Depersonalization

[Pretty_Diamonds]

What is it and what does it mean? What are your experiences with this, especially pertaining to psychedelics. (and I did do a search but couldn't find anything). I noticed that people keep mentioning it & I want to understand it better.

So please share.

 

[malakaix]

I experienced it when I went through a binge-period with LSD many many years ago, I remember it been a sense of extreme detachment.

Imagine speaking but not been able to identify with what your saying or even the sound of your voice, there's a disconnect between self and reality. To me it makes sense that this would result from heavy psychedelic use as psychedelics often reveal the identity to be a construct of the mind, but as you return to baseline so does your sense of self.. but with continued use you remain in that haze of self-dissolution. I've had moments of it with increased anxiety brought on by stress completely independent of psychedelics, like for example: speaking in front of a group of people.. due to anxiety I will suddenly detach from what I'm saying and almost observe myself speaking in third person which cause's me to lose my train of thought, which then snowballs into greater anxiety.

But with psychedelic depersonalization it feels like a consistent existential detachment, but it's been so long that I can't really remember the specific details to describe it.

 

[Jabberwocky]

It happened to me in my late teens on mushrooms. Very much like malakaix described. At first it was a feeling of detachment from reality. Not knowing what things meant, not being able to follow conversations, a dissociated withdrawal from reality but not necessarily from a trauma but from a sense of inner loss of perspective. It's usually a sign to stop tripping for a nice long while from what I've gathered and just want to toss it out there as a personal piece of advice if it happens to someone.

I tripped again a year later (about 8 months) and went right back to the same place only this time it was derealization which is kinda similar except more externalized to ones surroundings. In my case it became borderline delusional/psychotic because I became convinced I was walking away from my life into a new life (a much worse one as a punishment for being a fuck up) and that things would never be the same. I literally started walking in my socks from my dorm room for a good hour before I snapped out of it. I didn't trip for about five years after that.

 

[Clocktower]

Here's the wikipedia article.

 

[morphine-dreams]

I used to get it quite badly when I abused dxm. It's like watching yourself in a movie, and it's not even really "you", it's just like a character you've been assigned if that makes sense. You don't really care about anything because nothing feels real anyway. I almost kind of felt like a ghost in a sense, watching the life of someone who was supposed to be me. It's just a feeling of being detached from your body and/or life.