Often people who have anxiety or panic disorders say that the strange feeling of unreality, depersonalization, spaciness, or dreaminess are the most frightening. Of course these feelings are not as violent as the throat clenching horror of a full blown panic or anxiety attack. Feelings of unreality are considered frightening for a different reason.
After you have had a panic attack or two you probably know what to expect. That doesn’t mean it becomes any less nasty necessarily, but at least you know where you are. Feelings of unreality on the other hand don’t seem to have a definite start or finish, you don’t know when they will go away. What’s more they don’t feel like anxiety, they feel like you are going completely mad!
And that is the scary thought. Is this Schizophrenia? Bipolar? What’s going on?
What is going on? Well, you are feeling spacey and it doesn’t matter half as much as you think it does. Like the rest of anxiety and panic, if you worry about it you just get more. Work on going about your normal business allowing the anxiety and feelings of unreality to be there. The sooner you accept them the sooner they will pass. Dr Clare Weekes (eminent Australian Anxiety expert now deceased) says feelings of unreality are a good sign, as they show you are dealing with the anxiety. Read here for more about her. And for a wealth of anxiety information visit Anxiety 2 Calm.
Hello,It’s good to see some of the things that I go through listed here. I have suffered with panic and depression, anxiety for about27 years now..I have had the strange feelings alot…I have felt completely crazy from the deep feelings of Spaciness and looking at things like trough a magnifying glass too.Sometimes things and people don’t look normal to me. I get so messed up sometimes with this. I feel noone in the world could possibly feel some of my symptoms.:( I hope that Others know what I am talking about..Write me if you want to!..Brian “Drumbeats2@aol.com “
Comment by Anonymous — September 23, 2006 @ 10:25 am
I do understand the way you are feeling bigtime. I often wonder if I am the only person to feel this way or how strange it would feel to actually describe my symptoms. It is like watching a distorted video game of life. This is especially bad when I get anxious about driving. My perception seems to be off, but I know it is just anxiety and it passes. It is easy to feel crazy over it too, except that I know I’m not (not too crazy anyway:)
Comment by Anonymous — July 10, 2007 @ 2:00 am
For the past 7 weeks i have been feeling spacey, as if i’m not here. I have had dizzy spells and it’s very worrying, i get a fast heartbeat and i get hot asnd my skin feels strange. This seems to be swamping my life, i’m frightened to do things incase when i’m out i come over all strange. No one seems to understand. My Nan id dying from cancer, i am living with her and caring for her, i wondered if this was a result of stress? KOASTLE1@chi.ac.uk (Kayleigh)
Comment by Kayleigh — September 3, 2008 @ 9:37 am
wow! Its is so reassuring to see someone feels the way I do. I take 40mg of Citalopram every morning, but I don’t feel like it is working anymore. I am constantly getting that “unreality” feeling and I cant even explain the feeling. All of a sudden I will feel like im not a part of the world or I will just start panicking and thinking I’m about to go crazy. I also feel weakened and fatigued alot!! It will come on when I think about it, and ill feel like i just want to go to sleep. Sometimes I feel my mind makes me think I’m tired… I just dont know?? help??
Comment by Abbey — November 7, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
I’ve been feeling a lot of unreality for a couple years now, and I felt like it wasn’t anxiety. I just felt like I was slipping into a dull insanity. My emotions seem numbed and my happiness is dwindling, and every day felt like a new ‘vibe’ underlying the overall illusion of a nightmare. It was so dull that I wasn’t sure if it was really happening– if I was even real. And I do understand what you mean about people and things not looking normal! They feel different, like maybe they look the same, but if you peeled back their cover, you’d find that underneath there was something else making them up, something scary. I have this problem with environments. My apartment seems like a new place nearly every day, and sometimes it’s hard to adjust to new surroundings, fearing certain rooms that just yesterday I was comfortable in.
Comment by Anonymous — December 12, 2008 @ 2:55 pm