Dissociation Is Not the Coping Mechanism It’s Assumed to Be

On social media, it seems a lot of people are dissociating right now. The term is widely used, often as analogous to zoning out, as a way to distract oneself from the troubles of the world or their personal situation. It’s widely thought to be a coping mechanism, useful in times of stress.

But to psychological scientists, dissociating refers to something more extreme. An article in Clinical Psychological Science highlights that most adults experience little to no dissociation, though it is frequently reported in clinical populations, particularly people with dissociative disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and borderline personality disorder. 

Patients describe feeling overwhelmed or not knowing what is happening. Their surroundings may feel off or they may have strange physical sensations, like they can’t move their limbs or feel outside of their own body. Sometimes it’s their mind that feels off: They blank out or have trouble concentrating.

Johannes B. Heekerens, a clinical psychologist at Mannheim Central Institute for Mental Health and one of the authors of the paper, said there’s a spectrum of dissociation.

“It’s a dimensional phenomenon. It may start as zoning out and then, on a more extreme level, you have something that really impairs and you can’t concentrate,” he said in an interview with the Observer.

However, he said, there are others in the field who disagree and believe there is a clear difference between pathological and nonpathological dissociation. A lot remains unknown about dissociation; it’s why Heekerens became interested in the topic in the first place. During his psychotherapist training, when he asked his advisors what was going on with his patients who dissociated, he was left with more questions than answers.

“It’s a fascinating phenomenon because nobody really could explain to me what it is, at least not something that really satisfied me as an explanation,” he said. 

Dissociation is widely assumed to be a coping mechanism that helps regulate distressing emotions and dampen physiological reactivity.

The theory is that if a threat is perceived and fight-or-flight is impossible, then the mind disconnects from the situation and shuts down any mental processes that may interfere with survival. Arousal decreases, leading to emotional numbing, a slower heart rate, and lower blood pressure.

However, there’s limited evidence that dissociation leads to reduced negative affect, and the results from physiological tests are mixed. To address this, Heekerens and colleagues examined affect and physiological responses after episodes of dissociation in people with borderline personality disorder, PTSD, or depersonalization/derealization disorder. Measurements were taken bone during their daily lives—by phone prompts and portable electrocardiogram recorders—and following a stress test in the lab.

The results, reported in the upcoming article, show that although dissociation was closely associated with negative affect, it did not lead to decreased distress.

“It did surprise us,” said Heekerens. “That’s what I learned the function of dissociation is, and we don’t really see this function play out clearly in everyday life.”

Furthermore, physiological markers of stress such as heart rate, blood pressure, and salivary cortisol did not change in the predicted way. For example, rather than dissociation slowing heart rate, it elevated heart rate.

“There’s a prominent idea that dissociation slows us down and it’s this fight, flight, or freeze response, and the freeze is the dissociation,” said Heekerens. “We really did not find any evidence in support of that.” 

If dissociation doesn’t help reduce stress, why do people do it? Heekerens had two theories. The first is that it is helpful during very acute stress. In intensely traumatic situations, people may learn it as a response to remove themselves from the moment.

“During trauma, maybe then this disconnect does have this function, but if you do that repeatedly in daily life, it kind of loses this function,” said Heekerens.

Alternatively, there may be no purpose, but it’s more of a system failure in response to becoming overwhelmed. 

“Maybe it’s kind of a shutdown mode,” he said. 

Heekerens would encourage therapists to work with their patients to try to end their dissociation episodes, as they seem to do more harm than good.

“There’s no benefit for reduction in negative emotions, and that’s quite informative, I think, for dissociation in a clinical sample,” he said.

For others who do not have clinical diagnoses, it’s a different story. 

“A lot of people would say, ‘I zoned out. Oh, I disassociated briefly.’ I hear students say that and what they mean is ‘I was not paying attention,’” said Heekerens. “I think it can be useful in some situations. It’s distraction.” 

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Reference

Heekerens, J. B., Gross, J., Kreibig, S. D., Ober, H., Eichentopf, R., Dittrich, T., Lebovitz, J. G., Hellman-Regen, J., Winfenfeld, K., & Röpke, S. (2025). Does dissociation have an emotion regulation function? Evidence from daily life and the laboratory. Clinical Psychological Science.