Dissociation

[Anzee]

Hi all, I am having a lot of trouble with dissociation at the moment, it’s chronic and is leading to frequent panic attacks. I am currently going through court (not my decision) and things have been extremely stressful with that and my daughters have now been allocated lawyers also, but I can’t find any info on the children’s lawyer they have been allocated and I haven’t had great experiences with lawyers or registrars through the family court system so I was really hoping I’d be able to find some info on their lawyer just to help alleviate some of their anxiety about it all, and I think not being able to find any info on their lawyer at all is causing severe stress for me which is leading to chronic dissociation and panic attacks. I have a therapist I see once a week but my apts are on fridays and I’m feeling like I’m really struggling in that time between so I’m wondering if anyone else suffers dissociation along with their panic/ anxiety?

[jaz28]

Hi Anzee,

I am sorry you are going through this, it must be hard for you. I personally have no experience with disassociation, but I am glad you are seeing a psychologist - although it is hard in between, I hope you start to see improvements soon. Have you spoken to your therapist about struggling in between? They might be able to give you some strategies to help with this.  I hope everything goes how you hope in court too.

All the best and hugs,

Jaz xx

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Anzee,

Welcome and it's hard to hear how much of a difficult time you are having with the courts and lawyers.  I imagine that would be stressful for anyone let alone someone with experience of trauma.

I do experience dissociation at times but it feels different to my anxiety - my anxiety tends to be quite wired and a busy brain where as dissociation is at different times and zoning out a bit.  Do you have grounding techniques that you use or other strategies that help you cope?

I'm not sure if you've ever heard of it before but FASS (Family Advocacy and Support Service) could be worth looking into.  They have one in every state and the support workers in particular could be really useful in navigating the system and getting information about your daughters lawyers? I've linked to the resource below- 

https://familyviolencelaw.gov.au/fass/

Hope this helps.  I agree with Jaz too in having a chat to your therapist about strategies to use during the week.

rt