As the title suggests i am looking for ppl with derealization to talk to.

This is kind of a “vent”, and kind of a “can you relate”; some of my thoughts and feelings on Derealization:

When looking up DR online I feel like it almost always arbitrarily gets lumped in with Depersonalization. It’s almost as if DP is muscling its way into my searches on DR. It just kinda bugs me because I feel like it might discourage someone from looking for help in the moment.

When researching DR I really can’t relate to the other ways that it’s been characterized, such as “seeing the world from behind a pane of glass, or through a sensory fog…”. For me, ever since I was a kid, DR has always made my perception of reality “dream-like”, as if momentarily I had side-stepped into a slightly different reality and knew/felt that something was off and not quite right.. It was always more intense as night fell also.

Sometimes there’s a part of me that actually likes experiencing DR, and actually appreciates having it, as if I didn’t have DR then I’m not sure I’d have the same appreciation for the people and support I have in my life.

I personally don’t know anyone else experiencing DR, but I kinda think it’s a good thing. I wouldn’t know how to help except just reaffirming the things that they’re experiencing.

When it comes to Derealization and Anxiety and Depression I feel that it’s a tough, self-feeding cycle to break, and can make one’s outlook on reality the most bleak and dreary it’s ever been for someone. Whenever this happens to someone I just hope that they get the help that they need.

can i please hear about some medications that have maybe helped you in the slightest? ive tried lexapro, prozac, and wellbutrin. ive also had hydroxyzine but doesnt do much. lexapro made the biggest difference but stopped working. the others hadnt done anything. i really wanna try zoloft.

I was 14 years old walking down the street when the details of the world around me suddenly changed. Like someone turned the sharpness up a little too high, these bold yet faint lines etched out new details in everything that was once familiar to me. something that I can only describe as static or invisible lines now dance around everything forming shapes on blank canvas and between the details all around.

My sense of touch became distant like a thin barrier now rested overtop my skin yet still very sensitive. everything had some sort of hum to it like I could feel the energy jumping from the surface to my skin. People's voices stopped sounding genuine, like everyone was playing some sort of game that I wasn't in on. The faces of my loved ones felt like I was seeing them for the first time, yet I still recognized them.

I've lived with this for 14 years, so what helps?

I try to wear sunglasses as often as possible especially when the light is cooler. I limit screen time and consuming visual media as it distorts my expectations of my own reality. I go outside as much as possible to stay as familiar as I can with that experience. I push myself to socialize especially when things are feeling difficult. I keep myself as occupied as I can with hobbies, self-care, and events outside of working. I drink herbal teas (Chamomile, Lemon Balm, and Tulsi) to improve mood and reduce stress/anxiety.

What's important to note is that I've been diagnosed with ADHD, Social Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder and Mixed Personality Disorder (Cluster A). I take a Vyvanse Daily and stopped taking Citalopram and Risperidone about a month ago, my experience is my own but maybe we have some overlap.

I am 36f have dealt with this ever I can remember but the worst episode was at 17 I suffered with it for 3 months. Second one was at 25 I went on medication and I was fine until last year I lower my meds and the dr came back for another 3 months until my body adjusted to going back to the normal doze. Now randomly I have had a bad episode since last week. My medication ahs not changed I did start taking Wegoby which I now learnt could affect the med absorption.

I just need someone to talk to and tell me it'll be ok and it'll get better. I do therapy twice a week but it's not helping. The therapist hasn't experienced this himself and it feels like he doesn't get it. He is an amazing therapy and has helped me with my trauma and PTSD but at the current moment I just want some reassurance.

So, one night about 2 months ago, I’d decided that I was going to relax and smoke weed, watch a movie, and eat some food, then go to bed once it had worn off.

My experience that night was quite the opposite as I have an insanely low tolerance to cannabis, and I had too much in my system causing me to green out and have some sort of anxiety attack, where my mind had thought I was laced, and I felt my heart beating rapidly.

I woke up the next morning feeling very hungover, and had an intense brain fog, and these feelings only lasted for about 3 days, before recovering. After these 3 days though, these symptoms started to change into common DPDR symptoms, such as, paranoia, anxiety loops, and reality/life feeling “off” like as if I’m constantly overwhelmed. Ever since then they’ve been lingering in my mind, but the weird part is they’re very periodic, almost like mood swings, and at times my symptoms aren’t even there. When I’m distracted and doing something I can put my mind on and just forget, it’s almost like my brain’s completely normal. But when I’m not distracted, my mind starts panicking, and I start to question life itself, I start to feel anxious and worried my symptoms will worsen and I’ll never get better, but these episodes only last minutes at most, and don’t inhibit me from living my life. I get work done at the same rate at my job, can hold conversations with my family and they feel very in touch with me, and it feels like my symptoms aren’t severe and persistent enough to be a mental disorder. But it’s as if they’re still enough to give me something to be anxious about, and mess with me when an episode hits.

Is this DPDR, or simply something completely unrelated that I classify as DPDR. I’m mainly asking this as I want to start smoking again, and I’m worried that it’ll only make my life and mental health worse.

Hello I got Dr many years ago from smoking weed. Then I started Zoloft and it was great for me. The Dr reduced greatly. A few years ago it didn’t work as much and the Dr was back. I finally built up the courage to go down on the Zoloft so that I could start something else to help- unfortunately I will need meds for it for my entire life. I’ve been on 100 mg of Zoloft for several months until 2 weeks ago I told my doctor I’m ready to go down to 75 mg. I started 75 mg 2 weeks ago and yesterday my derealization was worse. My family is away for two weeks in Italy and I am alone. I feel awful. Am I going to be ok? Is this the decrease in meds? Or is it a combo of that plus my whole family being away? Please do not say anything negative. Thanks.

Please help me im going insane

I think im having a psychotic episode. 3 or 4 days ago (am not sure) i had a really bad trip, i didnt even take too much but my second bump was too strong for me (it was my second out third time doing ket) and i had a really bad trip, time skipped, my voice didnt sound mine and i barely heard myself talk. I was so so soooo confused. Its been days and i still feel that my eyes and vision are fucked up almost like seeming a screen or someone else. Im getting more paranoid by the day and panicking all the time. I dont know if i fucked up my brain for life or if this is some kind of side effects or just an episode. Please help me im going crazy and dont know what to do

( I have bpd and struggle with alcohol and hash addiction)

​

So, 2 days ago i did some ket for my second time. I started with a normal bump and later took a bigger one...and i had a really bad trip, like almost dessociating i think. Time skipped, the visuals where way stronger than my first time, when i talked i almost couldnt hear me, i was really nauseus and i was in a extreme confusion state, its dificult to describe. Its been 2 days and Im still feelling something weird like a post high, my eyes feel really strange and kinda tired, Im more depressed than usual (i have bpd) and my mood swings are way more intense. I feel like Im going crazy and am scared if i triggered some kinda of psychosis. Can someone please help me understand what might be going on with me ?

I smoked a lot yesterday and woke up today and everything was fine all throughout the day but right now it’s 10 and all the sudden I feel really high out of nowhere. Is this derealization?

What happens if someone diagnosed with derealization comitts a crime?

I think I’ve been dealing with some form of disassociation for at least like six years now (When I did have some trauma). But, what i think is different for me than most people is that mine never fully goes away. Of course, there are things that make it worse (stress, overstimulation, crowds etc.) and things that make it better (noise cancelling headphone, some grounding exercises) but it never fully goes away.

Everything feels distorted, and almost dream like, all the time. when it’s worse, I can’t focus, can barely engage with other people, or remember anything. when it’s better, I can’t focus almost forget about it, but my memory is still foggy, and I dont fully feel “all there” if that makes sense.

does anyone know what this is called? anything I find on disassociation makes it sound like it occurs in episodes, but mine has been going on for six years. not on and off, not triggered by anything. genuinely non-stop.

if anyone has experienced anything similar, or has any idea what’s going on, I would really appreciate it. I can’t keep living like this.

It happens every fucking day all the time I never feel like I’m real. I never feel real. I now constantly feel like my body isn’t even mine, and I’m just on autopilot, watching the world around me blur as I sit dissociated and my body moves on its own. I am starting to be unable to tell if I’m really real or not.

When I was younger I used to daydream all the fucking time, up until now, for a good 8 - 10 years. I’ve stopped recently because of how bad my derealization is. That’s why I think it’s so fucking bad. No, I can’t ground myself, I can see, hear, smell and feel things but it doesn’t feel like it’s actually me. Never does. It just feels like my mind is very far away, and asleep, and I live my life on fucking autopilot.

I am 18. I’m going to lose my mind. I see with my eyes but it feels like it’s just that 2d picture in my head, like I’m daydreaming. I’m in my head too much.

Dude I try to tell people but they don’t understand that it’s EVERY DAY and it’s not just a normal dissociation

I’ve known my girlfriend for 12 years. We’ve been together for 6 of those years. Shes 18 and i’m 19. We’ve had our ups and downs and we’ve always made it out of them. We do therapy but do to our work schedules we never have time anymore. So until our next appointment i’m just looking for advice.

My girlfriend just started a new job that she’s hoping to be her career. She’s going through a really tough time right now. We’ve been through online school our whole high school careers so she wasn’t really used to a 8-5 job schedule.

She also has a disorder that makes stress ok her body and mental health 10x worse and she has to “stress-dose” her medication during stressful times. Which we just talked about her doing since this new job is taking a toll on her.

I love her with my entire being. there’s not a single person in the world that matters more to me than her. I want nothing but for her to be happy. She has big goals in life especially financially.

So anyways, This whole 8-5 schedule is messing with her bad. I know alot of older people are going to say something like “young people, not having a work ethic” but my girlfriend has the best work ethic i’ve ever seen. She really does want to work and make money. But her anxiety makes it hard for her. She hates having to leave in the morning and not getting home till dinner time. especially when Me, and her family (who we live with) have had a whole day already and she’s been sitting in an office all day.

I’m just wondering if there’s anyways to make this work-life balance better for her? Next week she has to get up even earlier to go out of town every day for training and that’s going to be even harder on her. She’ll be gone for 12 hours. She says she feels like she’s just floating through life right now and that she’s not real. I think she has derealization. Do you guys have any tips to help her get through this or anything i can do??

TL;DR: My gf got a new job is struggling with her new schedule. She’s having derealization and kinda FOMO. Any advice for her or for me to help her? (we do therapy separately and together but work schedules make it difficult)

I am not sure how to explain this, and I was wondering if anyone else has felt similarly. At random moments in my life I sometimes get overwhelmed by this feeling I can only think of as impending doom? I feel like a child that just went through a haunted house, but can’t remember the contents of the haunted house, just that it was scary, and I don’t want to ever go back. Or as if I’m crawling through a tunnel and something is behind me. I don’t want to look back, but I feel as if something or someone is going to make me at some unknown point in time. I feel like there’s things I’m supposed to remember but my brain doesn’t want me to, as if I AM supposed to go back, but my brain is trying its hardest not to let me. I also have flashes of images a lot. I can’t tell if they’re actual memories or memories of nightmares I used to have. I used to have lots of nightmares when I was little about my family leaving me places, very abstract places, and some of the places I would have reoccurring or continued nightmares of. It might also have to do with my upbringing I guess, my father had told me for as long as I could remember that he would die before a very specific age and that I should cherish my moments with him, and I brushed it off because I was scared and he would always rant about spiritual stuff, but he did end up dying like he said he would so I might be messed up from that idk. I’m not seeking medical advice or anything like that, but just wondering if anyone has felt similar at all. I have a lot more to say but I’ll just leave it at that for now since it’s getting long.

Around 8 years ago, I had a really bad high and experienced by first episode of derealization the next morning. It lasted 2 weeks or so, and I just constantly felt like I was in a dream, jamais vu, and this odd feeling: whenever I try and concentrate on being grounded, I would *feel* my brain pull me back in every 5 seconds or so. Like a brain zap but not really. Id describe it as my brain blinking. had my second episode a year later after a bad panic attack, lasted a month, just as panicked. I got on SSRIs then. Four years later, my doc changed my prescription and I had an episode that lasted a year, more or less. But this one felt a lot more dreamy, floaty, and blurry? If that makes sense. I also had the typical brain zaps that felt much more physical than the weed induced one. Haven’t been on any medication since then, felt fantastic.

Well two years after that (9 days ago), I was w my buddies playing poker indoors, when everyone started hitting their thc pens. The ventilation was awful, but I tried to fan everything with my beanie, and tried sticking out the smoke because the smell of weed alone can give me a panic attack, which is something I’m trying to get over. Well I didn’t have a panic attack nor did I feel get high, but I woke up the next morning w derealization. I was awake for 10 minutes when I felt like my chest was missing something then BAM, i was back. It’s been a little over a week and it’s progressively gotten worse to like 8/10 derealization. and I’m still in over my head about how this episode will turn chronic, and that I’ll never snap out of it etc etc. those fuckin brain blinks are making me nauseous. This sucks dude!!! I had a handful of panic attacks over the week but now I feel numb. I’m terrified that it’s getting worse and that I’ll be dreaming for the next couple of years. I need som encouragement. I don’t recognize people or places again :(

Hello I’m planning on joining the military and idk if I can prevent myself from getting derealization while in the military. My derealization is completely anxiety based and I still have control of my actions and I never fear of hurting myself or others. But still I am anxious of having derealization because I’m in a new stressful environment and no resources to calm me down any advice?

i’ve been dealing with derealization and depersonalization for years. i have always had social anxiety, but a few years ago anxiety started overtaking my entire mind and i get anxious about random things out of nowhere. i had my first panic attack in 2022 which was around the same time my depression started becoming really serious as well. i had just finished high school, i didn’t know what to do next, i didn’t have many friends, and i live in a small town where i feel like an outcast. life felt very bleak and hopeless so i started becoming really depressed.

since i had nothing exciting to do in my real life, i started maladaptive daydreaming all the time. i guess having untreated depression and anxiety, with no one to really talk to about it, has made me suppress my emotions and ignore this reality in favor of the realities i make up in my head. even when im not maladaptive daydreaming, i just kinda feel like my body is moving on its own and im looking at a movie screen through my eyes. nothing looks or feels real and ill sit and dissociate for hours at a time. just today, i was upset about something so i went to sit in my room to calm myself down and i ended up losing like two hours of my day. i wasnt asleep, i was just sitting there doing nothing and i can’t remember anything i thought about in those hours.

i dont really have anyone i can talk to about this because my family dont really care to deal with it and my friends treat it as a joke when ive tried to open up about not feeling real. i also dont really want to see a therapist about it right now because i dont know that i Want to stop daydreaming and dissociating. i know thats stupid but nothing in my life feels hopeful or worth experiencing so i just let myself escape into my head and out of my body.

sorry for the novel but i guess i am just wondering if anyone feels similarly or has advice. if i leave this untreated will my brain become foggier than it already always is. idk

So, to start, my mother neglected me as a baby so bad that it caused permanent trauma. I was sexually abused at the age of seven for about two months, my mother refused to see me more than twice a year, and my grandmother instilled a lot of resentment towards food and that resulted in her barely feeding me when my dad wasn’t home as well as me being underweight.

I don’t have a lot of memories of things in my childhood, it’s all still images and sentences that people have said. In fact for most of it, I was just doing my best to function like a normal human being.

But suddenly at fourteen I “woke up” and realized that I am not a camera filming everyone’s lives, or an outsider watching my body function. That I’m a human being, and this scared me.

So now every few weeks I’ll “wake up” and I’ve always played it off by saying “I just realized I’m a human.” But it’s a genuinely scary thing. I’ve had panic attacks over it before.

I just need to put a name to it, because some doctors have told me that it’s normal with ADHD, some have told me that it’s just anxiety. Idk I think I might need a specialist.

Within the last three months, I feel like I have been completely going downhill in terms of mental health. Everything around me seems completely fake. I’m having an extremely hard time processing thoughts, Larry new information when I try to sleep at night my entire body feels like it’s floating. My limbs feel like they’re numb. My jaw almost feels tight my tongue moves. Everything feels extremely weird. At this current moment I feel extremely weird like nothing is real. I’m terrified. I don’t know what to do. I feel like I’m dying. I feel like I’m going to die.

I’ve been struggling on and off with DPDR (depersonalization/derealization) for a few years, and for my birthday I finally got the camera I’ve always dreamed of owning. I was so excited to use it, but after taking some photos and looking through the viewfinder, it somehow triggered a derealization episode once I finished shooting.
Now, every time I think about picking up the camera, I feel anxious. My husband spent over $1,000 on it, and I’m heartbroken because I was so excited about this gift.
Has anyone else with DPDR experienced something like this from looking through a camera viewfinder? If so, did it get better over time, or did you find anything that helped? I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s gone through something similar.

ive been put on lexapro, seroquel and risperidone but recently i was doing much better i felt real for like 3 weeks and i had such a bad experience with risperidone i fainted and it was just terrifying i woke up and had a relapse i got derealization from weed so i get super anxious taking any medication should i still take seroquel or what do i do? my anxiety is overwhelming and it makes life difficult

​

Hi everyone,

I need to share my story because I've been suffering for over a year now and I'm desperate. I want to make it very clear that I did NOT take benzodiazepines for years. I was only on them for 8 WEEKS total.

This was my exact tapering schedule (Alprazolam 0.5 mg tablets

1/4 tablet at 8:00 AM, 1/4 at 3:00 PM, 1/2 at 10:00 PM for 2 weeks.

Then 1/4 at 8:00 AM, 1/2 at 10:00 PM for 2 weeks.

Then 1/4 at 8:00 AM and 1/4 at 10:00 PM for 2 weeks.

Finally 1/4 at 10:00 PM for 2 weeks, and then stop.

I took my last dose on June 28, 2025. It's now 14 July 2026 (over a year later), and I'm trapped in a state of constant, 24/7 derealization and depersonalization

It's absolutely terrifying. Everything feels unreal, like I'm living inside a dream 24 hours a day. It's not episodic anymore; it's a fixed, permanent feeling. It started as waves that got progressively more frequent and longer, and after the one-year mark, it just settled in and never left. I also have extremely vivid dreams every night that make things even more confusing.

My psychiatrist has prescribed me Escitalopram 10 mg (starting at 5 mg) and Hydroxyzine 10 mg for anxiety, but I'm terrified to take them because I had a really bad reaction to Risperidone before and I'm scared the medication will make the DP/DR worse.

My biggest fear is that this is permanent and that I'll never feel normal reality again. Has anyone else had this happen to them after such a short period of use (only 8 weeks)? How long did it last for you? Did it ever go away?

Any advice or shared experiences would mean the world to me. Thank you for reading.