Show Notes
The Anxiety Guru News Desk:
1. China tries to help it’s mentally wounded citizens after the devastating earthquake. Click here to read more .
2. Brains scans reveal if someone will develop OCD. Click here to learn more .
3. Ritual circumcision leading to mental illness in South Africa. Click here to learn more .
4. Is compulsive shopping a disorder? Click here to find out .
After so much time nervously thinking about yourself and about all your strange symptoms you may develop depersonalization.
Constant introspection can cause you to get lost inside yourself and as a result you can become disconnected from the world.
You lose interest in the people and the things that you used to find appealing.
Depersonalization can feel like a thin veil or an iron curtain.
You may also develop the feeling that you are outside yourself. Not an out of body experience per se – but the strong sense that you are seeing yourself, your limbs for example, remotely.
You may feel like you can’t feel things physically.
People talking or laughing seems unreal to you.
Everything appears as if in a dream – slow and fog like.
You may feel suspicious of other people – like they are always talking about you. They are not trust me.
You may also feel emotionally detached from others. You feel like you can’t feel love for example.
In order to cope – you must accept that this is only your anxiety and tiredness at work. You have to be patient and wait for your “normal” feelings to return. Normally this happens in hours or days – but you will return to normal.
You may look at others and long to be like them – you might ask yourself a lot – why can’t I be like everyone else? Why can’t I connect to everyone.
Even today I can go to a party – but even after learning how to manage this – sometimes I may appear cold or uninterested. Really I am just trying to do all I can to be there and be relaxed at the same time.
Personal story regarding alcohol and the comments of others (oh how you have changed).
You must accept all of it. This strange sensation is yet another of the things that can happen but will not hurt you. When you feel detached you must remain calm and give your self time to return to normal.
Most important of all you should never allow depersonalization to scare and impress you. Accept that for now this is part of your condition, but it will not last forever.
Music:
Vegetation: Each One Feel It
Happy Gemini: Hatching a Plan
George Wood: Achievement Unlocked
Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self
Hi Paul!
Love your website. I pretty much have all your podcasts and articles saved on my computer. Very helpfull stuff. Anyway, This is the scariest symptom I have ever experienced in my life. I would have it for weeks! But as soon as I accepted it, it slowly just faded away. The mind can do some pretty wierd things to a person cant it?
Hey Jeff,
Even though the mind can play tricks it’s so important to know that you can get that thing back on track when you apply the right thinking pattern.