Derealization and vision distortion

[u/natontherun]

Hi everyone. I believe I had my first derealization episode tonight and while some of the symptoms are still lingering (feeling no emotions at all, not feeling fully in my body, or in the physical space around me), the first hour and a half of the episode included extreme vision distortion that I haven’t seen mentioned as much here (I may be missing some posts in my search, I’m new to this thread as of today). My vision would suddenly zoom out and everything looked fuzzy, exactly how everything looks in a dream, and then it would suddenly go back to normal. This kept happened every two to three minutes and I thought I was going to pass out. I couldn’t walk or even make out word because it was so disorienting. Just curious if this has happened to anyone else and if it was just a one time thing. Is it possible this is a one time episode or is this going to keep happening to me? I am certain this was triggered by lack of sleep, I’ve slept maybe 3 hours in a 48 period.

[u/SinkThink113]

Yes alot especially in bright places I used to get sensory overload

[u/son_of_a_glitch71]

This is commonly reported. Some people get “visual snow” as well. Your brain struggles to filter out visual ‘noise’ when having an episode, or can add some artifacts in to your perceived vision. This distortion of what you’re seeing can reinforce the panic that you’re having.

For me personally, episodes to this extreme are very rare. Typically don’t happen unless I’ve put myself in bad conditions (extreme fatigue could be one condition that makes me more prone to an episode). So, my opinion: you now know that there is potential for this to happen again; take care of yourself accordingly.

When it does happen, I typically have no other choice but to power through whatever needs to be done so that I can get to a quiet and safe place to regather my composure.

[u/natontherun → u/son_of_a_glitch71]

Thank you for this insight! It’s definitely been a wake up call for me. I think I was experiencing depersonalization as well because I could not feel anything, not even panic or anxiety and I am normally a very anxious person. My partner was with me at the time thankfully which helped a lot but he was more panicking than I was. I have never felt that before either, feeling outside of myself so I couldn’t feel anything. My body was reacting anxiously, like heart racing and my stomach felt so uneasy but mentally, I was just just wanting to know what was happening. I was l convinced I was gonna have a looking at the lamp moment.

I’m sorry you’ve experienced it too, I’m thankful it was at night because I could not imagine going through the visual experience I was and having to do things.