Here are some things you should write down to help your doctor better understand your situation: The reason you will want to visit your physician is to find out if anything is physiologically or bio-chemically is going on inside of you that is causing you to detach. The most important thing you can do if you are experiencing episodes of depersonalization is to make an appointment with your medical doctor. Prescription meds also have been known to cause distortions in reality. Individuals who report being highly empathic.ĭepersonalization happens when people are also living with a mental health condition, such as depression and/or anxiety.Īnd it goes without saying that use of certain substances, such as hallucinogens, amphetamines and benzodiazepines can bring about the onset of a derealization episode.The sudden loss of a loved one through an accident or suicide.Intense periods of stress related to work, finances or relationships.Severe psychological/emotional trauma from the past.Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD (see our post on PTSD).Here are some additional potential reasons that depersonalization can happen: Some have hypothesized that this is the brain’s way of protecting itself from harm or coping with a past trauma. On a bio-physical level, there is some evidence to suggest an imbalance of neurotransmitters, which sensitizes the brain to increased states of stress. The research suggests that it commonly occurs among people with anxiety. We don’t know the exact causes of depersonalization-derealization. Suddenly feeling “blank” inside, devoid of emotions.Distortions of body parts feeling like they are enlarged, shrunken.You may wonder if these are really your memories at all. Difficulty experiencing emotions when thinking about memories from the past.Feeling like you are floating above yourself as an outside observer.Feeling robotic as if you are not in control of your movements or speech.There are a number of other symptoms that can be associated with episodes of depersonalization. On a rational level, I know this isn’t “real” but that is how it feels. Time itself slows down dramatically, almost as if I am in a different universe. Here, I talking about feeling like things that happened just yesterday occurred 100 years ago. The way it comes up in me is through distortions of time. When the depression part kicks in, I am more prone to depersonalization, according to my therapist. I am one of those people who have a mixture of anxiety and depression. Do you know what it is like to see yourself sitting in a seat while zooming through the air at 530 miles an hour? It feels like it takes forever for me to reconnect with myself. Try having this experience when you are flying on a plane at 30,000 feet. The more I try to compensate for not feeling in control, the more I start detaching from my body. My depersonalization is very much connected to my OCD and panic attacks. It’s almost as if I am floating outside of myself and watching what I am doing at the same time. I start to get tunnel vision and can feel my heart palpitating. There have been times that I have waked past a window while looking at the skyline and slipped into bodily disconnect. I work in a high rise office building in the Loop. It is only later that I realize that I was having a panic attack. It usually takes me a few moments to bring myself back into the moment and “reattach”. I’ll look in the mirror and suddenly get the feeling: Is this real? I go numb inside with a stark nothingness. It usually happens to me from out of the blue, like when I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I’m embarrassed to share my experience with depersonalization but here it goes. The weird thing is I know what’s happening because I feel my heart racing. It’s like someone flipped on a switch and suddenly I’m watching myself on a projector screen. I get confused and my neck starts to get hot. When I get into super crowded situations, the symptoms of things not feeling real starts to kick in. I’ve suffered from social anxiety disorder all my life. I’ve left out any identifying information. What follows are several examples of depersonalization that clients have shared with me over the years. “I could see myself and it freaked me out,” he said, “like I was watching a slow motion movie.” Other Descriptions of Depersonalization He started to experience a panic attack and wondered if he was still attached to his body. When describing his experience, he said everything was going just fine when suddenly he felt detached from his surroundings. A client of mine named Clint recently shared with me his experience of depersonalization while walking over the Michigan Avenue Bridge full of passersby in Chicago during the lunch hour.
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