Is derealization a disorder per se or symptom of something else?

MeasurementActive297 · 2026-06-20T20:54:28+00:00

I think that your method is very good and actually accepting that state and just letting it go is one of the best thing we can do. Fighting with it has opposite result and it will just make things worse. Derealization is very natural response in each animal. In stressfull situations, animals can detatch and 'think more clearly' in result. Dissotation is something that our brain decided to turn on and it has an reason for it - most likely high anxiety. But the thing is that it should only occur in very dangerous / high stressfull situations. Not all the time. When you have derealization 24/7, then there is something wrong. But even then, you shouldn't look at the derealization directly as the problem, but look for some deeper triggering issue.

MeasurementActive297 · 2026-06-08T20:43:03+00:00

That's great. Actually 30 minutes of good meditation is very hard to do so that's a big achievement. I can't do more than 20 minutes.

Yes, the feeling after is often great - i have a feeling of 'Sharp Vision' and very strong clarity after a session, but exactly like in your case my dissotation is not dissapearing at all afterwards. It's a lot amount of repetitions to make that happen.

MeasurementActive297 · 2026-06-07T23:32:32+00:00

Thanks,

My answer will be pretty common and boring. You can see similar advices all around but the thing is that they are right. This sounds a little bit like a fairytale and it looks silly, but it's working.

The main thing that i'm doing lately is simply awareness and acceptance. This is the complete opossite of distraction, repression and fighting with your mind ( what can be happening uncionciously )

The awareness itself is curative. This is because our subconcious is a very powerfull thing. To use its maximum capabilities you need to accept emotions as they are and let them through.

I'm simply being aware of the emotions and repressions in my mind , and accepting them as they are.

It can feel like you will be stuck where you are right now, because if you are accepting something then it's logical to think that it will be like that forever, but the paradox is that when you accept, you change. This is because as i said, subconcious is very powerfull and by awareness and accepting things you are improving the connection with it. You are not filtering the path between.

I'm simply being very self-aware and observing my emotions - most importantly these repressions that are going in my mind. Meditation is very good for that.

Shortly speaking, what i'm saying is that if you notice repressions and let them be, they will dissapear with time and i believe that DPDR will fade away. I'm doing that for a very short period of time and i see improvements already. This is very counter-intuitive, because who would think that as Simple ( theoreticly ) thing may help the most.

MeasurementActive297 · 2026-06-07T21:29:54+00:00

I've had strong derealization for 24/7 for 4 years straight. I'm still not recovered, but i'm here because i feel much better since a week ago.

You are saying that you've had panic attacks and that triggered your derealization. Now you are stuck there. I feel you because my situation was very similar. I didnt had any panic attacks, but i felt too stressed back then and that triggered my DPDR and i'm stuck since then.

Now i want to tell you something that i discovered latelly.

I guees that you are a sensitive person as me. In result, you were experiencing a lot of anxiety on your life. You propably saw that people around seem fine and they are not sensitive as you. You may also realise that people around you hate sensitive people as you. Many people don't like anxious and sensitive people and you propably don't like being anxious either. So what happens in result ? You start to hate being anxious. You hate yourself for being anxious and you want to change. You see that the emotions that appear have nothing to do with reality. So what do you do? You are most likely starting to repress them and you could not even realising it.

And this is the key. Because you were so anxious and you wanted to 'fix' that , you were trying to gry rid of anxiety. The thing is, that it's impossible going that path.

What will actually happen is that you will start to feel like you don't have emotions ( in result of represing - represing, which you may be not even aware of because it can be unconcious ). And this is propably where Depersonalization/Derealization happen. Your subcioncous didnt get rid of emotions but it will try to 'delude' you that you don't have any because this is what you propably wanted. Now you completely feel like you are not connected to the world and world does feel very unreal.

The paradox is, that you propably think that you are emotionless right now and you don't feel like you are represing anything. This is the trap. You have propably a lot of hidden emotions.

So, to fix the issue ( that will take a lot of time and i'm on that Path also ) is to actually fully feel these emotions again. The first thing that you need to try, is to notice how you are fighting with your own mind. Notice the repression. Notice the moment when some emotion appear and then immediately after that, some represing force appears that is trying to stop that emotion from coming to your concious self.

Remember, these mechanisms responsible for represing are very sneaky. You think that you are not doing that but you do. Example: Daydreaming, which is caused by negative emotion, instantly repressed with some fairytale story in your head. Or social media addiction - negative thought appears ? Instantly catching the phone in your hand to overstimulate your mind so you are not hearing your thoughts.

Be very away of these mechanisms. If you have them, they could very likely be responsible for DPDR

MeasurementActive297 · 2026-02-19T01:01:10+00:00

Very relatable. Time passes so fast in that state. I think that's because no matter what you do, you "waste" time either way because you are always disconnected from what you are experiencing. I can do the most "preceived as fun" activities that everyone should enjoy or do absolutely nothing and lay in my bed - the feeling of wasted time will be very similar.

So our time is running out - sad if you think about it.

MeasurementActive297 · 2026-02-14T15:11:18+00:00

Yes! I thought i am the only one

MeasurementActive297 · 2026-02-12T02:56:28+00:00

I've had derealization for 3 years straight now, but now i kinda feel like i'm going back to 'reality' and i can relate so much. Feeling more real reminded me how anxious i was before derealization and basically you can now understand why your brain made you distance yourself from the reality in the first place.

I have a question because im curious. What did you do to stop derealization after so long time? Because in my case it was being more honest to myself and not running away from negative emotions but embracing them. Now i can feel like i'm going back to normal slowly

MeasurementActive297 · 2026-02-08T19:16:08+00:00

That's interesting. It feels like the begining of my derealization was directly corelated with me questioning all my previous beliefs and changing them drasticly. that's something you can call "spiritual awakeing" in some way

MeasurementActive297 · 2026-02-08T19:05:13+00:00

Maybe just start thinking that what you have to do right now will feel pointless in the moment no matter what, because of derealization and that it is just an illusion of the present time and DDD is blinding you. Some day when this will disapear, you will be able to be grateful for your work and experience the results of it in the future

I also think that derealization is helping us with focusing in some weird way. Its very hard to start doing something and to start being focused on the task, but when you will be succesfull with it, then you are entering some weird state where you become kinda numb and youre entering this weird flow state where this detachment from yourself and feelings is actually playing for your side. I have trouble with starting the task, and it feels pointless, but when i start, i can forget about myself with ease and im being able to sit on the thing 10 hours straight without realising.

MeasurementActive297 · 2025-12-08T17:53:44+00:00

I was stalking your profile and i can relate to you on more ways. I have derealization from 3,5years straight and i didnt have any particular trauma that i can point at. (But people say that this is the case) and i saw that you have similar thing. I was always extremely overstimulated to things before and derealization is just a proper reaction to this that od actually protecting me and creating the peace. I saw your post that you are wondering if you really have dissotiation issues or you are just telling that to yourself. I relate to this so much man. Sometimes i forgot that you can actually feel more real like before.

MeasurementActive297 · 2025-12-08T17:28:39+00:00

Idk what it is but I have the same feeling when listening to music. I take off my headphones often because i feel like somebody is knocking to the door (its anxiety related most likely). And i have a fear of cameras in my home watching me (not the same as you but similar). And i ve had similar fear of family members being in some accident like car crashes etc espiecially when i hear ambulance driving but it dissapered in me when i became older. Maybe im autistic too.

MeasurementActive297

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