#126 PTSD Dissociation: What’s Really Happening in Your Brain

Struggling with trauma/PTSD and need help? Join my private recovery community here and get my 9 best relief tools 100% FREE: In today’s Recovery Secrets Daily Coaching session, Brad breaks down one of the most confusing PTSD symptoms: dissociation. Many trauma survivors feel like triggers come “out of nowhere” — they zone out, disconnect, or lose awareness before they even realize something happened. Brad explains what’s actually happening in the brain during a trigger, why your survival system reacts as if you’re facing real danger, and how dissociation is not a malfunction — it’s protection. Using the “dinosaur brain” metaphor, he shows how the nervous system prioritizes survival over awareness, logic, and memory. Most importantly, this episode becomes a practical workshop on how to reverse-engineer dissociation. Brad walks through step-by-step awareness exercises to help you identify hidden triggers by working backward from the moment you “snap back” into reality. Over time, this builds the awareness needed to catch triggers earlier and regain control. If dissociation feels invisible, random, or impossible to understand — this episode gives you a roadmap. 💡 What You’ll Learn Why dissociation is a protection response, not a failure What your brain is doing during a PTSD trigger The “dinosaur brain” survival system explained simply Why logic shuts down during perceived danger How to track triggers you didn’t consciously notice A journaling method to reverse-engineer dissociation How to build awareness in the moments before a trigger Why fighting your brain makes triggers stronger How to work with your nervous system instead of against it 🧠 Key Takeaway Your brain isn’t broken — it’s protecting you. Awareness is the bridge that turns dissociation from mystery into something you can work with. 🔗 Next Steps

You can listen to #126 PTSD Dissociation: What’s Really Happening in Your Brain online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

#126 PTSD Dissociation: What’s Really Happening in Your Brain is an episode from The Overcoming PTSD Podcast by Overcoming PTSD.

This episode is 45:07 long.

This episode was published on Mar 20, 2026.

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