View Full Version : Depersonlization/Derealization , how would you explain it?
Anxious_gal
07-07-11, 04:08
How would explain the sensation to someone who never experienced it?
Someone here said, it's like when you're wearing glass that aren't made for you.
So I tried on a pair, it definitely gives the visual effect, the everything not appearing quite real and wondering if you are in a dream.
Another thing thing I have noticed that can bring on that feeling, is when a cloud passes by and things suddenly change and darken.
When talking my voice suddenly stops sounding like mine, like the way you don't recognize your own voice if it is recorded and played back to you.
Some times I will be hyper aware of my movement, maybe like when you stand on stage in front of lots of people, you're suddenly very conscious of every little move you make.
Sometimes when I'm walking, I feel like I could be in a different country because nothing feels familiar.
I would love to hear how you would describe it,
When it happens to me I find it hard to believe that anyone could understand how "it" feels.
There are a few things that come to mind for me:
* Looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars - everything seems very far away and remote.
* feeling as though I'm watching myself from somewhere else
* feeling as though I've been put in a big glass tube and I'm separated from the rest of the world
I would decribe it as being like I am standing on the outside and looking in on a stranger's life, not my own.
Like being detached from everything that is going on around me and feeling 'alien' in my own body.
For me, the most terrifying part of DP is feeling a detachment from my family, like I am living a life I don't belong in, with people who are strangers to me.
I can just about manage a lot of anxiety symptoms now, but DP/DR still petrifies me beyond belief. :scared15::scared15::scared15:
PumpkinPie
07-07-11, 10:49
I think it's impossible to really describe it, like so many of the symptoms on here you can't really understand it until you've felt it! I think it's a bit like being Scrooge in A Christmas Carol - watching yourself from the sideline and not being able to affect what is happening
Does anyone know what causes it?
xhyperyogix
07-07-11, 11:13
apparently it's the brain protecting itself from overload of anxiety. sort of mini-shutdown of some of the fuctions. that's what my counsellor said once!
i also agree with all of the above. i feel i don't exist and neither does the world. like a paralell reality...
i'd aslo i describe it like my body and mind separating. when i was very young i used to do it on purpose (had no idea it wasn't something that everyone else did!!) i would see how far i could separate myself by staring into middle distance, then turning in on myself if that makes sense. then i'd ping back into reality. so, that's all good and fun to create a new reality if the one we're in stinks. then it's like being in a film and acting your character or whoever you are. problem for me is when it is uncontrollable, and then i go too far in the separation and can't ping back again, and i fear i'll never be whole again. then the reality is a horror film, and turns into apanic attack where i don't know where i am or who i am any more. ouch ouch ouch!!
lots of love xxx
hyper:wacko::roflmao::unsure:
anxietyoverload
07-07-11, 13:02
For me its like i can be there, but nothings real, like iv died and im not in a real world xx
Boxerharvey
07-07-11, 17:17
For me its like being very heavily stoned or drugged but not a nice feeling at all. I sometimes feel like i am on the verge of having a stroke or something.
There are a few things that come to mind for me:
* Looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars - everything seems very far away and remote.
* feeling as though I'm watching myself from somewhere else
* feeling as though I've been put in a big glass tube and I'm separated from the rest of the world
I would decribe it as being like I am standing on the outside and looking in on a stranger's life, not my own.
Like being detached from everything that is going on around me and feeling 'alien' in my own body.
Very good way to discribe it, glad its not just me.
Its like being an alian, on the wrong planet, not belonging.
Like I'm on the edge of sleep in daytime
Anxious_gal
07-07-11, 20:08
Is emtional numbness part of it or is that part of depression ? I have a hard time feeling anything, I get the odd feeling of happiness or caring towards other people but a lot the time it is sorta of like I'm watching them on t.v , if that makes sense, it us frustrating as normally I can connect to people but lately its hard and makes me feel self absorbed.
I agree with everything you have all mentioned. I also find that i feel really sensitive to sunlight and can't walk straight - even though I am! Like nothing is real and I'm really sensitive to sound :0
I really think though that one mustn't dwell on it and delve into the feelings! You have to live your life and it disappears! It is only as a result of inward focusing and focusing on "it" means you are focusing inwardly more and you get more depersonalized! It is a vicious circle!
Well for me
Its like im a spectator and a live comentary of my every movement and thaught.
Me inside me, almost like another clone me inside looking out through the other me eyes and seeing and talking step by step of my movements and thaughts.its almost like i could excpect my inner me to suddenly go BOO
And freek me out. Its deff anxiety iv had this before and the way wound this is to tell yourself, this is just a feeling, not real do not focus on it if pos , try to keep busy, and in time you have longer points where you havent excpereaced it, then it slowly moves away from you.
Mishel, i think you are living in my body, because word for word as you explained, is EXACTLY how i feel, my god how odd,
Anxious_gal
24-08-11, 02:10
sometimes I feel as if everything is new or unfamiliar, I often think when I'm walking through town it feels like I'm in a different town. It's weird.
Looking at myself in the mirror is very odd, I see my self staring back, I dunno maybe I expect my reflection to do something odd? Sometimes I feel like the person in the mirror is not me.
Rhys1879SAFC
30-08-11, 19:10
Pure hell, I've had it for a good six months now with hardly any relief and although its gradually been getting better (for the first month or so I was a cabbage, couldn't leave the house) I still haven't snapped back to reality yet. The problem with me is that I can't stop thinking about it, speaking to people who have recovered it becomes clear that it fades gradually and then you don't even realise you've recovered until you have an epiphony like "oh, its been three days since I felt dp'd".
Its my worst anxiety symptom by far, I absolutely hate it!
Anxious_gal
30-08-11, 22:11
I've had a bad episode that lasted a few weeks.
I was very stressed and anxious at the time, I also was not sleeping to well.
Focousing on it makes it much worse, I was terrified when I first had it, I wondered if I would always feel like this, eventually it did improve.
Distraction helps, video games, cleaning, organising , anything that keeps the mind busy.
I've had awful fits of cleaning in the middle of the night as I needed to escape the anxiety .
Then I've spent hours on the laptop because I was almost too scared to move.
Hi everyone
Found this on a site and I think it sums up this horrid things perfectly.
Depersonalization (or depersonalisation) is an anomaly of the mechanism by which an individual has self-awareness. It is a feeling of watching oneself act, while having no control over a situation. Sufferers feel they have changed, and the world has become less real, vague, dreamlike, or lacking in significance. It can be a disturbing experience, since many feel that, indeed, they are living in a "dream". Chronic depersonalization refers to depersonalization disorder (http://www.facebook.com/pages/w/107700405919662), which is classified by the DSM-IV (http://www.facebook.com/pages/w/133609686679685) as a dissociative disorder (http://www.facebook.com/pages/w/103120226394616). Though degrees of depersonalization and derealization (http://www.facebook.com/pages/w/106068586091774) can happen to anyone subject to temporary severe anxiety/stress, chronic depersonalization is more related to individuals who have experienced a severe trauma (http://www.facebook.com/pages/w/110925118932390) or prolonged stress/anxiety.
love
tracy
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