Depersonalization/Derealization

[LOchian]

Hello everyone. I just signed in today to pose a question. Having suffered from panic disorder for many years, I've never had this question completely answered. The first symptom I ever had of my first panic attack 25 yrs ago was a feeling of "I can't believe I'm real!" I felt separated from the outside world (as per dp/dr) but felt hyper-real as opposed to dulled. I'm experiencing these feelings again and want to see if anyone else feels like this. It's as if my life to this point has been a movie, and now I realize I've been in the movie the whole time. When this sensation hits, I immediately fly into a hard edged panic attack and I live in fear of the next sensation. Distraction is MUST, and being alone, even for a few minutes, is stressful and a doorway for this sensation to re-occur. I'm kind of a "if this is normal, then I'll be ok" kind of person, so if anyone has any similar occurrences or stories (successful???) to share, it would help me so much. Thank you, and I hope you all have a calm, happy day.
http://www.anxietypanicattack.com/forum/Themes/dilbermc-rc3/images/icons/modify_inline.gif

[burberrygirl72]

hiya
yeh me to get this all the time
its all part of anx
take care xx

[LOchian]

Thanks for the response. I really want to nail this down, because I don't see this aspect written about very often. As is normal with panic, I start wondering if something else is wrong w/ me because the description doesn't seem right. I've been in a 2 month panic cycle, and now this sensation is joining the party. The only positive I can take away from this is that the "normal anxiety" hit first, then the DP, and not the other way around. I hope more people can weigh in on this as I am a shaky mess at the moment. Al comments are welcome, and I'm too new here to join the chat. Thanks.

[JasonB]

Hi LOchian,

I'd recommend you checking out this thread below as it has lots of info on others with Depersonalization.

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=36723


Its nothing to be worried about, and happens to everyone at some point, whether they have anxiety or not. Its just part of being human, and a "bug" in the way we are made.

If you read my response in that post it goes into more detail about the kind of thing that can cause depersonalisation feelings.

Peace and Good Luck

Jason

[LOchian]

Thanks Jason B--I do A LOT of introspection, hopefully not to the point of narcisism, but a good way to explain the weird DP is that I get really self conscious (self-aware?). And I do think about 'things' a lot as well. I wish I could float along w/o analyzing everything so much.

[ElizabethJane]

There are a lot of things that you can do to get in touch with yourself and your feelings again. I'm sure that you have your own personal list. Here are a few suggestions:massage, walking in the rain (or really windy weather) live music of any kind that you like enough so you can feel the vibrations, physical sport, yoga, swimming and of course s... I hope this is is of some help to you. Talking about your feelings with a therapist or resolving issues from the past can also help us reconnect with ourselves.

[kenboon]

Its a weird symptom isnt it. Heres some info on it.

Depersonalization, Derealization, Feeling of unreality

What you feel:

Now for the Brain – the limbic system in the brain instigates this whole response and is responsible too for our emotions and behaviour One of the body symptoms that people hate most is the one when you feel all foggy, surreal, woozy or spacey. You may either feel that you are not real or that the earth is not real and you’re a time warp away. These are often the hardest symptoms to understand and its very common to deduce that you must be going mad which makes you panic even more. This is completely untrue and you are very safe. You feel like you are not a part of what is going on, or that you feel like you are in a dream state or ‘out of touch with things’. Also, things around you may seem like they are shimmering, foggy, hazy or too bright.
What causes this:

As we learned in Understanding, the body and mind are tightly integrated. What affects one affects the other. This symptom is another example of how an over stimulated nervous system can cause us to experience odd and impaired feelings, emotions and perceptions. Much like how a psychoactive or recreational drug can alter one’s mental state, an over active nervous system can affect certain body chemistries thereby producing mind altering effects. The feeling of unreality or disassociation is one type of altered mental state that high levels of stress biology can produce. It is not completely understood what goes here but it is generally thought that the limbic system in the brain decides there is too much going on and goes into a self protection mode and shuts out excess stimuli. As the adrenaline levels decrease and you calm down it clears. This can be several hours days or weeks.

Taken from the following link http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/NMPcms.php?nmppage=symptoms

All the best

Ken