This is one of the most alarming symptoms that anxiety can cause. This is the one that pushes people into thinking that they must be going crazy. Not all anxiety sufferers experience this particular symptom, but for those who do, they will wish it never would return.
I had this symptom, and I can tell you that there were times I was so scared about the fact that I might end up in a mental institution. I thought I lost my mind, literally.
There is no one way to describe this symptom. To me, it was more like an out-of-body sensation. I felt like I’m outside of my body looking at myself. I felt like my soul has left my body, flies up and look down and observe my own life from above. At this point, I thought to myself “that’s it, I’m going crazy”. I called up my doctor but didn’t know what to say to him.
I felt so lost because no one was able to understand what I was going through. They all gave me the dismissive look. The world seems so artificial, it was like everything was in a cartoon movie. I remember looking at my room as I was lying on my bed and the everything seemed so small like I was looking at it from far away. I kept looking at my own hands and they looked smaller than usual. I freaked out and ran to my mom to ask her to see if I’m ok. But by the time I got to her everything seems normal again. This went off and one for a couple years.
This symptom bothered me psychologically and mentally more than it did physically. This fact made it harder to cope because a medical test or scan can be done to discredit any anxiety physical symptom that I had, but depersonalization is more of a mental and psychological issue so there wasn’t anything a family doctor could do that proved to me that I wasn’t “going crazy”. So, I was lost and stayed lost.
One thing I know for sure is when I decided to tackle my anxiety instead of chasing my symptoms, everything got better, SLOWLY. Don’t expect any of your symptoms to be gone right away. They won’t, they will lose their intensity over time until one day you don’t even realize that you have gone through months without any of them.
I honestly don’t remember when quickly and how long it took for depersonalization symptom to go away. I implemented A.C.E.R. to the fullest and stopped caring about any sensation that I had. Writing this page is actually the first time after a while that I recall depersonalization.
Depersonalization, according to Dr. Weekes, is just a state of extreme mental fatigue. Your brain is just so tired and fried, so it starts messing with your perception of your surroundings.
If you have been checked out by your doctors and are told that you have anxiety, trust that you’re not going crazy and with time and proper approach to your anxiety, you will return to your normal self and live a happy life. It worked for me and many other people. It will work for you too.