[James2021]

Hi everyone, my name is James and I'm new to the forum.

I'm having quite a bit of anxiety about feeling alone with some of my symptoms, I believe they are Depersonalisation/Derealisation, but I can't seem to find anyone that can relate. I do get the typical feelings of detachment etc, but when my anxiety is up and the DPDR fully kicks in, places that I know well start to seem unfamiliar/strange like they are cast in a different light. A room in my house can feel like I've never been in it before, like it's a completely different room, even though I've been in it a hundred times before. And also I start getting random places and locations popping up in my mind that I haven't been to since I was a kid, or that I've dreamt or seen in a movie, and they stick in my mind and make me feel like I'm actually at the place that I'm seeing in my head. Like when you get a vibe from a place, I literally feel that vibe because I see it so strongly in my mind. It's almost like a homesick feeling, but I'm already at home!!

I described this symptom to a psychiatrist many years ago and had to have electrodes stuck to my head for 24 hours because he thought it was epilepsy. The test was all normal and the theory was dropped. It wasn't until I heard about depersonalisation that I thought maybe it could be that? I just can't seem to find these particular symptoms, just the standard dissociative ones.

I'd really appreciate it if anybody that gets these kinds of symptoms please comment and let me know that I'm not alone. It really scares me when it's happening. Thanks for reading everyone.

 

[35467]

You have intermittent symptoms of depersonalization/derealisation related to anxiety- likely panic. You will not qualify for depersonalization disorder as your symptoms are not experienced as constant and anxiety is present when you have them.

This site works with anxiety and there are two self-help books related to it that might help you.

https://anxietynomore.co.uk/depersonalisation_and_derealisation/

 

[forestx5]

You may find an explanation of jamais vu interesting.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fighting-fear/201301/theory-deja-vu-and-jamais-vu

"Déjà vu is the sensation that a place or event someone is currently experiencing has been experienced before, even when that cannot actually be the case.

Someone turns a corner in a strange city and has the overwhelming feeling that he/she has been there before. The sensation is so powerful that people imagine

they have been there in a previous lifetime. Jamais vu is sort of the opposite. Someone comes home, or walks through a familiar neighborhood, and has the sense

that everything around him/her is strange and unfamiliar. This is how I think these feelings come about:"

Deja vu was a familiar symptom of my focal temporal lobe seizures. Some who experience mild epileptic seizures also experience jamais vu sensations.

But, you don't have to be epileptic to experience these sensations on occasion.

 

[AnnaGiulia]

Hi James,

I had what you have, both that feeling of not being able to emotionally recognize the familiar spaces, and the "listing" of other spaces in my mind, both from my early childhood, my life, movies or my imagination. It basically looks like a slide-show of different images, only that they are somehow 3D, and I feel transported into those places. In my case, that is dissociation doing it, taking me away from the unbearable thoughts when I am triggered by something irl. I had dissociation first dx as DPDR, because the symptoms of DPDR were the most prominent and rather constant, but depersonalization and derealization was only one small part of another very complex disorder related to early life traumatization.

I do not suggest that you were traumatized, this was my experience though.

I managed to deal with traumatic and unbearable memories in EMDR, but I am still learning to deal with dissociation, as it became more than a coping mechanism in me, as it basically affected the way my thinking patterns are organized.

I hope you will find a way to deal with the things that bother you,

Take care,

A.