Anxiety, Dissociation, or Both?

Anxiety and dissociation often occur together, especially in trauma survivors. This can make it difficult to determine what you are experiencing in a particular moment.
One helpful distinction is that anxiety often involves feeling overwhelmed by experience, while dissociation often involves feeling disconnected from experience.
If you feel overwhelmed, the anxiety section may be most relevant. If you feel disconnected, the dissociation section may be most relevant. If you experience both, you may find information in both sections helpful.
Remember that this tool is intended to provide orientation rather than diagnosis.

Experiences more commonly associated with anxiety

Anxiety often involves increased activation of the nervous system.

Common experiences may include:

• racing thoughts
• excessive worry
• fear of what might happen
• physical tension
• restlessness
• panic
• hypervigilance
• catastrophizing
• feeling constantly on guard

Questions to consider:

• Am I focused on possible danger?
• Am I anticipating negative outcomes?
• Does my body feel activated or keyed up?
• Am I struggling to relax?

Experiences more commonly associated with dissociation

Dissociation often involves disruptions in awareness, connection, memory, or experience.

Common experiences may include:

• emotional numbness
• feeling unreal
• feeling detached from your body
• feeling detached from your surroundings
• memory gaps
• time loss
• conversations becoming inaccessible afterward
• feeling disconnected from emotions
• feeling disconnected from your sense of self

Questions to consider:

• Do I feel detached from my experience?
• Do I feel emotionally absent or numb?
• Do I feel disconnected from myself or my surroundings?
• Am I having difficulty accessing memories or emotions?

When both are present

Many trauma survivors experience both anxiety and dissociation at the same time.

For example:

• overwhelming anxiety followed by numbness
• panic accompanied by feelings of unreality
• hypervigilance alongside emotional disconnection
• feeling flooded by emotion while simultaneously feeling detached from it

In some cases, dissociation may occur because the nervous system is attempting to manage overwhelming levels of distress.

A simple way to think about it

While this distinction is not perfect:

• Anxiety often feels like too much experience.
• Dissociation often feels like too little connection to experience.
• Trauma survivors frequently experience both.

The goal is not to determine the “correct” label for every moment. The goal is to better understand what is happening so you can respond in a way that supports yourself effectively.

Where to go next

• How to Recognize When You’re Dissociating
• What Helps Anxiety, Dissociation, and Both?
• Questions about Dissociation

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