What causes 'derealization' and how can I manage it?

Hi

Derealisation is where you feel disconnected from the world. Something similar is depersonalisation which is where you feel disconnected from yourself. Too much caffeine/nicotine can create this and is exacerbated by poor sleep. Ask many Uni students who have done a number of all-nighters. It can also be the result of illicit drugs, over dosed certain medications (as in your dosage is too high for your biology). It can also be a part of high anxiety, common in PTSD, Panic Disorder for example.

Additionally it can also be caused by a biological reason such as an overactive vagal nerve, very low blood pressure or low blood sugar.

I'm sure I haven't covered all the reasons (especially the biological ones) but as you can see even from this list there are many potential causes. To the second part of your question, I cannot answer it without knowing more information.

I'm keen to know a bit more so I can help you out a bit better.

Making the assumption that there are no biological reasons for this experience, it sounds that it is anxiety driven. When anxious one of the responses that our body has is to increase our breathing. If we are doing little (which often we do when anxious - we want to calm as quickly as possible rather than run about and use up that energy). When we overbreathe - ie we take in more oxygen than we require - it has certain “side effects”. These include chest pain, chest tightening, choking sensation, feeling out of breathe, dizzyness, spots in our eyes, a dry mouth, derealisation and depersonalisation. These all occur due to over breathing.

I would suggest that you require a good CBT psychologist to help you manage your anxiety and to reduce the amount of worry you have. I am assuming that GAD is an accurate diagnosis (an identifier of this disorder is that one worries that they worry about stuff). If that is true then visit the CCI webpage for a manualised treatment. http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=46 . This does not replace professional help, but it may help you to get started, and to ask any potential psychologist some more pertinent questions.  Look for a psychologist here http://www.psychology.org.au/FindaPsychologist

I hope that this is of help to you. Post again if you want anymore information.

Hi there,

Derealization can also be a symptom of epilepsy, and I would suggest you discuss this with a  medical doctor to rule out a biological cause before you just assume that it is just a psychological condition. A doctor would refer you to a Neurologist who would take a full history and do some neurological tests before making a diagnosis of epilepsy. 

Good luck,

Always first check out any medical reasons that may cause this - so I am assuming you have already done this, otherwise I would imagine the dizziness would be occuring even when you are not feeling stressed.  If I am wrong - make sure you get checked out.

Quote "I started getting these around 15, in high school..." Unquote,  and you say that you tend to find this happens when you are stressed.

I believe in removing the original cause that has given you the symptoms you describe, rather than leaving the possibility of the feelings returning at a later date over some other issue.  As you say, you have been diagnosed with GAD - that tells me your earlier experiences have escalated not only about the earlier event(s), but over every stress in your life. (Real or imagined.)

As a hypnotherapy practitioner I would want to take you back to the very first time this happened.  In hypnosis you are totally aware of what is going on.  When you go back in hypnosis, you take who you are today with you to look at what had occured to you at 15.

 It can be the fastest and easiest way to find out why you felt dizzy at that time and to release feelings and emotions that were very intense for you at that age, yet you do this  with the extra wisdom gained since that time that may no longer be concerning to you. 

Prior to hypnosis I would want a history of your memories about growing up, parents, events in your life - what are your earliest memories of anxiety and fear? etc.  Were you bullied or teased at school... were remarks made that you believed at that age... had you not eaten enough at the time it happened... was there a health reason at that time... and so on.

A possibility that hasn't been mentioned is that the very first time you had this happen may have simply caused you a fear of it recurring again. 

The mind can set up a recurring action - no different in practice of what can happen to a person who fails an exam.  When they go to take the exam again, they fear that they will fail again, and when they go to sit the exam again their mind goes blank even though they know all the answers which they of course do know again the moment they come out of the exam room.  I had this happen to a professional who took the same exam 7 times.  When we looked back at that issue to the first time of failure, the person really hadn't studied the subject at that time.  They did of course before taking it the second time, but the fear of failing again, caused the failure the second and subsequent times (each failure caused it to become a bigger issue).  Knowing what caused the first failure allowed us to remove the fear of failure that allowed the next time to go smoothly without mishap.

The fear of failing again is all consuming and the stops you from accessing your answers. 

In the same way, the experience of dizzyness you experienced when you were younger may have set up an anxiety and possible fear of it occuring again.  Which it does of course every time you are anxious and stressed.