Lesson 2: Unique Disorders

How Does a Dissociative Disorder Develop?

When faced with overwhelmingly traumatic situations from which there is no physical escape, a child may resort to going away in his or her head. Children typically use this ability as an extremely effective defence against acute physical and emotional pain or anxious anticipation of that pain. By this dissociative process, thoughts, feelings, memories, and perceptions of the traumatic experiences can be separated psychologically, allowing the child to function as if the trauma had not occurred.

Dissociative disorders are often referred to as highly creative survival techniques because they allow individuals enduring “hopeless” circumstances to preserve some areas of healthy functioning. Over time, however, for a child who has been repeatedly physically and sexually assaulted, defensive dissociation becomes reinforced and conditioned. Because the dissociative escape is so effective, children who are very practiced at it may automatically use it whenever they feel threatened or anxious -- even if the anxiety-producing situation is not extreme or abusive.

Often, even after the traumatic circumstances are long past, the left-over pattern of defensive dissociation remains. Chronic defensive dissociation may lead to serious dysfunction in work, social, and daily activities. Repeated dissociation may result in a series of separate entities, or mental states, which may eventually take on identities of their own. These entities may become the internal personality states of a DID system. Changing between these states of consciousness is often described as switching.