Derealisation....

[Tomimo]

I know that this is a topic that comes up a lot but having done a search I can't see anyone whose derealisation sounds like mine.

I have tried to accept that it is normal and have been doing much better but of course am making my self a bit (well, a lot!) anxious over this feeling.

I've had depersonalisation alot where I feel like I'm fighting through fog and everything seems far away but this is not the same.

I'll be doing something normal when all of a sudden I feel like the earth is not really real and maybe I'm really mad. I get really panicky when I think about space or the sun, how the human body can have such intricate detail and give birth to live babies - in fact anything complex - almost like because my brain can't comprehend it that it seems like it can't be possible and therefore must not be real. Obviously, I know the earth, etc is real but I begin to question whether, because I think about it, I am paranoid/going mad/schizophrenic....the list goes on.

I know this is a long ramble and appreciate how mad it sounds - I just want to know if anyone else has experienced similar thoughts/feelings?

Thanks
Annie

[JasonB]

I know that this is a topic that comes up a lot but having done a search I can't see anyone whose derealisation sounds like mine.

I have tried to accept that it is normal and have been doing much better but of course am making my self a bit (well, a lot!) anxious over this feeling.

I've had depersonalisation alot where I feel like I'm fighting through fog and everything seems far away but this is not the same.

I'll be doing something normal when all of a sudden I feel like the earth is not really real and maybe I'm really mad. I get really panicky when I think about space or the sun, how the human body can have such intricate detail and give birth to live babies - in fact anything complex - almost like because my brain can't comprehend it that it seems like it can't be possible and therefore must not be real. Obviously, I know the earth, etc is real but I begin to question whether, because I think about it, I am paranoid/going mad/schizophrenic....the list goes on.

I know this is a long ramble and appreciate how mad it sounds - I just want to know if anyone else has experienced similar thoughts/feelings?

Thanks
Annie

Hi Annie,

What you have presented in your post is completely understandable.

The feeling of "Depersonalisation" is a very common one in Anxiety, and Panic. And I have experienced it on several occasions myself.

----

The route cause of the feelings is often that you spend a significant amount of time looking inwards, in what is called introspection.

People with anxiety and panic spend a very large amount of time thinking about things, and analysing things in their head.

The effect this has is that when you come to approach things that are external to yourself, they have an almost alien/unreal feeling, as your brain is accustomed to inwards, over-analytical thinking.

----

The sensation could be compared to that, when you walk out of a cinema after a 2 hour film in broad daylight.

The world seems unbearably light, and almost, unbelieveably bright!

This, however, is not the reality. And all that has happened is your brain and eyes have become accustomed to the darkness of the cinema, and the concentrating on the film. (The introspection.)

----

The first thing you need to do is not panic when you feel "de-realisation" and to remind yourself of its causes.

Gradually, you will find yourself able to deal with it better, and it will become less of an impact in your life.


Virtually everyone alive has moments that don't quite seem real. Its just part of being human, and shouldn't be of excessive concern.

Peace and Good Luck

Jason

[Tomimo]

Thanks for replying Jason. What you have said makes me feel slightly less mad.
I was hoping more people would have been able to relate to how i feel in order to make me feel reassured.
I made the mistake of googling derealisation and it made me feel even worse with descriptions of detachment disorders which i hope really aren't the same!
Thank you again for taking the time to reply. I hope i can try to ignore it :-)

[bb22]

Hi there, I suffer from a similar thing- I will just be doing my normal thing and suddenly i feel like i'm watching everything thinking this can't be real! I think that humans can't be real as we are so complex. I get worked up about how we are here and why! Hope this helps, you are not alone!x

[befuddled1]

I think I experience something a bit like this. I get stuck thoughts sometimes where I can't understand how the world is working. Also, I get derealisation linked to a kind of death anxiety which is a bit similar.
Your derealisation/depersonalisation sounds familiar to me somehow though it's not exactly what I have. Does it frighten you when you have it? or is it just weird?
I've kinda had derealisation/depersonalisation for years but only just realised I can name it. It seems quite reasonable to have it to me, given the uncertainty of everything. So I'm not sure if I experience it in the same way as others exactly, in a way it just feels kinda normal to me to feel that way though I'd rather feel that things are real.

[superted]

i fully understand what you are feeliing and im sorry but it is so relieving to know its not just me. i cant even look up at the sky without my mind doing strange things followed by an intense panick attack. so you are not alone. im sorry i cant offer any advise but i can comfort you in the knowledge that its been happening to me for last 13 years and im still here. im cheesed of with it but as of yet have not found a way to stop it. bloody scary and even more annoying if you know what i mean

keep fighting
rob:yesyes:

[keepemlaughing]

What about the fact that out of the whole universe this one little obscure planet has life? Kinda fuels my belief in God.
Blessings,
Sheryl

[Tomimo]

Thanks everyone for sharing how you feel - it's crap that you have to suffer with it but reassuring for me to know that i am not alone :)

Having a particularly bad day today, have a cold/virus and am run down which makes everything seem worse. Today's little gem is a sudden anxiety when speaking on the phone and feeling overwhelmed by the fact that I can talk to someone that is not with me....is it real, etc. Why can't I just accept it without feeling like I am going crazy!!

Thanks again all
Annie x

[CONS]

Only had it once so far *touches wood* whereas my whole body felt slightly behind itself as i moved forwards, scared me, not too proud to say it. I had it in the morning when i woke up, maybe because i knew it was another day in paradise so to speak.

JasonB's explanation is very informative, people with disorders like ours will spend countless times examining ourselves with thought, i get head tingles when i think of "what my life means to me now i have panic disorder? and what is my purpose?".

distraction is key here so absorb yopurself in something that will pass time quicker o0r help you escape by not concetrating so hard. Sing a song in your head, if the song repeats then sing another. Believe me when i say one line of a song playing over and over is a pain in the a$$.

Good luck and fair play to touching on a sensitive subject.

CONS

[Liverbird67]

I think I had something similar to this today, but I thought is was a visual disturbance thing, its just plain weird and of course it does frighten you, it is definitely not schizophrenia or anything serious like that (although I must admit that thought goes through my head sometimes) schizophrenic people have a whole host of other symptoms that a good doctor or psychiatrist will spot a mile off so anyone terrified of that can put it right out of their heads, one thing I have learned is that no matter how bad anxiety is it is not schizophrenia. hope this helps a bit

Debbie

[empi]

I know that this is a topic that comes up a lot but having done a search I can't see anyone whose derealisation sounds like mine.

I have tried to accept that it is normal and have been doing much better but of course am making my self a bit (well, a lot!) anxious over this feeling.

I've had depersonalisation alot where I feel like I'm fighting through fog and everything seems far away but this is not the same.

I'll be doing something normal when all of a sudden I feel like the earth is not really real and maybe I'm really mad. I get really panicky when I think about space or the sun, how the human body can have such intricate detail and give birth to live babies - in fact anything complex - almost like because my brain can't comprehend it that it seems like it can't be possible and therefore must not be real. Obviously, I know the earth, etc is real but I begin to question whether, because I think about it, I am paranoid/going mad/schizophrenic....the list goes on.

I know this is a long ramble and appreciate how mad it sounds - I just want to know if anyone else has experienced similar thoughts/feelings?

Thanks
Annie

Oh this is exactly how I have felt also, I know what you mean and I had this 2 years ago when my panics where on the highest level.

This was by far the worst symptom of my anxiety/panic along with the unbearable feeling of going insane.

Let me give you same examples to see if you can relate to them also. I was also afraid of what you said the earth, the sun, the moon, the space, the sea, the world and how big it is and as this got worse and worse I eventually was afraid of almost *everything*. Life, death, living, breathing, seeing, going old etc. It was as I could not bare them anymore, too much complexity, it was (unbelievably) overwhelming and tiresome for me for all these things to exist, I just could not stand it.

I *felt* like all of this is a joke, an irony and an unfunny one that is.

This is were I was absolutely certain that I was insane beyond belief, how can all these things, that are so paramount important, affecting me in such a way and no one else cared or even thought about them, everyone else was just living their lives in their little worlds. That was the biggest joke.

But, and this is a BIG but, eventually I understood that there is nothing wrong with my thought and logic, absolutely nothing, it's only the feeling i felt when thinking about them. And this is the most important thing I want to tell you, that at least in my case, I never had a problematic thought or an illogical one, no matter how much I analyzed them bit by bit trying to find a fault and an excuse to declare me as officialy insane/mad, but always it was only just how I felt.

So I concluded that the only logical reason (and the one that everybody is talking about) is that my body was in such a stress and anxiety that it would impatiently wanted to wash me with this anxious feeling at the first excuse no matter how irrelevant the content of my thoughts were, and it led me to misinterpret that thinking about the e.g. sun and making me feel overwhelmed then I'm nuts! Where in reality I was over-sensitized and I would get this feeling with just about every thought that had a content with enough complexity to trigger it.

So in two words, it's not what you think about, it's how you feel, focus on that and just relax and take away the stress. When you relax you will find out that it was just that. ;)

[tuman]

Hello All...it is so comfortable to finally know people who have felt in the same way I have felt over the years. Let me first share with you all my experiences, then I shall tell you how these feelings went away,
1) In my college days I was under great pressure for better grades. I studied many hours non-stop and the anxiety, stress levels were higher. I suddenly started to get a feeling that every place outside my room did not exist. My college did not exist, my friends did not exist etc. I had to literally open my window and assert myself that those things indeed existed.

2) Then in my last year of graduation, I got this feeling where I could not convince myself how the pencil's graphite, or ball pen's ink gets stuck to paper, how can it just stay there and not shred. It was so unconvincing that I wrote on many papers words, figures, sketches meaning nothing.

3) TV looks to be frequent theme. I was so unconvinced about TVs complex working that I started to get derealisation that TV was indeed a fraud perpetrated by some anti-social elements, and that it was impossible to recreate video from far away.

4) a few days ago I started to have this feeling about human body. It is so complex- so strange that my mind refuses to accept it. I am also getting feeling what is the identity of animal called human, is it it's body or head. Why can't people change appearances, why can't they have different body form. and many other stupid questions.

I can tell from my experience that these feelings start with anxiety- and go away with time. one thing that definitely works is to engage yourself in something challenging- something to occupy mind somewhere else. the more one thinks about such persistent thoughts, more it sucks into confusion.