Derealization means that things around you become strange, unreal, foggy, or detached from you. Said one patient: II feel I'm in another world. It's like I know I'm there, but I'm really not. I feel removed from the situation I'm in. I feel like I'm in another dimension-like a hollow or vacuum-outside the situation I'm in. It's like watching the whole thing from a distance." And anotehr felt "like I was looking at everything through the wrong end of a telescope-it seemed to get more distant and smaller. Sometimes the opposite would happen and everything would feel closer and larger. One day I was going to cross the street and I got this feeling. I felt that if I stepped off the sidewalk, I would sink into a deep abyss andnever make it to the other side of the street, it seemed so far away."
Poem by Emily Dickinson
I felt a cleaving in my mind
As if my brain had split;
I tried to match it, seam by seam,
But could not make them fit.
The thought behind I strove to join
Unto the thougoht before,
But sequence ravelled out of reach
Like balls upon a floor.
Depersonalization is related to derealization. It refers to the sensation of feeling outside or detached from your own body or part of your body.
Note:
These are just symptoms of an anxiety disorder, they do not mean you are going insane.
