feelings of being in a dream? or reality losing realness?

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I don't know if this is necessarily the right place to put this but I need to ask somewhere

basically, over the past week or so I've had this really weird feeling that I can't quite pin down. Just now I sort of realised what it was, it's the feeling not being real... like a sort of detachment from reality. It's quite hard to explain tbh, because it's not like I don't /know/ that everything around is me real, but it just... doesn't feel like it? I'm in control of what I'm doing but in a weird, distanced sort of way, and my body doesn't feel like it's mine and my reflection doesn't look real (like how if you stare at your reflection in the mirror for ages it starts to look weird and unreal, only I havven't done the staring part).

I thought this might be due to an aspect of myself that comes from my asd, throughout my life I've (as I'm sure many of you have) often drawn from characters to fill up who I am, be it TV characters or celebrity personas. So I thought it might be like that, perhaps I'm getting lost in a character? although... if I'm being honest I can't really pin it down as to who.

maybe it's something else? maybe I'm depressed and I just don't know it? or maybe I'm just being overdramatic and ridiculous.. I can't tell.

anyway.. I guess I'm not really asking a specific question.. just whatever you think..

It sounds like dissociation.

There are a couple of specific kinds - derealization and depersonalization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derealization

Do you have anxiety? That could give you that feeling.
Identity crisis?
How about seeing a psychologist?

thank you I'll check this out

I don't think I have anxiety no.
er.. perhaps? but aren't identity issues kind of related to ASD anyway?
can't afford it.

Maybe relabel the question whether you have anxiety as do you have a lot of stress right now?

Happened to me once. It's called depersonalization or derealization. People who said it happened to them said that it was caused by a monotonous, non-eventful, seemingly non-progressing life, in any sort of way. Basically your brain decides that what it's working for is NOT worth the effort, and it disconnects, or emotionally shuts down. You can fix it by just getting out there and making things happen. It's designed to let you make what would normally seem liike reckless, or extreme decisions, bringing excitement, interest, or dynamic objects or ideas back into your life. Or it just lets you make decisions that you normally wouldn't make, with the same effect. When you feel like your in a dream, you don't care what you do. You could be doing the most boring or worst thing in the world, and feel the same, and you notice that, so you can do things that would bring you up also. Just do something new, or try new things. Find something worth working for. Find something you REALLY like, it should pass in a month or two.
That doesn't mean sky-diving, just do something new, and find new things to do. Do more hobby time, whatever will work.

Last edited by Dannyboy271 on 31 Jan 2014, 8:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Identity problems is more connected to youth, than to AS especially.
Different degrees of dissociation very often occur in people with AS.
If the dissociation doesn´t go away after a short time, it may be best to have a talk with a professional.

Last edited by Jensen on 01 Feb 2014, 4:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Interesting. I had a similar experience once, but in my case, it was the aftermath of a severe emotional shock that twisted at the very fabric of who I had always seen myself to be. It lasted for several months, but for the first few weeks, life was like a nonstop autistic overload. I wandered through life like a zombie, it felt like I was just staggering from place to place, with no clear idea what I was doing, or why - total 'auto-pilot.'

I remember putting gas in my car at one point and realizing that I could no longer read the numbers on the pump - I saw them, but I could not correlate them with the money in my wallet, their meaning would not process. When I went in to pay, the clerk told me what I owed and it sounded like gibberish. I just handed him a bill and hoped it was enough. I suppose it must have been, because he gave me change, but I couldn't count it. I might as well have been watching all this occur in an unfamiliar language on a movie screen, it didn't even seem to be happening to me (except for the sense of panic that I was responsible for what I was doing and yet had no conscious control over any of it).

I've been experiencing it for the past few months until I've switched from diet cola to Sprite 0. It was the caffeine and the caramel colouring and flavouring that was causing it. I don't have that feeling anymore.

Thanks this was actually very helpful

wow that's pretty much exactly how I feel, only I didn't have any emotional shock or trauma

Yeah, disassociation or unreality. I get it from time to time. Sometimes it's kinda fun in a weird way. Other times it triggers a panic attack. It's a freaking weird experience though no matter what. If I panic attack, it clears up. Otherwise, usually if I sort of fold up and put my arms over my face and head, close my eyes tight and rock back and forth for a few minutes, it subsides. For me its pretty much a sensory overload or sensory short circuit, that causes it. I kinda wonder if its what it might be like if I was more severely autistic, cause its like i sort of don't know who i am or where i am when its happening.

I often get the feel of being detatched by reality and that everything that's happening around me is not real. Everything around me slows down and I find it difficult to do simple things like open my mouth, move a hand, or just look away from the point I'm staring at.

It's a lot of work every day to think and talk and figure out what people are doing around me. And I usually do it well enough to look reasonable.

Sometimes, though, between what they're doing and what I'm feeling and the effort I need to put in to bring things together, or just the difficulty of the situation, it's all too much. I shut down, but usually before, during, or after, I don't quite feel real, nor does the world, to me, quite feel real. I hate that unreality but know I need it when things get too intense. And even though I am experiencing myself in the world as unreal and I will not feel some things at all, formerly tolerable things intensify. The tags in my clothes are like twigs digging into me, the lights are too bright, I turn the music I want up loud but any noise I don't choose is screamingly loud, I jump at any unexpected approach or sound, it all seems to ramp up in intensity to an unbearable level and all the while, the more I try to use words the worse I feel and specifically the more unreal, and worse, I feel.

The only thing I've found that helps when it's really intense is not to speak for awhile and to stop hearing the WORDS around me. When the feeling unreal happens, I think look pretty ok to others if it isn't too bad, though doing so can feel like it is hurting my brain physically. And meanwhile, those sensory experiences are too loud, too bright, too sharp, but I may not feel at all that I'm leaning on the corner of a book which is digging into me, or am frozen in a position that is going to make me ache when I try to come out of it.

Feeling unreal is both good (when I can't take any more) and bad for me, can be a relief, but is never pleasant and their is a huge component of sensory overload that accompanies it, when I am able to be aware and not totally tuning out. At it's peak, words become irrelevant. It's not a pleasant experience at all for me, ever.

This thread is pretty interesting Kapo, thank you for posting the topic. Seems like this happens to a lot of us, but different for different people, some people from boredom, some of us when life is anything but.

Yes, I have been going through derealization for several months now. It is quite annoying, and greatly impairs my personal productivity.

It's like a prolonged shutdown to me, like I'm under so much stress that my brain just half switches off. Senses are dulled and basic information processing isn't working as good as it usually does, which is saying something because I usually have a bit of a processing delay. Everything feels blurry and even though I perform actions I hardly remember it and there's no emotion connected to anything.

For me there's several causes: sensory over-stimulation and being unable to leave the environment that caused it, emotional stress shutdown, a seizure is coming or just happened, a depressive episode or a reaction to food. I just realized any consumption of lemon juice makes me feel the same way.

I always thought derealization came with hallucinations. A type of blurring of the environment, holographic almost. In my case it was probably triggered by social anxiety, but a fearing my safety kind. I once had anxiety so severe I saw a flash of images in my mind and felt blood on my face, like a wound. I've tasted it too.

Sounds like a shut down, you may be just too overstimulated and overworked, my shutdowns usually last for an hour or so but i remember once it lasted for 4 nights straight, it was very irritating.

try and take it easy and not do anything for a while. it should go away