YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Hey Everyone,
Have any of you ever experienced depersonalization/derealization? I have been feeling really numb/detached/disconnected/questioning what is real and what matters. I feel embarrassed posting that because it sounds kind of crazy...but it's been freaking me out and I wondered if anyone could relate. I've never felt this way before and was wondering if it could be related to my overall level of anxiety being higher. It just feels so different than the symptoms I normally feel with anxiety.

Thank you so much to anyone who reads/responds. Is there anything that you have done to help you get through these feelings? Do they ever go away? I just want to feel connected and feel something again.

Thinking of you all and hoping today's a good day

I've had these detached depersonalized feelings before. I could see happening as the brain reacting to anxiety it couldn't handle by just detaching and becoming numb. For me it feels like I'm watching from a tiny box in my head and that I am not my body. It feels like my body is just a robot going through the motions of life. For me it just goes away on its own.

Yes I feel these things constantly...

I live in a bubble of numbness...

When I feel something sometimes it seems like someone else is feeling them,

FOr me its the combo of anxiety and depression - the depression makes everything grey - I feel no motivation and I just want to weep over nothing - but I don't have the energy to weep - that takes too much effort -

I feel like a drone most of the time and I have resting dead girl face - everyone tends to ask what's wrong - and I know that they really don't want to know... Most of the time I couldn't answer anyway...

I am afraid that feeling something would tip the balance and all my old yucky bad feelings the ones I have buried and hoarded and hid for the last 35 years would spill out and I would be irrevocably broken...

You are not alone

I know this is an older post but I just saw it and hope you are doing better. And yes I experience it as well. Sometimes I feel like this at work. I feel like I'm watching everyone around me going about their business through glass or something. Everything seems fuzzy or blurry and I don't feel present. I have also felt this way while driving. At times I feel like I'm not driving when I really am. It's hard to explain but it actually feels like someone else is stepping on the gas and making the car move and not me. It's so scary. And everything appears to be moving in slow motion like you're watching a scene from a movie. Sometimes I'll look at myself in the mirror and I don't recognize myself. My anxiety is very severe so I am assuming that this can come from it. Sorry if I rambled too much your post just really hit home for me.

Oh I'm sorry I forgot to answer the second part of your post about what helps or if it ever goes away...for me it comes and goes in spurts. Things that help me are therapy, medication (Klonopin helps these feelings disappear completely for me), avoid caffeine (even though I never do lol) and yoga. When I practice yoga it is when I truly feel my body and mind connected as one...which is that feeling that all of us with anxiety and/or depression are constantly striving for. Focusing on the breathe is key to bringing you to the present and truly connected to all of your physical surroundings. Sorry I'm done typing now lol anxiety sucks because I feel like I talk too much and come off annoying and weird.