[enroutetopeace]

Hello.

I'm currently struggling with severe derealization accompanied by an intense fear of going crazy and developing schizophrenia.. I obsessively google my symptoms. It's been so hard, I can't even begin to explain.. I feel so detached and distant, so unreal.. coping has been really hard. I look at my hands and feel like they're not even really there, like they don't belong to me. I feel like a stranger to myself. Am I going crazy?

If comfortable, please share thoughts, opinions, tips, and personal experiences?

Thank you

<3

[Luce]

Hello. have you been to see a therapist or mental health professional? Derealization and depersonalization feels pretty kooky doesn't it?

[elevatedsoul]

yeah, im totally going crazy myself

been stuck in an unreal world for a long time

i'll get obsessive sometimes too it seems, but i find that it helps to try to just relax and let it play out... after all its not going to change the experience right off if we do get answers, we'll just have answers and still feel weird!

therapy helps me alot even though apparently i dissociate a lot during therapy... its nice just going to see a person that you can get along with and talk to, and they not gonna be all like "damn son, you crazy!" cause i've told my therapist that im going crazy several times and she explains to me that its not that im going crazy, i've just been through so much that im overwhelmed and having difficulties coping...

are you in therapy?

Originally Posted by enroutetopeace

Hello.

I'm currently struggling with severe derealization accompanied by an intense fear of going crazy and developing schizophrenia.. I obsessively google my symptoms. It's been so hard, I can't even begin to explain.. I feel so detached and distant, so unreal.. coping has been really hard. I look at my hands and feel like they're not even really there, like they don't belong to me. I feel like a stranger to myself. Am I going crazy?

If comfortable, please share thoughts, opinions, tips, and personal experiences?

Thank you

<3

I can understand the fear of "going crazy" and labeling it something psychotic along the lines of schizophrenia which can instill panic and extreme anxiety. Relax...nobody is going crazy....its just something that you are now experiencing.

Have you seen both a med doctor to rule out any physical/biological causes? Medication? Stress? Have you talked to a pdoc? If not...I recommend doing so very right away.

Depersonalization/derealization are dissociative disorders which means you aren't going crazy. You just feel like it.

If you are going psychotic...then it's a belief system...one beliefs are changed because reality has changed. With dissociative disorders, one 'feels" different...reality stays intact. According to how you expressed yourself in your post...it is more of a feeling with you.

Do you know any grounding techniques? In my earlier years I would too panic and stress over what was happening not knowing what is happening to me and to where all this was leading. After awhile I self learned grounding techniques like focusing in on controlled breathing (listening to, deep breathes then a slow release) to lessen the anxiety, to calm down. Then I would start focusing on an object noting it's size shape, color, texture, and other physical traits while pondering it's use. Big box stores, especially super markets are the worse for me....over stimulation of the senses through lights, sound, with all the colors, people/computer noise, smells, rows and rows of colorful products stacked on each otger in random but yet symmetrical ways...I have to start reading product labels and touch everything to pull myself together.

Now that I'm used to dp/dr, after initially doing controlled breathing to calm down at the onset...I'd sit and exist in this altered state checking it out and weirdly sorta enjoying it. Thanks LSD for making the unusual usual, lol

Try to relax and stay calm. Does this happen often? Is it new? Or is it a constant state that you exist in?

All these needs to be addressed with a learned proffessional in your locale. Hopefully that this helped some and that you get to feeling better.

[enroutetopeace]

Originally Posted by elevatedsoul

yeah, im totally going crazy myself

been stuck in an unreal world for a long time

i'll get obsessive sometimes too it seems, but i find that it helps to try to just relax and let it play out... after all its not going to change the experience right off if we do get answers, we'll just have answers and still feel weird!

therapy helps me alot even though apparently i dissociate a lot during therapy... its nice just going to see a person that you can get along with and talk to, and they not gonna be all like "damn son, you crazy!" cause i've told my therapist that im going crazy several times and she explains to me that its not that im going crazy, i've just been through so much that im overwhelmed and having difficulties coping...

are you in therapy?

I'm in therapy currently. It feels sooo good to hear that someone else dissociates during therapy too, because I sure do! Message me if you ever wanna talk

[enroutetopeace]

Originally Posted by AlwaysChanging2

I can understand the fear of "going crazy" and labeling it something psychotic along the lines of schizophrenia which can instill panic and extreme anxiety. Relax...nobody is going crazy....its just something that you are now experiencing.

Have you seen both a med doctor to rule out any physical/biological causes? Medication? Stress? Have you talked to a pdoc? If not...I recommend doing so very right away.

Depersonalization/derealization are dissociative disorders which means you aren't going crazy. You just feel like it.

If you are going psychotic...then it's a belief system...one beliefs are changed because reality has changed. With dissociative disorders, one 'feels" different...reality stays intact. According to how you expressed yourself in your post...it is more of a feeling with you.

Do you know any grounding techniques? In my earlier years I would too panic and stress over what was happening not knowing what is happening to me and to where all this was leading. After awhile I self learned grounding techniques like focusing in on controlled breathing (listening to, deep breathes then a slow release) to lessen the anxiety, to calm down. Then I would start focusing on an object noting it's size shape, color, texture, and other physical traits while pondering it's use. Big box stores, especially super markets are the worse for me....over stimulation of the senses through lights, sound, with all the colors, people/computer noise, smells, rows and rows of colorful products stacked on each otger in random but yet symmetrical ways...I have to start reading product labels and touch everything to pull myself together.

Now that I'm used to dp/dr, after initially doing controlled breathing to calm down at the onset...I'd sit and exist in this altered state checking it out and weirdly sorta enjoying it. Thanks LSD for making the unusual usual, lol

Try to relax and stay calm. Does this happen often? Is it new? Or is it a constant state that you exist in?

All these needs to be addressed with a learned proffessional in your locale. Hopefully that this helped some and that you get to feeling better.

thanks soo much for your response. yeah, this state is pretty chronic. and I am intact with reality. I know I'm real, I'm just overwhelmed with this sense that I'm not. always questioning myself, existence, and everything around me. and yeah I hate grocery stores. the lighting and the people and my need to shop is a tough combination lol. thanks for the grounding tips. I try to meditate and although meditation can calm my thoughts, it can make me feel mooore derealized.