My.favorite person in the entire world is struggling with a sudden onset of derealization while we are on vacation. He calls it the feeling and describes it as not being sure or confident that what he is experiencing ( visually or physically) is actually real or not. He says he has been dealing with it for years but has not had an episode in over 5 years. He expresses he felt "the shift" while we were out by the pool. He thinks the onset is brought about by alcohol. Although he doesnt drink, he feels any contact products or substances containing alcohol ( mouthwash, beer, ect) brings about the symptoms. He is so careful he will throw away chapstick if he knows someone was drinking and used it. With all that being said, as a partner, I need to know how I can support him. He feels he cannot make decisions appropriately or trust himself during an episode. Any support recommendations would be so appreciated. He cried from frustration last night and he is a very strong person. However I know this is causing him duress. Im open to any coping or supporting advice..thank you all.

And if so, did it go away? Did you completely stop the medication and find relief afterwards? Because I believe that my heavy 24/7 DPDR was triggered by an SNRI, but I don’t 100% positively know, and I’m wondering if anyone else experienced this. I’m struggling really badly right now and I just don’t know what direction to go in. If it’s because of the medication, maybe I just have to wait it out now that I’m not taking it anymore, but if it’s not, then I don’t know what to do. I’m so incredibly lost and terrified.

and then I try to calm myself down literally by being in a somewhat shady/dark room only to still be experiencing it 24/7 Also this is inappropriate but fuck it; The morning after I do you know what, my dpdr is insane. Yesterday strangely felt like a good more real day but today especially after easy non intense exercise literally I feel like shit.

Hi, I need a place to vent and write down the way I feel, and this seems to be the right place to do so. I've had dp/dr for years now. I can't remember when it started, I only remember years ago when I was around 12 that I noticed that my memory felt odd. I even researched what memories are supposed to be like.

I stumbled upon the term dp/dr only a year ago and everything started making sense. Memories always felt like they were injected into my head a few seconds ago, and nothing I remember feels like it happened to me. Aside from that, I can't seem to remember anything well. It's like I forgot 85-95% of my life. Looking into the mirror always felt weird and I never felt like that's me. Someone on here described the condition like being "a bag of meat inside a flesh suit mimicking noises to the outside world", and that really resonated with me. I feel completely disconnected to what I say, it's like I'm not saying anything, while the person I'm trapped inside of does. Same goes for all my senses, movement and even my emotions. I have no connection to the person I'm inside of.

I looked at this list and lots of other symptoms resonate with me as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/dpdr/comments/1cf3ztg/extensive\_list\_of\_dissociation\_symptoms/

Only thing I don't understand is surroundings being dreamlike or surreal. But I don't know what stuff is supposed to be like otherwise. I can't remember the times before dp/dr and so I have no clue of what life without it is like. I don't have any comparison, so I can't tell whether I'm experiencing that symptom.

I also never went to therapy, so I have no official diagnosis, and never talked about it with a professional in any way. At the moment, I have no means to get help due to several reasons.

The cause for my illness also isn't clear. My theory is that it comes from growing up without a person I could trust/open up to and maybe neglect. I didn't grow up with a best friend, I was rather clinging to my friendgroup than being a solid part of it and during lockdown I was forgotten by my them and also even my school class. I never felt comfortable with opening up to my parents, but I wasn't really abused or anything like that. I also doubt that I had a traumatic event as a child which I forgot about. I've been bottling up my emotions for years now, and I never managed to convey my feelings to anyone. I also used to isolate a lot outside of school and I have this feeling that I've wasted my life so far.

Life is a nightmare at the moment and the best thing I can do is not think about it, or anything at all since I have a lot more struggles going on.

Hi guys,

I had a really really bad DPDR episode around 1 and a half months ago.

I was completely normal, then got on a plane and felt a bit existential, then had a panic attack and afterwards everything felt unreal, I felt so disconnected from everything including my boyfriend. I went on a holiday I was looking forward to so much, but every beautiful sight of nature just made me feel this extreme dread about existence. The best way I can explain it is like the ground under me felt empty, and just this extreme disconnection from my body and surroundings.. Also a hellllll of a lot of existential thoughts.

The first thing I did was search it up, and I found this subreddit, alongside some other websites. Started obsessively reading this stuff, every recovery story felt so relieving, and every comment along the lines of 'I've had dpdr for 20 years' gave me a HEART ATTACK.

I was so all over the place that I ended up losing my passport on the way back in the airport, and missed my flight.... Eventually got a replacement and came back, and felt so much anxiety on the plane as that's where this all started.

Now, how did I get out of this shitty situation?

this will be in a hella random order as I think of what the heck i did

1. knowing that this cannot actually do anything to you. However much you panic, cry, spiral, that feeling of dread and disconnection is the worst of it. Accept that- and I know it's hard, when I read guides which told me to do this I was just thinking fuck off. But its really about sitting right now, feeling that dread, and knowing it's a feeling which will pass. It's like if I have a headache, and I think the headache will never go away and ruin my whole life. It's just untrue. The more you are able to make it a habit- to sit with this feeling and just feel it (just because it FEELS bad doesn't mean it IS bad), the more your brain will understand ehhh this isn't a danger, not worth obsessing over
2. Now, you have learned to sit with the shitty feeling. Do not let it prevent you from doing anything. This is the same treatment as with any other form of anxiety, because DPDR is anxiety... What helped me was at the peak of this shit when I was spiraling and crying and felt like my existence would fall apart, I lost my passport and had to deal with some real life shit. And I was forced to face my fear by getting on that plane. This showed my brain it was fucking terrified for 0 real reason. If u guys have had any other form of anxiety, eg. being absolutely terrified socialise, its the same shit, fear. FACE IT. Show your brain it's bulshitting you, accept the bluff. It will feel HORRIBLE but you will get used to the horrible feeling, like before a rollercoaster, and eventually the bluff/dpdr thoughts will sound so stupid you'll just ignore them.
3. get the fuck off this forum. Even reading recovery stories is an addiction. In some ways, I think people prone to OCD like myself are more likely to have this issue. It also fired up my sensory OCD (obsessing over breathing) which is the same shit undercover. Many people experience depersonalisation but this THOUGHT-FEAR-THOUGHT cycle that we fall into shows an underlying tendency to obsess. Acknowledge this, the fact that you're obsessed with the dopamine you get from reading this shit, and stop.
4. I saw a psychiatrist and got on Lexapro. Honestly, the physical symptoms of anxiety were constantly with me, chest tightness etc and my thoughts were cycling so much I felt completely hopeless. This helped reduce the fight or flight reaction a bit and made me calmer so I could think more rationally/ also get about my life. U dont need meds but it can help, like raw dogging a toenail surgery vs having anesthesia.
5. Sometimes, this shit can uncover some underlying shit. For me, the psychiatrist was like bro.... lowk ur an ADHD freak, but ur ADHD is inattentive so it was hidden. I would never have seen a psych otherwise cuz my asian parents r sooooo against it. It made me realise the procrastination I have day to day about so many things, especially success/work and even simple shit like admin has made me have SO MUCH ANXIETY. I always thought its just me being lazy, but the extreme guilt it gave me proves otherwise. Anyways, really work with a therapist (or chatgpt loewk if u cant afford one) to see what the fuck is wrong with u cuz sometimes that can manifest in other ways, as this is an anxiety disorder at the end of the day
6. FORGET THE NAME DPDR STOP IDENTIFYING WITH IT. STOP MAKING UR WHOLE LIFE ABOUT IT. treat this as what it is, a shitty mix of anxiety, ocd, trauma. This happened so u could fix your life. Read books on anxiety, calm ur nervous system the fuck out. Stop thinking dpdr is this magic thing where your existence has changed completely and no one else can understand you and waiting for a fairy godmother to come and bibbidi babidi boo u out of it
7. stop doing drugs bruh. issok if this was caused by drugs, dont blame urself. but dont do that shit now
8. stop putting a fucking timer on it. After a breakup or sum shit do u put a timer like hMMMMM WHEN WILL I STOP BEING SAD HM WHENNNNN?. no. u heal without tracking it. Just focus on taking care of urself/therapy/ living ur life day to day and you will feel better as time passes. It's like watching a clock at school to see when lunch time comes it feels like forever cuz ur goddam tracking it.
9. People who have had dpdr for 20 years or some shit im sorry like ur feelings are valid but also u have anxiety. Thats literally it. You're still stuck in the cycle because you're still here thinking about it, or I wouldn't see your comments. For this cycle to stop, where your brain thinks about this, and you FEAR, and you read about how to fix it, feel better... and again THOUGHT -> FEAR -> RELIEF... Do u see where im getting at?. Just because you've been like this for so long, doesnt mean the condition is permanent. And you can get better too.
10. having a good support system. Don't share dpdr with randos they will probably make u feel crazy.
11. certain environments/fluroscent lights etc can make u feel worse, or unfamiliar places, philosophy related topics etc. and i say fuck em. your brain likes to make sure you're safe, so its gonna absolutely love obsessing over anything to fire up that anxiety response again. tell it to fuck off. and go about your business. ik im not allowed to say just ignore it, but even if ur shit at ignoring it now, if u let the feeling happen (which ur doing anyways, while still obsessing over it) your brain will eventually let go
12. IT WILL NOT SUDDENLY ONE MOMENT ALL GO AWAY. it's like how a cold doesn't just disappear one second to the other. It takes time, but you'll realise it eventually is gone
13. go gym, focus on self improvement. Yes, u can't be sure about all these shitty questions about existence, or reality, or whatever, but u know what else ur not sure of???? an advanced maths question. There is so much u have not accomplished, and do not know. focus on that.

I also read hope and help for your nerves by claire weekes (can download this https://pdfcoffee.com/pub-hope-and-help-for-your-nerves-pdf-free.html) this one was AMAZINGGGGG honestly please read it. It realllyyyyy kick started my recovery. Now if im ever hella freaking out I just allow myself to float through it and understand even tho my brain makes it feel like reality will fall apart etc nothing will acc happen and my brain is just temporarily tweaking.

Shaun's dpdr manual is good for dpdr specific shit, like feeling like ur not alone with symptoms etc, idk why that shits paid hto honestly so here it is
https://pdfcoffee.com/qdownload/91753007-depersonalization-guide-v2-5-pdf-free.html

please make urself a tea, do the things u enjoy even while u feel shit doing them. focus on school/work even if it feels like ur brain is gonna combust. spend time with family and if ur family is shit spend time with whoever the fuck is ur comfort. and if not, message me.

You will get through this, I PROMISE

I have such severe dreams, many about sharp objects in my body that I can feel in my sleep, dreams about sex, about being lost, about being unable to escape. every single night basically all night long.

I have sympathy for myself because those are the emotions my mind has never been able to process or let go of. DPDR is protecting me from all of that emotion that’s stuck in my body.

this is why I havent gotten any better despite major behavioral changes and living my life. my body has kept the score and it doesn’t speak language. it’s still living in the past, fragmented and unable to see that life has changed. this never ending loop.

im so proud of myself for keeping on, idk how I have. I still live, I still try every single day despite how difficult it is. and that’s the only reason I’m still standing. who I am at my core is determined and wants to live; but the scared, traumatized parts of me have clouded my entire vision.

It feels like my attention has become permanently stuck on myself. I’m constantly aware of myself being aware.
It’s not a specific thought, image, or body sensation. It’s like I’m observing myself experiencing everything I do. It’s there when I’m watching TV, talking to people, eating, or walking.
It’s almost like a constant background state where I’m monitoring my own awareness and internal experience. I don’t feel like I’m deliberately doing it—it just happens automatically.
The more I notice it, the more trapped I feel inside my own mind. It feels like I can never become absorbed in life because I’m always aware of myself having the experience.
It isn’t that I’m afraid something bad will happen. It’s that the state itself feels wrong, intrusive, and inescapable. My mind keeps treating it like a problem that has to be solved before I can fully engage with life again.
I know this description sounds unusual, but it’s the best way I can explain what I’m experiencing.

Has anyone out there ever experienced this? It’s absolutely ruining my life. I’ve tried to just let it be there but it doesn’t go away. It’s present every waking second of every day. I also cannot do any ERP because there are no compulsions. I’m simply just aware of my awareness.

After weeks of chronically looking for my symptoms on a guest Reddit account, I finally made one to reach out to see if I could find any answers.

About almost a month ago, around June 9 I was pondering had a sudden “click” in my brain and reality around me felt unfamiliar and WAY too real and what followed were extreme existential thoughts. “Am I real ,is this real life, etc” That moment still feels like a blur but I think I just ignored what I was doing and went about my day. From there it slowly started getting worse, I developed this hyperawarness of my surroundings and constantly checking around instead of being in the present moment. The feeling doesn’t leave. I don’t feel safe anywhere, not even my own home. I went on survival mode hoping it would go away on its own, the first week I couldn’t even eat and I lost a lot of weight, now I’m stuck and can’t even enjoy sleeping or anything in my days. I’ve tried every grounding technique, meditation seems to make me more nervous, breathing techniques do nothing. Being in the present moment brings so much unease and discomfort. However imagining doing something (I.e. going to the beach) sounds fun but being in the present moment not at all.

Some background info about me, I’m a college student on summer break, been constantly at home mostly playing video games, or being creative, going through the motions, drank coffee for a bit but quit a couple days before it occurred. Never did drugs/smoked weed/drank alcohol. I’ve had really bad social anxiety/general anxiety my whole life but felt I could manage, also showed signs for either ADHD/OCD but never got proper diagnosis (went against my parents). So I already struggle with overthinking and rumination.

I tried to look up my symptoms and heard it could be DPDR but, nothing feels dreamlike or blurry or 2D. Quite the opposite I feel like I’m TOO alive everything looks TOO realistic and clear, and my voice and others sound too loud, touching things feels too stimulating. I wouldn’t mind it if it wasn’t for the severe discomfort and unease it brings to me constantly 24/7. I feel like the only way to survive is through distractions, being on my phone, playing a game, keeping myself busy is the only time I’m not focused on the present to bring me unease. It’s also made me an extremely clingy person, I’m scared to be alone and feel the need to constantly be near family or someone just to feel a little at ease.

I fear I will never return to normal because I don’t know what is even wrong with me, or that I don’t even remember what normal feels like. I’m not depressed, in fact my mind and memories works fine, I just feel like I’m living in a surreal nightmare I can’t wake up from.

I have a small theory that I’ve somehow been dissociative my whole life and now I’m somehow in the real world and feel absolutely terrified and my anxiety won’t leave me alone until I go back to “normal”. If I close my eyes and focus on the feeling sometimes get a tingling feeling in my head I remember I used to get when I tried to lucid dream in the past using WILD method but that’s all. There’s also a weird pressure in my eyes or near my third eye area sometimes. My psychiatrist thinks it’s plain anxiety and I’ve been on 5mg lexapro for about a week now, my therapist doesn’t really know what’s goin on either which of course scares me even more. Also my sister bought me some 4:1 CBD THC gummies saying it should calm me down but I’m scared it’ll make it worse? What should I do???

I honestly don’t expect anyone to have any tips or answers but I would appreciate anything.

Im constantly pretending to be human like everybody else. I pretend to have interest, hobbies and a personality. Like everybody else does. But really, I don’t have those things. I don’t actually like any of the things I claim to like. I only say I like them because I want people to think I do. Because I think it makes me likable, cool or interesting. And I don’t think or feel the way I say, either. It’s all just an act. I don’t actually have a personality. I only pretend to. And when I am with other people, this works. I play this role I made for myself and It’s not necessarily nice, but it works. And I seem (mostly) like a normal human. When I’m not with people, though, it’s different. I don’t know what I like. I don’t know how I’m supposed to think. I don’t know what I want to do. I don’t know how to feel. I know what I claim to like. And what I claim to think. But I don’t know if that’s actually true or not. It’s like I forgot what things are lies and what isn’t. Maybe all of it is. I don’t know who I am. So maybe I am not anyone at all. Not when I’m alone, anyway. Maybe I only am human when other people can see me.

I don’t feel at home around friends. I don’t feel at home around family. I don’t feel at home in my room. I don’t feel at home in my house. The only place where I feel at home is in the distant memories I have where I actually felt like I concretely existed. These memories contain the same places and people I claim to be alienated from, but it’s almost like I’m living in a soulless copy of that reality. I just want to go home, all the time.

Im in hospital, got sectioned last night so it’s all very distressing. Ive got that dissolving into nothing again . Absolutely terrified. :( and scared and I’m getting sick also. I need help..im tryig to talk to the nurses and lean on them but I’ve just been taken away from my home and it’s terrifying here. Just dissolving and head in severe pain.

I’ve been experiencing DPDR for a month now and this is horrible! I feel like I’m losing my mind every single day and the symptoms keep shifting and this is so overwhelming I don’t feel real anymore I don’t feel present my thoughts and dreams are more real than reality, I have this weird feeling where I feel like I’m going to fall out of my body or through the ground and it’s so overwhelming and scary along with being unable to be present. Now I also have a fear of having ALS at 19 years old because my hands and feet feel like weirdly tense and weak? if anyone could share their symptoms and if you had a similar experience to me please do! I feel so overwhelmed and hopeless! It has moments where it’s better and then it gets worse again!

Hey everyone, I wanted to explain my DPDR symptoms and ask if anyone else has the same ones, because I feel like nobody experiences what I do.

My symptoms are extremely strange. I constantly feel as if I only consist of my eyes, and as if there are no bodily processes or electrical signals left in my body anymore. I have no physical sensations at all anymore, and I can't even feel my breathing. I do not feel my breathing at all anymore—it feels as if I cannot feel any air entering my lungs or my body. It is also as if I cannot feel air on my skin anymore, so when I walk and wind touches my skin, it feels as if there is nothing there at all.

It is especially extremely strong in the morning after waking up, because I have no muscle awareness or body sensation at all when I wake up. I also do not feel my stomach or abdomen at all, even when I eat a lot. It feels as if my stomach is transparent or not there.

I also do not feel my muscles at all anymore. I don't feel yawning, stretching, body positions, interoception, or proprioception. It feels as if I don't even have bones anymore. I am completely convinced that I could break something in my body and I would not even react. Even when I hit or press extremely hard against my bones or very sensitive areas that would have caused 100% pain before, I do not feel it. It feels as if my body and bones are hollow and made out of nothing. The only pain I still somewhat feel, but in a heavily changed and reduced way, is superficial skin pain when I pinch myself very strongly, but even that is about 85% weaker than before.

I also no longer know where my hands or other body parts are unless I am looking at them. When I move my hand while looking at it, I can see that it is moving, but I cannot actually feel where it is or what position it is in. If I move my hand or any other part of my body without looking at it, I completely lose the sense of where it is and how it is moving. It feels as if my brain no longer receives any information about the position or movement of my body parts, and I can only rely on vision to know where my body is. This makes it extremely difficult to walk or move properly, because I have no internal sense of movement or position, which also severely limits and impairs me in daily life.

Another symptom that scares me a lot is that I can't feel my eyes anymore. When I roll my eyes or intentionally squeeze them shut, I still see the entire room as if my vision is permanently fixed in one position, and as if my real vision is being overlapped by a screen or by another static image that is constantly in front of me. Because of this, my consciousness always feels like it is in front of me instead of inside my head.

Regarding my vision, if I intentionally make my eyes go out of focus, I no longer feel it physically. Instead, I can only observe it within my own visual field, as if I were a camera that can switch between blurry and sharp focus without any physical sensation in my eyes. I also see my own eyelids within my visual field when I squeeze my eyes shut on purpose, which makes me question how this is even possible. It feels as if my vision is no longer connected to my brain in real time, as if it is heavily delayed or completely separate from it, and as if my sight is something external that is constantly being projected in front of me against my will.

When I intentionally move or rotate my body in space, I no longer feel the rotation in my head. Before this started, I would normally feel dizziness or a kind of shifting sensation in my brain, like everyone else. Now nothing feels like it is moving at all, and I only see the movement within my visual field, as if it were static. Even when I watch videos with fast movements or flashing lights, my brain would normally react with physical sensations, but now it feels as if the entire world is static and everything I see is frozen, even though I logically know that everything in the world is moving normally.

Another extremely frightening symptom is that I can no longer feel my brain inside my head. I have no sensation of having a head or even a body anymore. It's as if all sensations inside my head are gone. For example, when I shake or move my head, I no longer feel any internal sensations inside it. Every second is extremely terrifying because I feel like all the important human sensations that make a person feel human—such as pressure sensations inside the head or the feeling of changing position when bending over—are no longer there. It's as if there is nothing inside my head, and as if I no longer have a centered position inside my head and body where my "self" exists. It's as if my body still exists, but I am no longer centered inside it.

My vision is always in front of me, and I can't focus it anymore. It feels as if I am a camera that is constantly moving without any physical sensations. When I close my eyes, I don't feel anything from my body. I have no thoughts, no feelings, no ideas, no spontaneous thoughts, and no motivation.

When I close my eyes at night, the darkness I normally see feels as if it is physically in front of me, like a spatial object rather than an internal visual field. It feels like a thick black wall in front of me instead of an internal perception. Even when I rub my eyes and normally would expect to see visual “lights” or patterns, these are no longer generated properly in my perception or feel disconnected from my mind.

When I think about the world and the fact that I am a real human being, my brain can't comprehend or process those thoughts. It's as if the experience of being human has been erased from my mind.

Ever since I entered this state, I no longer feel headaches or exhaustion. I can stay awake for days without feeling tired, as if the sensation of tiredness has been completely removed from my brain. It's not normal insomnia where you simply can't fall asleep. It's as if the sensation itself is no longer accessible, and my brain can't even produce it anymore.

Instead of feeling effort or tiredness, I only feel a sinking sensation in my body, as if I can no longer move properly and my brain can only access things from one very small area. I also can no longer see mental images in my mind. If I see anything at all, it's only very far in the back of my head, extremely small, and even that doesn't always work.

Going back to my vision, my vision feels two-dimensional, as if I were a flat screen. For example, when I look into the sun or at bright lights, I can see the glare within my vision, but I no longer feel the brightness inside my head or in my eyes. The best way to describe it is like filming the sun with a slightly greasy iPhone camera—you can see the long streaks of light on the camera, but of course the camera doesn't actually feel them.

This 2D feeling does not only affect my vision, but my entire consciousness. I have had tinnitus my whole life, which I used to always feel in my ear, but even the tinnitus now feels as if it is no longer real, or as if it has become two-dimensional. It feels extremely weak and muted, as if it were a heavily dampened cloud. Even the sounds I hear no longer properly enter my brain. It feels as if I can hear things, but only in 2D—they do not enter my consciousness anymore, but are only perceived externally by me. This is extremely terrifying. The same applies to every single possible sensation in the same way.

I also experience physical sensations very differently now. For example, when I touch my skin, it feels dead. When I grind my teeth together, I can barely feel it anymore. I can't even feel my back. I can sit at my PC for hours without feeling pain or any kind of discomfort. My consciousness feels as if, every single time I relax, close my eyes, and try to drift away, it restarts, and I could forget that I'm even a human being.

I feel trapped by the fact that I am a human being and that I have a body. The fact that I experience the world from the first-person perspective feels extremely foreign and almost unbearable. It's as if nothing inside of me communicates with anything else anymore, and the only thing left of me is this flat first-person perspective. Behind that perspective, it feels as if there is nothing left of me. Seeing and logical thinking are the only things I still have.

My memory has also become extremely bad. When I try to think about past experiences or memories, they no longer feel like real human memories that I actually lived through. Instead, they feel like flat, factual images that are being retrieved from a single point somewhere in my brain, without triggering any emotional response.

Ever since I entered this state, everything I have done feels as if it never actually happened to me, and I have almost no sense of time anymore.

It also feels like my lived experience is no longer continuous. Whenever I close my eyes or stop actively focusing on trying to mentally “hold onto” a moment or a memory, everything feels like it resets after a few minutes. It then feels as if my consciousness starts again from zero, as if I only exist from the present moment onward and everything before that has been erased.

I also no longer feel hunger or appetite, and eating feels like nothing.

I am also afraid that this might not even be DPDR anymore, because it feels extremely physical and has been constant 24/7 for 9 months. I cannot escape it even in sleep, and it is present every single second.

At a neural level, it feels as if networks in my brain that used to exist are no longer accessible or no longer present. I no longer feel like a complete human being, and even when I try, I do not feel like a fully functioning person anymore. It feels as if nothing human is left in my subjective experience anymore.

It feels as if my higher-order, complex consciousness is no longer accessible, and I am only left functioning through automatic bodily processes and visual perception. My lived experience feels reduced entirely to these two aspects only.

Summary of symptoms (key points)

• Severe depersonalization / derealization
• No body sensations (interoception, proprioception)
• No breathing sensation
• Loss of muscle/body position awareness
• Loss of sense of hands/limbs without vision
• Hollow body feeling / no internal body awareness
• Severe reduction of pain perception
• Visual disturbances (2D vision, static perception, external projection feeling)
• Eyes feel disconnected from sensation/control
• No vestibular sensations (no dizziness/movement feeling)
• No feeling of brain/head / loss of inner head sensations
• Emotional numbness / no motivation / no feelings
• No mental imagery (or extremely reduced)
• Severe memory distortion (flat, unemotional recall)
• Loss of time perception
• “Reset” feeling of consciousness after short time periods
• No hunger or appetite
• No fatigue or tiredness sensation
• Tinnitus feels detached / unreal / muted
• Sounds feel detached from consciousness
• Sleep not restorative in normal sense
• Constant 24/7 symptoms for 9 months
• Feeling of reduced or fragmented consciousness
• Feeling of being only perception + automatic body functions

I don’t know how to put this in to words but the fact that I have a consciousness isn’t recognizable anymore, it’s like I’m inside something that I don’t know anymore. I also feel my brain anymore it’s like i turned in to a flying consciousness. Like I don’t see myself anymore as a person I feel like I’m just the consciousness without anything. It’s hard to explain but when I’m in the living room I feel like I’m just a object placed in the living room that can see the whole living room. I don’t have a sense of my body. What can I do to ease this it’s been 8 months without any type of relief. When I try to sleep it’s like I turn in to nothing and not even sleep feels like something that I recognize.

I have been suffering from DP/DR for 17 years now, and last Saturday I just felt totally defeated and broken. Somehow I started to ask AI for help, (Gemini if that matters) but any other of the big ones will do I'm sure.

I have sat for almost a week just asking and asking, about this and that, been talking about old traumas etc. It then started learning me about "ACT" (acceptance and commitment therapy) and I've started to understand myself completely. But as soon as I forget something or have a question, I go back to it, like a 24/7 psychologist, to see that I'm on the right path, reporting in on my experiences, asking for guidance through it.

I don't want to give you false hopes now by telling you my own progress, but it has been soo helpful to me this far, that I just have to tell others who's struggling with DPDR.

I'm desperate, I've actually been living with DPDR for 3 years and I feel like I've reached the end of my rope. I've been trying to get on with my life all this time, but it's a nightmare. I don't really know what to do and how to help myself.. I don't want to leave the house anymore, and I feel very depressed.

Last year, maybe around August or September, I started noticing that my personal experiences didn’t feel so personal anymore. I would talk about things, myself, my family, and they just kinda felt like words I was reading off a script. There was nothing behind anything I was saying. Fast forward to now (July) and I’m just completely numbed to my emotions. I’ve never been like this before, even though I’ve dealt with emotional numbness in the past, it was never to this extent. Everything is just flat to me. My family, my hobbies, people that I work with or interact with, whatever it is. It’s just empty. I don’t feel anything. I can’t feel a connection of any kind. I can’t cry, I don’t even get mad or frustrated anymore. I do suffer from DPDR, so I’m dissociated from myself and my surroundings 24/7. My head feels heavy and foggy, yet empty at the same time. I don’t feel in control of my body when I’m moving or walking. It feels like I’m separated from the world around me. I feel like I’m going insane sometimes.

In terms of medications, I’ve been taking Pristiq and Lamotrigine for over 5 years. I just recently went off of the Pristiq because I read studies that said emotional blunting is a very common side effect of that medication. However, I’m completely off of the medication now and have been for just over 2 weeks and nothing has changed. I feel the exact same.

I personally think that I started feeling this way (emotionally blunting, and dissociated) shortly after I started these medications. I do not remember feeling anything like this prior. It was seemingly a gradual process because the total numbing happened over 4 years after I began taking them. I didn’t start putting the pieces together until earlier this year, that I got progressively worse after I started taking those meds.

I don’t know what to do. I talk to my therapist, but it doesn’t do anything for me because the words I’m saying have no emotion behind them. I don’t feel any different after leaving a therapy session no matter what I try to “get off my chest.” Over the past few years, I’ve tried EMDR, Ketamine infusions, CBT, all that stuff. It had no effect on me. My psychiatrist seems to think therapy is the answer, despite me telling him several times that therapy cannot work for me right now. I just feel absolutely lost. It’s never been this bad before. Any advice of any kind would be awesome.

I am crying right now. I have had severe, constant DPDR since around the age of around 10. Several mental and developmental disorders and physical disabilities. Strongly suspected Schizotypal. I have barely felt like I'm alive in my life. I'm like the ghost in the machine. Can I even be counted as conscious? Am I conscious? I remember my childhood poorly and I feel like I became me or gained "consciousness" somewhere in primary school, yet I also lost it. I realized, yesterday or a day ago, that I do things on autopilot. I move and go on autopilot, scratch my head, and think, did I decide to do this? I turned my head to look at the window right now. Did I decide to do this? Are those my choices? Do I make any choices in this life? Do I have any freedom, can I decide anything? Am I writing this on autopilot? Even something more significant, do I actually choose to do it? I don't feel like a person. How can I have a a character, a personality if I act automatically. How can I be a friend, I resemble a chat-bot. I don't know how much authenticity and truth there's to my actions and words. I say things automatically. Reply automatically. Engage in a dialogue automatically. What does it mean to unmask if it was there from the beginning? My body and mind are not my own. I can't control anything. Is there any value to my life? Do I live? Should I live? Everything is deeply terrifying.

I am 30F, and I have been on Ozempic 1.0mg for the past two and a half months. I have absolutely no idea what is happening to me. I had an intense panic attack a week and a half ago and I started spiraling because I can no longer feel connection to myself and others around me. I have suffered in the past with anxiety and depression but these thoughts are nearly unbearable and I'm on the course of becoming suicidal. I feel like I'm in an alien or robot's body, like I don't have "control" over my actions and my limbs somehow feel like they're not mine? Everytime I do something I'm like "what's the purpose of me doing this? How am I able to do this automatically when I'm suffering like this?" I have never had this happen to me before and I am absolutely terrified. I think it's the GLP-1 medication but I'm unsure. Has anyone had this happen? I am in so much turmoil and I don't know how much more I can take.

Hello,

I'm 19 years old and im a girl, ive had a bad trip of weed a year ago at my work place, and when i took it i had a bad trip, and ended up the next days having a panic attack and then i kept having them, i didnt know what i had and my parents kept taking me to the doctor they gave me anxiety meds, to calm down the panic attacks which did, ive seen a bunch of specialists even did a brain MRI cause i thought i was going crazy, thought i had a brain tumor lol. well i cant go out anymore, my symptoms are weird they're more visual i feel like my eyes arent mine i cant look arond without thinking everything is fake, i cant go out either because im gonna feel like even less real and feel like im gonna have a panic attack, i used to go out a bit again 5 months ago cuz i had a therapy sessions on anxiety meds but the thing is, dp dr is still there, its haunting me i cant go out anymore now, im on anti depressants since 5 days i hope they will help a bit. im just stuck in this loophole of having dp dr, it's like a never ending loop, everytime i wake up i hope the symptoms will just magically go away but its always there, i overanalyze everything and even my own eyes sometimes iwanna rip them out i feel like my whole vision is fake, i just wish i could go back to before.. any tips, idk thanks