I've had derealization on a regular basis for years. It seems highly correlated with autoimmune flare-ups related to my celiac disease. It also seems to come along with fatigue, vertigo, and sensitivity to light and noise. It was moderately debilitating and it sort of ruined my life for a while, until I learned to manage it with diet, sleep, and exercise.

What’s it like to experience derealization? For some reason I’m reading about it twice in a week suddenly, and I was never aware such an experience existed; I read a story about someone who slowly started suffering from derealization more and more, and was having trouble dealing with it after several years. It sounds frightening.

It is frightening, or more like just anxiety inducing ya know. I've only had it a couple times, the worst of which was withdrawing from cigarettes. It's like you suddenly realize your experience of reality has changed. Like just now you can see the frame around your existence, like your watching through a window and not just being in it. Except that that analogy only addresses visual acuity which the full experience is that but with all senses and especially the sense of self. Derealization is really just the best word to a profoundly strange and indescribable experience.

I've also taken drugs that enforce that sensation and it's much more interesting and tolerable when you've done it intentionally, know what's happening, and that it will end. Those mind states have allowed me to explore emotions and sensations from a rather removed point of view and have some realizations (pun? Not intendes) that i wouldn't have otherwise.

If you wear glasses, chances are you've learned to ignore the constant frames around your vision. I'd like you to intentionally notice them. Do you see how the vision you experience could be likened to a movie screen? You can look around but you are trapped inside this frame. Imagine if you weren't wearing glasses but you came to notice the frame at the edge of your vision. And upon noticing, found yourself incapable of slipping back into your regular sight. Like you've been pushed back and out of yourself, and you have no way to get back in. You're still in control but it's just that, _control_. It's not you, it's just control, and you can't make it you, no matter what you do. That's at least what it's felt like for me.

For anyone reading, I think this is the best description of derealization in the thread. The window metaphor is good. I even had a quite literal experience of this "window" kind of effect. I took a strong dose of salvia (known to cause derealization, as a dissociative drug) and actually saw my vision as a small "window" at a distance from my actual "self". It was like being aware of the blackness around my vision.

Later I took a much smaller dose of salvia and I didn't hallucinate but still got the strong feeling of derealization. It's so hard to describe but everything seemed "fake" or "plastic". Like hollow and so lonely. Maybe, I guess, what looking at a scene through VR would look like. The sun didn't feel warm, the grass I was touching had no feeling of comfort with it (?). Ah, I thought I could describe it but it's so hard to describe, I give up.

If you take a small dose of salvia you can understand what it feels like. Definitely don't recommend but as far as I know, it's harmless and (for me) impermanent.

Derelization feels like the world isn't real , there doesn't seem like there is a connection between you and the person you are talking to or the world , to me it wasn't scary , if fact it was very interesting, I've had it for a total of 3 months only.

depersonalization is hell this time if feel like you arnt real , the effects of depersonalization includes the following . 1.Visual disturbances : everything feels like low fps and blurry . 2. Spatial disturbance : it feels like you are controlling your body like a robot 3. Physical sensation : touching your body feels weird as if it didn't feel like it used to , the sensations and even the size of your limps when you grab it feels different. Even looking at your self in the mirror feels like looking at another person

What helped was a short guide online how to get out of it . First is to accept it second is to understand that this is purely a response to stress , it's a way the mind helps to protect you , stay calm and you will get out of it .

I had a similar experience. What I think was a combination of cannabis and stress gave me intense DPDR that I'm still not over while I've had no real downsides to some pretty hefty LSD usage over the years. I think set and setting plays just as important a role in cannabis usage as it does in psychedelics. I doubt I will ever be normal again at this point, its been over five years including a lot of time where I lived at a Buddhist monastery trying to understand it.

I would happily take mushrooms or acid in almost any environment, but stay away from weed. That drug has a very undeserved reputation for mildness!

Trivia: Adam Duritz of the band Counting Crows has struggled for years with depersonalization. No idea if it's drug-induced, tho...