Dizziness, lightheadness, feeling like things aren't real

[Digydoda]

Hi everyone,

Just anyone else have days where they feel super dizzy to the point where they think they could faint but never do? I have it today and I feel like I can't walk around anywhere incase I fall but I never do

I also feel like my body on this planet isn't real, I feel like when i walk I'm floating on a cloud and things around me aren't real. This doesn't happen all the time but when it does it makes me panic so much.

Does anyone else get these symptoms? Are they just anxiety hitting me? I feel like I need to go to the doctors and ask for a head scan because of how bad I feel

[AMessOfJess]

Hello Digydoda, I personally haven’t experienced the dizzyness that could be a number of things especially if you are taking medications, talk to your doctor about that. As for the feeling things aren’t real, you are not alone. I actually found this website because I have been having points of this, I thought it was an existential crisis heightened by anxiety. Turns out based on someone’s post I found it’s a form of depersonalization which can be defined as; “a state in which one's thoughts and feelings seem unreal or not to belong to oneself.” it’s often used as a coping mechanism, this is unfortunately all I have so far on the topic, I’m going to seek counseling to try and figure out why this happens randomly to me. The term looks scary, try and ground yourself when you can feel it happen, name five things around you that you can touch, see, smell, taste and hear. Focus on your environment, here and now. The feeling passes but I do encourage you to seek help with this just I as I am.

Always happy to chat if you need

[Digydoda in reply to AMessOfJess]

Thank you so much, this has made me feel a little bit better. It's always good knowing it's not just you suffering but it's just horrible that we all do have to suffer

[AMessOfJess in reply to Digydoda]

No problem at all. Without pain joy wouldn’t be as wonderful, I don’t think life is about always running over issues towards the end of an tunnel, it’s grabbing a flashlight and working through it that makes it worth while if you ever need reassurance I’m around.

[Jeff1943]

Digydoda, what you describe as things around you not bring real indeed sounds like derealisation as AMessOfjess suggests. It is a common symptom of anxiety disorder, it's your mind trying to distance you from an anxiety-causing situation (so your mind is trying to be helpful but you'd rather it didn't). I used to have it 35 years ago before it was recognised for what it is and given a fancy scientific name, I used to call it "feeling like I'm not here." Because I just accepted it for the time being as another anxiety 'feeling' and didn't stress and obsess about it the feeling eventually passed without me even noticing. I sometimes get it a bit if I'm in a room with powerful fluorescent lighting like supermarkets.

When your anxiety passes so will this derealisation feeling so don't attach too much importance to it and accept it calmly and with minimal fear.

It is significant that you say about your dizziness that you feel like falling over but never do. The important thing to remember is that you "never do" so it sound very much like the kind of lightheadedness which once again is a symptom of anxiety.

For reassurance I think it would be good to see your doctor to rule out 100% any physical cause. But the smart money is on anxiety: your nerves are feeling sensitive due to maybe overwork or worry or disappointment or grief or just plain old fashioned stress. In which case the best way to help yourself recover is to simply accept the dizziness and derealisation for the time being and don't keep obsessing about it. Because you know it's "only" anxiety there's no need to panic as it will pass so WALK WITH CONFIDENCE knowing you won't actually faint and in due course you will recover completely.