Does anyone sometimes feel like their limbs aren't theirs?

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maxiaxie
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05 Mar 2013, 1:33 am

I often find that I'm just doing some work or something and suddenly I feel like I'm not really in control of my hands or that my hands are not actually mine, just someone else's that are responding to what I want.

I got this really strongly today when I was working, and I suddenly felt like my hands weren't mine, but were someone else's that were doing what I asked for some inexplicable reason. I could feel through them, and I knew intellectually that they did what I wanted, but they felt like they were someone else's hands and that really, they just chose to follow my instructions and might turn against me at any moment.

Very weird I know, but does anyone else get this?

-- Sam



rabidmonkey4262
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05 Mar 2013, 1:47 am

In order to have a limb feel like it belongs to you, there needs to be communication between the cerebellum, premotor cortex, and parietal lobe. That means everything needs to be networked properly. Since autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects how white matter connections form, I wouldn't be surprised if other autistic individuals experience something similar.


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goldfish21
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05 Mar 2013, 1:51 am

no, not really.. but your post did remind me of disassociation, which I experienced for a few months around the time I graduated high school years ago. I didn't know what it was I went through until many years later when I learned about it from a friend who figured out that's what was going on with him at the time, researched it, and described it to me & it matched perfectly to what I'd already lived.

Anyways, I wonder if what you're experiencing is at all related to this. I didn't re-read the wiki entry, just copied & pasted the link. Click and read, you might figure something out - or at least eliminate dissociation as a possibility.



Yuzu
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05 Mar 2013, 2:48 am

Could it be Alien Hand Syndrome ?



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05 Mar 2013, 3:23 am

Sometimes my whole body isn't mine if I stop stimming. Flicking my fingers and wiggling my toes keeps me all together.



whirlingmind
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05 Mar 2013, 6:18 am

Although it's probably not the same thing, I have sometimes had a weird feeling like my arms don't belong to me in a way, that they feel awkward like I don't know where to put them or what to do with them, often whilst walking. It's like they are an unnecessary appendage that are getting in the way or something. It might be connected with it not being natural for me to swing my arms when I walk.


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Mummy_of_Peanut
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05 Mar 2013, 6:30 am

Sensations like this can be caused by all sorts of problems, e.g. migraines and Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. I don't thing what you're speaking of is directly associated with autism.


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Ann2011
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05 Mar 2013, 8:45 am

I have this problem with my whole body. I feel like I am inhabiting a foreign organism; like in Avatar when they go into the alien bodies. I have to consciously think of my actions before I make them.



Swordfish210
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05 Mar 2013, 2:31 pm

Sometimes when I have been concentrating on something I feel like I am disconnected from my libs or even my entire body.

Coincidentally, today I was sitting in a chair, thinking, and all of a sudden I realized I had no idea where my legs were positioned.
I had my eyes closed at the time and I could not picture or feel where my legs where; e.g. folded under the chair, stretched out, tilted etc. I just felt them, but I could not tell their position untill I moved them.


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Sweetleaf
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05 Mar 2013, 2:36 pm

Not exactly, sometimes i feel detached from my physical self which is pretty weird. Then other then that sometimes I can't seem to move them which I don't see as a good thing but usually it only happens sometimes when I get really anxious.


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Pip
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05 Mar 2013, 4:56 pm

I experience this and feeling as though my surroundings are unreal as well. I have yet to figure out whether it is derealization or depersonalization. Although feeling that limbs don't belong to you seems like a depersonalization symptom.



rebbieh
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06 Mar 2013, 12:38 am

Ha, I thought I was the only one who felt like that. It doesn't happen that often to me but sometimes I just suddenly feel like my arms aren't mine (when sitting by the computer) and sometimes when walking I feel like my legs aren't mine.



Ca2MgFe5Si8O22OH2
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06 Mar 2013, 2:34 am

I get depersonalization all the time. depending on my stress level this can turn into a full blown seizure sometimes where I actually have to fight my way back into attentiveness to whatever I was trying to do at the time. I get other psychosomatic symptoms like shooting pain, tremors, twitches, etc, and very very rarely full-blown paralysis.



velocity
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06 Mar 2013, 9:21 am

Pip wrote:
I experience this and feeling as though my surroundings are unreal as well. I have yet to figure out whether it is derealization or depersonalization.


Epilepsy can cause a whole world of symptoms, this being one of them.


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Pip
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06 Mar 2013, 11:17 am

velocity wrote:
Pip wrote:
I experience this and feeling as though my surroundings are unreal as well. I have yet to figure out whether it is derealization or depersonalization.


Epilepsy can cause a whole world of symptoms, this being one of them.


Thankfully I do not have epilepsy. Seizures have never been included in my symptoms. My therapist has asked me to research it and determine whether it is depersonalization or derealization. Although my mind does seem to go "off-line" at times and I feel as though I am disconnected from my actions, I'm inclined to think I am experiencing the latter.



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06 Mar 2013, 12:06 pm

Yes, I often pinch myself in public in order to "bring them back." Someone asked me about this just the other day, and I had no good response.



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