Many times disorientation is the result of a perceived separation.
We become disoriented when we feel disconnected from something that otherwise centers us. This happens in, at least, a couple of ways.
One is when we do things that cause us to lose track of what our center is or what centers us. This could be a result of drift (we just stop paying attention to the things that orient us well to reality). Or, this can happen when we take up things that become habits which move us away from connection to what serves us well. In other words, this can be either conscious or unconscious things.
Another way this happens is when what we thought was the basis of our centeredness changes. This happens when something about that thing is revealed in a way that makes us question the validity of that basis. Perhaps, rather than it being rooted in our sense of something being right, it turns out to actually be wrong. Or, something about it no longer squares in a consistent enough way with what we had thought it did.
At these moments we're forced to recalibrate. And sometimes that calibration involves complete separation from it in the first place, often leaving us feeling disoriented in the mean time.
I have a friend who is growing through the deep-throws of disorientation right now. It is not only difficult to go through, it is difficult to watch.
A meditation on the concept...here.
But, there is also an observable pattern in such things; it often takes disorientation to enable reorientation to what is actually true or, at the very least, to a deeper understanding of it.
Some call this process transformation.