I have not been functioning for a few days. Today was the worst. I have this feeling that things and people around me are not real, that maybe I don't live on earth, people might attack me, the sky looks like a picture etc. It's so strong that grounding techniques can't convince me that things are real.
I am feeling quite depressed at the moment and very stressed out too. But to a certain extent, I have something in me that tells me that this is just a coping mechanism..
Just struggling basically, I still got one week to go before going to my therapist appointment.
Any tips?
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purebliss
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Hi I just wanted to reassure you that you are not alone in feeling like this. I too suffer from this very scary and horrible problem. I truly believe that it is our coping mechanism too. Everything just looks and feels so unreal and distorted and I feel like I'm outside myself and so very self aware. Do you feel like this too? I find that listening to music through my earphones can bring me a little comfort or trying to look at a magazine can also temporarily help. I'm a single mum of two older teenagers so I try to focus my mind on what they are up to and a hug always helps! If you need to talk to someone who understands or just want a chat then please don't hesitate to message me anytime😃 take care amanda
I feel like there is like a fog or something separating me from people, and that people seem like aliens. I think I am going to journal, do u think it will help a little?
The feeling of looking through a fog is dissociation and always came hand in hand with deprersonalisation, derealisation for me.
I had that feeling too a long time ago but it was from medication. I am reading a book titled Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass. It's a memoir about a woman who spent several years in a mental hospital. She was also convinced she wasn't real.
I am in no way suggesting you stop your medication if you are on any, but you might take that into consideration when you talk to your doctor.
I wish I knew what to tell you to help you get out of that funk. Maybe someone else has an idea.
Sorry to hear this purebliss. It sounds like emotional numbing. I can relate to it. I think it can be a bit of a defense ( if you see what I mean). I know what amandab1972 is saying when she mentions feeling outside of her body. I get that too sometimes.
I think you have to go with it a bit and remind yourself, it will pass. I find walking one of the most "grounding" things when feeling like this. So maybe this may help you? And even better if you have somewhere nice to walk?
Hi
Do you think that you should maybe ask to see them sooner, or see you dr about this?
I do hope you feel a bit better soon, take care and best wishes.
Purebliss are you on any medication? i think it's your minds way of healing itself I have had a few days like that it is a bit scary. I found walking the dogs or sitting in the garden stroking the dogs or working in the greenhouse with my plants! Staying away from people helped me as I found they made it worse! Have you got a phone with music on it? Plug into that and try to relax it will pass you will get there Hun remember those feelings can't hurt you they will go away! If your into baking or painting try something like that! We are all here for you if it gets too much we will talk to you! Take care Hun xx
yeah, sounds like dissociation. Or something similar. I get it too.
Sometimes, I describe it to my boyfriend, and I say I feel like I am 'hydroplaning', like tires on a road that don't quite touch the road, due to the water on the road.
Other times, I feel outside of my body and just a weird feeling of surreal.
I call a friend.
Write on here.
Stand in dirt if you have some outside in bare feet. I am going to do this too today.
If there is no noise, even better, if birds, listen.
sometimes it takes a distraction for me, just something silly, like on the internet.
A nap.
an ativan.
Someone telling me I am real, safe, it is just dissociation, and asking, did something happen to trigger me recently? then, I recall and say to myself, oh yeah, that is why I feel this. It will pass.
So I will tell you you are real, safe, and it will pass.
From my personal experienced it sounds like normal dissociation or detachment. If that is what it is, don't be afraid. When things are overwhelming or too loud this happens to me. When our PTSD brains are triggered are options are fight, flight or freeze. When the only option is to freeze then we can also self protect our mind by detaching.
I don't do this much anymore but now I think of it as a super power. When I have to have a painful medical procedure, I just detach and hardly feel a thing.
If you have some medication like Ativan it might be good to take it from time to time if you are feeling stressed. My stress has been bad as well. You sound like you could use a hug from someone you know to be touched to lay on the couch watch some easy on brain movie and enjoy some closeness. Just being present and safe. I can't remember to ground sometimes either but I put up notes on my wall in point form what to do. So I see it first thing when I get up. I'm under a lot of stress with things out of my control /pain so I come on here check in and look at my notes and do YouTube mantras affirmations breathing I make sure I leave the house daily and I tell myself I'm safe & I try to remind people I'm close with to tell me I'm safe I'm loved & everything is ok. It helps. Hang in. You got this you can do it!
When I'm at my worst, I find the most effective thing is to confront things head on. It usually means there is something I need to deal with. Not talking recovery of memories, but dealing with what I already know or need to process correctly. It can be quite painful and we all hate pain, but I've learned to embrace it and it helps me.
I cannot deal with depersonalisation, derealisation, on my own. When I reach the I'm not real nothing is real place I reach out to someone who talks to me challenging what's going on. This has always been my doctor. He will tell me to get some perfume and spray it on my arm. He will ask me to smell it and describe it to him, all the time asking me leading questions about the smell. Then he will say do unreal things have the ability to smell? He doesn't always use perfume but I'm giving an example here. It's important to have someone you can tell that you don't feel real or that anything isn't real. This always led to me using dysfunctional ways to make myself feel and I wanted to stop and I have but with help.
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