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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   828 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 17, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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Why is there a psychological/clinical concept or coping mechanism known as Dissociation, but as far as I can tell no 'opposite' concept? I guess hyperfocus is a thing but its not really what I'm talking about.

I ask because while I can't say that I've never dissociated in my life, the vast majority of my experience of life is basically the opposite of that. I've been present for and fully sensitive to most everything going on, perhaps overly so. If I'm feeling depressed, I'm still feeling it as 'myself.' Ditto fear, anxiety. Sometimes I have 'brain fog' but I still don't tend to feel like I'm "apart from myself" or just nonpresent, that's just viewing things through a blurry lens.

Seriously, what is the psychologically 'opposite' concept for when a person feels more 'present' and 'integrated' and 'aware' of themselves and their surroundings than usual?

Hypervigilance?

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