I do find that lighting has something to do with it- like fluorescent lights bring it on big-time for me! I feel like a space cadet at Wal-Mart! But I think that with anxiety disorders comes a heightened sensitivity to bodily changes, and with that, comes a sort of hypochondriasis... I believe that all people experience this, but that we blow it out of proportion. I also find it worse when I've worked out or been walking out doors... ie. when there is increased blood flow to the brain. Essentially, I think, the derealization feeling probably comes from a slight increase or decrease in blood flow to the head... and then we make a mountain out of a molehill, so to speak!

Does anybody find their derealisation comes on worse when the sun is not shining or the weather changes when it is dark and miserable? sue b

hey there. Yea i have been on paxil (parotine) for over a month now. It has helped a lot. I do get the occassion feeling but not as bad as I was before. I am not considering stopping the medication because I haven't been on it that long, and I don't care if I have to take it forever. I feel much better. Hope you are good! Thanks for sharing your story because I felt the same way.

Hi, I too have this horrible illness derealization. I´ll try to keep this short, but it first came on when I was travelling 4 years ago, I believe it was brought on by a marajana (or how ever you spell it!) drink I had in India that I had a very bad reaction to. After that night I had this fear that, that horrible feeling would come back when I hadn´t had anything. Then 3 months later it did, suddenly. Complete with the anxiety attacks and depression. Soon after I arrived in Oz and went to see a couple of different doctors, each saying I just had depression & anxiety, but I knew it was more than that. I was also spacey and kept having the feeling that this wasn´t reality, as well as having sort of headachey feeling at the front of my head. Plus most scarily I had the thoughts of just ending it all... I was travelling with a very good friend of mine, who I had been talking to about how I felt from the beginning. He knew there was more to it too, so we went to the library and after a while of searching found all my symptoms under the heading of Derealization. Eventually I got a doctor to believe me this is what I had and he organised me to see a pyschiatrist who then confirmed it. Between them they put me on some tablets, the scientific/chemical name is paroxetine, the brand name on the box differs from country to country, in the US I know they´re called Paxil, but it always has the scientific name under it. I lived in Oz for the next year getting better gradually. To begin with I didn´t want to go anywhere on my own incase of an anxiety attack, but slowley worked through that. At the end of the year I even caught a couple of planes accross Oz to see family and then the plane back to the UK on my own. Since then I have continued pretty much with a normal life, other than the usualy speradic set backs. I had still been on the tablets, but gradually weaned my way off them as I felt so much better. I still got the occassional feelings still, but trying to concentrate on whatever I was doing and they only ever last a day or so and then go away. As well as the tablets I found the best way to cope was to try my best when possible to replace any negative thoughts with positive ones (I know half the time this isn´t possible, but its w

Thanks for the note. No I didn't read it. I've been a practicing psychotherapist for over ten years and see plenty of people. After a while you get the hang of what general kind of things work. There are also lots of wonderful things and whole books of things that are really effective, but we find we can't do them easily in our lives. So the small ordinary things we can do are much more helpful than the really fabulous techniques that we can't. Everybody wants change, very few people want to change. Our biggest enemy is just doing what we've always done, eating what we always eat, seeing who we always see. Some anchors are the useful foundations of our lives, some are the rocks which weigh us down. Without busting any important blood vessels, make a small effort to change something and keep it changed; watch and enjoy the results like you you might watch a small but beautiful flower unfold.

Hi, I have had derealization for a few years. I have found a site dedicated to drealization and depersonalization. http://www.dpselfhelp.com I find great support there and there are a lot of posts.

Try delay response conditioning. meaning to say once you get the symptom try to delay the feeling at least for 5 minutes. You have to practice this techinque but eventually it will work. I am no doctor to give advice. but i myself go through this and apply the afformentioned tecnique and it works. try to take some balanced b-50 vitamins. it must contain inositol and choline. the reason why we feel this is because we need to replenish our neuro- transmitters. that is why we feel so fogged up. I am currently going through this at this moment. but please take into consideration that I am currently experiencing flu symptoms. be strong and be positive. PLEASE READ THE BOOK NAMED. PHSYCO CYBERNETICS. IT HELPS. REMEMBER GOD IS HEALING YOU AT THIS MOMENT. HAVE FAITH.!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOUR FRIEND, HENRY M. EAST LOS ANGELES,CALIFORNIA.

to Peter H. Thanks for your info. You sound very knowledgeable. Did you just read a good book that gave you this sound advice? If so, do you mind sharing the title? If not, it sounds as though you could write one. :)

try this: 1.eat and drink well 2.do something 3.have fun. 1.If your diet's out of wack, full of sugar/caffeine/junk then likely your head will be. 2. engaging in the physical world puts you in a different place to the reflective, out-of-the-flow headspace its habitual to move into - wrestling a crocodile would do nicely, your senses are likely to become engaged, but any more available and engaging activity would do: sports, gardening .. 3. your sense of reality is more engaged if you actively enjoy what you're doing - remember when you used to have fun? Were you out of it then? Get active, get challenging, get out, not habitual, not mundane, not inside.

YES! Someone please help us. It's my only problem with anxiety!