Meanwhile… 058
Meanwhile… 058
Dissociation… It’s a horrid, fuck of a thing, and also one aspect of anxiety that I personally feel isn’t talked about as much as it should be.
This comic is my attempt to portray just how jarring dissociation can be, and how absolutely unsettling it is when experiencing it, especially if it’s an experience you’re unfamiliar with until it hits you.
Dissociation is an unsettling feeling of being displaced, be it emotionally or even physically. It can quite literally feel like your perception and sense of self has been skewed and rearranged, leaving you fragile and lost.
When I first suffered dissociation at the age of 19 it absolutely left me broken and confused. I had no idea what it was that was happening, and so I called it “having Camera-Head” wherein I was so aware of my inner self being disconnected, and yet at the same time trapped, from and within my physical self - as though the world was being viewed through a lens that wasn’t mine. It was such a prominent part of the mental breakdown I experienced at that age, and with Autism being such a narrow and misinformed pigeon-hole at the time, that I was mistakenly diagnosed as being Schizophrenic, something that saw me wrongly medicated for a year and a half, exacerbating the anxiety and dissociation.
Back then, I had no context for something that I now more easily recognise, and like with other aspects of anxiety, understanding what you’re experiencing is the first challenge in trying to overcome it, to make it through to the other side of calm and balance to ground yourself.
Anyway… this is my own contribution towards trying to raise more awareness of it.
Dissociation, it’s a thing.
And it’s a lonely, frightening, unsettling thing if you ever suffer it.
But please know that you’re not alone. There are others, like myself, who understand.
Hold on to that if you can when it feels like all else is out of your grasp.
And remember to breathe.
-::-::-::-
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