What is derealization like for you?

[[Me...]]

what does it feel like?

 

what kind of thoughts do have?

 

what kind of beleifs do have while its going on?

 

and anthing else you wanna talk about considering dr

 

thanks

 

 

[[Me...]]

anyone?

[Guest [...]]

hey there hope someone answers you soon

 

i dont have it so cant help although when i see the answers i probably do have it.

 

hang in there someone will answer soon.

 

Lizzy

[[Ga...]]

DR is a particularly unpleasant experience. I first experienced it a while back while I was teaching a class and it was particularly strong. I am not sure how I continued to teach but somehow the words kept coming out. It then stopped for a while but has reappeared during periods in withdrawal. I had it most of the time for a 2 week period which I just came out of a few days ago (pleasingly). It takes any possibilty for fun out of life as I become preoccupied with how the world looks and feel particularly vulnerable.

 

The word just looks off. Unreal. Disconnected. Not sharp. I have only ever experienced visual issues (I have hear people talk about other types of DR or refer to it as visual DR- for me, I only know one kind). I guess it's like how you see the world when you are very drunk (just with a sober head, balance and none of the sedation that goes with alcohol)

 

The thoughts I have are mainly a combination of reason and complaint- 'This is just wd.' 'This is just now' 'This will pass' and 'I can't believe I feel this way,' This is horrid', 'I really hope I don't see anyone feeling this way as I feel so out of it'- or things similar. There is nothing deeper than that for me. I think these are basic repsonses to a particularly unpleasant symptom

 

[[Be...]]

I find it's like I am suddenly looking through a foggy lense.. Then I will suddenly come to realize that I have been talking to someone.. Takes me a split second to be aware that the other person isn't aware that I am feeling very strange. I sometimes worry that i've said something odd but seems that I haven't, thank goodness. I look normal but feel so out of body.. Not nice. Only happens out of my familiar environment.  I have had it for years, only now do I have a name for it..

[[Tu...]]

I deal with DR and its not nice. When its at its heaviest it can be real scary, visual distortions (everything has a colorful glow, lights give of traces) Things dont seem real, cartoon like. Walls and the ground seem to move (Kinda breathe) I get a tightness in my head and on the bridge of my nose, like I am going to have a nose bleed, but I never do! Overall its just a trippy sensation and its very hard to explain. They say its harmless but that dont make it any easier to deal with! It has gone down a good bit in the last few days which is great because I hate it. Something that I do notice is when it subsides for awhile It seems to be replaced with headaches and migrane (I prefer the headaches, the mental stuff is so tiring)

Good thing is at least I know it will go, I'm only 8 weeks clean so dont think its gone for good, but I am doing ok and slowly getting myself back to normal!

Well thats my DR story, hope your not having to much of a hard time with your symptoms, but its for the best that we are getting off these poison pills

Good luck 

[[Me...]]

ya i get that feelings too.  But would this be dr?

 

I get this feeling like i'm completly alone in the world.  Like the world is crashing down on me.  Like I just 'made up' the world and its not real at all.  I also feel that thing that people arn't real, like there just 'card board' cut outs or something. 

 

I also feel 'existensialist'.  Like nothing matters, like I have no attachment to anything.  Whether its some one having a bady or getting married, or some other big event, or something i achieved........I don't feel anything, and I hate it. 

 

I wish I could go to councling now,  but i know its pointless while i'm in withdraw

[[mo...]]

I've had DR since the day I c/t off Ativan. It comes in varying degrees and in specific circumstances. For me, it is triggered by bright lights, like at work or in the grocery store. I was getting it while driving and in most public places. It has been a part of my daily life for the past 11 weeks. Only in the last week or so has it started to lift. Comes and goes, rather than comes to stay. I wonder though if I am just getting used to the feeling??

 

The better I start to feel, the more I am forgetting about it and I think for me that's the trick. Just to not think about it. When it's not there, I tend to look for it or check in with how my brain is feeling. That's the sureset way to fire it up.

 

I describe it like being drunk or stoned. You just feel like you're disconnected from the world around you. Everything just appears dream-like and unreal. I've had this phenomena before in my life, but never anything like this. I also wonder if because I'd experienced it pre-benzo, if some how I am prone to it now? I hope it's just part of the healing and eventually it will be gone forever and that I am not permanently damaged somehow. 

 

Lately it's more of a dizzy, light headedness. Like a mild vertigo. I also realized if I drink alcohol, it tends to be worse for the next few days afterwards.

 

And that's my DR experience. It's by far the most persistent of my symptoms.

[[Bi...]]

I deal with DR and its not nice. When its at its heaviest it can be real scary, visual distortions (everything has a colorful glow, lights give of traces) Things dont seem real, cartoon like. Walls and the ground seem to move (Kinda breathe) I get a tightness in my head and on the bridge of my nose, like I am going to have a nose bleed, but I never do! Overall its just a trippy sensation and its very hard to explain. They say its harmless but that dont make it any easier to deal with! It has gone down a good bit in the last few days which is great because I hate it. Something that I do notice is when it subsides for awhile It seems to be replaced with headaches and migrane (I prefer the headaches, the mental stuff is so tiring)

Good thing is at least I know it will go, I'm only 8 weeks clean so dont think its gone for good, but I am doing ok and slowly getting myself back to normal!

Well thats my DR story, hope your not having to much of a hard time with your symptoms, but its for the best that we are getting off these poison pills

Good luck 

 

In short, mine is like this.^

[[WT...]]

I have so many different themes in my Derealization, that it's unreal (no pun intended.)  Lots of times, it's as though I'm having a Near Death Experience.  I feel like I'm dead, and I'm up in the clouds, and everyone I see is already dead too, but I can't connect to them.  All people, and things have this scary doomed feeling.  That is just one of the things DR does to me.  I have all sorts of other themes that play out:

 

1. I have felt as though I was in Ancient South America.

2. Ancient Greece.

3. Alternate Dimensions.

4. I have felt like other people.

5. I relived my own birth (C-section.)

The list goes on, and on -- it's all psychedelic, and holographic.

[[Bi...]]

The d/r can be frustrating, it is what keeps one blunted and cannot connect. I mean a few days is reasonable, but for months straight is ridiculous, especially over a little pill. 

[[WT...]]

Just today, I relived my last day in high school -- but in a very creepy way.

[[Me...]]

I have so many different themes in my Derealization, that it's unreal (no pun intended.)  Lots of times, it's as though I'm having a Near Death Experience.  I feel like I'm dead, and I'm up in the clouds, and everyone I see is already dead too, but I can't connect to them.  All people, and things have this scary doomed feeling.  That is just one of the things DR does to me.  I have all sorts of other themes that play out:

 

1. I have felt as though I was in Ancient South America.

2. Ancient Greece.

3. Alternate Dimensions.

4. I have felt like other people.

5. I relived my own birth (C-section.)

 

The list goes on, and on -- it's all psychedelic, and holographic.

 

Wow, thats the first time someone has writen what ive actually experience.  I never knrw other

ppl felt this way so I never said anything because I thought no one would understand or "get it"

Ive often felt like other people.  I know logically im not but I ferl like I have thete personalities

 

Its really bizar and annoying.  I dont know who I am.  I get really confused about spirituality too.

Im in A.A and part of the program is spiritual.  Though it can be whatever you it to be.  I find the cocepts make my head spin.  I have no idea what I beleive.  And the topic of spirituality can go real deep. 

 

I also had a bad experience with meditation some eastern religion concepts.

This was the first time I experienced dp/dr though it went away, My doctor said it was some what tramatic and I quickly was put on benzos around this time.

 

I wonder if the benzos prevented my brain from going through its natural healing procsess.

[[...]]

I have so many different themes in my Derealization, that it's unreal (no pun intended.)  Lots of times, it's as though I'm having a Near Death Experience.  I feel like I'm dead, and I'm up in the clouds, and everyone I see is already dead too, but I can't connect to them.  All people, and things have this scary doomed feeling.  That is just one of the things DR does to me.  I have all sorts of other themes that play out:

 

1. I have felt as though I was in Ancient South America.

2. Ancient Greece.

3. Alternate Dimensions.

4. I have felt like other people.

5. I relived my own birth (C-section.)

The list goes on, and on -- it's all psychedelic, and holographic.

 

Oh Gosh! I have felt like other people too!!!! Didn't know it was part of DR. I thought it was some kind of psychosis

[[...]]

yes, people are all made out of cardboard or something and look flat, like they have no depth. Also that everything is fake and you are the only one that knows. This causes fear that I am losing it and may never get back to the real world. It is going away little by little.

[[WT...]]

I have so many different themes in my Derealization, that it's unreal (no pun intended.)  Lots of times, it's as though I'm having a Near Death Experience.  I feel like I'm dead, and I'm up in the clouds, and everyone I see is already dead too, but I can't connect to them.  All people, and things have this scary doomed feeling.  That is just one of the things DR does to me.  I have all sorts of other themes that play out:

 

1. I have felt as though I was in Ancient South America.

2. Ancient Greece.

3. Alternate Dimensions.

4. I have felt like other people.

5. I relived my own birth (C-section.)

 

The list goes on, and on -- it's all psychedelic, and holographic.

 

Wow, thats the first time someone has writen what ive actually experience.  I never knrw other

ppl felt this way so I never said anything because I thought no one would understand or "get it"

Ive often felt like other people.  I know logically im not but I ferl like I have thete personalities

 

Its really bizar and annoying.  I dont know who I am.  I get really confused about spirituality too.

Im in A.A and part of the program is spiritual.  Though it can be whatever you it to be.  I find the cocepts make my head spin.  I have no idea what I beleive.  And the topic of spirituality can go real deep. 

 

I also had a bad experience with meditation some eastern religion concepts.

This was the first time I experienced dp/dr though it went away, My doctor said it was some what tramatic and I quickly was put on benzos around this time.

 

I wonder if the benzos prevented my brain from going through its natural healing procsess.

 

I find it best to avoid spiritual thoughts during w/d, for they frighten me to ridiculous magnitudes.

[[WT...]]

 

 

Oh Gosh! I have felt like other people too!!!! Didn't know it was part of DR. I thought it was some kind of psychosis

 

It's very disturbing isn't it?  It's like a trippy feeling, and I don't even know how it's possible.

[[...]]

Yes, I've felt like a tough angry man and I can even visualize my clothes and beard!!!

and I am a girly girl by the way!

 

I also avoid spiritual thoughts too....for a while I felt like good and evil were battling it out in my brain...and felt like by praying I would tempt the bad one to fight out harder for my soul...psychosis? Probably....but w/d-induced!

[[WT...]]

Yes, I've felt like a tough angry man and I can even visualize my clothes and beard!!!

and I am a girly girl by the way!

 

I also avoid spiritual thoughts too....for a while I felt like good and evil were battling it out in my brain...and felt like by praying I would tempt the bad one to fight out harder for my soul...psychosis? Probably....but w/d-induced!

 

Mmir, you and I have to have the SAME brain, just the gender portion is different.  I had exactly the same thoughts about good and evil -- like a battle for my soul.  I never thought like this before w/d, as I was almost entirely materialist.  I thought I was being punished for being materialist, and this was the universe's, way of showing me who was boss.  I never believed in evil as a supernatural force, at least since I was a child, but when w/d hit me, it felt so real, and I could not believe this was happening to me.

[[...]]

I know about our brain being the same-LOL! That is why I tell my brain here: "Listen, WTBNA's brain, your twin brain had a window, what are you waiting for?" Actually, I WAS getting better and did not realize it until recently some sxs came back with a vengeance (brain fog,  agitation, racing thoughts).

 

 

[[Me...]]

Im with both you guys!

 

I definatly got the same mind.  It will be interesting to watch our recovery unfold.

 

I think its really important to open up like you did WTBNA.

 

Im sure there are others like me and mmir who feel the same way we do but are scared to bring it up, I know I was. 

 

At least I know im not alone and its apart of w/d