[robutts]

This is something that I live with pretty constantly, though it doesn't have much in the way of a negative impact on my life. For the most part, it feels just like a quirk.

Sometimes I'll have "blips", or "a glitch in the Matrix" as I sometimes call it, where I feel like my body is a hollow shell and the real me is a small being inside of it, looking out through the eyes. Kind of like that little alien from MIB. Or sometimes I'll feel peeled away, almost, from my body, and it'll be something of an out-of-body experience more than anything. Like I might feel slightly above my body, or behind or in front of it. Those are the more intense experiences.

The subtler ones will be like when I'm falling asleep and I might not feel where my arms or legs touch each other, and I cannot for the life of me tell which one is on top of the other. It just kind of feels like... a blob of limbs and the only well to tell is to move them. Or sometimes I'll feel like my legs are way further away than they really are.

I used to think that this was just a form of BIID, or that I have proprioceptive sensory disorder (which I most definitely do for other reasons), but now I'm wondering if it's a DID.

My consciousness and feelings feel very real, my identity, memories, the outside world, other people... they do too. (I only suffer from derealization when I'm having an anxiety attack.)

But I'm just curious if anyone here has looked into the possibility of the cortical homonculous being partly responsible for DID symptoms? It just seems like too much of a coincidence in my case to write it off even though, as far as I know, no one's investigated a link.

[ChildlikeEmpress]

I don't know what a cortical homonculous is (brain part I assume?) but I can definitely relate to what you are feeling. This is how I feel most of the time, like I can see where my body is with my eyes but can't feel where it is spacially, like you said which hand is on top of where. It could be in another room or another dimension for all I know, with each limb in a strange arrangement if I couldn't see it there.
I also sometimes move behind and a little above my body, like you describe -- during especially spaced-out times. I was told by mental health intake therapist that it's part of the dissociation I have with PTSD.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by robutts

This is something that I live with pretty constantly, though it doesn't have much in the way of a negative impact on my life. For the most part, it feels just like a quirk.

Sometimes I'll have "blips", or "a glitch in the Matrix" as I sometimes call it, where I feel like my body is a hollow shell and the real me is a small being inside of it, looking out through the eyes. Kind of like that little alien from MIB. Or sometimes I'll feel peeled away, almost, from my body, and it'll be something of an out-of-body experience more than anything. Like I might feel slightly above my body, or behind or in front of it. Those are the more intense experiences.

The subtler ones will be like when I'm falling asleep and I might not feel where my arms or legs touch each other, and I cannot for the life of me tell which one is on top of the other. It just kind of feels like... a blob of limbs and the only well to tell is to move them. Or sometimes I'll feel like my legs are way further away than they really are.

I used to think that this was just a form of BIID, or that I have proprioceptive sensory disorder (which I most definitely do for other reasons), but now I'm wondering if it's a DID.

My consciousness and feelings feel very real, my identity, memories, the outside world, other people... they do too. (I only suffer from derealization when I'm having an anxiety attack.)

But I'm just curious if anyone here has looked into the possibility of the cortical homonculous being partly responsible for DID symptoms? It just seems like too much of a coincidence in my case to write it off even though, as far as I know, no one's investigated a link.

here where I live and work the term.... cortical homonculous... means a picture representation of how the body works... example a therapist asking their client ....if you could see with in your brain what would it look like, please draw it for me... and then the person draws a representation of what they imagine the inside of their brain looks like. some people do a technical type drawing of brain shaped mass and inside that brain shaped mass they draw a bunch of lines representing their neurons, receptors... others draw a picture of a face, inside or a brain shaped mass, others draw more abstract drawings of what they imagine is going on with in their brains...

the reason I explained that is because here where I live and work DID is not caused by cortical homonculous (a drawing representing what a person in therapy feels the inside of their brain looks like) but is caused through extreme abuse of a very young child. here where I am the statistics/demographics say a child under the age of 5.

you can contact your treatment providers they can explain what DID is in your location, what has caused your problems, whether they are DID or BIID or any other mental/physical problems, based on the belief system in your location, what other accompanying symptoms you have and other things that go into whether a person is DID or other mental disorders in your location.

[-jimi-]

It is to do with how our brain maps our sensory input and movement in the cortex.

Sometimes a weird looking "person" is drawn beside the brain to show where and what proportions the brain has set off for certain areas of the body.

Like actually the brain is mapped so the neck area borders not to the face area but there are lots of things between, like your arm and hand. Brain maps can be scrambled or partially lost. Also body parts can be lost so an area of the brain is vacant and the near area spills over, say you lose a hand, you might feel someone touching your missing hand when they touch your face.

BIID the way I understand it is because of some mixup in the brain map so the body parts are there but the map isn't fully there.

What happens when people without BIID get weird experiences I don't know but possibly also tied to the brain map? If I lie in bed and hold my arms and hands a certain way, I don't know where they are anymore and moreso, I don't know what size they are, my hands each of them feel as big as my head. I have to move around to sort of find my hands again.

It is indeed an interesting topic.