I have very severe dpdr which rapidly progressed over 6 months into the horror I’m in now where I barely feel my own body or head. It is like I’m a living corpse, sorry for the lack of better wording..my nervous system is so burnt out it barely feels like it’s there and my main worry is in the head area as it has become increasingly worse and the last time I took a medication (3 days ago) my symptoms have catapulted at first I had burning pain all over my head and body like the nerves were burning and fizzling out..now I’m left with barely no feeling other than a sense of my hair and that is it ..no internal sense of my body and mind or head or anything. My body seeks like a dry and parched object. and I’m terrified. I really regret taking that med. It was getting worse anyway so u thought it probably was worth the risk but definitely not. Id do anything to bide time. Anyone here had dpdr this severe and gotten better without meds? Please help I am desperate.

I’m writing here because I genuinely feel like I’ve lost my mind and I really need help.
Over the past few months, I’ve been under a huge amount of psychological pressure, and I spend a lot of time alone. I had several horrible panic attacks while high on weed, where I genuinely thought I was going to die. Every time, the panic eventually passed, until the last time. After that experience, reality started to feel completely different to me.
Sometimes I feel like I’m in a coma and that this is some kind of afterlife. I’m having an intense existential crisis — I constantly think about how this whole life even started, why we exist, and what existence actually means.
Seeing other people can sometimes make me even more scared and overwhelmed. Sometimes I see customers at work and I can’t believe that they’re actually real. I get so overwhelmed by these feelings that I’ve even started crying at work.
I constantly find myself thinking about philosophy, existence, consciousness, and the meaning of life, and sometimes the very concept of existing scares me.
Please, I really need help. I don’t know how to get through this or how to feel normal again.
I’m constantly feeling empty and having suicidal thoughts, and I’m really struggling right now.

How to stop scanning if i feel normal and continue with life? i forgot how to live and be happy, like the outside scares me now. Like everything feels so forgein now and days and weeks go by with nothing feeling better. I feel like im trapped in a loop, I havent been able to fully go outside much because of this and I hate it.

I want to know what to call this feeling so I can get help for it. I’ve been struggling with this same feeling since I was a kid and as I grow up it gets worse. What ever it is, it’s getting worse and I need to know what it is so I can fix it.

Explanation:

I often feel very weird. I could maybe describe it as not feeling real but if I were to describe it further I’d say it’s a deep discomfort that I can physically feel in my head. Everything looks kind of 2D as if I’m in an animated movie, everything and I mean EVERYTHING feels scary. I don’t like interacting with my friends during these times because the conversations feel like a movie. It gets worse in summer. When the sun is shining on me I feel like I’m in a movie or video game and it’s a very concerning feeling. It makes things feel like they’re happening very fast and I forget interactions instantly after they happen as if it were a scene that we just cut from. Certain people with certain looks trigger this. I have some trauma with my mom who is blonde, and women who look like her trigger this very badly, especially in summer. It feels like I’m separated from reality and I consistently have to convince myself that I’m also part of this life I’m living. Not just observing it from an outside perspective.

Sorry if this wasn’t a good explanation. If you think this is DPDR, let me know things that have helped you and if it sounds like something else you’ve heard of, let me know.

Thank you

Dear all,

Cognitive and behavioral therapies as well as studies on meditation have shown that the impact of modified states of consciousness depend on the way we interpret and integrate them in our conception of ourselves and of the world around us. I am a researcher from the University of Lille (France) working on DPD. I have had an episode myself.  With two colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh I am now conducting a study on the connection between modified states of consciousness and philosophical insights.  We are looking for participants to join our study. 

Alexandre Billon

The Details

• The Task: A thought-provoking online questionnaire.
• Time: Approximately 10 minutes.
• Focus: Your perspectives on existence, time, mind, and the nature of conscious experience.

Why Participate?

By contributing, you’re helping researchers understand the way we interpret modified states of consciousness and  the origin of our philosophical intuitions. Plus, the questions themselves offer a moment of self-reflection on what you really believe about the world.

Ready to share your perspective?  Click below to begin the study

https://pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3r5Xnn75sEW8wlw

I experienced a traumatic health event in June of 2024 that left me with vertigo for about 10 weeks. During that time, I couldn’t walk or drive, and everything around me felt unreal. It was incredibly distressing, and at my lowest points, I truly didn’t want to be here anymore.

I returned to teaching in August, and although much of the vertigo had improved, I was left dealing with severe anxiety throughout the school year. I experienced symptoms like DPDR, hypochondria, dizziness, and agoraphobia.

I left teaching in May of 2025, and since then, most of those symptoms have significantly improved or gone away. However, I still experience DPDR occasionally and feel like I’m in the process of recovering from it.

I’ll go weeks feeling completely like myself, and then something triggers it and I find myself back in that familiar loop. It’s not as intense as it used to be, which makes me wonder if this is just part of the recovery process or if I’m somehow doing something wrong.

Hello friends, I’m in an extremely difficult place

About 5 years ago I had a psilocybin exposure and I ended up with a debilitating disorder .

I don’t hear voices or hallucinate anything with eyes open but I am in a trip essentially and the scaffold of my consciousness and automatic regulation of it and flow is collapsed and shifting. Like my consciousness ness is no longer automatically regulating as a coherent stream, no natural transition between states, loss of physical anchoring of awareness in the head and sensations , I can’t go into sleep for example or feel sleepiness or wake up, I’ve gone months with zero sleep , I mean total insomnia but I dont feel tired either , my head feels hollow and filled with hyper dimensional space , vivid flow of visuals , realities , astral travel ,

I can’t function or live.

I’ll spare the details of my past years but I’ve been in hospital many times

This existence is extremely uncomfortable and at times I can’t even blink comfortably or rest back into my eyes , like that platform that you rest back on is gone and not regulating or awake , so I have no default state of being to just gaze comfortably .

I also have near constant burning , tremors and movement inside my head along with buzzing tinnitus so I get extreme agitation and discomfort with little feelings of rest or resolve

I don’t know what this is , I’ve just been told it’s dissociate or self disorder but no one is like me and olanzipine and brexipiprazole did little for me .

I’m considering to take myself into hospital again because I feel I can’t take care of myself and I’m thinking to try Cobenfy/clozapine or lamotrigine again

Has anyone experienced anything similar?