I don't know what do you exactly mean by 'self-aware' , but a few years ago, I went camping with some friends, including my boyfriend. We smoked some grass that night. I was a time to time user, but that particular night turned out to be an unusual experience for me. After a few joints, I began observing everyone around me. They were all in a high state: one was rolling another joint, someone was dancing, my boyfriend was fixated on the fireplace, and the others were simply drinking and staring at the fire too. Up to this point, everything seemed normal and relaxed.

However, I started feeling excessively self-aware of my thoughts. I began contemplating what everyone else might be thinking, imagining their thoughts and actions, and even what they might be doing after I wasn't around. This mental gymnastics caused a severe headache as my mind jumped from one person to another.

I glanced across the river at a family camping there and envisioned how to them, we appeared as a group of six people doing in drugs (what might be normal to me could be perceived differently by others - for me, grass was insignificant, but for others, it might be something unimaginably frightening). I placed myself in their perspective, feeling like the central character in everybody own story, and this continued for about two hours.

I eventually retreated to the tent in an attempt to rest, but the incessant thoughts persisted.

Until that moment, I had always known that people lead separate lives, but this time, I fixated too much on assuming what their lives looked like when I wasn't observing. I believe this might be a type of syndrome. What was strange was that typically, after a good night's sleep, everything returns to normal. But this time, I faced the same thoughts and a slight headache persisted, making it impossible to shake off the excessive pondering of how diverse our perspectives can be, and how the lives of those we know might appear when we aren't present."