guys you are not alone, this is so scary! right now as i am typing this... my arms do not feel like they are attached to my body, my body does not feel like it is attached to my head, and i feel very tired with blurred vision, i smoked cannabis for 4 years before quitting 6 weeks ago after the first time i felt like this, i was just talking to a friend and i just said "mate i have to go", walking down the road i thought i was going to die, i just could not feel my body (i could feel it, but i could not) i hope we are all talking about the same thing because the best way to discribe it is feeling disconnected, so i quit the weed, only yesterday i went to my first stop smoking session with my doctor to help stop smoking cigarettes, i had to leave 5 minutes into the session because i felt like i was dreaming, i also suffer from...

Heart palpitations/cardiac arrythmia (fast, strong and sometimes irregular heartbeat), with sweating and the "sensation" that i can not catch my breath (pending appointment with a cardiologist

i am constantly tachycardia (heart rate always over 100bpm)

i suffer from high blood pressure.<<< yesterday at my quit smoking appointment i had my blood pressure taken, it was 155 over 90 which is high, at the same time this is when i felt my disconnected sensation, i am almost positive that our problem with this feeling is high blood pressure. this is certainly physical, do not let anybody tell you this feeling is caused by anxiety!! this feeling causes the anxiety, not the other way around. i am almost sure of it.

i sit at my computer over 10 hours per day

i live a very poor life style

i smoke (quit yesterday, over 24 hours without a cigarette lets hope i can keep it up)

i go days without eating and when i do eat it is usually just microwaved shredded duck with pancakes and pizza, i do not eat any greens i can not stand them

i do almost no exorsize.

most importantly, i am going to change everything about my lfie because i honestly think i am going to die before i turn 21, i am 17, and i think i am going to die due to abusing my body.

i am just glad that other people are experiencing this disconnected feeling, but i just hope we are all talking about the same symptom, as i said my symptom is feels as though my body is extremely light to the point i almost can not feel it, my arms do not feel connected to my body, and my body does not feel connected to ME, as a person. it is very strange.

my sleeping pattern is also very messed up, some times i can be awake for over 42 hours, then sleep for 15 hours.

as you can see i have alot of things i need to change in my life, i am even thought of suicide, i honestly do no know what to do, I CAN NOT STAND THIS DISCONNECTED FEELING ANYMORE, it happens almost every day with no warning..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derealization

read this guys

everybody, please google search, LNDEN METHOD DEPERSONALIZATION. it may truly be the cure.

dear feeldisconnectedtoo, don't give up hope my friend i have been dealing with this for five months 24 hrs a day. but please understand that the anxiety does cause the depersonalization. your amygdala gland is out of wack and because you were probably unaware of this problem and your anxiety, like me your mind went into defense mode in the same way it would in a life or death situation and internalized your senses. the only way too correct this permanently is to reset the amygdala gland to register a normal level of anxiety rather than a level it would be at in a dangerous situation. look up the linden method and depersonalization disorder. it will provide the answers you seek. its already helping me.

I just turned 20 years old it's my second year of college and first year in the dorms i have had all the exact same feelings and symptons I have landed in the hospital 4 times, they have done chest x-rays, EKG, Brain Scan, MRI of my stomach, blood tests of all kinds and they even checked my thyroid, and they say nothing is wrong with me. I can handle the tingling and shortness of breath and stuff like that cause I know that it is a panic attack and I know that it will pass but the feeling of being disconneted from reality never seems to go away and neither does the sight problem. I have a fear of dying and I'm trying to over come that as well. Any suggestions on either??

I have experienced this way too. It first started a year after my mother passed away. I was only 20 when she died and she died from a brain anersym, so she was here one minute gone the next. She was in great health.
I went to the dr b/c I felt awful. I had tunnel vision, I felt seperated from myself. I would look in the mirror and feel like I wasn't even looking at myself or I would run into something and not even feel pain really...craziness. I could'nt even watch tv b/c it made me dizzy. So, anyway, when I went to the dr and I told her my symtoms she said I was depressed. My dr was my mothers dr and mine as well, we had seen her for YEARS, so she knew my family. So, anyway I was like, are you sure??? She said sometimes when something tramatic happens in your life it triggers something in your brain to cause you to feel this way. So, she put me on an anti depressant and a few weeks later I felt like a NEW person, it was awesome.
I am recently feeling this way again and I am going to go to the dr b/c I am worried but I am thinking it is stress/depression. I am a single mother of three, with no help from the father(s). I work, go to school, and take care of my kids. I have a 7 month old so.....im sure this is why.
So, to all you with these feelings I would try anti depressants! Hope this helps!

I had a family member who went through a period of experiencing the same symptoms!

The doctor came up with panic attacks, which it might have been, however, we have come to believe that they were triggered by certain chemicals/additives in food and vitamin deficiencies. Chemicals/additives could be anything, artificial sugars, MSGs, etc... Vitamin deficiencies could be many but in our case were the B family vitamins. I would also urge you to have your vitamin D levels checked, you might be surprised.

We have since learned that even when you think you are eating in a healthy manner, the soils are so depleated, there are so many chemicals in the food from the growers, that the foods are very poor in nutrients.

This may seem simplistic to some but it is very possible, and in my family member's case, true! Once he changed his diet, he has never had another "panic attack".

I do tend to believe the person who wrote about the water because dehydration can create a whole host of symptoms, but I would add to that the dangers of FLOURIDE as well as chlorine. FLOURIDE was used in WW2 as a chemical weapon by the germans. Too much to write here, look it up on google for yourself.

Don't believe anyone who tells you there is no hope or no cure. Be your own advocate and find an answer. If your doctor is useless, fire him/her and find another. Demand answers and you will get them even if it should take a while.

hi all,
i have had the spaced out/detached feeling since i was 17, i am now 23, constantly tired, tingling in legs, feet, hands, head, headaches, fear of going mad/loosing control, difficulty concentrating, lights seem a little too bright during the day and at night things seem darker than they usually would be. It is usually worse when i am trying to listen to someone speak one on one, or when i am in a place where there is alot going on, eg a shopping centre. I have been to numerous doctors, phsychologists, etc, of course to no avail. I did manage to rid myself of the feeling for around 2 years, and being young and headstrong i then took on a workload that was far too stressful for me and the feeling eventually returned. The feeling DOES go away over time, for me it seems to take a few years, although no doubt everyone is different. The only thing i can suggest for any who deal with this is to limit, or if possible avoid situations that aggravate the feeling, eventually you will simply realize that it is gone. Anything that distracts you from it is also advisable. However, as i have found out, certain stressors will cause it to return, for me it is something which requires a bit of careful management. I use a few simple strategies that i have found work for me and over time the feeling eventually fades.

this i think is called depersonalization/derealization and the symptoms may include:

-being in a haze
-trapped inside your mind
-disconnected from reality
-disconnected from yourself
-feeling surreal
-feeling like things are happening in slow motion
-etc.

(i have experiened almost all of those things)

depersonalization/derealization is a very REAL symptom of any of these anxiety related "disorders," including:

-OCD
-anxiety
-panic attacks
-generalized anxiety
-phobias

the good news is, anxiety is NOT a mental disorder it is a behavioral one. medicine and psychotherapy can help to cope, but it will not cure the problem. there are a handful of techniques used to solve any of these forms of anxiety but i think the most successful one is the LINDEN METHOD.

learn to retrain your mind and behaviors. cure yourself!

i dont know if this will help but my ex boyfriend had these symptoms, went to 12 doctors, most of them tried to put him on anti depressents or anti anxiety pills. however the 12th doctor figured out he had a virus. this virus made his life a misery for 2 years, so much so that our relationship which was for the most part bizarre, ended. he never recovered from the fallout of the 2 years he suffered and became a recluse. this virus started in his ear. but there were other things such as family matters with his parents which he never addressed. so the stress from other things is made worse by the virus. he was too pompous to talk to anyone about it.
it is unknown where the virus began. the he had been stung by a bee in the lower back and had an ear infection shortly afterwards. the the two years of feeling disconnected, panicky, etc etc started. get your blood checked for any viruses,
your other problem could be adrenal (your glands on your kidneys working over time causing out of the blue weird feelings and sensations of panic.
seems to me you need to deal with the sadness of ur mums passing, and re-evaulate what is important. i think my ex had a problem where he was too much of a control freak (not saying you are) and wouldnt let anyone help.
best of luck, u are young you will get past this.
a great book i read to help though tough times (i am an anxious person) is anything by ECKHART TOLLE, its not religious or biased toward anything, it just helps you get back in touch with yourself in a non-cheesy non-oprah way
best of luck
moomom

yes i get that too, well not often anymore. its called depersonalization and its a very common symptom of anxiety and panic. its not anything physical. its all mental. benzodiazepines from what ive researched seem to help a lot.

hey you guys, after weeks of endless research i have come to the conclusion that this disorder does not require medication. it simply requires diet, exercise, changes in the way you spend your time (for the better), accepting and ignoring the dp/dr and vitamin b supplements. i am doing all of these things and am recovering quickly, along with many other people. good luck. com check out dpselfhelp. its a forum for people like us, and there's a lot more activity on it than this one. plus a lot of knowledgeable people.

depersonalization/derealization is all in the mind. its your body in flight or fight mode making you feel woozy and disconnected. anxiety has to be cured and then those feelings will go away. work on the area of anxiety first.

I'm sixteen and have the exact same thing. About two years ago, I was diagnosed with social anxiety and panic disorder, what the doctors believed was from previous drug use. My doctors gave me all sorts of meds that never worked, and then decided to try out klonopin with some anti depressants. The klonopin made me feel drugged and dazed, and I would experience withdrawals from it when i missed a dosage. I just got back from Europe and decided to completely cut my meds since they have only made everything worse for me. Now i feel like a completely different person and like I'm losing touch with reality. It gets to the point where I feel like my life is a TV show or something. I used to always have fun and be so outgoing and be the life of the party, and now I'm scared of everything. Just the relization of how much more I could achieve if I didn't have this is depressing. I start college in a month and just feel so lost. AGhhhhh help!Has any body else experienced derealization along with social anxiety? Any information would be great.
Thanks, Hana

hmalthaner, get to the forum dpselfhelp as soon as you read this. no offense but ehealth sucks by comparison. to offer you some immediate relief though you need to look into # 1-inositol, #2-choline, and #3-sublingual vitamin B complex. trust me, this is something i have put a lot of time into researching. i am taking these supplements and getting better fast after 6 months of no improvement. first thing, get to dpselfhelp, there are over 5,000 people on there just like us, and the forum is always very active. second google these supplements and read everything you can about them. you will want to cry when you see everything they can do for you. also just to real you in a bit more, people have been CURED of social anxiety disorder and panic disorder by taking inositol and choline. when you get to dpselfhelp PM me my username there is also Tommygunz. can't wait till you get there and start getting better.

the previous post applies to everyone on here by the way.

Hello everyone. Everyone says there is no answers and no cures. Interesting. What everyone has is anxiety disorder. All the docs are useless unless you admit to yourself you have anxiety. You get stressed out. It does not have to be from any particular event or sickness, it comes over a long time and appears. The cure is confidence. You all lost it. How do you get it back? No medicine, just knowledge. Anxiety, panic attacks have a host of symptons you already know. However, anxiety has limitations, it can only give 'sensations' and thats all. For example, it can make you think you are having a heart attack, can't breathe, going crazy, etc... but it can not make you have a heart attack, stop you from breathing, go crazy, faint, etc... this is where the confidence comes in, when it happens, you are no longer freightened. This is cure. When fears leaves, cure comes in naturally. Accept the feelings, they are just feelings, you are giving them more power than they have and therefore get worse and worse. A lot of you feel 'detachment' or feelings of 'unreality', this is from anxiety. A stress hormone is released from your brain into your body. The hormone causes feelings of detachment and unreality. These are just feelings and sensations and have no power over you. As you get more confidence, the stress hormone will decrease and the feelings will go away. DO NOT BE SCARED BY YOUR FEELINGS AND SENSATIONS. Do not be scared of the effects a stress horomone has in your body. You can still function at a high level if you accept these feelings and do not fight them or think you can not live with these feelings and sensations. I recommend a book called 'hope and help for your nerves' by Dr. Claire Weeks. You can be cured with no medicine. You all look for doctors to tell you what is wrong, but the answer and cure is within you the whole time, and that is knowledge and acceptance.

It can't be that it's completely uncureable...

whoever said it was mental and not physical is right. I'm 18 and have been feeling this way for years-- nauseous, spaced out, intense headaches, stress, feeling like i'm on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. I know I'm not insane and I also know that physically, I'm healthy, but it's very hard to internalize.

My boyfriend experienced similar symptoms (he's been having this issue since seventh grade, so intensely that he used to skip school routinely because he was afraid) and he was put on anti-anxiety medication. He said that worked for him and always encouraged me to try it. I haven't tried it because I'm wary of medicines that aren't like, vital, but maybe it'll work for you.

What's worked for me in very small ways is trying to think positively and calm myself down. Whenever you find yourself having a negative or panicked thought, keep in mind that you've never actually passed out or whatever before and that you'll be okay. Aren't you tired of feeling sick all the time? I'm completely over this being a part of my life. So I'm trying trying trying to think positively. It has helped to a degree. Stay strong!!

You are right dineenie. You did not need medicine. You figured out that although you thought you might pass out or whatever was never really actually going to happen gave you confidence. So eventually when the anxiety thoughts came, you were no longer afraid of these thoughts, sensations and feelings. Once fear left, you felt better, your stree hormones decreased and you were cured. This is cure without medicine and it works. Medicine just helps the symptoms, but as long as the fear remain medicine will never cure anxiety only control it at times. Cure is better.

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