aspies and dissociation

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Does anyone else get something of constant dissociation? Like anytime im angry, stressed, or depressed, the world around me looks fake, something like plastic or like a stage with actors almost or sort of like cardboard standups. Ive noticed lately that if i focus and try to dissociate at will, im sorta able to do it a bit. But i read something saying that since aspies already feel disconnected with the world that its easier and more common for us to do so, How often does it happen for you guys?

Sounds like you're getting derealization. I don't know if it's associated with AS too much, but it is associated with many many things so it's possible. It's most strongly associated with things like schizophrenia and bipolarism. I've never had it under normal conditions but I have had it from lack of sleep or being intoxicated.

Has happened to me a few times. I felt more like everything was a dream and I couldn't do anything to make it feel like it wasn't; showers, going outside, going to the store, I still felt like I was in a dream. It felt somewhat like I was just kind of watching myself do stuff... Very disturbing. I didn't know what caused it, either, which made it more disturbing. I have had it a couple of times and known why... but yeah, when I don't know it is very unsettling.

As far as being disconnected, I don't think it is used in that sense; it is more of a social thing.

Dissociation is a very general term that includes many states and disorders and derealization is one of them. Derealization happens to most people at one time or another and can be induced by intoxication or sleep deprivation, but it also occurs as a result of emotional stress, such as intense anger, grief, and panic. I experienced it frequently when I was younger (childhood thorugh maybe my mid thirties), but I'm now in my forties and it's pretty rare, primarily because I have better emotional regulation then I used to.

I tend to agree with the theory that Aspergians experience derealization more often than NTs, primarily because most of us experience it to a slight degree on a daily basis and that due to our sense of isolation we are less distressed about it when we feel it. I know that when I was about eight or nine right up through my late teens, it was a something I experienced VERY often. It mostly presented as a feeling that those around me (family and friends) weren't really the people I knew, like they were replaced by dopplegangers and other times, it felt as if the rest of the world were moving fater or slower than I was.

I experienced something demi-similar when I were a kid. Sometimes if I stared too long on someones head on tv, it would actually become larger than it would normally be.

thats a better way to put it, maybe ill just grow out of it, for me it really only happens during really emotional or stressful times and as soon as im calm and ok, everything is once again normal and not fake.
and yeah, i mean disconnected like socially, the way many of us tend to isolate and be a bit disconnected from others.
Iften i feel as the people areound me arent dopplegangers, but more like if there 2 people in one. But for the most part ive rationalized that thats not true and thats my familys quick mood swings is A) were all under alot of stress in this house and B) theres 3 women and 1 guy, me. Sooooo emotions can get high and when they do i sorta end up in cardboard land.
Normally i have to smoke lots n lots of strong weed (medicinal for migraines, depression, anxiety, back and shoulder problems) But the derealization thing was going since i was like 8 or 9 n i didnt start smoking regularly till i was about 17.

I mean i know we all as a species, Aspie or NT, experience dissociation from time to time like "Highway Hypnosis", and that feeling of getting lost in the moment, prehaps of a song or a movie or just something exciting. Sometimes we do it for psychological protection. I know that severly clinicly depressed people are much more prone to it as are people of high anxiety levels, which i have both. Maybe its just all those things coming together that makes me so prone to it.

Ive learned to live with it though, when im sent there, i know the world isnt like that, i know people havent been replaced in some way, it took time to be able to live with it, hell, sometimes i use it to relax myself and laugh at things as if i was seeing how truly fake and shallow they truly were. Its an interesting thing, with practice ive been able to start doing it a little bit at will.

it brings to me the whole out of body experiences thing and astral travel and, well lol just look at my name!
Maybe its just me or something with the whole feeling close to the spirtual side of things and all, idk really

Lol i get that quite a bit as well, i believe its called the dolly zoom effect. where thing start too look like they zoom in and then out and then in and then out, and just like you, i have to focus on the object for a bit for it to happen,

haha well with me wanting to be a psychologist and shaman, im extremely interested in the human mind, both Aspie and NT's
i really am learning alot here on this website about myself and how to handle my experiences on life since i only recently found out im an aspie

Hehe, both yes and no, there is a camera trick that is called the dolly zoom effect, it's when the background appears to change size relative to the subject. But what I am talking about is when the actual heads of real humans on tv appears to change size relative to their bodies.

I don't think that's derealization, its just an effect of staring at something too long, which tends to cause distortions.

This was my suspicion, thats why I used the word(or made it up) "demi-similar". Thanks for clarifying

lol the dolly zoom is just the best way to describe that when it happens to a person O.o i guess Macroscopia and Microscopia would be better way to put it but that doesnt happen as often as things zooming in for me haha

Well when I was younger sometimes I would become totally unaware of my surroundings...for instance at school I might keep doing an activity even though everyone else had already stopped. But I didn't really get a feeling of things being fake until I got PTSD...but yeah sometimes when my ptsd gets triggered nothing seems real and things look kind of like they would If I were tripping, except there is nothing pleasant about it. I did however let that disorder get out of hand by trying to ignore it and just move on, then again I was not sure what else to do. But basically it did not have to get as bad as it is now, and if I had known better maybe it wouldn't have.

I used to have this happen when I was about 9 or 10. All of a sudden the world would shift to something I'd never seen before. This happened when I was walking somewhere and I became totally lost - nothing was recognizable as familiar. I was under a great deal of stress at the time, so this may have triggered it.
I still get the effect of things looking "comic booky" when I'm in public places. Everything looks like a strange play, that I'm somehow apart from.

Intresting Sweetleaf because me and my therapist have been talking about the possibility of me having PTSD because of arguing with family almost every day for like 8 or 9 years straight and them calling the police quite a few times and quite a few other things.

and yeah i get that weird strange play feeling too, sometimes it feels like a tv show set or something instead

It happens a lot, especially if I'm nervous, having an anxiety attack or severely depressed. I'll start shaking and I'll be a really jumpy, jittery person and the whole world will seem blurred to me with me focusing on me and falling deep into my thoughts. People will seem almost fake and I'll feel disconnected from reality. I'm just throwing it out there to let you know that you're not alone but you can get help by talking to a counsellor and possibly taking meds or adjusting meds that you currently take.

For me it happens a lot but I have never given it much of my attention because for me it seems to be made better or worce by how much rem sleep I can get in a week. Ive gone for 7 days + with out rem sleep 3-4 days reality gets distorted 5-7 days reality is 75% gone.