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

I'm curious about people's experiences with dissociation, and derealization in particular. I'm currently experiencing intense burn out from my social-service job, and I've been looking back at the last year and realizing there were signs I was developing really bad anxiety way sooner than I thought.

Months back, maybe even a year, I began experiencing odd episodes of deja-vu. I would look around me and be sure that I had seen this place, this moment before, and particularly in a dream. I didn't necessarily doubt that what I was seeing was real, but I was certain that somehow I had dreamed that exact moment.

Sometimes it was just a flash, sometimes it would last a few minutes. At its worst, it came with a heavy, sick feeling in my chest. It was frightening, and sometimes thinking about it or focusing on it would make it worse.

After doing reading, I'm pretty sure this was a form of derealization. They are much rarer now, likely thanks to my mindfulness practice and regular therapy. But they still happen occasionally, and it can get pretty scary.

Has anyone had similar experiences of deja-vu like derealization? Or other kinds of dissociation?

Piratewombat, reading your post got me a bit worried, I have epilepsy and sometimes my seizures feel like you are describing- a strange sensation in the brain such as deja vu or the feeling of floating or getting very large or very small, coupled with a sick feeling in my stomach or butterflies or weird feeling in the chest area. So you may want to get checked by a neurologist, not just a therapist

Wow, it never occurred to me that deju vu might actually be symptomatic rather than just annoying. I used to have what I used to call "bargain basement psychic" moments all the time when I was younger, where someone would say or do something totally insignificant and I would be sure that I had heard them say or do that exact thing before.

In my case, I'm pretty sure it's a psych issue rather than a neuro issue, but either way I'm glad it's not happening as much as it used to. Super annoying.