Results

The findings of fourteen interviews with trauma and dissociation practitioners culminated in four major themes: the impact of social support networks; dissociation as a coping mechanism; loneliness as a trigger; and, recommended psychotherapeutic modalities and techniques (therapy) for DD populations. To show the process of coding and subsequent analysis and categorization into themes; codes, sub-themes, and themes are included in Table 1 below in progressive order. In regards to the primary research question: What is the perceived impact of loneliness on the use of dissociation as a coping mechanism? The findings, in short, show that there is a two-way relationship between loneliness and dissociation as a coping mechanism, with it being a complicated, non-linear relationship but having impact on one another nonetheless. What most, if not all, participants agreed on was that the relationship was indeed significant in DD patients, stating terms such as loneliness “being the hallmark of the disorder,” and “existential emptiness,” but was occupied with major factors that facilitate its occurrence. The major upholding of the impact of loneliness on dissociation takes place in the three themes outlined above; the lack of social support networks at times can cause negative core beliefs about one’s self to become further exacerbated, which can lead to feelings of loneliness and emptiness to become severer, patterns of triggers to occur faster, and dissociation as a coping mechanism to occur. This is one example of how the first three themes interplay together in DD populations.
Table 1: The results of the research: the four major themes, sub-themes, and codes.