Hello all,

I have had Depersonalization on and off for the last two years. I say on and off because all DP really is, is anxiety with a little bit of OCD. My theory is, the worse your OCD and anxiety the worse your DP.

Anyways, I had a to of things going on in my life the last 3 months and for the most part my DP was gone up until 2 nights ago. 2 nights ago I was really stressed out and it just hit me again very hard. It was like all symptoms i suffered with hit me at once. Had a terrible panic attack. I am still recovering from the panic attack I had, it was the first one I had in 8 months. The symptom I still seem to suffer from the most is feeling like not only Im in a dream, but I feel like I'm in a different place. My home doest feel like my home. Everything feels foreign to me. Its like deja vu the way it hits me. I will truly feel like I'm somewhere else. But I know Im not? I do feel like its a dream in a sense that I don't feel like I'm familiar with my surroundings. And so of course that causes anxiety. I also struggle with other symptoms such as feeling weird that Im in a body and that I have thoughts which makes me feel like I need to "jump" out of my own body. I also struggle with existential things such as being freaked out that Im alive. Living and breathing in reality. Reality itself, the complexity of having a conscious and being in "reality" causes a surge of anxiety. So that with everything feeling foreign and like I'm looking at it for the first time has caused a lot of stress the last few days. Sometimes things feel foreign in the sense that I've seen it before... and sometimes like I've never seen it. It takes up my whole entire sense of my environment sometimes. If that makes any sense.

Has anybody had this, and did you get over it somehow?

[miss_rainy]

I had that before. For me, its like all of you "wake up" and are like put in a strange coexisting universe which is reality. Its like you said dreaming and suddenly waking up. I'm sure the anxiety doesn't help but in a way its kinda cool and refreshing because your almost like feelings for the first time. Like being an alien lol

[elevatedsoul]

i have lived with that everyday of my life

[Luce]

Yes, I experience those kinds of symptoms in certain circumstances. What helps me is using grounding exercises... they usually help. Often I need to use many grounding exercises many times to make a significant difference. You can find a list of helpful Grounding Techniques here.

[whispers_inthedark]

I've had this before. the best thing to do is try to stay calm and ground yourself, but it's really hard when you're in that deja vu feeling to be calm. can you bring it up to your therapist and see if they have ideas?

Thank you guys for your replies. Basically what happens is, is ill be watching a movie or listening to a song, heck, sometimes even thinking too deeply will make me "feel" like I'm somewhere else. And these flood of memories come with it. It makes me also feel like I'm dreaming