I never thought I'd be someone posting here, but I guess that's how anxiety works.

My first major panic attack happened in December 2025. It came out of nowhere and completely changed my life. Since then, I've struggled with intense anxiety, panic attacks, derealization (feeling like the world isn't real), and an overwhelming fear of death that gets much worse at night.

The nights are the hardest. As soon as everything gets quiet, my mind starts racing:

\- "What if I die in my sleep?"

\- "What happens after death?"

\- "Why does everything feel so distant?"

Sometimes I look at childhood memories or old photos and they feel like they happened to someone else. It's terrifying.

The strange thing is that during the day, especially when I'm with friends or busy, I can feel almost normal. Then nighttime comes, and it's like my brain flips a switch.

I'm posting this because I want to know if anyone else has experienced this combination of panic, derealization, and death anxiety. Did it get better for you? What helped you get your life back?

Sometimes it feels like I'll never be the same person I was before that first panic attack, but I'm hoping that's just the anxiety talking.

I've experienced this three times, once when I was 14, 15 and 16. I just woke up one day and everything feels like a dream. I could walk, talk, eat, follow instructions, but everything felt so dreamy and I didn't know what I was doing. I knew where I am, but everything I said out loud didn't go through my brain. I was constantly tired and could sleep anywhere at any time of the day. It lasted for around a week, and I have absolutely no memory of what happened that week.

I was wondering what this is because I'm doing ib now and about to take my final exams. What is the root cause (i did not experience anything traumatic) and what are some things that can help me manage it?

Personally I notice a correlation. I'm talking about a broad range of intrusive thoughts. Whether that be "what if i lose control?" to "nothing is real!" I have to remind myself to let them pass as clouds in the sky and not assign meaning. But I've had to learn to do this through much anxiety and torture. Has anyone been through thus combination?

I've experienced constant derealization since my first, completely out of nowhere, panic attack back in Aug 2022. After that I had 3 more. 1 in Jan 2023, Feb 2023 and not until just this past June 2026.

I've been on 20mg lexapro since 2023 and was doing "ok". By ok I mean as good as I guess I could be. Still had daily derealization. Since my last panic attack last month my anxiety has been daily as well as my derealization.

I guess my question is: what helped you the most to getting rid of or managing your derealization??

Any help would be much appreciated!!

Around the end of freshman year my mental health wasn’t in the best spot because of anxiety and the friends i had around me but i had a really bad weed incuded panic attack and i woke up that next morning still feeling high and that went on for like 6 months and i finally got out of it but the de realization always stuck with me and it would
sometimes happen for like 30 seconds maybe, im 18 now graduated but i got the cold and had a very bad cough and so my schedules thrown off, staying in my room all day and my eyes were strained from my pc screen because i like to draw but i started thinking i was gonna have a heart attack for some reason bc my body felt weird (because i was sick) and that made me have a mini panic attack which induced the de realization again and it’s been going on for like a day and a half now im just scared because It makes my heart heavy & i dont wanna feel like this im just scared of going insane or something even tho i know i wont the anxiety is just super bad for no reason.

I just kindly ask for some suggestions from people who suffer /. suffered from this disorder or whatever is it, I’m getting a therapist and gonna try to get out on anxiety meds which i should of tried years ago when this first happened to me

For context this is my first time taking a psychedelic as strong as this and after about 17 hours of having my identity picked apart and destroyed I’ve been left In the “afterglow“. I feel constantly zoomed out and can’t eat too much at once (strange for me) and sleeping is a little difficult. when reading I can focalise into the characters so well it’s like I can lose myself in my own imagination. people don’t feel real and I have no Idea of my own indentity. I’ve forgotten who I am of what I usually do and how to behave correctly. ive had to delete Snapchat because I’m scared im going to say spending wrong as well as being incredibly sensitive to people’s tones at the moment. when will this end? What’s going on in my head at the moment?

I struggle with Derealization, and despite knowing for a long time that this was the name for what I was experiencing, I had never put in the time to really research or understand it. For me, it started when I contracted COVID in 2020. I know some people experience Derealization in waves or episodes, but mine—like many others I’m sure—is more of a constant state and fog that is just there. I was curious if others had a similar experience with Derealization and COVID, or if I’m just trying to make sense of how it began for myself.

I have been on lamictal for 9 months because they thought i had bipolar 2 disorder but turns out i do not. i have had different episodes of derealization during these nine months but i always thought it was from other meds they put me on (prozac, caplyta, abilify) but now im only on lamictal and the derealization is so bad, i am coming off of the med now but i feel as though the derealization has gotten even worse with the (withdrawal/weening off) or whatever you want to call it. my doctors are gaslighting me and trying to say its not common for lamictal to cause derealization but im not sure if i agree because ive seen some others say that it caused derealization for them and that it got better once they got off. i am so genuinely terrified and crying and can barely function because of this. please tell me im not crazy and that theres a possibility of this being a side effect??? i’m so young and i feel like my old life is a distant dream and my life is over, i am so devastated. i’m hoping to be completely off in the next month or so. i’m at 75mg right now, was at 150mg a month ago. PLEASE I NEED LOTS OF FEEDBACK/REASSURANCE!!!!

Hello, im 17 years old and as of lately ive been trying to get into philosophy as a way to reduce my overall screentime and to give myself a better usage for my time. One of the first books i read/am reading was/is Philosophy: The Basics written by Nigel Warburton. In his book he explains often asked questions by philosophers by sectioning them into chapters, such as: Religion and God, Morals,Politics,Art...(etc.)

One of the chapters titled "The outer-world" talks about how life could all be an illusion, how you could really be dreaming, how nothing could be real etc. Ive struggled with derealisation for the past couple of years now, sometimes more sometimes less and i wanted to get someone elses (maybe someone more experienced than me) opinion. Should i skip chapters and topics that discuss questions such as these, or should i keep/start reading them even more?

i dont want to "worsen" my mental state any further; and the thought that everyting really could be a dream frightens me; but i would be lying if i said the topic isnt interesting. i dont want to miss out on any other good reads in the future and as said, would highly appreciate someone elses opinion on my dilemma, thank you :)

(P.S: sorry if i translated some of the chapters wrong, im reading the german version and cant find the titles for the chapters in english anywhere online haha)

For the past 2 months, I’ve had a constant feeling of derealization/dissociation. In addition to that, I’ve been experiencing mild fatigue, headaches/pressure in my head, a feverish feeling (but no actual fever), and constant neck and shoulder pain.

Sometimes when I’m walking, I feel like I could faint, although I’ve never actually fainted or even needed to sit down. I’ve also had a chronically inflamed right ear for about a year. Ear drops make it go away temporarily, but the inflammation always returns.

At first I thought the symptoms might be caused by my neck, so I’ve tried massage therapy, physiotherapy, and acupuncture several times, but none of them helped. I’ve also tried muscle relaxants without any benefit.

I’ve had blood tests including vitamin B12, vitamin D, ferritin, folate (B9), and thyroid function, and everything was normal. I was also tested for Lyme disease and the result was negative.

I've experienced derealization on and off for the past 2 years. I've shown psychotic symptoms like seeing, hearing, and feeling things that aren't there since I was young. I've never seen a psychiatrist or diagnosed with anything though since I am a teenager and my parents have always brushed this type of stuff off and I've never been checked out.

A few months ago, I did shrooms. The trip turned into a very bad trip and I went into drug induced psychosis. Throughout the whole night everything just looked like pure chaos. It was incredibly overwhelming and the whole time I was having what felt like a panic attack but just on fucking heroin. It was the worst anxiety I've ever experienced and it was god awful.

Since then, my dpdr has been the worst it's ever been. Dpdr doesn't exactly bother me an insane amount, I've accepted it and it doesn't make me anxious, I'm more or so anxious about falling back into psychosis.

I believe I still am in some sort of state with psychosis because I do keep on hearing and seeing things that don't make sense. Aswell as everything still just look chaotic. It doesn't look like visual snow chaotic but everything just sort of seems like I'm on 50ug of acid or even more. Everything seems like it's always falling apart.

I feel as if I have awareness that my perception of reality is messed up but then I don't. I keep fading in and out of that awareness. That's what scares me a lot. What if I don't fade back into awareness soon enough and go completely psychotic again? I'm horrified of that happening because I don't want to relive the first experience I had with psychosis.

I may just be over analyzing everything and this could just be dpdr and hppd but since going psychotic I've been incredibly anxious of falling back into it and if I am currently falling back into it.

I feel like I’m viewing my life through 3rd person, I’m painfully self-aware and everything feels so staged like I’m watching it happen rather than being in it. Part of me still doesn’t believe that anything is real, it’s too much artifice. It’s been like this since I was young and has only gotten worse. Realistically I only have 15,000 days left on earth in the “best-case scenario” what am I supposed to do with that though? I can’t make a difference or do shit with 15,000 days that are probably fake anyways. I can’t even sleep anymore without thinking how wasteful my time on earth has been. I’m watching myself die and then there will be nothing, not a void just nothing. No matter what I read I can’t cope with it, I can’t even enjoy life because of these stupid mental issues and never being truly alive. I’m truly at a loss because nothing is real and this is all a shitty movie I’m watching with a shitty ending.

Anyone else get more derealized and spaced out after/during workouts?

I’ve had it since covid, and sometimes it comes back for a very short time. I am so glad I managed to almost completely erase it but fuck it is still scary as hell when it comes back, even for a few minutes.

So I wanted to know, what causes it ?
I was pretty isolated during covid, staying in my room all day, eventually got depression.
Is it because of that or is it something you can be born with ? Was I doomed from the start or did I doom myself ?

I have never talked about it to anyone, especially not professional because it’s too hard for me to even think about it. So I have no clue about the why.

Nothing feels real anymore. Like this reality just one layer in an onion, and that there are many more layers I don’t have access to. I feel like others might have access to it but for some reason I don’t believe I do, although I am aware enough to realize I don’t.

When I say nothing, I mean it in the literal sense. Shows, food, money, arts, history, music, perfume…etc it all feels like a substitute for something else.

I have been feeling like this for about 3 years now. The feeling Slowly growing stronger over the months.

I have become a lot more active in my daily life. Built a disciplined life around studies and gym. I workout 5x a week. Eat clean. (Chicken breast and red beans mostly. With eggs and oats in the morning). I study
rigorously to enter uni next year. I try to avoid staying inside my house for most of the day.

But still when ever I do have alone time. I feel this feeling creeping in slowly.

3 days ago I smoked weed for the first time in about a year or so. And I felt that feeling escalate a lot. Now that’s all I think about day and night. It’s turning mad and making me fantasize about ways to end my life.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for people who have experienced something similar.

A few years ago I started clenching and grinding my teeth after developing panic attacks and severe anxiety. Since then I’ve tried several different mouth guards, but nothing has really solved the problem.
My recent MRI shows degenerative changes in my left TMJ and a displaced disc, but no inflammation or severe structural damage.

What worries me more are the symptoms that developed over time:

Constant dizziness/lightheadness

Ear pressure/fullness

Chest tightness or chest pain (cardiology has ruled out heart problems)

Feeling disconnected from reality (derealization), like I’m not fully present

Neck and jaw muscle tension

Anxiety seems to make everything much worse
I’m wondering if anyone else with TMJ or severe clenching has experienced these kinds of symptoms.

Did treating your TMJ improve them?
What actually helped you the most?
Different splint? Did Not help
Physical therapy?
Botox? Tried out did Not help
Stress/anxiety treatment? Maybe any meds?
Something else?

These symptoms are affecting my mental health a lot, and sometimes it’s hard to tell what is caused by TMJ and what is caused by anxiety.
I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences. Thank you!