sure sounds like dissociation to me.

Are you taking any meds right now? I would say this is something to run by your psydoc for sure. I know when I was on certain meds I had no concept of time or speed when I was driving, it was really weird. This combined with daydreaming was not a good combination.

All of a sudden I would snap out of it and be somewhere, or not remember how I drove there. Thankfully this doesnt happen anymore.

Sounds all too familiar. I missed my bus stop a few days ago... had a nice walk though

This sounds like me too...except when I snap out I am looking at everything and it is all surreal, like it's an oil painting or something. It is really weird and only restarted this past year...used to happen all the time when I was in my teenage years to early 20's. Glad I'm not the only one.

I do that too. Sometimes I have violent fantasies about fighting back against people who attempt violence against me.

I don't see this as negative, so long as I can confine it to times when I'm not driving or using power tools. I think it's a way of retreating from an unpleasant reality and creating a little vacation for the mind.

I feel all spaced out when I come out of it, like you described.

Are you sleep-deprived? Lack of sleep can cause intense daydreaming, it's a way for the mind to rest and relieve stress...a substitute for the dreaming we do when we sleep, I would guess. It's been well established with research that our brains really do need sleep and dreaming.

The kind of hazing they put residents through in hospitals where they force them to put in long shifts and do without sleep is ignorant and dangerous. There are people who are trying to stop this stupid practice...all it does is cause errors that injure and kill patients.

I used to do this and yes I was dissociating. I would drive for many miles and end up in the most unusual places when I finally came out of my trance. One day (after two years of this) the worst finally happened and I rear ended someone while in this state. Thankfully no one was injured, it was a very low impact crash.
Since that happened I took an action plan of always having a small cooler of bottled water with me at all times. I also played up beat music and had people available to call if need be. (yes not a good idea to talk while driving, but better than driving while in a dissociative state)

Yea sounds like dissociation. I have a long history of having similar problems.

Everyone dissociates at one point or another. Its actually quite common to mildly dissociate while driving.

Thanks for the replies. I have driven a lot in my life. Once from eastern Pennsylvania to St. Louis, MO. I know what highway hypnosis is- this was not that. And I know what waking dreams are too but again this was different. Dreams are not content I have any control or first person part in- they are more like movies. This was like a first person in a video game- did not see my whole body. I had some control in what was happening.

Every time I have snapped out of highway hypnosis I was startled and knew exactly where I was- and it had scared me. Made me think of pulling over right at that moment. This everything that I had see before on the way to work seemed unfamiliar but I still knew I was on the way to work. I just did not connect with what I was doing- felt very strange. Drove the same route yesterday and had no problems with recognizing things at all. I did listen to music and consciously looked at and read road signs. I do not want to repeat the other day. I have a very long commute and can't afford to move closer to work.

I would not be that concerned except for the driving thing... that sounds a little scary to me. I guess meds may be partly to blame though. At certain times when I smell a certain smell or see a certain thing my mind will automatically go back to my childhood.... where my PTSD comes from and makes me very sad and disassociated and it's hard to pull myself back into the present. I guess I would chat with my psych doc about this if I were you. Peace, Randy

I get stuck daydreaming about the future and conversations with the latest perceived perpetrator. I'm not sure if this is dissociation or not. It might be more that I'm trying to anticipate the next move or steps.

I'm often distracted by my thoughts and inner world.

I know I had dissociation when I was a child. I was stuck in a fantasy land most of the time. It was easier that way.

Yes, dissociation. I used to experience this really badly and still do at times, although meds seem to pull me out of it WAY more quickly. I have run off the road a little (hit the kerb and caused $900 bucks damage to my front suspension) because I was lost in trauma-related thoughts and images firstly, and then zoned out which is the physical response to the imagery. Snapped out of it when I hit the kerb, so only wandered off 6 feet or so, but the kerb could have been a tree or a pedestrian so I had to take the problem really seriously. I accepted pretty quickly that I could not drive safely when I was like this... although I did on occasion. Put that down to being a bit suicidal. A policeman who pulled me over told me to get someone to drive me. He was pretty nice actually.

Mindfulness teaches you to be in the moment which is what is required. It takes heaps of practice nbot to let these thoughts and reactions run away. I think a tremendous amount of self-discipline and healing love for our traumatized selves (often in the absence of support) issomething to embrace. Isolating makes the tendency to disaccociate more frequent. Other people help ground us. All the best with this.

Sorry, 'disassociate' I mean... No sleep makes my fingers do other than the brain commands....spacing out at night when the meds wear off still :/ Meh, who needs sleep right?