Grounding Techniques for Dissociation

Dissociation, derealisation, depersonalisation, are all funny things. The 3D's are a coping mechanism which can be great and horrible. When our bodies and minds are going through crises our brain sends us off into lala land to cope. Unfortunately, later on, it can become chronic. Your brain and body still think you're in danger and once again will send you off to lala land. Sometimes daily, sometimes weekly, sometimes completely out of the blue.

When I say lala land I don't mean being out of touch with reality due to ignorance or a blissful state. If only. No, I mean you struggle to connect with physical reality. There's different degrees of dissociation. In my experience I've had where I don't feel real, I don't feel like a real person, I can't feel my emotions, and I've felt like I am having an out-of-body experience where I am watching myself function. It's pretty horrible and scary if you don't know what's going on. 

Here's more info for dissociative disorders.

So how do you overcome it? I think a big part of it is to recognise it is actually happening and what is triggering your episodes. For this I recommend therapy. Get the help to learn how to identify what's going on.

Other than that, grounding techniques. Grounding techniques are great. You can use them for more than dissociating. I use them for depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and PTSD rage.

There are a lot of grounding techniques and not all of them suit someone. You need to experiment and find out what works best for you. Give them a few tries first too because using grounding takes practice.

What I Do When I Am Dissociating

The first thing I do is check my blood sugar. I've noticed the beginning of dissociating can sometimes feel like hypoglycaemia. T1D life, yo. If you have T1D and have developed dissociation I highly recommend checking your glucose. 

The Five Senses

What it is: Ask your self what are 5 things you see? What are 4 things you can touch? What are 3 things you can hear? What are 2 things you can smell? What is 1 thing you can taste?

I love five sense except I have to adapt it sometimes due to allergies. There's times where I just can't smell anything. I'll add an extra item to sights, sounds, or touch.

I find listing the senses isn't just enough. I also need to answer myself further. I give everything a moment to really notice them. With seeing I study their shape and colour, "What do I see? A brown desk with a wooden grain." To touch I notice their texture and how they feel to me, "What can I feel? The coolness and springiness of my arm rests." With hearing I describe it to myself and listen for a moment, "What can I hear? I hear the rumble of traffic and the wind rustling through leaves." With smell, when I can, I really smell it. If I have to stick my nose in something I will. "What do I smell? The musky scent of bunny rabbit because I shoved my face against one." With taste it can be a little tricky, but it works great when you are making a meal or a cup of tea. I find it works best if I have chewing gum, tea, or another drink on hand. "What do I taste? The freshness of mint from my chewing gum."

It's ok to mix the senses around and to give each a different amount. I found the numbers great when I first began using five senses as it helped me to practice and find my rhythm. Now I adapt it a lot based on what's going on and where I am. Sometimes I will make a tea and go through the senses then. Or I'll make a sandwich and smell all the food. 

The A - Z

What it is: Pick a category and work your way through the alphabet. A is for apple, b is for banana.

I love A-Z too. I love it as a game... *ahem* I used to play it as a kid and I loved it. Now I just use it for grounding. When I first began using it I usually had to go through the whole alphabet and sometimes go through again with a new category. These days I make it to about G and find myself starting to come back. 

With A-Z I can make it harder depending on how far in to dissociating I am or what my trigger has been. Easy of course is food, names, and animals. That's on a good day. Medium for me is countries, colours, and not the obvious ones like D is for Dark Blue. The trick is to not focus heavily on what it is though. You can use grounding techniques to help, but there's a line where the grounding technique can also be a tool to not bring yourself back. More on that later.

Hard for me with A - Z is  not-everyday words, authors, plants and trees, but fortunately I don't have to use hard too often. Usually medium will get me through a bad episode. 

Breathing 

What it is: There's many breathing techniques out there, but I adapted the 4-7-8 technique. Breathe in for 4, hold for 7, breathe out for 8.

Breathing. That old nugget. It actually helps. It's tactile and shifting your focus. What more can you ask for? I use breathing more for panic and anxiety rather than dissociation, but I wanted to include it anyway. 

My alternative to the 4-7-8 is breath in slowly and deeply, hold for however long I'm comfortable for, and then breath out again slowly. Repeat. Usually 3 - 4 times. It can give me a bit of space to get out of my rabbit hole enough to switch to another grounding technique. It's also good when I'm randomly holding my breath. It's not actually random, it's hypervigilance at work and I will catch myself holding my breath.

Adaptive Techniques 

What it is: This is mostly from me and what I've come up with to suit situations I find I am in regularly. 

I don't drive for many reasons, but one is when I am in a car I tend to dissociate. I didn't realise it until last year. Just about every time I'm in a car. One technique I use is literally switching my focus. If I'm dazed and staring out the window I will move my visual focus to the inside of the car and pay attention to the lights and buttons. I'll read the symbols and any words there are, and when I'm done I will sit for a moment before looking outside again (I get carsick). Other ones are making words out of number plates, looking for cars of a specific colour or number plate with a specific letter until I reach 5, and listening to the words of a song.

When I'm out for a meal I will note the colours, the textures, get a flavoured drink like a fresh juice which comes with mint leaves so I can eat them, smell my food and my drink.... touching the table and items is another way, but with covid I don't want to touch any surfaces.... 

I have unfortunately found it quite difficult to implement all these things with success when in a social situation. I can do these things in front of my partner because she knows, but I don't feel comfortable doing it in front of just anyone. That's where practice comes in and with covid I have been less social.

  

Grounding is fantastic. I highly recommend it as someone who has a lot of dissociation and anxiety. However there's times when grounding can become yet another tack to keep you dissociating or, in my case, keep you in OCD and anxiety mode. 

An example is when I look for a certain amount of specific coloured cars. If I focus too much on the number and repeat the process, well then I'm triggering the OCD. With the A-Z I can stuck on a letter and then focus on it to the point where I feel I have to finish the alphabet. For me that is also OCD. I have words in place which I will accept even if they don't match the category. I recognise when I am doing it and I switch techniques or use a backup to alter my focus.

Those are my main ones I like to stick to, but there are many different ones you can utilise. The best thing to do is to find the root cause of why you're dissociating. Grounding is there to help you live your life in the meantime.

For further ideas for grounding check out this article from Sydney Uni. I find resources like this helpful. It has five senses and a few other things.

Thank you for reading 💗