depersonalization???

Can anyone enlihgten me on this subject???

I spent a lot of time during childhood in this state - but of course I didn't know it then. From my understanding, people that suffer from depersonalization usually develop this state when suffering some kind of psychological trauma. When I was a child I remember feeling "unreal" or "detatched" from my physical body. Sometimes my ears would ring and I would feel almost like I watching a movie. When I left my childhood behind it never happened again unitl I started therapy 2 years ago. When I get into talking about childhood traumas I seem to slip back into that state. The room becomes misty, my T seems far away, its very difficult to speak and I feel disconnected from myself. We do grounding techniques to become present again, but sometimes it is really hard to "come back". Its not an unpleasant feeling and I can understand now , how it is used to protect yourself from trauma. If you google it I'm sure there will be more detailed info. This is just what I understand it to be, and what I have experienced of it. I hope this has been of some help. Take care.

PS I just noticed that youre from NZ......me too!!!

if its anything like kindergirl said it is, then i can relate to what she's saying. never knew it had a name..

I have experienced this as well. For me it seems as though there is a gulf between me and the other people in the room. I feel very disconnected from them as if in a dream, or something. It has also happened to me in therapy where T's face seems to be getting further and further away. I don't like the feeling, myself. It's disconcerting to me.

There's a forum dedicated to depersonlisation

http://www.dpselfhelp.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=11

I too have experienced depersonalization since childhood, but more so derealization... the feeling that nothing is real and/or that I feel out of my body looking in... sometimes it is comforting but most times I find it disturbing b/c I can have difficulty bringing myself back to reality, happened earlier this morning as a matter of fact... definate disconnection between myself and the world around me and myself and myself... very hard to explain...

Hi sickntired

I'm familiar with this topic cuz it really affects me a lot. Here is a little info and I hope it helps.

Dissociative symptoms can be secundairy symptoms by a lot of personality disorders, but in most cases it is derealization - depersonalization (DP).
The DP can occur as a dissociative phenomenon by f.i.;
Depression
Anxiety Disorder
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Borderline Personality Syndrome
Schizophrenia, Epilepsy and Autism

Depersonalization as a primairy dissociative disorder is where a person "looks at themselves from the outside", and observes their own physical actions or mental processes as if they were an observer instead of themselves. This often brings a sense of unreality, and an alteration in the perception of the environment around them, as well as the person fearing they are not in full control of themselves. Depersonalization can occur during a number of different times, and not be a disorder. In order to qualify as a disorder, it must be recurrent to the point that it interferes with daily functioning in at least one major area of life.

The DSM IV criteria are:

Persistent or recurrent experiences of feeling detached from, and as if one is an outside observer of, one's mental processes or body (for example, feeling like one is in a dream).
During the depersonalization experience, reality testing remains intact.
The depersonalization causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
The depersonalization experience does not occur exclusively during the course of another mental disorder, such as Schizophrenia, Panic Disorder, Acute Stress Disorder, or another Dissociative Disorder, and is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (for example, a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (for example, temporal lobe epilepsy).

www.strangerinthemirror.com

This is a really good site and I know on this site there is a questionnaire.

I read this book and it was excellent and very helpful. The website was really good.

Hope this helped.

~E

ok now i can totally relate

instead of leaving the body...like watching a room...do you think it could also be like feeling trapped inside the body and having something else take over???

I use to experience it like a "glass wall" one was watching everyone else/life through. You could see them but they couldn't see you and you couldn't "connect" with them and sometimes not even hear them. It was a very sad and "lonely" feeling.

I'm not sure about something else taking over, but I don't leave my body ... I just don't feel a part of it. I don't recognize myself in a mirror ..or in pictures ..or like walking by a window. Sometimes I'll startle myself even.

I also feel detached from myself not only in a physical sense. I just don't actually see myself from the outside.

Not sure if that helps you or not.

~E

Thank you all for your replies to my post.