#mentalhealth #trauma #panic #anxiety #adhd #stress

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Better get your tears in two ways to kiss. Dr. Judith here. So, a lot of people experience zoning out. Think about it. If you've ever been in a car driving and you're like, "Oh my gosh, how did I get home so quickly?" Or if you were ever in class and your mind was wandering and you were not paying attention to anything around you. These are all forms of mild dissociative symptoms. Now, some data suggests that somewhere along the lines of 75% of all people will experience a dissociative symptoms, but half of people will report something called derealization and depersonalization where you feel as if you're not even a part of the situation.

[00:00:39]Some of my patients will say they feel like they're floating above the room or they just don't even feel their body.

[00:00:43]They feel like they're somewhere else.

[00:00:44]So, these are common experiences. The data suggests that certain things like excessive social media use can cause this. Like think about it if you're ever looking at your phone and you're like your eyes are getting wider and you're like where'd the time go? Or in other cases if you're in really stressful situations there's a really strong link between trauma and dissociation. So that's your body's and your brain way of protecting yourself from a very stressful situation by like detaching you from it. The problem is that when some people dissociate and they forget huge chunks of time, it can create a lot of stress for them. It can also cause stress in relationships because you don't remember what happened and the other person gets upset because you don't remember and so it can be very confusing. It's also important to know that you can do certain things to decrease your risk of dissociative symptoms such as taking mental health breaks, taking time away from your screen, literally going out and touching grass because grounding tools and sensory tools and helping your body to stay present in the moment rather than floating away because you're on screens.

[00:01:42]All these things can help you to decrease the risk of dissociative symptoms. Have you ever zoned out or experienced anything like this?