Am I experiencing derealisation right now?

[grahic]

Hi everyone! My name is David and I am 25 years old male. This is my third post so I guess I am still new to the forum. My anxiety started in the middle of October last year and have experienced many symptoms of anxiety/panic disorder for over 4 months.

My current symptoms are brain fog, 24/7 rocking dizziness (I feel like I'm on a rocking boat), constant negative thoughts, irritation, ringing in ears (tinnitus) and bounding pulse & heartbeat.

All my blood/urine test results came back "normal" including Vitamin B, D, magnesium and calcium levels were spot on. My doctor thinks it's just anxiety. I trust my doctor but I still think something is missing. Fortunately I don't have panic attacks anymore but obviously anxiety is still there.

Now I am experiencing an overwhelming sense of detachment. I feel disconnected from my body, everything feels "unreal" and I feel like I am dreaming or something. It happened again today when i was eating lunch with my friends. My sense of hearing was amplified and I was hearing a lot of louse noise around me. I thought I was going crazy.

I been eating very healthy, I don't drink coffee or alcohol. I exercise regularly and I don't take any meds or supplements. I thought I was getting better but this is only getting worse. First it was anxiety then depression and now this? What's happening to me?

[gypsylee]

Hi there :)

My anxiety got debilitating in 1993 - I've always been anxious but I'll start there, and even that means nearly 25 years of it (I'm 43 now). Some years were good and I was off meds but a lot were bad. I was a total alcoholic so that didn't help.

Anyway, I remember when it first got bad it went through all kinds of weird phases. I was on meds but still, it seemed to have a life of its own. It still does but I'm better at ignoring weird/bad feelings now and don't drink which makes a huge difference.

You sound really healthy so it probably is anxiety. You could always try meds and/or supplements (I take both). They're still pretty hit-and-miss unfortunately but the SSRIs (Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro etc) were the first thing to really work for me. They do seem to wear off after a while though.

Anyway, you aren't going crazy. If anxiety led to insanity I would have been locked up years ago!

Cheers,
Gypsy x

[Teafrenzy]

Hey pal. Long time no see. Too bad you came back for the wrong reason.

No, it doesn't sound like De-realization, more like De-personalization which is similar. Your memories seem very hazy, more like dreams, right?

De-realizaion, by my understanding, is more like existential thinking. It's more like: I don't feel like I'm on planet earth. De-realization is very very scary. The worst of all anxiety symptoms. You would know if you had it or not.

What you need to do is keep yourself as relaxed as possible and not fret about symptoms and "barrel" through the days. Your body will calm down. Did you experience anything stressful when the anxiety first happened?

[gypsylee]

I just thought of this little technique that I read in The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris, for helping with panic attacks. I think it might help with derealisation/depersonalisation because it's designed to "ground" you. I see those symptoms as a result of living in your head too much (which god knows I'm guilty of). Anyway, the technique is to simply look around and count five things you can see, five things you can hear, and five things you can feel. Obviously it doesn't have to be exactly like that but you get the gist - it puts you in touch with your senses.

I get derealisation pretty much every time I leave the house and start driving somewhere. My brain is like "WTF is going on here?!" I've learned to ignore it and trust that I can drive on "auto-pilot". I crank up my music and after a while my brain stops freaking out :)

[Ponder]

Are you on medications? Have you recently changed dosage or recently come off? Many of the symptoms you describe can be attributed to side affects of most medications.

Has there been recent trauma (major life changes) or have you suffered previous traumas in your life that may be still lingering deep? I live a healthy lifestyle too but still deal with a lot of unresolved issues and go through bouts of being super sensitive and disconnected. Is quite common although no less despairing.

Regardless of what it is not, it certainly sounds like unresolved stress of one form or another. Try thinking outside the box - go deep.

A Tip that I find Helps me when feeling super sensitive, lost and disconnected:
Focus on one part of your body that is not stressed and work your way back with your breath. (The opposite of finding knots) Try not to get lost in the not knowing of what's going on.

Rather than seeking constant distractions allow yourself to experience more of what's happening inwardly and apply the previous tip when pain still persists. I tend to overstimulate in all kinds of situations with external sources to quiet my mind that eventually my mind shuts down and from there I experience similar episodes as you well describe. Once I use various techniques to quiet my mind, I seem to stabilize where I can revert to using previous stimulants.

Srry if none of that applies. As you can see there are others who feel similarly and have their own methods.

Keep posting, I'm sure there are others who can help.