Dissociation

[WolfNightV4X1]

Kind of wanted to discuss this.

Edit: http://www.isst-d.org/?contentID=76
Also depersonalizations and derealization are subtly connected. I believe what I've felt is "derealization"

I can recall a few times I've had this feeling where I feel like everything around me is hyperreal or like a vivid dream, as if I'm not actually there and everything I look at when I turn my head or look down at my hands is surreal. I know it isnt a dream and I am in fact alive but at the same time I'm not really there, like its a strange feeling that I exist here, like suddenly my mind behind my eyes feels fuzzy or foggy or floaty. That's the feeling. It's the best way I can describe it. It's a little strange and a little freaky somwtimes, but not all that bad.

I wasnt sure if it was actually what I had but I stumbled across something called "dissociation", which is apparently that feeling of unreality like you're watching a movie or playing a first person video game. I cant so for sure if its what I've felt, but it sounds pretty close. From what I've gathered dissociation happens as a result as abuse or traumatic events. Cant recall anything that would fit that description, but I do know that when I go to new environtments or new public events or do new things, ir's a lot of stimulus to handle and Im a naturally anxious and introverted person...that would be my only explanation on my part.

I know other people probably have it more and worse. Often it is recurring and persisting in some cases and coupled with other disorders. But at the same time I've read that it's common enough that many people could experience it onceor at least a little in their lifetime.


So I wanted to ask, anyone experience this sensation? Anyone understand dissociation better than I or would like anecdotes to share?

 

[hey look a train!]

ive heard of this, i think my uncle somtimes does that, i think it had a connection to PTSD but ive been through some traumatic stuff, but i never experienced anything like that although i do feel like im not the one in control of my body sometimes, but i think thats cause i daydream alot

 

[Alexxx-Returns]

I feel like this a lot. Until recently, I felt like this most of the time for a good half a year at least, probably more.

My advice is to get your eyes tested, maybe you need an eyewear change. My dissociation got way worse after I got some £12 stop-gap glasses that weren't entirely the right strength, so I had SOMETHING to read with before I could get my eyes tested and get glasses in my actual prescription.

It's good to have a name to put to this feeling though. I feel like I'm... looking but not seeing. Hearing but not listening. Like there is a sheet of... something, between my brain and what is going on around me. It's scary because I don't want to live my whole life like this.

 

[Analogue]

I have that sometimes... but with objects, or like the ground is quicksand, or I that my body can't hold me and doesn't exist. Like it is something surrounding me but not of me. But then again I supposedly have mild psychosis.

 

[Luki]

Huh, can't say I've ever had that. Sounds scary o-o

 

[WolfNightV4X1]

Huh, can't say I've ever had that. Sounds scary o-o

Could be for many people I imagine. For me it was strange, freaky, and slightly unnerving. I made this post because it happened to me again yesterday. It didnt help that I lost my family in this strange place I've never been to and my surroundings were all different and odd. I kind of wandered around in a weird bubble trying to find them and looking around me everywhere like deer in headlights.

I think there may be scarier phenomenons, sleep paralysis, for one.

 

[Volkodav]

I dissociate in multiple ways and that sounds like it to me

 

[Renarde]

I experience this more to less on a day to day basis. Some days are obviously worse, and over stimulation, especially of the emotional variety tends to make it worse. Like I've had times where I should have been really happy or sad where I just... couldn't feel.
Mindfulness and meditation are your friends, here.

 

[jtrekkie]

I've experienced it. It's a very strange state of mind, a feeling of being somewhere else.... Very strange, I don't understand it. I have noticed that it only happens when I'm alone.

 

[Pantheros]

in my experience, a person usually gets it due to not receiving pain, offence, exaustion and just generaly staying nise and comfy for a prolonged period of time. It might be the cause of your body panicking because it doesnt need to deal with anything above a cheeto stain dilema, causing reality to feel like a movie or a dream due to the lack of irratations and general feelings.

other times it's just caused by the teenage phases as your whole body and personality is developing. Thats when i've experienced this the most anyways.

 

[-Sliqq-]

Sorta. I once thought that the world revolved around a single person so all problems, situations, & people, conformed to him/her. That's kinda how I disconnected myself from the world.

 

[monochromatic-dragon]

Sometimes I experience this. I had a really active imagination as a kid so sometimes I would imagine that the whole world was just a computer game like The Sims, and everyone was a Similon or whatever the Sims people are called. I also used to pretend that my school was an anthill and everyone in it were ants.

We are so aware of our own first-person experiences, only hearing our own thoughts (unless you have other voices in your head) that only rarely do we take a step back and realize the surrealism of it all. I don't think that its linked to any mental disorders, I think that its quite normal.

 

[Torrijos-sama]

sometimes I would imagine that the whole world was just a computer game like The Sims, and everyone was a Similon or whatever the Sims people are called. I also used to pretend that my school was an anthill and everyone in it were ants.

This isn't normal?

 

[WolfNightV4X1]

I can intentionally step back and see the world from another perspective, like I am in a game. But unintentionally it ends up being an even more surrealistic experience than if I thought of it intentionally, like I'd look at my hands or wave them around or snap my fingers to try to escape the cloud but the feeling persists.

 

[GarthTheWereWolf]

Sounds like another day at work to me.

 

[Luki]

Seems like I might actually be the odd one out for not having these things XD

 

[Volkodav]

Dissociation is a means of coping with a traumatic situation. It's been said that after you've undergone a traumatic experience, your body learns to dissociate as a way of protecting itself. You have three results that can come from a traumatic experience, you either go insane, kill yourself, or learn to dissociate.

If you've not undergone some sort of traumatic experience, it's probably not dissociation as much as it's just zoning out, though some types of dissociation can result in this "world isn't weird" feeling:
http://www.isst-d.org/default.asp?contentID=76#dereal

 

[Eggdodger]

Funny. I've gotten into quite a few fights here over the years, this being the rough-and-tumble south, and anytime that happens, I actually do step outside of myself. I am someone else, a spectator. Defending myself is instinctual, almost like I have no input. I've only ever lost one fight that I recall, but I wasn't disassociated that time, likely on the account that it was with my friend and I didn't want to hurt him. I'd like to go on record to say that I have never started a fight; people always have problems with me for one reason or another and decide that a physical altercation is the smart thing to do. The second they touch me, though, it isn't me anymore. They're fighting an animal, thirsty for bloodshed. It's never gotten that violent to the point of serious injury; they've either retreated or it was broken up. I would prefer it that way.

Nowadays, people don't pick fights with me much anymore as far as school goes, either because I'm an upperclassman or I'm bigger than them... Or maybe they've gotten more mature, but I doubt that one.

 

[Alexxx-Returns]

Funny. I've gotten into quite a few fights here over the years, this being the rough-and-tumble south, and anytime that happens, I actually do step outside of myself. I am someone else, a spectator. Defending myself is instinctual, almost like I have no input. I've only ever lost one fight that I recall, but I wasn't disassociated that time, likely on the account that it was with my friend and I didn't want to hurt him. I'd like to go on record to say that I have never started a fight; people always have problems with me for one reason or another and decide that a physical altercation is the smart thing to do. The second they touch me, though, it isn't me anymore. They're fighting an animal, thirsty for bloodshed. It's never gotten that violent to the point of serious injury; they've either retreated or it was broken up. I would prefer it that way.

Nowadays, people don't pick fights with me much anymore as far as school goes, either because I'm an upperclassman or I'm bigger than them... Or maybe they've gotten more mature, but I doubt that one.

Reading that along with your avatar/'sona is the cutest thing ever.

 

[CyberPsych]

As a D.I.D victim, I very much appreciate the clearing up for everyone. It's hard to explain what it's like every day

 

[Eggdodger]

Reading that along with your avatar/'sona is the cutest thing ever.

Fear the cute ones

 

[Teckolf]

I feel like this when I am without coffee for more than a few hours...

Although, I do want to point out that everyone experiences symptoms of different illnesses, the severity of which is what leads to diagnoses and treatment however.