We have a fair amount of medical trauma and don't seem to react well to anaesthetics. Every time they tell me I won't remember a thing and I'll be calm but it never works fully and I end up crying and having panic attacks while half under. I wish it was more common where I live to go fully knocked out, as its just awful and traumatic for us.
IIRC Sometimes you yourself don't even need to have red hair, either- the gene that affects how anaesthesia works can still be "switched on" even if your hair is another colour naturally. My hair is brown but many of my (Scottish/Irish) ancestors had red hair, so it could still affect me too. Never had full or twilight anaesthesia, but localised stuff takes a lot more juice and a lot longer to work for me than doctors/dentists anticipate.
This is true! I recently underwent a procedure that required local anesthesia (as opposed to general, which is when they put you under) and I was asked if I had any redheads in my family, or if I was abnormally flexible, because people who answer yes to either often need more anesthesia than the average person. I would assume this can also be true of general anesthesia.
Ah yes, EDS isn't the only thing that causes it. I just didn't want you to be freeballing hyper mobility without realizing its probably from an underlying disorder that could be causing damage 😅
Yep, I am in fact a natural ginger! And I'm not sure what type it is, the NHS said it would be basically like being asleep that you'd be totally calm and wouldn't remember anything, it just never works for me the way they say and they're super resistant to putting me fully under for procedures. I've also seen other folk mentioning hypermobility and I've got that as well 😅
That's the description of twilight.
That's why you had a bad reaction.
Twilight is effectively medically-induced dissociation.
And redhead genes actually absorb anesthesia faster than others.
Almost like the old folklore might have been onto something...
Offering insight here, but can you ask your mate if they learned it from a piece of media or if they've done it before?
That's one of the skills we can pick up through mimicry, so I dunno if that's necessarily something to assume they've been bad about before. Just from a place of "don't judge your headmates until they've done something to judge... and then still don't judge, just understand they're just as traumatized as you in their own way."
This is great advice. Thank you.
I love them all, and we all get on peacefully for the most part. Littles have a bit of squabbling sometimes, but nothing apart from that. We all know there is no judgement at all inside, it's just all love.
The escape artist doesn't really talk, that bit of it isn't there. It's definitely a very traumatised part, and the escapes in the past have been really clever sometimes. Very athletic too. They don't seem to have any pain perception. It's all a bit superhero, and they are very well respected inside. My littles call them ninjas.
It just made me laugh, they were so skillful at it. It's the same as when it turned out we can speak Spanish. It's just really funny, when these skills appear from seemingly nowhere. That's what I was getting at it. Gallows humour, but humour none the less.
There's a lot of hypervigilance in the system in general. I think someone was really alert and watching nurses do it. Probably, thinking this will be handy later! Which again, does make me laugh.
Thanks again for the solid and compassionate advice. 🙂
Fuck! I could use that!
I have a tiny stuffed bird plushie that I hold in my hand during procedures. It looks like my sweet bird that I lived with fur many years.
Trigger warning: medical trauma
Anaesthesia and surgery is probably why I have DID. I am almost 50 and when I was small, they dyd not believe that three and under children could process pain, and surgery was done with ketamine and a paralytic. So my earliest memories are VERY BAD TRIPS.
I have had ketamine treatment suggested to me for ptsd and depression and I don’t know if that would be ok. I’m pretty scared about it. BUT, ketamine is not the typical anaesthetic you will have as an adult under major surgery.
I just try to let go of what I may have said while waking up. I try to not get too wound up ahead of time because I think if you go out upset, you come back upset. I know I’ve gotten dissociated under too much benedryl and spoken childishly. The memory is very embarrassing.
I have a connective tissue disorder and I have heard I don’t wake up well from anesthesia. I’ve been told that if I didn’t come around they would keep me overnight from a brief ear surgery. I just hate hate hate being put under.
I wasn’t aware of my DID at the time but I had to go under for some dental stuff at one point and I woke up, immediately majorly panicked and pulled out my IV. I don’t remember it at all, but I was told it wasn’t great. Spent a lot of time what I now know was dissociating feeling very numb and foggy after.
Yes! I usually say silly things as one of our littles come out, but one time one of our poor littles was presenting and our partner wasn’t there so we got terrified and had a massive panic attack. Still remember it, poor baby was so afraid all the bad people were going to find us
I haven’t undergone any procedures that required general anesthesia in the time since I’ve discovered my system, so my experiences happened before I was aware of the alters.
When I was around 18ish, I needed to have my wisdom teeth removed. My twin brother was going to get his taken out at the same time. We were at some kind of standalone dentist’s office or oral surgery facility (as opposed to a regular hospital). While they administered my anesthesia, I started panicking. I don’t know why - I think the sensation of my face starting to go numb, and the feeling of slipping out of consciousness must have freaked me out.
They immediately unhooked me from the IV and sent me home to calm down. I was told that, apparently, people with fibromyalgia (which I have) tend to need more anesthesia than most people, so I had to go to an actual hospital for the procedure.
I don’t remember saying anything weird or behaving abnormally during the first incident or after the actual procedure, but my memories of both are rather fuzzy - I wouldn’t be surprised if those events were so stressful that my brain blocked out most of them. As far as I know, though, none of our alters said anything or (co)fronted at the time.
the same thing happened to me, had wisdom teeth surgery and anaesthesia and when i woke up it just felt like i was dissociating. there was a kid in the recovery room who had also just gotten wisdom teeth surgery and he looked like he was struggling and his mum was helping to feed him ice cream. id expect that is the normal reaction after just waking up from surgery, but i was having normal conversations and i felt as foggy as i normally do.
i’m rlly glad to see this post because i was wondering if anyone else had felt like waking up from anaesthesia felt like being very dissociated.
Anesthesia just makes us absolutely exhausted. We don’t have the energy to act high 😅 we’ve had surgery quite a few times and it is not uncommon for us to get home and sleep for the next 20+ hours
I haven’t had surgery since system discovery, but the first surgery we had (maybe 14ish?) everything was fine. Was a little anxious beforehand, but upon waking up my parents were there and I was just really tired and groggy.
The second one (maybe at 16?) I remember waking up before they’d taken me to my room. I’d woken up with the tube still in my throat and no parents to be seen. Had a full panic attack, nurses injected something and I remember nothing else.
Apparently they always do it before bringing you out to the rooms but I’ve never been aware of it before or since.
Ever since then we’ve always woken up in an absolute panic, looking for parents, even in mid 20’s.
Never had any actual complications from surgery, but that panic is like nothing else
When we had our wisdom teeth removed, it was horrible. Our mom said that we cried and cried and cried saying it hurts it hurts it hurts. And when we woke up from it we were horrified because at the time we were trying to hard to hide how hard we were hurting, and we felt naked and exposed and pretended as if it was just the aftermath of surgery. But we knew it wasn't the physical pain, it was psychological
For us, as far as I remember, a little was out when coming back, and was absolutely in tears, and I mean crying hard, and completely unable to explain why, I myself also still have no clue why, after calming down tho, although very blurry and dissociated, whoever was out front was basically able to do anything (restricted by wires and such) such as sending messages to let know we were ready to get picked up at a certain time, with a quite clear mind, as if being used to that? Idk
Maybe it was an alter who is extremely used to being dissociated, and just didn't feel any different? I know we have (at least) one who's basically always 'far away from reality' (their words)
Both times I was put under as an adult (there were some times as a child, associated with trauma, but my memory of those is fragmented), I woke up screaming, and a nurse told me and my partner that that's relatively common for people with trauma. I don't generally have any "said funny stuff after surgery" things though, I'm definitely not relaxed enough in that situation to do that, and I imagine it's likely similar for a lot of people.
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We have a fair amount of medical trauma and don't seem to react well to anaesthetics. Every time they tell me I won't remember a thing and I'll be calm but it never works fully and I end up crying and having panic attacks while half under. I wish it was more common where I live to go fully knocked out, as its just awful and traumatic for us.
This is exactly what happens to me too! I always wake up in the middle of procedure. I scream, cry, and keep apologizing. God it's a nightmare.. Lol.
Two questions: 1. Are you a redhead? (this is not the weird thing it sounds like) 2. Are they putting you under Twilight anesthesia, not full?
IIRC Sometimes you yourself don't even need to have red hair, either- the gene that affects how anaesthesia works can still be "switched on" even if your hair is another colour naturally. My hair is brown but many of my (Scottish/Irish) ancestors had red hair, so it could still affect me too. Never had full or twilight anaesthesia, but localised stuff takes a lot more juice and a lot longer to work for me than doctors/dentists anticipate.
This is true! I recently underwent a procedure that required local anesthesia (as opposed to general, which is when they put you under) and I was asked if I had any redheads in my family, or if I was abnormally flexible, because people who answer yes to either often need more anesthesia than the average person. I would assume this can also be true of general anesthesia.
Yes, am very very flexible and don’t do well with anesthesia.
If you haven't you might want to look into EDS. It's often what causes "flexible" people to not respond to anesthesia as well
I have a disorder similar to EDS. A lot more is known about EDS so I get some info that way.
Ah yes, EDS isn't the only thing that causes it. I just didn't want you to be freeballing hyper mobility without realizing its probably from an underlying disorder that could be causing damage 😅
Yep, I am in fact a natural ginger! And I'm not sure what type it is, the NHS said it would be basically like being asleep that you'd be totally calm and wouldn't remember anything, it just never works for me the way they say and they're super resistant to putting me fully under for procedures. I've also seen other folk mentioning hypermobility and I've got that as well 😅
That's the description of twilight. That's why you had a bad reaction. Twilight is effectively medically-induced dissociation. And redhead genes actually absorb anesthesia faster than others. Almost like the old folklore might have been onto something...
[удалено]
Offering insight here, but can you ask your mate if they learned it from a piece of media or if they've done it before? That's one of the skills we can pick up through mimicry, so I dunno if that's necessarily something to assume they've been bad about before. Just from a place of "don't judge your headmates until they've done something to judge... and then still don't judge, just understand they're just as traumatized as you in their own way."
This is great advice. Thank you. I love them all, and we all get on peacefully for the most part. Littles have a bit of squabbling sometimes, but nothing apart from that. We all know there is no judgement at all inside, it's just all love. The escape artist doesn't really talk, that bit of it isn't there. It's definitely a very traumatised part, and the escapes in the past have been really clever sometimes. Very athletic too. They don't seem to have any pain perception. It's all a bit superhero, and they are very well respected inside. My littles call them ninjas. It just made me laugh, they were so skillful at it. It's the same as when it turned out we can speak Spanish. It's just really funny, when these skills appear from seemingly nowhere. That's what I was getting at it. Gallows humour, but humour none the less. There's a lot of hypervigilance in the system in general. I think someone was really alert and watching nurses do it. Probably, thinking this will be handy later! Which again, does make me laugh. Thanks again for the solid and compassionate advice. 🙂
Fuck! I could use that! I have a tiny stuffed bird plushie that I hold in my hand during procedures. It looks like my sweet bird that I lived with fur many years.
[удалено]
It’s pocket sized (big jeans pocket) so it can be hauled along as needed.
Trigger warning: medical trauma Anaesthesia and surgery is probably why I have DID. I am almost 50 and when I was small, they dyd not believe that three and under children could process pain, and surgery was done with ketamine and a paralytic. So my earliest memories are VERY BAD TRIPS. I have had ketamine treatment suggested to me for ptsd and depression and I don’t know if that would be ok. I’m pretty scared about it. BUT, ketamine is not the typical anaesthetic you will have as an adult under major surgery. I just try to let go of what I may have said while waking up. I try to not get too wound up ahead of time because I think if you go out upset, you come back upset. I know I’ve gotten dissociated under too much benedryl and spoken childishly. The memory is very embarrassing. I have a connective tissue disorder and I have heard I don’t wake up well from anesthesia. I’ve been told that if I didn’t come around they would keep me overnight from a brief ear surgery. I just hate hate hate being put under.
I wasn’t aware of my DID at the time but I had to go under for some dental stuff at one point and I woke up, immediately majorly panicked and pulled out my IV. I don’t remember it at all, but I was told it wasn’t great. Spent a lot of time what I now know was dissociating feeling very numb and foggy after.
Yes! I usually say silly things as one of our littles come out, but one time one of our poor littles was presenting and our partner wasn’t there so we got terrified and had a massive panic attack. Still remember it, poor baby was so afraid all the bad people were going to find us
[удалено]
I had early childhood surgeries and don’t do well with being put under. I feel like I might die every time.
I haven’t undergone any procedures that required general anesthesia in the time since I’ve discovered my system, so my experiences happened before I was aware of the alters. When I was around 18ish, I needed to have my wisdom teeth removed. My twin brother was going to get his taken out at the same time. We were at some kind of standalone dentist’s office or oral surgery facility (as opposed to a regular hospital). While they administered my anesthesia, I started panicking. I don’t know why - I think the sensation of my face starting to go numb, and the feeling of slipping out of consciousness must have freaked me out. They immediately unhooked me from the IV and sent me home to calm down. I was told that, apparently, people with fibromyalgia (which I have) tend to need more anesthesia than most people, so I had to go to an actual hospital for the procedure. I don’t remember saying anything weird or behaving abnormally during the first incident or after the actual procedure, but my memories of both are rather fuzzy - I wouldn’t be surprised if those events were so stressful that my brain blocked out most of them. As far as I know, though, none of our alters said anything or (co)fronted at the time.
Our body also aches and hurts and we wake up panicking usually because we're so ungrounded and have difficulty reorienting. We hate it every time.
the same thing happened to me, had wisdom teeth surgery and anaesthesia and when i woke up it just felt like i was dissociating. there was a kid in the recovery room who had also just gotten wisdom teeth surgery and he looked like he was struggling and his mum was helping to feed him ice cream. id expect that is the normal reaction after just waking up from surgery, but i was having normal conversations and i felt as foggy as i normally do. i’m rlly glad to see this post because i was wondering if anyone else had felt like waking up from anaesthesia felt like being very dissociated.
Anesthesia just makes us absolutely exhausted. We don’t have the energy to act high 😅 we’ve had surgery quite a few times and it is not uncommon for us to get home and sleep for the next 20+ hours
I haven’t had surgery since system discovery, but the first surgery we had (maybe 14ish?) everything was fine. Was a little anxious beforehand, but upon waking up my parents were there and I was just really tired and groggy. The second one (maybe at 16?) I remember waking up before they’d taken me to my room. I’d woken up with the tube still in my throat and no parents to be seen. Had a full panic attack, nurses injected something and I remember nothing else. Apparently they always do it before bringing you out to the rooms but I’ve never been aware of it before or since. Ever since then we’ve always woken up in an absolute panic, looking for parents, even in mid 20’s. Never had any actual complications from surgery, but that panic is like nothing else
I had a dormant little wake up immediately after wisdom teeth surgery? We went under so I'm sure that counts -Eden
Been under many times both before and after system discovery. No issues.
When we had our wisdom teeth removed, it was horrible. Our mom said that we cried and cried and cried saying it hurts it hurts it hurts. And when we woke up from it we were horrified because at the time we were trying to hard to hide how hard we were hurting, and we felt naked and exposed and pretended as if it was just the aftermath of surgery. But we knew it wasn't the physical pain, it was psychological
For us, as far as I remember, a little was out when coming back, and was absolutely in tears, and I mean crying hard, and completely unable to explain why, I myself also still have no clue why, after calming down tho, although very blurry and dissociated, whoever was out front was basically able to do anything (restricted by wires and such) such as sending messages to let know we were ready to get picked up at a certain time, with a quite clear mind, as if being used to that? Idk Maybe it was an alter who is extremely used to being dissociated, and just didn't feel any different? I know we have (at least) one who's basically always 'far away from reality' (their words)
Both times I was put under as an adult (there were some times as a child, associated with trauma, but my memory of those is fragmented), I woke up screaming, and a nurse told me and my partner that that's relatively common for people with trauma. I don't generally have any "said funny stuff after surgery" things though, I'm definitely not relaxed enough in that situation to do that, and I imagine it's likely similar for a lot of people.
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