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danzk2005

danzk2005

i'm a depressed latino
Feb 23, 2025
51
Does anyone else have constant derealization? It feels like nothing is real to me
 
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_Maya

_Maya

Maybe tomorrow.
Jan 26, 2025
118
Sometimes, yes.
A lot of the time, i feel like i'm not me, like my body isn't real, and i'm just some consciousness trapped in an unfamiliar body. Its mostly just a constant feel of unease in the back of my head, but sometimes i'll just suddenly "flip," and feel like i don't exist.
My mind/body is really weird, so i can't really explain how/why i feel this way.
 
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whiskeyblanket

whiskeyblanket

weird chicken lady
Jan 23, 2025
39
Yes, I am in a constant state of low level depersonalization and derealization, and sometimes experience such intense derealization that I don't know who I am, where I am, what year it is, etc. I don't have much advice for dealing with it or anything; just something I've gotten used to over the years.

Sorry to hear you're experiencing this, too.
 
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dust-in-the-wind

dust-in-the-wind

Animal Lover
Aug 24, 2024
715
I've had some pretty bad episodes. It feels like I'm in a dream but it's highly disturbing.
 
Fall_Apart

Fall_Apart

Student
May 22, 2023
120
I had derealization and depersonalization for a few years and it was one of the worst experiences. The feeling of observing life as if I were watching a movie, even hearing my own voice as if it were a stranger. Or in the evening asking yourself "did I really do this thing or did I just dream it?". Only much later, I realized that it is an extreme defense mechanism, to detach yourself from existential pain.
 
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danzk2005

danzk2005

i'm a depressed latino
Feb 23, 2025
51
Yes, I am in a constant state of low level depersonalization and derealization, and sometimes experience such intense derealization that I don't know who I am, where I am, what year it is, etc. I don't have much advice for dealing with it or anything; just something I've gotten used to over the years.

Sorry to hear you're experiencing this, too.
Do you have memory lapses? Damn
I had derealization and depersonalization for a few years and it was one of the worst experiences. The feeling of observing life as if I were watching a movie, even hearing my own voice as if it were a stranger. Or in the evening asking yourself "did I really do this thing or did I just dream it?". Only much later, I realized that it is an extreme defense mechanism, to detach yourself from existential pain.
It's horrible to have, I've been living with this for two years, sometimes everything seems like it's a dream or was a dream, but as you said it's a defense mechanism of our brain, but it sucks
Eu tive alguns episódios bem ruins. Parece que estou em um sonho, mas é altamente perturbador.
Sim, parece muito com um sonho, não é realmente assustador para mim, mas é estranho, mas na verdade me ajuda a lidar com a ansiedade social, porque parece que nada é real.
 
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BRAINWORMS

BRAINWORMS

dust to dust
Jul 20, 2020
150
When my OCD is at its worst (like it has been for me for the past... few weeks? month? not sure anymore) I get it bad. Like my body has too much anxiety to fully experience reality. Familiar places feel unfamiliar despite me logically knowing I'm somewhere I know well. It makes it almost impossible to be comfortable anywhere.
 
danzk2005

danzk2005

i'm a depressed latino
Feb 23, 2025
51
When my OCD is at its worst (like it has been for me for the past... few weeks? month? not sure anymore) I get it bad. Like my body has too much anxiety to fully experience reality. Familiar places feel unfamiliar despite me logically knowing I'm somewhere I know well. It makes it almost impossible to be comfortable anywhere.
Can you feel good at home at least?
 
whiskeyblanket

whiskeyblanket

weird chicken lady
Jan 23, 2025
39
Do you have memory lapses? Damn

Some short memory lapses here and there, and then there are entire years where I don't feel attached to the few memories I have, if that makes sense. But like others have said, it's the brain's defense mechanism. It does serve a purpose, as much as it sucks and can make life difficult at times.
 
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divinemistress36

divinemistress36

Angelic
Jan 1, 2024
4,722
Yes, its awful! Ptsd sucks . Cant even do basic tasks cause of it and have temper tantrums cause of it. Starting emdr therapy soon
 
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failedmind

failedmind

Member
Oct 31, 2024
98
Yes, I have DPDR and PSTD. Nothing ever feels real
 
LostLily

LostLily

Why do I exist?
Nov 18, 2024
758
feel like I"m not really here that I am living life on auto-pilot
 
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Namelesa

Namelesa

Global Mod · Trapped in this Suffering
Sep 21, 2024
1,957
Yea I have experienced derealization occasionally. It mostly has me feel like I am seeing myself and what I do from outside my body. This often makes me feel uncomfortable and anxious as I feel more like the space I am in is more open which makes me feel more vulnerable. I can also feel like objects, environments or myself and certain body parts are bigger or smaller than what they actually are making me feel even more uncomfortable and scared.
 
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Halfhourdays

Halfhourdays

"Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."
Mar 14, 2025
625
Yes, like everything is an unreal dream or that all reality is a computer simulation.
 
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Manic Panic

Manic Panic

Deaths Embrace
Jan 5, 2025
731
What's the difference between derealization and dissociation?
 
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danzk2005

danzk2005

i'm a depressed latino
Feb 23, 2025
51
Does anyone else have constant derealization? It feels like nothing is real to me
yes, right now, all the moments
What's the difference between derealization and dissociation?
derealization nothing seems real, everything seems like a dream, while in depersonalization you feel that you are not yourself, you feel as if your body is not yours and you can even dissociate and think that you are not in your body
 
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Halfhourdays

Halfhourdays

"Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."
Mar 14, 2025
625
And one can be derealization -ing and depersonalization -ing at the same time. They're not mutually exclusive.
 
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Saturn_

Saturn_

You're gonna carry that weight.
Apr 22, 2024
487
Yeah. A lot of my emotions seem very far away and rarely does anything that happens in my life truly register in my mind as "serious" or "real." I feel hardwired to be calm and detached even when I probably shouldn't be. I'm kind of glad I have this as a coping mechanism, because I probably would be dead if I didn't have the ability to just "freeze" and feel hopefully numb. I don't heal from what people have done to me, and it always hurts, but at least it doesn't "feel important" or "real" half the time.
 
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galaxid

galaxid

Finger Guns(tm)
Mar 11, 2025
118
Damn. I'm so glad I found this thread!!

My grandma passed and I was so upset. But even while I was crying it was like I wasn't really sad. I didn't feel sad, in my head. I thought I was putting on a performance for my mom, because I know she was really upset, and that's what people do when someone dies. They cry.
For years I thought it made me a bad person because, who actively cries over a death in the family and yet questions why it matters???

My identity feels like its trapped firmly in my mind, and everything else feels extraneous. Honestly, reading everyone's perspectives has helped me better understand myself.

A lot of the time, I love feeling like this. Most of the time its comforting but not empty, because even if I don't feel like I'm here, my body sure does. I get anxious and I can feel it, so I know I must be attached to the ground. Its just as if the person who 'thinks' is separate from the person who 'feels'. I'm not sure if that makes sense to you guys, though, since I'm really unfamiliar with thinking about it like this.

Does anyone else feel comforted by depersonalization / derealization. I'm out here having an existential awakening lol
 
Kali_Yuga13

Kali_Yuga13

Wizard
Jul 11, 2024
621
Yes, in cycles. I'm pretty sure where it started. It helps me tune out and drives a thought process that helps me find a reason for my mental pain. It can be quite crazy sounding. I entertain ideas about some cataclysmic event having put me on the wrong timeline. Then I get hopeful researching time travel. Then a time machine doesn't materialize and I get depressed again. Rinse & repeat.

Today I spontaneously came up with a new one. That there was some sort of clerical error before I incarnated and I was mistakenly put in the wrong life by the controllers of the astral plane. This absolves me of a lot of guilt about my own decisions! Phew! It's all just an existential administrative error. I'm just waiting on a manager to fix it! :D

This is in fact somewhat tragic. On the outside it looks like procrastination, not paying attention, not listening, looking bothered or even rude. I have forgotten to eat and exercise due to my thinking. But I am preoccupied with these unsolvable riddles as a self soothing mechanism against the horror of reality.

I don't mind if the ideas themselves make anyone laugh because some of these thoughts are objectively funny. I have found comfort, meaning, connection to others and intellectual stimulation pursuing these topics in various online communities too.
 
Aergia

Aergia

Wizard
Jun 20, 2023
632
Yeah, it's been a constant for the last five years. The world feels like a dream, or a play-act. I counted it as a positive when I was more suicidal because I figured it would make attempting easier; nothing feels like it has the gravity that it "should", death included. Even the recent past can be a blur.
 
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