Thread: An extremley wierd feeling of losing touch with reality...

Nevermind just did some research and found out what I've had all this time!

Dissociative Sensations:

Sensitivity to light and sound
Tunnel vision
Feeling as if your body has expanded so that it feels larger than normal
Feeling as if your body has shrunk to minute proportions
Stationary objects may appear to move
Driving a car and suddenly realise you don't remember what has happened during all or part of the trip
Listening to someone talk and realise you did not hear part or all of what was said
Sometimes sit staring off into space, and not being aware of the passage of time

wow about half of the things above apply to me.

I must got ADD

Originally Posted by Uniq0ne

Ok I just felt like sharing this very odd personal experience that's happened to me ever since I was very young. I'll try to explain, but what happens to me is so weird and odd it's VERY hard to explain because I can hardly put it into words.

It usually only happens when I'm looking at a TV or Computer screen, but happens most often when I'm watching a TV in a dark room.

What I see visually is like this:

What happens is after looking at the TV for an hour or longer in a dark room I get this weird change in my vision. The TV starts to look different and the picture seems to shrink a bit. And all a sudden it feels like everything in the room has actually enlarged in size. It's like I lose awareness of the scale of how large/small things are.

Another way to describe it physically is:

I sort of feel as if I'm what I'm looking at is not actually real and almost like I'm looking from someone elses eyes... almost like I'm losing touch with reality.

And if I look away or move my vision returns back to normal and everything seems like reality.


Damn its so freakin' hard to explain... but if any of you out there experience this as well probably know what I'm talking about. If not... I wonder If I'm the only one who experiences this indescribable feeling/sensation...

It's probably the most freakishly weird occurrences that happen in my life. And it only happens maybe 1-2 times a year, sometimes none.

I never experienced this.

However, my guess is that your mind was in a relaxed state, so what you experienced was a kind of meditative effect/state.

WOW! I don't where to start from...
1st- I have the same problem
2nd- I wanted to post this here in DV but I never got the chance
3rd- I thought I was crazy or had some mental problems

ok, here's how it happens with me. Just like, you I have it since I was young but, since I've been practicing LD and meditating, I started to get it more often. So, now, almost every time I look into someone's eyes I get a weird feeling that everything around me and the person I'm looking at aren't real. It all seems like dream. Reality feels "unreal". Indeed, it is hard to explain.
It sounds crazy, maybe that's why I haven't made a thread about it. However, I have no idea what this could be....

WOW...I experience this. Ive been looking and wondering for SO long what it was. Ive had it pretty much my entire life. It used to really bother me, but since ive matured and my outlook on life has completely changed, ive learned to just accept it, and get on with my life. Ive never had a panic attack in my life, which leads me to believe i have some of the dissociative symptoms, but not others..this is some of what happens to me;

If i stare at something for long enough, my vision gets really weird, like my depth perception is all messed up, and i cant quite figure out how big/small everything is and how far/close things are to me. And yes, when I move my vison everything returns back to normal, like you said.

It used to happen randomly, but now it seems im in control, and it only happens when I let it happen now.

But yes, it is very hard to explain, but I know exactly what you mean. This also happens to me;

If I just stop what im doing and sit still (honestly i dont even have to try and do much) i almost enter a sort of trance, like instantly. It can only be described as all the feelings of WILD while being fully awake. I can get them all within seconds. I dont have to close my eyes either, but it helps. Its like i can enter a deep hypnotic trance, or enter stage 2 or 3 of the sleep cycle like..instantly.

Sometimes i do experience the 'out of body' feeling too, as though im listening to what im saying, rather than me actually saying it. I remember it once happening for about 10 seconds while i was talking to a teacher. I can still continue a conversation normally while it happens, it just feels weird.

I came here to learn how to lucid dream, because it seems that all the feelings people get while trying to sleep, I can experience while awake.

This is from panicattacks.com;

"The change in consciousness during sleep, is similar to the change in consciousness people can experience when they dissociate during the day."

This is very interesting to me..and i have been experiencing this since childhood.

Thank you for finally helping me realize what it is..i have always wondered.

You guys know that if you stare at anything long enough, it is normal if you get strange experiences, right? It is actually a kind of meditation --- staring at something long enough. For some of you, I suspect you get the effects faster.

Karuna (Compassion),
DarkMind

Originally Posted by Uniq0ne

Ok I just felt like sharing this very odd personal experience that's happened to me ever since I was very young. I'll try to explain, but what happens to me is so weird and odd it's VERY hard to explain because I can hardly put it into words.

It usually only happens when I'm looking at a TV or Computer screen, but happens most often when I'm watching a TV in a dark room.

What I see visually is like this:

What happens is after looking at the TV for an hour or longer in a dark room I get this weird change in my vision. The TV starts to look different and the picture seems to shrink a bit. And all a sudden it feels like everything in the room has actually enlarged in size. It's like I lose awareness of the scale of how large/small things are.

Another way to describe it physically is:

I sort of feel as if I'm what I'm looking at is not actually real and almost like I'm looking from someone elses eyes... almost like I'm losing touch with reality.

And if I look away or move my vision returns back to normal and everything seems like reality.


Damn its so freakin' hard to explain... but if any of you out there experience this as well probably know what I'm talking about. If not... I wonder If I'm the only one who experiences this indescribable feeling/sensation...

It's probably the most freakishly weird occurrences that happen in my life. And it only happens maybe 1-2 times a year, sometimes none.

It has been happening to me more and more often lately. I was playing basketball for an hour and things started to feel weird. It felt like what you were explaining. Also, I was with my GF at the park and I was watching her play baseball and everything seemed so unreal. It was like she was in a picture.

Originally Posted by Uniq0ne

Nevermind just did some research and found out what I've had all this time!

Dissociative Sensations:

Sensitivity to light and sound
Tunnel vision
Feeling as if your body has expanded so that it feels larger than normal
Feeling as if your body has shrunk to minute proportions
Stationary objects may appear to move
Driving a car and suddenly realise you don't remember what has happened during all or part of the trip
Listening to someone talk and realise you did not hear part or all of what was said
Sometimes sit staring off into space, and not being aware of the passage of time

lmao, is it bad i have all of these?

wow...looks I wasn't the only one experiencing that. Oh well, at least now I know I'm not crazy.
I think it's some kind of trance...but it's not really meditation. It's very hard to explain.

I react in similiar situations. Everything just feels weird, and It's like I'm floating, I can really only compare to being high.

I've had that too in some sense. Like this one time I went to the art museum and then felt like I was looking at a slideshow of realities, then went outside and felt like I was looking at a museum. It's hard to explain, but I've had dozens of such experiences. I actually don't particularly like them and have worked at suppressing them, especially since they were tending towards the extremely negative and I prefer lucidity and control.

To that end, omega-3 does wonders, along with a good bit of willpower. But if it's pleasant and just surreal for you, there's no need to get rid of it I guess.

I've always considered this to be pretty normal, I guess everyone gets it every now and then... I tend to get this sort of feelings when I'm more tired than usual, so I figure it probably comes from my brain having the need to shut down for a while and get me to sleep...

I did some research on this before. Here are some links to other threads about it.
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=46169
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=44499
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=39051

Hi, this is my first time EVER joining a "message board" (?) of any kind...I am so happy I found this sight. Becuase of the weird senastions that UniqOne described I can see I am NOT alone. I had grown up with slight disconnected airy feelings if I stared at soemthing too long and almost a feeling of falling but could snap right out of it. But In 2000,after tragic events in our family, I was sitting in an audience listneing to a lecture when the lecturers face seemed to be ALL I saw...the podium and stage completly disappeared but only for a moment...It was the beginning of strange unusal sensations that this time I could NOT control. I was finally diagnosed as having a nervous breakdown or in modern terms Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I tried to explain to the docs that I had "shades" of those feelings & sensations ever since I was a kid, but they jsut looked at me with blank looks, I have been afraid to discuss this with family & friends because I know they will worry that I am having another breakdown. I know, I know more than you wanted to know but once again it's good to know that SOMEONE out there understands and I intend to do more research on these weird sensations.

It's actually very common, but it's such a difficult thing to describe, so everyone describes it differently and thinks they're talking about different things. I hated it when I was a kid, I couldn't control it and it scared me. When I was in my teens and twenties I learnt how to control it or bring it on at will, but I still didn't like it so I never let it happen, now I want to explore it I can hardly ever get to it... such is life.

I'll read all the posts in a sex but this is what I know.

I said to my dad when I was younger that sometimes when I watch TV everything suddenly looks really small! Then if I get up and walk around most of the time it goes normal again. It took me ages to tell him because, yes, I thought I was crazy. Big surprise.
Anyway he is a doctor and he told me it's just that your brain is ALWAYS enlarging things that you see and when it gets tired it just forgets to do that.
That's all it is!
My brother said he sometimes gets it where everything looks bigger, but I assume that's just a difference in perception of what you are seeing.
The weird body feeling is normal if you are tired, or got bad sleep etc. Also it could just be another part of this thing not sure, but it's nothing to worry about okay?
Calm down, because worrying itself will make you crazy. Ever seen a calm crazy person?

EDIT: Ok, after reading the rest....
prncsdi: That sounds like a trance, I can do this by will when I'm relaxed. Your eyes also do this naturally, block out all peripheral vision that is more or less the same colour/lightness etc. Sometimes it just happens more. You got to learn to control it and all will be well.

The dissociated feeling I got for a while when I was on anti-depressants. It was like a dream or being stoned. It mostly happened for a while after I woke up. I found it weird at first, not scared though even though I have anxiety so that's strange. But after a few occurrences I was like man this is cool, not bad. Because it was like I was watching a movie or I was in a dream, stoned whatever so I was not as anxious or stressed so I tried to extend the period this lasted for but it was hard to do. Also when I quit those anti-depressants (which sucked ass on so many levels) this dissociative feeling or whatever just stopped after about 2 weeks or so.

Rather annoying really.... You guys should learn to embrace this and make of it what you can, blocking it out will just make things worse. There's a reason your brain is doing it, you know....

Oh yeah...sometimes when I'm tired or just relaxed, I close my eyes..and if I let myself kindda "go", I start feeling very strange. Sometimes it feels like my consciousness drops to my toes, and I feel like my body is HUGE.

I also get many of the other symptoms described in this thread.

..And, sometimes, it even feels like objects are almost alive

Yep, all normal. Just different peoples subjective interpretation of RELAXATION! (meditation, trance etc.)

I have always done that since I was little. I would just look up at the ceiling for a long time, and see things move. A group of bumps would turn into a shape of some object and they'd just move like they were sailing. If I look at it for an extreme long time I see all kinds of colors and the walls move. I could look at any object and get into this trance. I always love the feeling in my mind when I do this.

Originally Posted by Eos

I have always done that since I was little. I would just look up at the ceiling for a long time, and see things move. A group of bumps would turn into a shape of some object and they'd just move like they were sailing. If I look at it for an extreme long time I see all kinds of colors and the walls move. I could look at any object and get into this trance. I always love the feeling in my mind when I do this.

wow, that's cool.
Never happend to me with opened eyes before i went to sleep.
Happend in the middle of the day outdoors though

I have felt this same thing aswell & yeah its weird!
But it all seems quite simple to explain, its like that like most people have said your eyes ajust to the television when you are staring at it for a long time which makes everything else look out of proportion. But then also whilst sitting there for a long amount of time your body might have started falling asleep but your mind could have been still awake, so it could sort of be like you were entering the starting fases of a WILD but you were going to fall asleep with your eyes open.
lol, yeah my theory is very open ended but still it does explain it a bit.

I have not read most of these replies, so I might accidently repeat something that was said, and I don't particularly care, so don't waste time 'correcting' me

Uniq0ne, this could be dissociation that you are experiencing. It happens to some people because of stress..even if you are not actively stressed at the time it happens, it happens when you are stressed..

Also, you mentioned that it happens when looking at a screen. Thats very common. I know the exact feeling you are talking about. It happens to me at random sometimes. I'll be standing outside and I will feel like nothing that I see is really there, and neither am I. It's an odd feeling, but it goes away. It's like a lucid dream, just realize that it's all there.

But in your case, it's likely a biproduct of light contrast and nothing more. That happens to me alot as well, and it's normal.

F*$%n repeat everything everyone's already said why don't ya....
lol jk

hi everyone! i am a new addition to your board. Its very good to know so many of you have these wierd experiences of bodilessness/shifts in consciousness/etc.
i am from India and in our traditional yoga system such experiences have been given.

Presently, i am passing through a stage where i feel very strange but systematic/cyclic feeling of bodilessness.
It seems to be a side effect of too much fasting and taking of pain killers but at the same time i am sure there is a spiritual (beyond rational grasp) reason behind this but untill i determine the exact root cause behind such feelings, i felt the urgency of some solution coz weakness was also one symptom.

So i am on homeopathic medication at the moment which is safe, w/o side effects and actually works.
Friends, if these feelings are causing any problems in your day to day life, i suggest you find a homeopathic experienced doctor, coz the alopathic doctors have no understanding, experience or appreciation of such events. They are useless in such probs i feel!

Friends, one of my conclusion is that stomach is implicitly connected to the brain if not explicitly. Please guys, take care of your diet. Don't keep your stomach empty while you have your pills or smoke or while you drink soft drinks etc. Acidity of stomach also causes giddy feelings.

Also, i have come to know from my experience that sinus (of right nostril) may cause feeling of suffocation as according to yoga, the right nostril carries heat energy to nourish our body. if this nostril remains choked, it make cause your body to react in rather odd ways.

I will keep you updated on solutions and conclusions if any.

This is for "prncsdi" and "Uniq0ne": Don't worry. There are many people going through such feelings. I will share whatever solutions i can offer.
Tip: breathe fresh air and take deep breaths approx. 5-7 times in a day.
A good supply of Oxygen will rejuvenate your mind, body and soul. The body will then automatically control any irrational feelings and/or will provide further insight in the same!
take care!