[ava1enzue1a]

A friend and I were discussing sleep paralysis and the sensation of "falling" right before you wake up from sleep. And the friend had explained that this feeling of falling is thought to be a result of when your astral body (or w/e it's called) goes "unaligned" with your physical body after trying to return to it to wake up, as one theory puts it. With this "unalignment", everything feels incredibly "off-kilter" and even quite as an unsettling sensation or disturbing experience.

A more formal definition of the term would be simply "Not feeling comfortable in your own skin." Yeah, I'd say that's pretty much it ─ that can even explain the scenario above: when your "life energy" or non-physical being or w/e isn't exactly in unison with your physical body so of course you're going to be feeling a little "off" or acutely uncomfortable. See people with "species dysphoria" ─ hey, I would be feeling uncomfortable too if, say, I "felt" like the soul of a dolphin trapped inside a human body! OF COURSE you're not going to feel comfortable in a shell that traces a human body! OF COURSE you're going to be feeling "unaligned"!

Any feedback? Input? Comments? At all?

[Rohag]

Hello, Ava1enzue1a! This is an exceptionally difficult question for me. I heard of "simple" dysphoria - being seriously anxious, depressed and discontent - and "gender dysphoria" - feeling like a man/woman trapped in the other's body. "Species dysphoria" is new to me.

I certainly have experienced the first, and I also may be subject to at least mild disassociation, but I don't know how to relate the whole of my experience to the kinds of dysphoria you mention.

[ava1enzue1a]

A feeling of being "out of sync". A lack of harmony. It's just a matter of breaking through restrictive barriers of a rigid ego. The essence of "self" wants to move on already.