning and seeing how it effects her.❤
I have engaged in maladaptive daydreaming since early childhood. I spend hours a day disassociating. I am convinced it is linked to my autism
I love how you illustrated dissociation in the intro
Thank you! Thought I’d spice things up a little
Far end of dissociation is DID and natural lack of connection and dependence on others. we turn inward in traumatic and high anxiety situations. It's more than one person can handle so we find help. So we find help within.
Sometimes, shutting down inside is the only safe place to hide. I have lived deep inside all my life to escape from controlling people. They are everywhere. There is no physical place of escape.
When I have experienced depersonalisation I get a sense that my self doesn’t fill the space inside my body. I had the feeling several times before I actually learned the name for it.
Ohhhhh thank you for this topic!!! Super actual for me
My basketball coach is the one who noticed this. But I didn’t put a name to it until I got older.
I dissociate everyday all the time
"Is there a connection"? No, there's disconnection
Ayyy I see what you did there 😆
Your comment makes lonely people hurt more
I distinctly remember 6yo me lying in my bed and inventing the concept of matrix. I came to the conclusion that i am an nps and still can’t shake this feeling off 20 years later
My exact situation currently amidst ASD D and physical ailments
can this be related to changes in perceived time? sometimes i lose track of time or feel like I've slipped through time. feels like it's more than simply having fun/being distracted.
I get it just 30 seconds in.
When things are bad, I make up my own world and people who will give me what I need when the world will not. I fully immerse myself in my fantasy world every chance I get, and any interruption makes me extremely annoyed. I know which world is real and which is fantasy; it's just that my fantasy world is more important to me than the real one. Is that dissociation, or something else?
I'm under mild dissociation most of the time, but it was severe for 6 wks after getting COVID. I felt like I was floating in the air over the Atlantic (I flew back home from overseas just prior). People want to see this as only psychological, but mine is very much a product of brain inflammation.
What's the difference between dissociation and meditation?
Intentionally
💚
How long does dissociation goes for? Is it the same as meltdown? I have DPDR for about 2 years now.
Hello Thomas I suffer from Deezociation but other people enjoy my condition
Anyway my question is how do you know you are not in a dream rn?
😊helpful
My basketball coach is the one who noticed this. But I didn’t put a name to it until I got older.