This is my first message in this forum. I have really bad health anxiety and depression, the result of being emotionally abused for nearly forty years by my late husband. My depersonalization isn’t as severe as many of you describe here in this forum. It does, however, scare me.

I live alone. I hired someone to come be with me for a few hours each weekday to help with the loneliness. That has helped. However, I still get the “is this real? Do I really exist?” feelings a few times a week.

Recently, i’ve had other things happen that scare me more. Today I had my heat mask on for my dry eyes and I felt like my body shrunk. I didn’t like it shrunk super small, but maybe about to 75%. I had a similar incident a few weeks ago where I just felt like my body was a little bigger than it normally is.

Just had a brain MRI in January because I thought I had a mini-stroke, so I don’t think I have a tumor or anything. I just think I’m experiencing depersonalization.

Have any of you experienced this kind of symptom? If so, what helps? I’m just starting with a new therapist and we’re going to be doing EMDR. Has this helped anybody?