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Dissociation? Distress from Intrusive "Neutral" Memories?

Orthrus June 15th, 2021

This is something I have struggled with for some years and it's one of those things that I never really discussed in detail with a therapist, either due to the fact that Bipolar can have so many different nuances or that I didn't know how to verbalise what I experience.

This happens most notably with social interaction, in that after wards, I would get intrusive "memory flashbacks", even weeks after the social interaction sometimes, similar to what you would get from a car accident or traumatic event. However, the memory flashback is not either excessively traumatic or traumatic at all to begin with. It can be very simple things like something I said, the way I greeted someone, a action and/or even decision. It doesn't even have to be social, I only mention the social aspect as it's the most intense with social interactions.

Is this dissociative, as during the moment that I have the "flashback" I feel literally as though I am in the moment and feels like I'm having 'hindsight' anguish and distress over the memory even when there is no call to be distressed and it lingers for some time afterwards and I have to battle to not keep going down the "rabbit hole" of overthinking and rumenation. I have tried acknowledging it, ignoring it, proving it wrong, suppressing it, but it just replay's again after a while till it somehow "resolves" itself or gets replace by a different memory.

As of late, with the passing of my dad, it's been becoming increasingly unmanageable, potentially from the additional emotional stress perhaps? Either way, I want to ask if someone can relate to and/or can explain what I experience and whether it is generally something that one experience with Bipolar or something alltogether different. I've been diagnosed since 2008 and am on medication, but just always thought of this particular aspect to be just another symptom I have to manage/live with. It's just getting extremely hard to do so.

2
StMary June 17th, 2021

sounds tough im sorry to hear that

Orthrus OP June 18th, 2021

Just realized I used "Dissociation", but that's not what it means ... my brain sometimes like to jumble things up. I can't recall what the word is to describe what I meant either indecision