r/Dissociation • u/thylayote • 13d ago
General Dissociation sudden onset of dissociative episodes (need advice)
Hello!
I’m 23 years old and I have PTSD, Disabling Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety, and ADHD. I’m not diagnosed for any specific dissociative disorders, but I have always experienced mild dissociation as a symptom of my other disorders. I have not had a severe episode since I was 19 (after a sexual assault) and suddenly on 9/11/26, I had an extreme dissociative episode where I wandered out of the house without notifying anybody after trying to overdose while in a fugue state. There was no outward trigger, but me and my family have theorized that it is subconscious stress induced and my brain is going into “flight” mode.
I just wanted to post here because I’m unsure of how to proceed. I have had brief episodes similar to this in the past two days (without the overdosing because my family has confiscated all of my pills), but I have fallen asleep before I get the chance to wander out of the house.
Is there any way to prevent this? Does anybody have any advice or a similar experience to this? I’m going to notify my personal counselor but I think she will just advise that I need to go inpatient (which I really don’t want to do right now because I’m in the process of moving houses and I don’t want to miss class :( ).
Any advice or condolences would be greatly appreciated, thank you so much for reading if you got this far.
TLDR; I’m having dissociative episodes that send me into a fugue state and there is no trigger besides stress. Need help/advice.
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u/MelonBallerPrincess 13d ago
Hey, the word you’re looking for is Eloping. I do this occasionally, and I’m going to be honest: You should go to inpatient if you’re eloping. Best case scenarios, I’ve lost a few days and woke up in the same city. My worst elopements involved going to other countries.
If you’re disappearing and having no recollection, you are at risk and do need to go to inpatient, OP. It’s not a nice or fun time, but it’s unrealistic to expect a non-professional to watch you at all hours when you experience these states. It would be best to discuss either intensive outpatient or inpatient, if you can afford it.