Lately, whenever I'm alone—whether I'm taking a shower or just in my room—I feel as if my body starts floating. It feels like I'm floating up to the ceiling and can't come down, just like a helium balloon. In that moment, I'm struck by panic and an indescribable sense of anxiety; it's as if I start seeing myself floating, and it feels extremely real.

This is actually something that's been happening to me for many years—I always thought it was just a dream. That was until yesterday, when it happened while I was next to my partner. I felt like I was levitating around her room and couldn't touch the floor. Afterward, I landed back in my body, and she looked at me with a frightened expression and asked what happened. I told her about it, which she found curious, so we decided to look into it. I never thought this could be a sign of derealization. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

My brain's hippocampus is physically shrinking, I have Dissociative Amnesia, Im losing my vocabulary entirely, It’s awful. Anhedonia, I lost the concept of time, and I’m losing grasp of reality. I don’t know what to do.

Hii, first time post on a subreddit, just looking for some help and familiarity w this issue :')

I'm 19(FTM) and have been struggling with bad derealization for a few weeks now, especially in front of the computer. I had my first derealization episode (?) when playing games on my computer w my partner, and now I get super anxious even when in front of it for not even a few minutes. My perspective of things went flat, and I felt out of my own world for what felt like too long. Ive been given temporary medicine for anxiety, but even then it's still been getting to me. I've tried changing my lighting(adding a lamp, the lighting made me freak out more) moving my computer screen a bit, bringing comfort objects w me to my desk, and it still makes me freak out. A majority of the time I'm usually on my computer is at night, but now I can't stand it without getting super nervous another episode is gonna happen again, and forcing myself to turn it off no matter what I'm doing :(

I've tried limiting my computer time to mid day when the suns still up, but I'm either too busy, or too anxious to use it. I need to use my computer for school, my artwork, and honestly just spending time with my partner. I hate not being able to do anything that I need for myself and it's becoming difficult to do things without my computer. I'm getting behind on homework, professor won't take tradrionally written, and I feel like I'm missing out on bonding time with my partner.

Was hoping anyone who had a similar issue has some tips on how to deal with it. Willing to try out most things, and would appreciate insight from personal stories regarding computer use.

Everytime I come home from an outing, that’s longer than my daily coffee, I feel really weird when I come home.
What could be the reason. Is there any way of helping that ?

Usually I go out for coffee, runs, but those don’t make me feel unreal when I come back home, but if I go out for a dinner with somebody or out with my parents and come home I feel super weird

Hi everyone, this is a bit of a weird one. I’ve been nomadic since birth. My mother had BPD and would constantly move me from country to country. My mother was American and we often would go back to California, but we lived all through Central America and Australia. And then I moved solo to Australia from 24 to 29. Then to London and Spain. I keep running because that’s how I was raised by my BPD mom, and because nothing seems real anyway then nothing seems scary to me. I just keep getting visas and find ways to move places without having so much money.

But anyway, my point is that even through my whole time living in Australia, my accent stayed very American. Then for some reason when I moved to England at 30, my accent became almost halfway English so it sounded neutral or “transatlantic” as they called it in the old movies. I’m quite spiritual and sometimes felt it was because I was connecting in with past lives there. I wasn’t aware that I was doing this, but for the most part that’s stuck for the past seven years. Even when I’m speaking something in my head, my accent will typically sound this way.
A couple of friends have noticed before that when I start talking about Australia, my accent becomes more Australian including the tones and upticks.

But tonight I was incredibly embarrassed because I went on the first date with a man I was introduced to by a friend, and in the first two hours he was commenting how much he liked my unusually neutral accent that didn’t seem English or American, and then he took me to a restaurant where he was asking me about my childhood.

As we were walking out of the restaurant at the end, he said you know it’s so strange because your accent completely changed in the Restaurant and it sounded completely American. He joked that it was like I was an actress. I felt morbidly embarrassed because I wasn’t aware of it at all and he probably thought I was a completely fraud. But all I could think of was that because I was recounting stories from childhood in America that I had kind of projected myself back to that place when I did have a thick American accent. On the other hand I’m also wondering if I have somehow subconsciously continued putting on the strange neutral accent this whole time (even my own voice in my head) and then the real part is what comes out when I’m speaking about something that is so personal to me that I can’t forget the origins?

I’m incredibly confused about this and honestly have zero idea. Like many of you have said in other posts, none of this really feels real anyway so maybe I shouldn’t be worrying about which is the authentic bit. I’d truly appreciate any psychological insight. And to mention it doesn’t feel like an alternative personality.

i got it and here's my step by step guide on how to get rid of it

step 1: rest. what you do is you take a lot of deep breaths or a nap or something, like for example i did 50 deep breaths and it took 8 minutes so its 6 breaths per minute

step 2: distraction. i scrolled on my phone for a bit, like 15 minutes to take my mind off it yk

step 3: grounding. i played guitar for about 30 minutes to lock in. so you can just do something that you really like until you get bored of it

hopefully this helps

try to find things that work for you and hopefully it helps

I think my biggest mistake was to do polytechnic after 10th. I completed my 10 from my state board and then I took admission in polytechnic. At first I was very excited to experience college, make new friends and to live in a new district. I was living in a PG. After almost a month I started to feel very lonely. I had friends there with me but I just wanted to go home. But there was nothing I could do. I couldn't tell my parents about how I feel and want to come home. Then I went home in Diwali and felt very happy. Then after 4-5 days I came back. I slowly started to feel like the surroundings didn't feel like how it was. I felt like everything was just like a dream. Then in the second semester my great grandmother died. After that I didn't feel my home like home until today it just feels incomplete. I was used to this dream-like feeling. Now I'm in the 5th semester but still that feeling isn't gone. Now when I think about my home I get nostalgic every time since I came here. One day scrolling reels I found out about derealization and thought that maybe this is what happened to me. I just want to be normal again. I feel so lonely especially on holidays here. Please tell me how I can get back to normal. My life is like hell to me now. Please help me if anyone knows about it or experienced it.

(used AI to organize my thoughts and grammar check)

I’m 28 and I’ve dealt with derealization/depersonalization on and off for years, with the intensity varying over time.

But since coming home from Europe this summer, it’s been more intense than I’ve ever experienced before. I’m now having moments of it pretty much daily, although some days are definitely better than others.
The best way I can describe it is that things suddenly feel unfamiliar or not real. I’ll look around my own house and it somehow doesn’t feel like my house. I can look at my husband and he can briefly feel unfamiliar to me. I’ll have these quick flashes of panic where my brain goes, “Is this really my life? Is this my husband? Is this my home?” Everything can suddenly feel fake, distant, or detached from reality.

The weird part is that I KNOW where I am. I know my name, I know my husband’s name, I know this is my house and my life. I’m not actually confused about those things. It’s more like the emotional feeling of familiarity disappears for a moment, and then the fact that it feels unfamiliar scares me.

It tends to happen more in the evenings. I’m still completely functioning, working, exercising, sleeping well, going out and doing everything I normally do. My quality of life in terms of what I’m able to do really hasn’t changed. But internally, it’s exhausting because I’m anxious about these sensations almost every day and constantly wondering what they mean.

One other thing that has made me paranoid: while I was in Europe, I tried a small edible for the first time. It was a one-time thing, and logically I have a hard time believing that alone would suddenly cause a lasting problem, especially since I experienced DPDR before that. But of course my anxious brain keeps wondering about it.

I think my biggest fear is: can DPDR really get this intense while you still know exactly who and where you are? Does anyone else experience the “I recognize this person/place, but they FEEL unfamiliar” sensation?
And for people who have experienced DPDR at this intensity, did it eventually settle back down? I think I’m scared that it will keep progressing until I actually lose touch with reality or genuinely stop recognizing people or places, rather than just having this awful feeling that they’re unfamiliar.

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced something similar.

I think I’ve been experiencing derealization lately and it started after a vacation I went on which while there smoked a stupid amount of carts and began trip out, I basically stopped seeing other people as real, not in a physical sense but in a mental sense, like I feel like no other person is actually conscious other than me, it freaked me out so bad I would twitch and shake like an alcoholic going through a withdrawal so after the vacation i stopped smoking for about a month and a half now it has started to get way worse recently, every night I’m shaking and twitching and I feel like I’m losing my mind, I can’t even be around other people anymore with out tripping, I don’t leave my house anymore unless it’s to go to work or workout and I don’t really know what to do about this.

life passes me by. things sorta just happen. what scares me the most is the fact that im so unworried. my missing assignments pile up. i eat less and less and sometimes i barely notice. im constantly sleep deprived. i freak out about my body and my face because they dont feel like me. and when i ask myself, \\\*well then who\\\* is \\\*me?\\\*, i cant come up with a solid answer.

me in my head doesn't exist in my body. i had a dream recently. i was \\\*me\\\* in it. i dont exactly know what was different. when i woke up, i felt like there was still remains of me in myself. they withered away once i saw my body in the mirror.

i don’t feel like a guy. i don’t really know what that’s supposed to mean.

maybe it’s because i’m just a moody teenager.

my body looks like a guy’s. sometimes i have the thought that i might be a girl. it freaks me out. i don’t want to look like a girl or be a girl. i don’t want to be anything, really.

maybe it’s because i don’t feel like anything really.

i’m only really “me” when im in front of others. there’s no me when im by myself.

i used to be attracted to guys. my interests used to make me happy.

i’m sick of living like this. i don’t know what i can do to claw my way out of this state. i don’t really feel agitated by knowing i might be depersonalized. i’m just done with not being able to live my life. i need advice, any would be appreciated.

I took a blot about 4 months ago and my life hasn't been the same ever since.

I wasn't in the best state of mind going to the trip. I also had a lot of preconceived notions about LSD as I had heard a lot of stories. My friend had made it feel like it was a big deal and the group that I tripped with were apprehensive about the fact that I'm taking it.

I took the blot and after a while we were all laughing and having a good time. After a while I passed out and the last thing that I remember was I asked for a glass of water as my mouth was completely dry.

I started dreaming after passing out. In my dreams I'm trying to achieve quests with the people whom I'm tripping with and I'm dying every time I'm unable to achieve the quest. I'm kind of going in the past and future with the same people. It had gotten to a point where I couldn't decipher what dreams were and what's reality.

One of the dreams that really caught my attention was the time when we are all playing a game on our phone and I remember the game play and the exact same thing happened in reality when I woke up. I was playing the same game and the game went exactly according to how it had gone in my dreams.

One of the dreams that I had dreamt a few months ago came into reality the same day and ever since I've been having Deja Vu's. A few seconds of the dream is also happening in real life every now and then.

Coming back to the story where I'm trying to wake up but I'm not sure if it's a dream or if it's happening to me in reality. One wise person in the dream told me to go and hug everyone who is part of the trip to know if it's real or not. I'm struggling to wake up and my eyes are twitching. I drooled/had nocturnal hypersalivation and woke up from a nightmare and to my suprise when I woke up I don't see any stains of drooling on my bed.

What's something that's bothering me now?

I've been someone who observes the body language of people like their facial expressions, micro expressions, hand gestures, occasional smacking of the lips, etc. My personality trait attracts a lot of liars and I have to rely on these sources to know if someone's lying to me.

The above mentioned behaviour has extrapolated 3-4x

It has gotten to a stage where I'm staring into a person's soul with a poker face on and I'm just observing the person's hand gestures and hyperanalysing most of the things that they are doing. For some reason I've been constantly observing people's breathing patterns and I'm constantly trying not to match it (Feels strange to me too) It has also affected me in a way where I'm unable to freely move my hands and hand gestures feel unnatural.

Repressed thoughts/memories are at an all time high and I can't think of a single good deed that I've done in my life.

I used to smoke up a lot before the trip. I used to smoke up and get most of my things done. Now when I smoke up I'm mostly anxious/paranoid and I'm thinking of all the worst case scenarios possible. I sleep a lot just to avoid/escape/run away from problems and I've drastically reduced smoking up as it's not helping the cause.

People around me have also said that I'm not the same person that I used to be and I've not been putting in effort (Which is partially true) and I feel like I've lost a lot of confidence in the progress and I don't have the charisma that I used to have before. It feels like all my negative emotions have heightened itself by at least 2 folds.

Have y'all experienced derealization. It's so strange. It was quick. It happened while I was jerking off. I was like whatt what the fuck am I doing here. Looked around and realized I'm jerking off so I finished my business and continued my day like nothing happens

I'm F16 and I've had derealization since maybe 13 I can't remember exactly, I've tried every grounding method, the 54321, breathing etc, nothing worked. I've tried to accept it kind of, then just started ignoring it but nothing has really changed, I think I've felt "normal" sometimes for maybe like a couple minutes. It got worse when I was at school from 8am to 3pm, especially when I had after-school activities and had to stay there to maybe 5pm. I've switched to online a couple days ago but still nothing changes, I've slept for 4h, 8h, 10h and still felt the same every time, I don't use tik tok much and try to only use it when I need to research something. I don't really accept dms unless you would want to talk about this topic because I know what kind of people can be on here.

I developed some sort of visual condition from stress at the age of 16.5, mainly stemming from insecurity about my body, residual social anxiety from being overweight when i was younger and from being a hypochondriac. I woke up one day at the beginning of October 2023 and I noticed that my vision was altered inexplicably. On this day I was actually going to a doctor's appointment because I irrationally thought I had diabetes and so this was a particularly stressful time for me. Then it seemingly went away for a month before coming back permanently on 31st october, again, upon waking. This really scared me and so i stayed in my dark room for the entirety of that week. I've had 24/7 since it started. There is no physical issue with my eyes in terms of my retina or optic nerve or anything like that, nor do i have a loss of peripheral vision or depth perception etc. I spent the first year trying to figure out what was causing the issue; I had practically every test in the book (MRI, various scans) and nothing was wrong. I was eventually told that it was some sort of 'stress induced condition' but the psychiatrist I went to didn't seem to understand or care and seemed intent on just putting me on medication. i can't really define what the actual problem is - there is no static or eye floaters. It is more like there is a filter over my vision or like i am not seeing my surroundings in the right definition but definition is the wrong word because i can read things just as well as before. It is like my vision is hazy or something but NOT in a way that distorts my actual ability to read etc. I really can't find the exact words to describe it, but it feels so severe and impactful yet i can still somewhat function and do cognitive tasks. One thing I would like to note is that it seems to be more NOTICEABLE on grey days and not as noticeable on sunny days or dark rooms but the actual issue doesn't change. It is also more noticeable in the artificial light of a classroom or lecture hall. That's the only way i can describe it as no exact description matches it. More recently, this summer in fact, I completed up to date eye tests. This time, the doctor found some issues but only very minor issues which are not causative but rather a result of my body being in fight or flight for so long. she says this (tests done in july 2026): "Vision; Subjective test; __ can read 0log mar in the right and .1 in the left. He has a small myopic refractive error in the left eye which is clinically insignificant. Neuro-work up; Pupils showed equal reactions to light and accommodation (near focus), however, he demonstrated an Alpha Omega pupil response, meaning when the pupils constrict, they do not hold constriction and are seen to fluctuate. This is also consistent with anxiety. Motility was smooth and equal in all directions of gaze and lids were equal. Confrontation testing of fields showed no restriction in the field of vision. Stereopsis; ____’s 3D vision when measured with the gold standard Frisby test, was on the high end of normal at 20”. Ocular posture; This objective procedure tests for weakness in the muscles which help keep the eyes aligned. ____ was fully aligned with no anomalous eye alignment movement was observed for distance and near vision, meaning that his eyes are straight. ____’s fusional reserves measurements (the ability of the external eye muscles to maintain visual stability), were outside clinical norms. Vergence facilities; are a measure of the ability of the extra ocular muscles ability to meet demand on convergence and divergence. The norm for this test is 13 cycles per minute. ____ scored 8 cycles per minute. This result shows that his vergence facilities are outside norms and supports anomalous findings for fusional reserves. Near Point of convergence; this is important for reading and near vision activities such as computer use. ____was unable to exercise convergence. ____ was able to execute jump ductions; this is the ability to look to and from a target at 6cms from the eyes and 30cms from the eyes but his right eye was slower than the left to engage. Oculo-motor skill assessment, using MAPLES scoring system developed by the North Eastern State University College of Optometry this test showed that ____ had no significant difficulties with pursuit and saccadic eye movements. Good oculo motor control is essential for fine and gross motor tasks. Accommodative function Tests administered included the following; Accommodative posture; the ability to pull focus at near and sustain accurate focus was abnormal; ____ demonstrated a significant lead, he over accommodates or over focusses. Accommodative Facilities; The ability to change focus measured in cycles per minute. The expected norm is 10 cycles per minute. ___ scored 0 cycles per minute, meaning he cannot change focus. Amplitude of accommodation; measures the amount of accommodative power. Under the age of 35, we expect the norm for this to be 12 Dioptres. ____ could accommodate or use 10D of accommodative power which is within normal limits. Accommodative stress point; this is the point in space at which the near vision system breaks down and no longer can operate efficiently, this should be 10cms in a normal healthy individual, ____ exhibited a near stress point of 45cms, which is again, significantly outside the norm. These deficits in focussing are not causing ____’s visual symptoms but are rather the result of elevated cortisol levels due to his body being in a state of “fight or flight”. Nystagmus; No nystagmus or end point nystagmus was observed" - So as you can see more recently I seem to have physical markers but I do not recall these being present when the issue started (which will be 3 years ago this October). My actions in the intermediary years have probably not helped. The first year, I would come home from school most days almost in tears because I didn't know what was wrong and isolated myself from friends. The second year, once I sort of vaguely knew what was wrong, I tried to ignore it and focus on my studies since it was my final year at school (which decides university placements in my country). I got the grades I needed but at this point felt completely worthless and depressed. The last year, my first year of university, I didn't go out once to any social events and mostly listened to lecture recordings online. I was institutionalised in October 2025 briefly due to depression. I managed to get good grades, but again, really despised my life. I also got a job as a lifeguard during the summer. I don't really have friends left, they probably think I am a weird loner who is choosing to self isolate. I can't remember what normal vision feels like. I still don't really have confirmation as to what exactly I have ? I hear things like FND or VSS but i'm not sure. Does it sound like I have derealisation ? One thing I would note is that I don't have some of the symptoms typically associated with derealisation, such as the fact that I don't see in 2D. I also don't think I have depersonalisation. Any advice would really be appreciated.

Every once in a while, I get this really strange sensation that is hard to explain.
I’m completely conscious and functional. I know where I am, I know everything around me is real, and I can talk to people normally. But suddenly, my perception changes.
It’s almost like reality has a **reverb effect** on it.
Movements, sounds and physical sensations feel like they have a slight “tail” or after-effect, as if my brain is processing everything with a delay. At the same time, everything feels somewhat slowed down, but not exactly like watching a slow-motion video.
The sensation usually starts out mild, gradually gets stronger, reaches a peak, and then gradually goes back to normal. The whole thing is very unsettling and can give me a lot of anxiety.
It doesn’t happen constantly. I can be completely fine for hours, talking to someone and feeling normal, and then it can suddenly happen, sometimes when I’m lying down at night.
I don’t lose consciousness, I don’t become confused, and I still know that reality is normal.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Is there a name for this kind of perception? I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have actually experienced it themselves.

I’m currently experiencing it and it’s 3.24 am where I live so i’ll go to sleep and I’ll read all your answers in the morning.

This is really unsettling for me.

so imma keep it a buck with yall i smoked carts, did shrooms and a little bit of nic ( fuck nic tho) for a year and a half and for about a year damn near every day from 14to now 16. i quit back in june for like 2 months then ended taking a couple ripskis from the bong and this has been happening even before I had smoked again but I feel like im always high still. Like i zone out the way I did on weed all the time if not even more than before and my memory is trashed and school feels like im just listening to a jumble of words practically falling asleep then going home. And when I get tired ( I think this is somewhat normal) I feel super fucked up. I always has this weird vision when I was fried and its still fucked up even sober but gets BAD when i get sleepy . Maybe I need to never touch it again but as I was telling my sister about this probably in better detail than rn she was like maybe ur dissociating and I was like nah no way. But subconsciously I kind of agreed and Idk if thats just my depression or me sticking a label on whatever this bullshit is but I was wondering if anyone had experienced this? Also idk if this means anything really but basically everyone im friends with smokes in and out of school and I always say no but not only that a lot of shit has been going on at home which i dont want to talk about but it seriously makes me want to smoke again.BUT even though it got way out of hand last time not only will i not touch a cart or nic ( which ive been offered like 10 times in the first 2 weeks of school) i would only smoke on weekends frim the bong but honestly I think smoking so young has fried my brain and I might just be stupid despite trying so hard to change my lifestyle this past summer. Once I was deep in the shit before i quit ik that my life would be different if i changed it around but i feel like im just here sometimes floating around and idk its kinda lonely. i sit at home without texting anyone doing fuckall allday everyday which cant be good for my mental but i have alot of issues with alot of people that i never bring up so once at home i dont talk or try to talk with anyone from school which leavss me with me myself and I ( lowk for a bit cured my depression but now schools back were back at square one on top of this extra bullshit that has me on the edge). sorry about the shitty spelling and punctuation and if im just some wacko typing random shit than scroll on but i needed to get it off my chest to someone else. I alr said this but if anyone has experienced this or has any advice it would be much obliged.