# Ever experience Depersonalization/Derealization?



## nunchi (May 15, 2016)

Feel free to elaborate!


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## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

nunchi said:


> Feel free to elaborate!


How about you elaborate as to what the heck you mean first? I can't answer a poll when I don't know what the subject is.


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## TheGrandDesign (Mar 29, 2016)

I'm pretty sure I experienced derealization a few years ago and it lasted for a few months and then suddenly disappeared, I've never experienced it again.
My surroundings were like a dream, everything had this strange, distorted glow so it seemed as if I was in a dream, and a lot of the time I couldn't distinguish between being in a dream or in reality. I usually ended up asking someone if this was a dream, I got some pretty odd looks. I noticed it when people were speaking too, it just seemed slightly off and unreal. 
I'm not sure if I experienced some depersonalization as well since it seemed my actions and body weren't 'me', like I could feel my limbs but it didn't seem like me controlling them.
It was a pretty strange experience and at the time I thought I was going insane. I'm just glad I haven't experienced it again though.


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## nunchi (May 15, 2016)

tanstaafl28 said:


> How about you elaborate as to what the heck you mean first? I can't answer a poll when I don't know what the subject is.


My bad, 
Depersonalization: 
"a state in which one's thoughts and feelings seem unreal or not to belong to oneself, or in which one loses all sense of identity."

Derealization:
"a feeling that one's surroundings are not real, especially as a symptom of mental disturbance"

In my experience, it was like being paranoid while high 24/7, 7 days a week. 

Anyways, It's expected for everyone to have these feelings to a degree one point or another. Most people will never realize it for its usually short lasting and even if they do, won't have the vocabulary to explain it. However it can be a full blown disorder when these feelings persist, as in my case. Generally, it's a symptom of anxiety and panic and luckily the dp/dr usually ceases once that's taken care of 

And if you're maybe wondering how this may relate to Mbti.. I'm not entirely sure :frustrating: but I have seen a theme surrounding introverts on other forums.


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## Rose for a Heart (Nov 14, 2011)

Oops, I voted for the wrong one :/ I meant to say INFP.

Yeah I have experienced derealization. And not even immediately followed by distressful or traumatic event. It just came over me suddenly. Mostly during the first semester of college because I was going through a lot. I remember just sitting in my chem class and suddenly I have this feeling of being very very numb. Voices sound far away, I feel less inhibited, things just seem farther away than they really are. As if a film has enveloped me and coaxed me away from life itself, into a very brief respite and peace. 

It doesn't happen very often, only rarely. I am not sure if this has much to do with personality types, as it would with the tendency of a personality (that is, type) combined with an inability to deal with pain and stress.


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## nunchi (May 15, 2016)

TheGrandDesign said:


> I'm pretty sure I experienced derealization a few years ago and it lasted for a few months and then suddenly disappeared, I've never experienced it again.
> My surroundings were like a dream, everything had this strange, distorted glow so it seemed as if I was in a dream, and a lot of the time I couldn't distinguish between being in a dream or in reality. I usually ended up asking someone if this was a dream, I got some pretty odd looks. I noticed it when people were speaking too, it just seemed slightly off and unreal.
> I'm not sure if I experienced some depersonalization as well since it seemed my actions and body weren't 'me', like I could feel my limbs but it didn't seem like me controlling them.
> It was a pretty strange experience and at the time I thought I was going insane. I'm just glad I haven't experienced it again though.


Suddenly disapeered huh.. Like you just woke up and things felt real again? Or was it a conscious effort?


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## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

nunchi said:


> My bad,
> Depersonalization:
> "a state in which one's thoughts and feelings seem unreal or not to belong to oneself, or in which one loses all sense of identity."
> 
> ...



Well then, it's something I've experienced only in a few second intervals. A moment of surreal, I can't believe I'm where I am at a moment, my brain sort of "vibrates" for a few seconds, and then I'm back.


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## TheGrandDesign (Mar 29, 2016)

nunchi said:


> Suddenly disapeered huh.. Like you just woke up and things felt real again? Or was it a conscious effort?


I can't quite remember since it was a while ago. Usually I'd have the feeling fade in and out throughout the day so I'd expect to have like an episode of it at some point each day. But I think I remember them becoming less frequent throughout the day and then one day they just stopped altogether.


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## Endologic (Feb 14, 2015)

Azalea said:


> Oops, I voted for the wrong one :/ I meant to say INFP.
> 
> Yeah I have experienced derealization. And not even immediately followed by distressful or traumatic event. It just came over me suddenly. Mostly during the first semester of college because I was going through a lot. I remember just sitting in my chem class and suddenly I have this feeling of being very very numb. Voices sound far away, I feel less inhibited, things just seem farther away than they really are. As if a film has enveloped me and coaxed me away from life itself, into a very brief respite and peace.
> 
> It doesn't happen very often, only rarely. I am not sure if this has much to do with personality types, as it would with the tendency of a personality (that is, type) combined with an inability to deal with pain and stress.


Here, I voted for you.


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## UraniaIsis (Nov 26, 2014)

Derealization occurred a lot when I was younger, in short bursts and after very stressful situations I had no say or affect on yet still had to deal with the aftermath. In hindsight, I didn't realize how large of a depersonalized hole I was in until I started to seek my way out of that hole roughly three years ago. I must have been in that particular hole for just over ten years. I felt like I was walking around in a wet suit that felt half operated by someone else other than myself. I felt unaligned with my body, thoughts, and senses a vast majority of the time.


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## SimplyRivers (Sep 5, 2015)

Maybe, how would one know if they've experienced this. 

Weird things have happened before, but not to my perception of reality or anything.


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## ShadowsRunner (Apr 24, 2013)

No suprisingng the types, ha ha ha.

So it's pretty certain this is just a thinking problem? I've really struggled with it a lot, I hate it. But I struggle with numbness too, I think it's just me numbing myself. I cannot seem to get all teh repressed emotions out of my system. 

I cannot seem to make it go away.

It's totally not brain damage or anything?


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## katurian (Apr 12, 2016)

Yes.


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## ShadowsRunner (Apr 24, 2013)

UraniaIsis said:


> Derealization occurred a lot when I was younger, in short bursts and after very stressful situations I had no say or affect on yet still had to deal with the aftermath. In hindsight, I didn't realize how large of a depersonalized hole I was in until I started to seek my way out of that hole roughly three years ago. I must have been in that particular hole for just over ten years. I felt like I was walking around in a wet suit that felt half operated by someone else other than myself. I felt unaligned with my body, thoughts, and senses a vast majority of the time.


This is exactly how I feel too.

How...did you make it go away?


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## UraniaIsis (Nov 26, 2014)

Meteoric Shadows said:


> This is exactly how I feel too.
> 
> How...did you make it go away?


I really haven't made it go away. I still feel like I'm slowly climbing out of that hole. What has been helping me along has been the psychological and emotional maturity between my sister and I. Her, ESTP, and I, INFJ, are meeting each other half-way and connecting in ways we didn't quite connect as children while facing similar hurdles. I mentioned in a different thread how she began to recognize me imploding on myself and she started to invite me out with her friends. The external social interaction that I thought I could do without ended up, somewhat, being the very thing I needed to shake up my thought process, get me out of my rut, and put some air in my lungs. I still feel out of focus and blurred, but a lot more in focus than I use to be. Another factor was recognizing and breaking away from unintentionally enabling someone else's emotionally codependent and toxic behavior and setting up personal boundaries. I'm still climbing out of depersonalization, I'm just a lot less numb and a little more self aware than I use to be. A lot of the threads on this forum have been quite cathartic as well.


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## ArmchairCommie (Dec 27, 2015)

Yep, I've often felt those moments where I don't even feel in control of my own body. It seems as though I am just an observer, watching some other person go through all these various motions and various actions, even though it is really just me. But luckily these moments don't last longer then a few minutes at a time, and I haven't had one for several months now.


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## Spiren (May 12, 2016)

Yes, I've experienced this a few times before. It's why I've listed this as one of the ways I could be susceptible to going insane lol, much to the amusement of friends. I might have been drunk when I thought this a good idea to share, the great thing was they were more drunk.


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## ShadowsRunner (Apr 24, 2013)

I've noticed myself almost doing it on purpose I think when, I feel too much pain or overwhelmed by something, I'll mentally numb or block myself out, but I have to keep repeatedly forcing myself to re-focus, but it's surprisingly difficult for some reason.

It's like I can't fully get to the center of it, it's strange. I Know some of it's depression too, but depression in a sense of just feeling sadness, but at the same time it all sort of acts like a cycle that I am stuck in between and unable to move out of, because it all feeds on itself, and keeps me stuck in the situations, or keeps my life stuck in the way that makes it difficult to not feel "sad" or "depressed" I mean, it's like I've made sadness and depression my friend and companion, as I am so used to them.


It's like this song, I feel so much pain and anger that is difficulty to really let go, and I know fear is a large component of this.


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## ShadowsRunner (Apr 24, 2013)

I guess I just want to go around yelling in everyone's face to tell them to fuck off and all to go to hell for their fake contrived bullshit, and for having to exist and carry on this charade and for existing in this fuck contrived society. I JUST WANT TO BREAK THROUGH ALL OF IT. I HATE IT SO MUCH. But then there's so many ways society, tries to tell you not to feel, or why you shouldn't feel some way, or be some way, and how it's wrong, when really there's no way to entirely make that claim.

This archaic 'well-to do' calm and collected European system that only serves to keep us in chains and shackles. I want to gnaw my ankles and tendons off just to escape at times.


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## ECM (Apr 8, 2015)

Yeah its weird, you feel like you are in a fake world just... "looking" at things but not living in a reality, you almost feel like you want to touch surfaces and question if its real or not, and you look at your entire surroundings that way, like everything is somehow artificial, as if you were in the matrix or something. It can be a symptom of long term anxiety or depression, and is basically the brain trying to cool down from all the overheating as it were, so its been described as the brain going half asleep or in standby mode as it recovers from mental exhaustion.


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