Not sure if this will be helpful at all but here it goes. Of course, all people dissociate...or zone out ...ptsd or not...It's just that those of us with ptsd do it more often and it's more...severe.

The first type described by Lisa is something that happens to me quite a bit...I just check out and have absolutely no idea what's going on...I;ve had times when I was triggered by course material as I was trying to do the work and I'd zone out and be that way for who knows how long and sometimes...as I start to get back, I catch myself doodling...

I have also experienced what I think comes close to what Kers describes as feeling dead...Just a weird blankness...numbness...I can be looking at my hand, for example, and it's just not registering that that's me...I don't really know how to describe it.