I think I experience it from time to time. I know it's not a listed symptom of bipolar but from lurking here I've read it's not uncommon.

I don't really know how to explain what happens, but I'll try. It feels like there's some sort of disconnect between my mind, my body, and the world. Like I can see things, hear them, feel them, taste them, smell them, but I don't really process that. Every thing seems different, but when I try to pinpoint what it is nothing stands out. I know I'm real and there, but it doesn't feel that way. I can bring myself out of it by intensely focusing on my surroundings and describing them to myself or doing something interactive and narrating it ex: I am typing, this is me coming up with words I want to type, using my fingers to hit the keys, and the keys making words on the screen. Typing isn't a good example because screens don't really feel like reality to me regardless, but you get the point.

Do you dissociate? How would you describe it?

[HALLIEBETH87]

I feel that. My t says its derealization

[*Laurie*]

I have experienced derealization, a form of dissociation, for 30 years. Besides a severe depression I'd say the derealization is my worst symptom. For me, it feels like I am looking at everything through a glass wall. I am connected just fine to myself; it's that there's something odd between me and the visual world. I (and some pdocs) have suspected I have some type of epilepsy, though.

You can take a look at minddisorders.com (under depersonalization) or dpselfhelp.com for a lot of info on depersonalization.

[~Christina]

I understand what you mean.

For me it’s like I’m covered in a cloth that everything looks fuzzy through but I feel nothing and coming out of it everything is foggy and tingling, like waking up from a dream.

[HALLIEBETH87]

I guess I should describe my own example.

It feels like nothing is real and I'm dreaming and life is going on as usual but I'm disconnected from it. I feel dead or like nothing is real.

[Moose72]

Feel detatched from everything- like others have said like nothing is real.

[Nola0250]

I feel detached like looking at the world through a glass wall too, but in my case I feel like I'm the one that's not real.

[cool09]

I've felt derealization during my entire 40 years of depression. I feel very detached from myself and can't feel myself or anything around me and I feel unreal. I've also felt outside of my body. It's a horrible feeling. It made it impossible to communicate. After my depression lifted this year I've felt more attached to myself and not so unreal.

[8akuma8]

My mind, soul, and body are in different dimensions. Never the same dimensions for longer then 2 min. Idk wtf is happening

I go into a fuzzy daze staring into oblivion, then another Other steps in and takes over. When I experience dp/dr....it feels like a bubble of alien envelopes my body.

Try grounding techniques like tactile approaches...an ice cube on the skin, or mental approaches like distraction and focusing on an object ignoring your surroundings.

I hope this helps hon.

[Unrigged64072835]

Originally Posted by AlwaysChanging2

I go into a fuzzy daze staring into oblivion, then another Other steps in and takes over. When I experience dp/dr....it feels like a bubble of alien envelopes my body.

Try grounding techniques like tactile approaches...an ice cube on the skin, or mental approaches like distraction and focusing on an object ignoring your surroundings.

I hope this helps hon.

That's how I feel: like I'm in a bubble and the world around me is a 3D movie.

The last time that happened was last Thanksgiving, when my husband was bit by a dog. I was in a daze and I had to force myself to follow him to clean up his hand.

[Manic Trance]

I feel this way all the time, like the world is going on out there, and I am living in a life only of my mind, getting these cables from planet earth, reacting to every thing 30 to 60 seconds late. I hate it because I feel like I am not even present for my daughter. I'm a mess.

[annielovesbacon]

I'll echo what many people have already said, it makes me feel like nothing is real, I'm in a total fog and mentally I am not present at all. Then later I can't remember anything, like it's just a complete blackout.

[winter4me]

I relate....
I think it is a protective mechanism developed early that becomes a problem when you carry it with you out of the situation/environment it protected you from.
When I dissociate, the difference is that I am up on the ceiling watching me vs feeling like there is a kind of barrier between myself and the world around me (eg--like Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar...)