Anxiety: Depersonalization and Derealization

[BasilCat]

I forgot the link didnt I?!!! Here it is:
http://www.anxietynomore.co.uk/deper...alisation.html

Hope it helps.
Shirley

[NoPoet]

I have had it recently during an extreme moment of anxiety. Sometimes when I have a bad migraine coming on I feel slightly disoriented and detached from the world.

They are weird feelings but I know from repeated personal experience that they do not do me any harm and they wear off eventually. So they don't scare me even though they are not particularly pleasant.

Don't be scared of them, they really do go away and they are not a symptom of any underlying medical problem.

[Ret]

I get it for about a week after a bad panic attack or in the throes of generalised anxiety.

It goes away after three or four days, I find, if you can achieve happiness for that period of time.

It's bad when I'm out, walking, or talking to someone I'm not comfortable around. I had to deal with it during a job interview the other day, that was nasty.

Doing something like watching TV or playing a videogame can help me forget the feeling. Interacting with people or trying to observe the real world will make it highly pronounced.

[Thumbelina]

I suffered wth panic attacks when I was 13. I only felt DP/DR during a panic attack. Now i'm 22 and I get this feeling pretty much most of the time, it's horrible. It's more evident during anxious times but it can start when i'm not even anxious. The only thing that helps me relieve DP/DR is alcohol. I think everyone can feel derelization for a second if they wanted too, just simply questioning things like Why are we here? Does space go on for ever? Is this all real or just a dream? etc. That moment when you push your mind too far and think what the hell? The problem is, anxiety sufferers are always thinking, we're never in that "auto pilot mode" like non anxious people, we seem to observe everything.

Hope that makes sense Just my view on it.

I know exactly what you mean by the questions you mentioned in you post.
I am always asking myself these questions when developing an anxiety round.
These are stupid questions that make no sense but they drive you mad.
Depersonalisation happens to me allot and at these moements i feel sometimes that my body separates from my thinking and can be verymuch withdrawn from the situation or activity. The fog can be so thick that i would be a total lunatic not knowing whats going on around and why.
This feelings are so disturbing and scary that i am still scared of them a bit, though i try not to be of the attacks themselves. But from my experience derealisation and depresonalisation come not only with attack, they can can come on its own when in prolonged constant high anxiety state. At least its with me.
Thanks,

[lele19]

This is my main and worst symptom, had it constant for 6 years since i was 13. Got bad now hence why ive started SSRI's after an intense period of health anxiety. Im hoping the citalopram will make it dissapear. I want my reality back!

[pknorth]

Hey, Is this symptom the one where your eyes feel one place and your mind seems like its about 3ft behind them?

I wont do the vote untill I'm sure but if it is this then count me in.

[goingmadder]

Pknorth,

I suppose thats a symptom too...I have wierd thoughts and feelings like that too when it hits me which is most of the time during bouts of anxiety...

Like suddenly become aware of a specific point in my body, or sense the distance between two things i can feel... or start feeling a part of my body with my mind that you would never have felt before like the back of your head...

Images of the blood rushing through veins and what not...

The sense that i do not exist, that people don't exist.. questioning how people can just go about their day...

Sit and watch people and wonder why they do what they do, like laughing, smiling, talking, interacting, dancing music... I hate it cos I love music and dancing yet when i " go into one" it make sme panic... the hows the whys the what ifs..

I wish i could just NOT THINK... if there were a way to shut off the part of my brain that is malfunctioning Oh the relief...

Trying to explain these sensations and thoughts to someone who has never experienced it is soooooo hard, and makes me feel even more nuts...

I feel like an alien sometimes, like im not meant to be here or im actually somewhere else dreaming this life...

Sorry for the waffling!

Hope everyone feels better today
X

[Tomimo]

I just wanted to say that this is one of my worst symptoms and mine can go on for weeks :(

Mestys....you have made me feel so much better becuase the way you describe it is EXACTLY how I feel. It's almost as though my brain is not meant to comprehend ideads of any magnitude and blocks everything away to protech me. I begin to think about where space must end but of course it can't end...what's beyond the nothing?? How are we sitting on this rock orbitting the sun - surely something that sounds so completely ridiculous can't be real?! Those thoughts run through my head and then I can't look at the sky/moon/sun/planes without feeling sick or confused.........

Thanks for making me feel like less of a freak

T x

[bcr]

I feel quite detached from the world a lot of the time and sometimes look back on things and think that people must think I'm crazy because it's almost like I'm not in control and say stuff and then come back to it. Or I swear that people can tell I'm forcing myself to go through 'normal' motions even though I'm not really there.

My sis also gets it a lot and we both at times feel like we're bumping through life - and get frustrated with each other and other people get frustrated with us because we can't compute things - but at other times we are so hyperfocussed and working at 10 times the speed of other peoples brains.

The other thing I get is dehydration which if I'm in a DP/DR mode is really unnerving... because I have the feeling magnified by the weird spaced out feeling of being dehydrated. That's the worst!!!

[mestys]

I know exactly what you mean by the questions you mentioned in you post.
I am always asking myself these questions when developing an anxiety round.
These are stupid questions that make no sense but they drive you mad.
Depersonalisation happens to me allot and at these moements i feel sometimes that my body separates from my thinking and can be verymuch withdrawn from the situation or activity. The fog can be so thick that i would be a total lunatic not knowing whats going on around and why.
This feelings are so disturbing and scary that i am still scared of them a bit, though i try not to be of the attacks themselves. But from my experience derealisation and depresonalisation come not only with attack, they can can come on its own when in prolonged constant high anxiety state. At least its with me.
Thanks,

That's exactly how my DP/DR started, through constant everyday anxiety. I've read up on this subject quite a bit and a few articles suggest that DP/DR is a natural state of mind that the brain triggers to deal with a traumatic event, in a way your brain is protecting its self by making things seems less real and distant, less emotional, makes sense eh? I think the only way to overcome DP/DR is to remove what is feeding it, that is of course anxiety, overcome this and DP/DR will go away.

I just wanted to say that this is one of my worst symptoms and mine can go on for weeks :(

Mestys....you have made me feel so much better becuase the way you describe it is EXACTLY how I feel. It's almost as though my brain is not meant to comprehend ideads of any magnitude and blocks everything away to protech me. I begin to think about where space must end but of course it can't end...what's beyond the nothing?? How are we sitting on this rock orbitting the sun - surely something that sounds so completely ridiculous can't be real?! Those thoughts run through my head and then I can't look at the sky/moon/sun/planes without feeling sick or confused.........

Thanks for making me feel like less of a freak

T x

I'm glad someone can relate to the way I'm feeling . Ignorance is bliss, a lot of people don't even think or question these sorts of things, they just get on with their lives and don't worry. I wish I could be like that, when I was younger I didn't even think about these sorts of questions, life was better and a lot simpler then.

And you're not a freak, most people think about these sorts of things, problem is us anxiety sufferers over analyse.

Thanks for all your replys!

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