The Opposite of Dissociation is Presence

This article is a Stub. Some notes on this are below, this is not finished/polished by any means.

Switching and dissociation are separate processes that often get intermingled in trauma pathways through the need to switch either during or in preparation for traumatic episodes.

One of the most harmful myths about treating DID is that dissociation is a maladaptive coping mechanism that should be resisted at all costs and extinguished with prejudice. So therapists will try to have us stop switching, and stop dissociating.

There's a difference between avoidance and adaptive switching. The opposite of dissociation is not "sensory integration" or alter integration/fusion, etc. And I'm not sure "the opposite of dissociation" is a healthy goal to start with. No one can be 100% present all of the time, and they're not expected to be. Everyone deserves to veg out, sleep, dream, escape into a book or a game.

Switching is changing mental "thumbprints" between headmates (or alter identities). Switching is not by experience a dissociative process: it is an adaptive mechanism of changing perspectives, activating nervous system pathways, and changing how a client relates to and behaves within the world — not necessarily dissociating from any specific "identity". However, nothing about it needs to be dissociative.

Viewing dissociation and switching as 2 different mechanisms, one goal of treatment can be having less dissociation when switching, more conscious control of switching, and reducing maladaptive switching (such as the flop response).