# Learned Helplessness - A Cause of DP?



## Davidm (May 15, 2010)

When you're in a conflict/crisis with no foreseeable resolution...
When your early caretakers(parents) invalidated everything that was you...
When a sociopathic neighbor plays loud music all night and you have to get up early for a job interview...
When your home is being foreclosed...
Everyone has a breaking point - yet with DP, only a certain part breaks, or goes numb(psychic numbing) while the rest of you goes on. Did we learn this response early in life?


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## kate_edwin (Aug 9, 2009)

It's part learned, but dissociation as a responce is deep in your dna and your primitive brain


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## Guest (Nov 27, 2011)

kate_edwin said:


> It's part learned, but *dissociation as a responce is deep in your dna and your primitive brain*


Kate, can you expand on this in detail/links/research? A new thread for this topic could be a good idea. This is the kind of thing I am interested in.


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## kate_edwin (Aug 9, 2009)

I can get some links when I get to an actuall computer (on my iPod) but
look up Peter? Levine , trauma and tiger, google if and his books should come up, he goes into how it's an animalistic defense mechinism and the parts and systems of the brain and body involved


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## Guest (Nov 27, 2011)

kate_edwin said:


> I can get some links when I get to an actuall computer (on my iPod) but
> look up Peter? Levine , trauma and tiger, google if and his books should come up, he goes into how it's an animalistic defense mechinism and the parts and systems of the brain and body involved


I really think you should make a new topic for this subject alone.


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## Felicity (Feb 7, 2011)

If a person is truly helpless, but believes they know why, they will not suffer dp. It cannot happen, because that experience is consistent with their ego. The opposite experience, that of total control, would for them shatter their ego and perhaps cause dp. Make no mistake, dp is a kind of ego-dissolution. With a fragmented ego, the normal filtering of sensory data into a consistent psychological framework just doesn't occur. You experience things but do not subconsciously explain them to yourself, and so are stuck in a kind of "not knowing"; seeing without recognizing, hearing without contorting into specific symbols. It will seem alien, only because all your conscious life you've used this subconscious mechanism to interact with the world. With dp, your conscious mind takes over, but it will not be able to do so as fluently as the subconscious as it is inexperienced, and every act will then on seem to require your full attention. Concentration is actually not normal without the co-operation of your subconscious beliefs, your conscious mind is linked directly to the real world and so can be distracted by anything. Hence, the not being able to tolerate crowded places and certain lights and sounds.

Dp is IMO an estrangement from your subconscious beliefs, incidentally through which you also experience the emotions associated with abstract concepts. For example, thinking of family normally evokes memories and themes of family, which are linked instantaneously to your present experience of being with family. This association creates an emotional bond. Take this belief, this abstract concept of "family" and the memories tied to it away, and all you have is the sensory input, and that will feel radically different.

There's probably a genetic tendency for developing these disorders too, as well as a history of conditions which perpetuate the "not knowing". Ego is based on knowing, you see, and being right and acting on that feeling. It thrives on acting on correct beliefs. Uncertainty causes it to fragment, experiences greatly different from the norm force a reconstruction of its foundational beliefs. The incessant need to learn all about dp is linked to this - through understanding, the ego is able to reform, and through it new data can again be filtered, which can lead to recovery.


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## rightwrong99 (Apr 17, 2011)

Felicity said:


> If a person is truly helpless, but believes they know why, they will not suffer dp. It cannot happen, because that experience is consistent with their ego. The opposite experience, that of total control, would for them shatter their ego and perhaps cause dp. Make no mistake, dp is a kind of ego-dissolution. With a fragmented ego, the normal filtering of sensory data into a consistent psychological framework just doesn't occur. You experience things but do not subconsciously explain them to yourself, and so are stuck in a kind of "not knowing"; seeing without recognizing, hearing without contorting into specific symbols. It will seem alien, only because all your conscious life you've used this subconscious mechanism to interact with the world. With dp, your conscious mind takes over, but it will not be able to do so as fluently as the subconscious as it is inexperienced, and every act will then on seem to require your full attention. Concentration is actually not normal without the co-operation of your subconscious beliefs, your conscious mind is linked directly to the real world and so can be distracted by anything. Hence, the not being able to tolerate crowded places and certain lights and sounds.
> 
> Dp is IMO an estrangement from your subconscious beliefs, incidentally through which you also experience the emotions associated with abstract concepts. For example, thinking of family normally evokes memories and themes of family, which are linked instantaneously to your present experience of being with family. This association creates an emotional bond. Take this belief, this abstract concept of "family" and the memories tied to it away, and all you have is the sensory input, and that will feel radically different.
> 
> There's probably a genetic tendency for developing these disorders too, as well as a history of conditions which perpetuate the "not knowing". Ego is based on knowing, you see, and being right and acting on that feeling. It thrives on acting on correct beliefs. Uncertainty causes it to fragment, experiences greatly different from the norm force a reconstruction of its foundational beliefs. The incessant need to learn all about dp is linked to this - through understanding, the ego is able to reform, and through it new data can again be filtered, which can lead to recovery.


Interesting theory.


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## kate_edwin (Aug 9, 2009)

I don't think knowing why you're helpless would stop dissociation , like if someone in a car accident, you can see it coming but your mind still cuts you off from the experience


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