A quick Google search on feelings of unreality returns numerous posts on forums by people who are witnessing this frightening phenomena. Also described as depersonalization, derealization, and dissociation these feelings are amazingly common and hard to describe. Some people say they are in a glass bubble looking out, or watching the world go by on a giant TV. Others say they suddenly feel the people and things around them are not real.
The obvious catastrophic thoughts are along the lines of “I am going mad”!
So what is this and what can be done about it. Firstly let me say that sometimes these feelings of unreality and depersonalisation come about as a result of recreational drug use. That topic is beyond the scope of this blog and my area of expertise. Speak to your doctor and don’t take drugs kids! While I’m at it, anyone with feelings of unreality or depersonalization should speak to their doctor.
apart from drug misuse the most common cause of feelings of unreality is stress, anxiety, worry, and depression. Just like hyperventilation or a feeling that you are about to pass out they absolutely harmless and do pass eventually. Just like all other symptoms they are horrible and awful and no one who hasn’t experienced them can truly understand. My advice is still to go with them and let them be, the sooner you accept them the sooner they will pass.
The good news is that for me they heralded the end of the heavy physical symptoms of anxiety like difficulty breathing, nervousness, and panic. The feelings of unreality for me at least were related to my underlying issues: depression, low confidence and low self esteem.
So after speaking to a doctor take these feelings as a sign, accept them, remember they are not dangerous or real and will pass. I really recommend you read books by Dr Claire Weekes.
Cheers.
unreality
I feel these feelings too. I felt like I was cured of my anxiety and then…BAM, the unreality set in. Maybe I was feeling so good, it didn’t feel “normal” to me. With my feelings of unreality, I feel like things are not real. I feel very detached. As the author stated, I certainly hopes this means that I am about to be better like they were, that it is the last step to healing. But it is so debilitating. My husband does not understand these feelings, so I don’t talk to him about them. My poor mom gets her ear talked off, though. She is very understanding and helps to “ground” me. I suggest finding a health care professional, spiritual layperson, or family member that can explain what is going on or at least listen so you can logically talk yourself through what you are feeling and why it is faulty thoughts. My faith in God has sustained me in this crisis, even when I forget His promises. Writing helps too. It can get your thoughts out, and you can leave them behind. You will also be able to see your progress and your thoughts clear as you get better. God bless to everyone who reads this. I will pray for your healing and understanding as I pray for mine.
i first experienced panic and the unreality feelings at age 15 i am now almost 57. it has come and gone all of my life. i got help in 2000 for the very first time with meds. i was also dianosed with mild depression and high anxiety. my dr. put me on 10 mg of paxil in 2001 and last april of 2006 i had a relapse or whatever it was and my paxil is now 20 mg daily. i also am on xanax and ambein. the xanax has helped me alot but i still am depressed a little and a small amount of the unreality feeling. i am a christian so i do feel guilty at times but i know God understands. yes i will pray for your healing.
I also suffer from feelings of unreality, it seems especially strong when i go into stores with bright lights ie:costco-home depot-menards-jewel-etc… thats when it is even worse! i cannot figure out why, sometimes i think i must have a brain tumor, or something majorly wrong, i tried praying For 10 years now, but i get the big ZERO, I had become a born again christian about 11 years ago and eveything around me started to feel wrong and evil, and i think thats what started all this nightmare, it somehow manifested itself into major feelings of unreality, i wish i could say i would pray for all of you who suffer these feelings, but i dont believe any longer that it would help in the slightest bit, good luck to all of you and myself.
Hi, I am Basil and I have got these feelings of unreality too so you are not alone. I feel detached, like I am in a dream state and that I will wake up in bed at any moment It is not very nice at all and has stopped me from driving my car. I have been a driver for 23 years with no problem. But for 6 months I have not be able to drive because of feeling this way. I try and get out every day, wether it be to the local retail park or to the supermarket with my husband. Even town some weekends but of course hubby doesnt have a clue how this feels!! Have you read the bit about unreality by Paul David? If not it can be found at http://www.anxietynomore.com All we have to do is accept it and stop fighting it, trying to push it away. Not easy I know. I have had this feeling before many years and I know that Paul David IS RIGHT and the ffeling WILL GO, eventually. I have to keep telling myself that.
I pray that you all overcome this and that we are all over it soon.
Take Care
Basil
Hi my name is mark and i have had these feelings of unreality for many years i get very confused about how i should feel about reality ie my surroundings i find my self looking at things serching for an answer to how i should feel all ever feel is fear i wish i could talk to someone who could help me with my thoughts ive seen doctors and alike but no joy they just give me more pills.
hi my names sam, and ive had these feelings for 2 and a half years now. not long compared to some of you but each of us or feelingsof how our bodys are is different. ive had the worst symptoms of anxiety from massive paranoia, weakness,eating difficulty, pail skin,unreality,weight loss,agoraphobia, etc. what a lot of you have described about unreality is true to me but if this is the last stages of my anxiety coming to an end then i will do what you guys say. ill except it not fight it which is what ive been doing for so long now. i was lucky in a way to really discover what my deep rooted problem was. that is that all through my life my mind would always convince me that i was ill in someways. first it was AIDS , which definalty was true since id never had sex (LOL), then once id come to the realization that was true anymore, a mix up with my housemates and there dope cookies happened, and i ended up with anxiety and a serious paranoia of drugs. once id conquered my fear of drugs, my mind kept telling me that i had a brain tumor or that some illness was going to kill me. i realized that i had to major fears: death and illness. thoughs are my deep rooted problems that i now have to face and get over. so to all of you, sometimes these things happen for a reason, maybe its for you to get over these deep rooted fears. i wish everyone all the luck in the world to get over this. just look for the signs that can tell you what your fears might be.
god bless XXXX
I am experiencing these problems and it is sometimes scary and annoying, i wish it would all go away, I keep thinking im in a dream buy i know its reality but someting keeps reminding me of it. I had a couple of stages, first it was the difficulty breathing which has lessened, then fear of dying and sleeping, and not unreality which is the worst of them all. Can someone please help me?
Hello. Im having this feelings now and they are extremely annoying and I think Im going mad, they started after a panic attack and just don’t go away. Reading this blog I just feel that Im not alone. And it’s difficult to talk to people and hear some comments like: Are you on drugs? (which Im certainly not) or I wish I had that too without any dope, must be fun. But is not..it’s a nightmare. I have the same feelings as Jerry above described, and I also need some help. Please..can someone tell me how to cope with this? Ill be greatful. Just send me an e-mail or something. dias.crisc@gmail.com
My name is Indiana.
I’ve had these feelings of unreality off and on since I was in the fourth grade (I’m in the 11th now). It terrifies me, because there are times when I feel like I am the only real person in the world and everyone around me is an illusion or something, then I wonder what will happen when I die… I know, it sounds kind of extreme, but that is how I feel sometimes. I get over it eventually, but it always comes back… I just want to fix it…
hello im christian and am felling like im going mad from this felling of unreality it all started from a series of axiety attacks so i took a HOLIDAY hoping it would make it better the axiety went away but unreality ironiccaly stayed feeling that i was going crazy thinking that i was going to end up in a nut house i thought of suiside everydaY but havent yet knowing that im not the only oone is comforting but thats it sleep is my only escape
hi, i am feeling slightly better for knowing that people are going through the same thing as me.i too get feelings of unreality and a fear of going to sleep as i feel i may not wake up.i have difficulty breathing, feel light headed and palpatations due to this. its terrifying me and has been going on for about 12 years now.i only wemt to my doctor about it around 6 months ago as I honestly thought I was partially “mad” however i didnt receive much help except relaxation techniques and a print out describing my symptoms.if anyone can help please drop me an email teeny_g86@hotmail.com
has anyone got to a point when they stare at things trying to work out how they are there when you have these feelings of unreality
i had them too..
but they went away as soon as i didnt give a damn anymore
After an extreme benzodiazapine withdrawal I experienced these feelings right away. Acute withdrawal left me with these feelings but when I took medications to help me with my anxiety they subsided a little and were some what tolerable. Now after acute withdrawal is over I still experience them. They are not as intense but they are still a little disturbing and they’re really annoying and uncomfortable. Sometimes it causes me to have insomnia.
I am going to urgent care tomorrow as well as calling my doctor. I feel afriad that I may not be alive too much longer. My life has been an interesting experience and I have had a lot of cool experiences and happy moments. See you all in heaven! Meet me at the cross!
I remember all of these feelings i get them every now and then and I’m 24 had it since i was 18 or so. I got treatment right away mostly because my mother and aunt reconized my depression and anxiety sypmtoms from there experience with bi-polar thank god i dont have that. I only want to say that i know what you are all talking about where you kinda feel like your eyes are just another TV and nothing is real because you can only see through your eyes and your mind but its not the truth its just your mind. I’m not saying you’ll get better overnight or anything but hereing it or reading it usual helps a little bit at least it did for me. Good Luck everyone.
i’m 15 years old. i am so relieved to finally know what is happening to me by reading all this…. i had thse EXACT feelings one time for a period of a few months first when i was in 6th grade. i just slipped into this void of “unreality” literally in a split second. i’ve always had a very analytical mind and i always try and figure things out myself… but that’s what made it worse. then, it went away as i forgot about it kind of.
and now it’s worse than ever. sure, i get in good moods every other day… but i feel like i’m unable to enjoy anything, and that it is impossible to find my way back to the real world, with my mother and my boyfriend of 3years ) :
it has been going on since january this year.
i feel hopeless. i am afraid of being stuck in this state of mind forever. can anyone tell me if there is hope? if there is any chance of forgetting about it again, and getting better? i’m desperate for help.
if i were to visit with a doctor, just exactly what kind of doctor should it be? (psychologist, etc…?)
please, any kind of help is MUCH appreciated.
Dear Kelsie,
I too feel feelings of unreality. I don’t understand them. My axiety gets worse at night as soon as the sun goes down. I don’t know whats going on. I have health problems and I worry about them too much. My OCD acts up too. I am going to see my pediatrician tomorrow and hopefully will find out what is going on with me. I have had anxiety all my life and I just turned 18 today. I just feel spacey all the time. It’s hard to have fun anymore. I am losing interest in things that I was always interested in like reading. I don’t read much any more because I am afraid it will mess with my mind.I hate bed time. I have trouble going to sleep becase I am afraid something will happen or something. I don’t know if its my health or anxiety. whenever I have anxiety i keep thinking there is something wrong with my health. I don’t understand any of this. I hate going in stores. I hate crowds and I hate the bright lights. I wear my sunglasses in stores. I would like advice if anyone has any.
anyone taking rispidol? I think that how you spell it. I was perscribed to take it but im afraid of the side effects.
Hi, I too suffer from the same symptoms as people above. It all started when i was in Uni about 10 years ago. I can clearly remember the day i first felt like i was looking at my life from the outside. It was such a weird sensation that i worried about it for weeks, keeping it too myself as i didnt want people to think i was weird or had gone crazy. I now know that was part of the problem, that i feared too much about what people thought of me.
I grew up in a small but pretty rough town that never really had much going for it. My family raised me the best they could and i will be forever greatfull for the joys of adolecense that the gave me, but unfortuently alot of what i remember about my childhood is bullying and a constant fearfulness of being beaten up by local kids. I looked forward to uni, as i thought this was going to be my escape from this constant fear and worthlessness, However when i got to uni i could not start fresh as i feared that i was not going to fit in, that the bullies were right, people were right to not like me etc etc. in other words after years of insecurity i was finally insecure:-)This is when my first feelings of unreality started, but I now know that this is part of my subconsious protecting me. I was constantly suffering so much from the fight or flight syndrom that accompanied my insecurities that this feeling of unreality or the feeling of auto mode, replaced these and distracted my mind from the pressure/stress that my subconcious thought it would have to deal with. It took me nearly 10 years to discover this as i first went down the path of medication which numbed and masked these insecurities but eventually i had to face these fears and deal with them. although i know medications do work for some people it was the ‘the linden method’( google it:-)) that was my saving grace when it came to elimatating these emotions for me. I never experience these feelings anymore, but i can still remember the utter fear and unpleasentness that these feelings caused me. I am writing here to ensure you that you are not going mad/crazy/insane and even if you wanted too you wouldn’t be able to because thats not the way it works. Thrust me i have been to the depths of dispair with this emotion, thinking every thought you can imagine from the good to the bad to the preverse and i now live a very happy fulfilled life free of these unwanted and unjustified emotions and thoughts. Stop doubting yourself, you are not going crazy and you desreve to be happy so start threating yourself that way:-)
My 8 yr old daughter was so distressed saying she felt like she was dead in a dream and felt like she had been invented. She had EEG which showed adnormal be constant seizures but the doc says she should not have these feelings with this type of epilepsy hence now being referred to psycologist. It’s soul destroying as a mother knowing she has had these feelings since the age of four 24/7 and just want her better going to fight it all the way. Good luck for all you out there in the same boat my thoughts are with you.
“Theres no such thing as normal life, theres just life, and you get on with it”
Hi;
I don’t really know where to start, but I started having these feelings of unreality a week ago, they came on really suddenly Monday evening and have since meant i’ve spontaneously burst into tears and not really known what to do with myself. I just continue to look at things, or people and think “They’re not real, it’s all made up”, as if i’m living in the Matrix and I’m the only one who’s realised. I’ve tried telling myself this is ridiculous and have since come home from uni (im 19 btw) for a few days to try and get my head together. It seems to be better when I’m around family etc as although i still get these thoughts every 20 minutes or so, i can brush them off. I am absolutely terrified however. Terrified that my bf will leave me because i cant control what i think anymore, terrified i wont pass my degree which funnily enough is in International Politics and Psychology, and generally feel v lonely. I’ve told my mum etc but theres not a lot more she can do other than try and reassure me as she has to work long hours of the day.
Does anyone know how they can help me stop feeling like this?
im 18 years old and since i can remember ive always had the feeling of being..”different?” i guess you could say. i always asked myself why am i me and how do i know what i see thigns as is what you see them as.
recently ive thought deeper and deeper about it and began thinking i was crazy,that there was something mentally wrong with me. Then i had a panic attack..it was when i looked in my mirror and said to myself..how do i even know thats me. i go through life behind my own eyes and just looking at me in that mirror.i SAW me..or did i?..it scared me.i couldnt breathe..and well thats where the panic attack comes in.
now life is passing me by..im not me anymore.not fun or involved.i dont see things the way i used to.nothing is real to me.
i wanted to help everyone in the world and i never used to think about myself. now all i can do is think about myself.i dont even see people anymore the way i used to.their just..there.
im stuck in a hole within my head not looking beyond it.im constantly worring, mainly about dying or being crazy.just looking at the world in black and white and nothing more.i feel alone..stuck in my dream state..stuck in my own head almost. like my body is doing what it needs to do but ME the real me is trapt.i talk but it feels like its not me talking.like my mind is not apart of me.
how are these words coming out of my mouth?
how did i just get from my kitchen to my palor?
i move my fingers but is it me moving them?it seems like these hands dont even belong to me.
im doing what i normally do but its not the same. the way i see things are from a distance almost..
others see my as ‘normal’.. but i feel like im not.even if they tell me i am.
i can relate to a little of what everyone has said and knowing im not alone..gives me hope.
though it would be wonderful to meet someone like this in person..to talk to
<333
I was wondering if this feeling has anything to do with nutriment? I don’t eat meat since couple of years and I don’t recall feeling of unreality before that. A thing you can do I think is sport activities. Either stretching or running. Some physical activity, so that you feel yourself in your body. In any case, not thinking too much about this feeling because that doesn’t help at all. A concentration on interests, on some activity can help I think.
Good luck in coping with it.
Bekka
Hey, I too experience these symptoms. It all began one stupid night when I decided to go to a friends house and get “stoned” for the first time, I’d experimented with Marijuana before and it had been a similar experience to being drunk, but this time it was different… I slipped out into this kind if numb bubble where all my senses dimmed down and I had the horrible feeling I was going to die, I woke in the morning in a daze and I’ve been like that permanently ever since. It’s like looking at the world through a paid of thick glasses, I don’t feel anything around me as I should and I don’t seem to connect with anything as it doesn’t seem realistic, when I think of Reality I just get really dizzy and feel like i’ll pass out and then i think there is no reality and i’m not really here. Concentration is difficult too, as I feel as though I can’t pinpoint my vision on anything/focus on anything and I’m just bluntly looking at everything as though it were looking through someone else’s eyes. I’m only 16 and I’ve experienced these feelings constantly since I was 15 years old (It’s been over a year now.) If anyone knows how I can slip back in to reality just to feel real again, add me on msn Fatal-Harmony@hotmail.com. – I can’t keep living my life in this constant bubble, the thoughts I get scare me because Suicide seems like a viable option here.
I seriously need help, and I don’t know what to do… So if you think you know ANYTHING that can help, PLEASE add me on messenger.