If you have ever looked at your body or seen it in a mirror and felt like it isn’t yours, that can be a deeply unsettling feeling. This is a form of dissociation called depersonalization. Depersonalization is experienced by many trauma survivors and can be a diagnosis of its own. With DID, the body may not feel like yours because it looks different than the body you have inside. Or it could be a much older body than you experience having or a body with a different gender than you identify with. These experiences happen because dissociation can create a sense of distance between your awareness and your physical body.
This page is part of the What Is Dissociation? section of the CommuniDID site, which explains how dissociation works and why it develops.
Explore related topics:
• Questions about dissociation