How to describe derealization/depersonalization?

I recently learned that this is what I might have. I'm going to see my therapist next week. I want to tell her but I don't know how to describe it. It's hard for me to put in words.

Any help would be appreciated!

I suggest starting with its clinical term (depersonalization/derealization) - she should be familiar. Unless you're unsure if this is what you're experiencing and want to describe it to find out? When talking to non-medical professionals I say things like:

- living behind glass
- the world looks/feels like I'm watching a movie of it
- I look down at my hands and I don't feel they belong to me (like looking at objects)
- nothing feels real, like it's an illusion but I'm the only one left 'outside' of it
- feeling existentially alienated, estranged

dactyl's bullet pointed list does a pretty good job at describing mine. most notably the life is like watching a movie, for me at least with the derealization.

Radiohead's song, 'How to Disappear Completely' sums it up. Especially in the chorus where he sings, ' I'm not here, this isn't happening'.

Thats how I feel; as if I am not real, not present in the situation around me. I 'disappear' and detach to try to cope with the intense anxiety or hopelessness. Sometimes I am so detached I forget where I am or who I am. It takes a small shock to bring me back to reality.

Other times (or at the same time) the world around me doesn't seem real, cartoon like even. This is very unsettling and makes it difficult to function, especially if I am at work. I feel out of my body, sounds and sights get intense. It is really unsettling.

Good luck with your appointment.

When I told my therapist, I described it as not feeling real, as if the world were a story or movie and I am just made up. Or sometimes it feels like the world around me is real and I simply am not here, I am a figment of someone's imagination. I like the Kooks' song "Time Above the Earth"... it doesn't describe it exactly but it still fits.

It is as if I know it is me, but I am watching it happen, like I am watching a home movie or having a dream.

Can we open up this discussion more? I thought that I was the only one who had this. I've seen myself doing things and thinking "that's not me".
I am so happy to hear that I am not alone on this

derealization is kind of like living in a glass bowl. Everything is happening around you and none of it really seems real or relevant to you. Everything is distant, seems like it doesn't apply to you, like it isn't happening. Like you aren't relevant to or part of anything happening around you. Everything is muted and there's a massive disconnect happening. Nothing about the world around you seems real or vivid. Perhaps your life is someone else's, or a dream.

depersonalization is an out-of-body experience; like you're floating separate from yourself. It's like you're watching yourself do everything. Like you're separate from your body and it's not yours it's not you, you're someone else, an observer, watching someone else go about their day. You lose your sense of self, so to speak. Like none of your actions or thoughts belong to you, they're the actions and thoughts of someone else who looks like you who you're observing.

At least, that's how both of those are for me!

This is similar to how I feel when experiencing derealization/depersonalisation.

This happens to me all the time!
I experience it as a floating and watching myself go through the motions. It's definitely a survival technique. It keeps me functioning when I can't bear it.
I remember teaching myself how to tap into that head space when I was a child. And how to stay longer and longer

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