Why Can I Talk about Horrific Trauma without Emotion?

There are two reasons you might be able to talk about horrific trauma without emotions. One possibility is that the trauma has been processed and no longer causes significant distress. Another possibility is dissociation.

Dissociation is one way the nervous system protects itself from experiences which are overwhelming. It can divide different aspects of an experience (thoughts, memories, body sensations, emotions) and separate them from each other. This can spread out the distress of the event, rather than keeping it in one overwhelming bundle.

An example common to dissociative systems is that a traumatic instance has been stored in pieces. One part may hold the distressing emotions while you hold the memory without emotions. In this case, you are able to calmly discuss the memory, as though you weren’t affected. This matter-of-fact discussion is sometimes misunderstood to mean the trauma has been successfully processed. The presence or absence of emotion is not, by itself, a reliable way to determine whether a trauma has been fully processed.

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
• Why Can Trauma Survivors Feel Disconnected from Their Own Experiences?
• What Can Feeling Emotionally “Far Away” Signal?

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