Highway hypnosis

I'm new to this site, so if I am not posting on the right board, please let me know, and I will repost.

So I know enough to know that highway hypnosis is a type of dissociation that normal people have, and it's basically where you space out on a familiar route and don't remember how you got to wherever you are. What I am wondering is how deep is normal.

Once, when this happened to me, I came to, completely disoriented twelve miles an hour over the speed limit. A police car was following me, sirens on. Immediately, I pulled off the side of the road. The police officer said he had been following me for five miles. I also didn't realize it was snowing until he mentioned it to me.

I understand that one time doesn't make a diagnosis, and I'm not looking for a diagnosis anyhow. I'm just not really sure what distinguishes normal dissociation from maladaptive/disorder-level dissociation.

It's normal for everyone to dissociate to an extent. The highway hypnosis you mention is a great example of something that happens to most people. You lost time.

Children are particularly prone to dissociation when they are younger due to their own selves still being very malleable. It's natural to an extent for a child to dissociate, or at least that's my understanding. It only becomes maladaptive when the child is constantly dissociating and then continues to dissociate as an adult when it is no longer needed.

Anyone, feel free to correct anything I got wrong.

I agree with LittleRedDogToo. This sounds relatively normal I wouldn't worry about unless you find you have lost time more than at this occasion Bets of luck.

I wouldn't have thought that driving for five miles with a cop car trailing behind you with their siren on, yet not noticing them for the whole duration of that time, is normal? That sounds potentially dangerous to me!

Michiru7422, were you tired, or had you been driving for a long time without a break? I have to make efforts to concentrate when I drive because I get bored and my mind wanders.

with a cop car trailing behind you with their siren on, yet not noticing them for the whole duration of that time, is normal?

I'd say the length of the drive isn't what's so abnormal about it - but yes, the cop car is the reason we said we wouldn't be worried about this one time thing, but if you found time loss elsewhere, we would check it out.

If you're just driving like this and are already dissociated (normally) it might take something to pull you out of it. Depending on where you live, the sound of a siren might not be a "big enough deal" to do this? I'm not sure.. I just came out and I'm kinda tired. But anyway.. Could be a DD, could not - but I wouldn't go ahead worrying based solely on this.

lifelongthing wrote:Depending on where you live, the sound of a siren might not be a "big enough deal" to do this?

Yeah, maybe that could explain our different reactions. Where I live, a cop car with a siren blaring often indicates that drivers need to pull off the road because an oversize vehicle is approaching. Failure to respond for five miles could result in a serious accident.

Yeah, maybe that could explain our different reactions. Where I live, a cop car with a siren blaring often indicates that drivers need to pull off the road because an oversize vehicle is approaching. Failure to respond for five miles could result in a serious accident.

Yeah, here too a siren would indicate a need to respond right now, but I figure if you live somewhere like NY a siren can't really make you flinch every time. But I don't know and I have no idea where OP lives

Thank you for your help.

No, I'm not from New York or any place where I would be used to sirens. Where I'm from, if you hear a siren, you are to pull off immediately. Which is what I did when I came to and found the cop car behind me (and me going so fast and then I pretty much started having a panic attack). But I was still sort of out of it while talking to the police officer - hence me not realizing that it had started snowing until he said so.

I've been more tired before doing that same drive and not had as much trouble staying with it as I did that night. It happened a couple of times on this particular drive where I'd come to and be driving WAY over the speed limit, even after this incident.

Whatever that state of mind was, it was definitely dangerous. I spun off the road not too much later because I couldn't stay with it. The moment I started to spin off, I was knocked out of whatever it was. Everything was fine, and no one was hurt. After getting back on, it started snowing in earnest, and I had no trouble staying with it but... Since then, I've been making more of an effort to stay with it while I drive - checking my speed, etc.

I've had getting-lost-in-thought before, but when that happens, I can usually remember the gist of what I was thinking about or I'm singing along to the stereo or something. At least I've turned on the wipers. But when I came to after this (and other times like this when I'm driving so fast), I just have a total blank for the time, and I wasn't singing either. That was why I wondered...

Okay, good to know.

No one here can really tell you what's going on. I wouldn't take it as proof of DID but I would look into what it could be (dissociation is on a spectrum) it as you're saying it's happened on multiple occasions. Do you have a T you could talk to about giving you a test to check for mental health concerns? Best of luck

No, I think you all were able to answer my question, which is to say that if it were normal highway hypnosis, hearing the siren of the police car should have knocked me out of it. So seriously, thank you for your help.

I do not have a T at the moment, but I'm honestly not in the market for one either. The T I had before basically said she couldn't get a read on me, and I haven't had the gumption to find another. Plus, the other times this has happened, it felt the same, but there was no police car that I should have noticed. So I'm not convinced it HAS happened more than once. I'll be honest and say that I am trying to figure out what's going on with me, but at this point, I'd rather go through everything just by myself and see what I've managed to convince myself of that still sticks at the end of the day. Which is, so far, nothing.