Yesterday my boyfriend and I were out shopping with his family and while we were walking around he said he was anxious. This happens to him sometimes so I just held his hand and tried to distract him as much as I could without making it obvious that something was wrong (his family doesn’t know about his anxiety problems). Later last night after he was feeling better he said he was actually dissociating. He said he felt like he was in a dream, as if something “bad” had happened to him, like he died and was imagining everything that was happening. He said he felt very confused, disoriented, unfocused and unsafe. 

Obviously I feel absolutely horrible as I have virtually no idea how to help him with this. I do know how to ground myself during panic attacks but I imagine it’s different when someone is dissociating. Does anyone have any tips on how I can make him feel safer and help him “come back to reality”?