[jtassar93]

I was wondering if my symptoms are dissociation or not.
-feel like I don't belong in my body
-don't recognize self in mirror
-constant feeling like nothing around me is real
-if I think about my existence too long I freak out
-feel detached from everything
-feel like I'm not real

I wanted to know if this is anything? Should I tell my doctor? I read that there aren't any meds to specifically treat this.

Have any of you experienced this?

I experience moments like that, and it can be caused by stress, anxiety, drugs, trauma, other MI.

It sounds to be like derealism/depersonalization in the dissociative spectrum. Mine are triggered from sensory overload, anxiety, stress.

If it does bother you I would consult my mental health care providers.

I'm used to it, I usually look at it as a free show and wait for it to pass, or do grounding techniques to comeback.

I hope that helps.

[B2008]

I have been diagnosed on on meds for a month and a half and it's the longest time in 8 years I've gone without waking up in morning and feeling like I don't belong in my skin. With my episodes my speech and handwriting are different. My movements are not steady. And looking in the mirror is very awkward. It's like someone else is trying to take over and you just can't get them out. I don't know what this is either and I don't see a therapist yet. But I would definitely tell. Will u post If u get an answer please. I'm curious about these episodes also. Good luck

No matter how small, a positive change deserves to be celebrated!

[Travelinglady]

I've had a bit of that--like being out of my body, like I can't feel I have a body--and also feeling myself being pulled away from myself. I have bipolar and generalized anxiety disorder. The first time it happened I called my therapist. Now I just know it will pass with time if I relax.

I do think someone with symptoms like these and the ones mentioned need to be told to a doctor. I'm not sure what it warrants in terms of diagnosis, but I think it could be treated. The symptoms are not fun at all!

[Pikku Myy]

Mine are triggered from sensory overload, anxiety, stress. yeppers Always Changing....

[Nammu]

my dissociation symptoms were due to PTSD but some medications make them worse. Talk to you pdoc about this.

Things like that that I've had:
*A strong sense of walking about 3' behind myself (like I was not in my body, but an invisible one walking behind me).
*A very strange feeling of not knowing for sure where I actually was (the places being 3,000 miles apart no less(!)). If I'd been asked, I probably would have answered correctly...but wouldn't have actually believed it. That one's hard to describe, but it was like my head and body were 3,000 miles apart. That was occurring during a 2 month long horrid mixed episode. I was a psychological hot mess (with no psych at the time).
*A sense of being invisible. That's common figuratively of course, but I veered into literal territory with it. Its start preceded the onset of my BP (at 20) by a number of years.
*That my face wasn't my face, but a skull with eyes set way back in the sockets (ewww, lol). I'm pretty sure I didn't see it in a mirror, but was otherwise convinced that that's what it was and what others saw. Which horrified me. (It didn't really occur to me that if that were so, there would have been freaked out reactions (ya think!?). It was in the midst of a long severe depression.

Those are some that come to mind. Sorry so long. You're not alone.

Hi hon, it happens to me all the time. I can be sitting in the middle of my room on my bed and then everything changes to what I like to say is another dimension.

I do reality testing and can tell the stuff is real, but I can't feel that it is or even own it. Even looking at my hand seems unreal, like it'll go numb and not seem to be mine.

My biggest trigger would be sensory overload, that's when the senses are overwhelmed with stimuli...like in a crowded store, parking lot, enviroment,... Especially at Christmas!

Grocery and shopping stores are the worse, what with all the colors, sights, sounds, moving people and objects, the noise, ....I'll dissociate to desensitize to better able handle the enviroment. I try not absorbing or taking in the scene all at once.

Have you learned any grounding techniques? At times like these, I'll start taking slow deep breathes, listening to my lungs as ther draw up air.

If I'm out shopping, I'll pick up a store product and read the label, describe the object in hand, it's color, size, weight, noticing any special features associated to it, trying to bring my scope of focus back to a point.

Sometimes when it happens, I just have to go along for the ride till it naturally fades away.

Other than grounding methods, a pdoc can prescribe anxiety meds to help calm the nerves, but that's about it for drugs to help this condition.

If you have any questions, please feel free to pm me.

[Nix]

Originally Posted by jtassar93

-feel like I don't belong in my body
-don't recognize self in mirror
-constant feeling like nothing around me is real
-if I think about my existence too long I freak out
-feel detached from everything
-feel like I'm not real

Have any of you experienced this?

I experience these types of things. I mentioned a little bit of it to my therapist last time I saw her. I really dislike feeling this way. It's disturbing, and I'm trying to learn some of the grounding techniques others have mentioned to be able to get out of that frame of mind. Sorry I don't have much in the way of answers, but sometimes it helps to know that you're not the only one experiencing something like this.