How Do I Know If I’m Dissociating or Having Anxiety?

Anxiety and dissociation can sometimes feel similar, especially because many trauma survivors experience both. In fact, anxiety and dissociation often occur together, making it difficult to separate them completely.

One helpful distinction is that anxiety often involves feeling overwhelmed by experience, while dissociation often involves feeling disconnected from experience. Anxiety may involve fear, worry, tension, panic, racing thoughts, or a sense that danger is approaching. Dissociation may involve feeling detached from your emotions, body, surroundings, memories, or sense of self.

However, the distinction is not always clear. For example, intense anxiety can sometimes trigger dissociation. A person may begin by feeling overwhelmed and then become emotionally numb, disconnected, or unreal.

In many situations, it is not necessary to determine whether an experience is purely anxiety or purely dissociation. It is often more helpful to notice what is happening and identify what support is needed. Understanding whether you feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or both can sometimes provide useful clues about what may help.

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:

• Could This Be Dissociation?
• How to Recognize When You’re Dissociating
• Questions about dissociation
• What Does Dissociation Feel Like?

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