I know what you are talking about. Its like your body and your mind are detached from each other. Like your not whole. Very scary feeling. When I first started to see a therapist I thought the feeling ment that I was going crazy. But he told me that was called depersonalization and that it is common with people that suffer from anxiety.
lonewolf has touched on some instinctive wisdom of the human species, I believe. I have previously opined, and to this day believe, that back when "lions and tigers and bears" (and angry tribes down the path) really WERE what you encountered on that daily commute, highly alert people were the ones who assured survival of our species. When they were RIGHT about some danger, the village survived. And when they were wrong, no harm was done. It was a gift. Panic people back then probably were known as prophets and medicine men (and women).
Today of course, the lions and tigers and bears have been replaced with a raging technology, very confusing social milieu and values that change overnight. To say nothing of taxes. So -we still have that "old black magic" high state of alert that is now responding to material which exists as much in our mind as anywhere else.
Be that as it may -it ultimately still works because sooner or later, you get the attention you need.
First, I'm not a shrink or a therapist - you should probably listen to them first.
What you are describing, in my opinion, is a split between mind and body OR mind/
body, emotions and spirit. For awhile your body really isn't yours; it belongs to your mind, emotions or spirit. Because I am Native American, I believe these things. Our medicine woman or elders would say you were "gifted" or "blessed". But we are not in a Native society. The "dreaming but not dreaming" seems clear to me that you are seeing or sensing something no one else is aware of. You don't know who you are because a benevolent spirit has taken over your body.
No doubt this response will be written off as the ravings of an Indian woman but I believe it, I have seen it and I have experienced it. Not everything can be answered by western medicine or psychology. I think you have a gift and it is going to be difficult to get rid of it or ignore it; ideally, you should use it.
lonewolf
I want in on this contest, too!
I work at a hospital and no doubt, like many of you and YOUR jobs, we have to be on top of things........sharp and focused every second we're there. This past Saturday at work, I was in that bad place big time. It felt like my head wasn't even connected to my body! People were talking to me but they sounded like they were in a well. I was definately marching to a different drummer! I told my charge nurse I thought I needed to go down to the ER cuz my BP was going whacky, my heart rate was off the charts and I didn't know if I was gonna die, explode or simply disappear! She, being a wise old cardiac RN, made me lie down with some oxygen and RELAX. In about 30 minutes I felt OK, aside from a bit of a headache and really tired. And I DO realize that all of you don't have the luxury of being in a hospital while this is happening to you, but I think what happens to us is just another really nasty manifestiation of anxiety. If there is any way at all that you can get to a quiet, alone place when and if this ever happens to you again, it will help. I think it's a form of sensory overload and sometimes you just gotta get the hell out.
Did I win?
Peace and light and laughter to you all
Greenlydia
totally know the feeling. kindlike an out of body experience. i'll sit in meetings and feel like i'm not in the room with others.
i totally understand what you mean, in fact i have that feeling right now. it's continued for quite sometime now, from the 22nd march.
i was in work talking to a customer and i noticed that my voice sounded really odd and i felt like it wasn't me.
do you find that your voice sounds strange?
I know exactly how you feel you helped me put it into words though I feel like that a lot I hate it I'm going to see someone about it anyway just wanted to let you know your not the only one and I've learned I'm not either
I get this a lot & also lots when driving its scary I feel like im gonna faint. & in a zone like i cant focus...its totally creepy. I feel like im gonna loose control & black out or totally fall asleep its freaky...is this anxiety?
Oh me too, I have that very often actually. And it usually comes when I'm driving too, scary I know.
Have you ever been really tired and just kinda zoned....and stared at an object and then kinda became stuck staring at that object?? That feeling , is my best way of describing it.
Or have you ever seen those funny mind books where if you hold it close to your face and then stare at it you can see pictures.....thats kinda like the feeling too.
Trippy I know, and its so hard to explain it to someone who's never felt it.
~Crystal
I think Jess has done about as good a job as anyone could ever do in explaining a feeling -that can't be explained. Makes me want to start a "Name that Feeling" contest. You "do," but you "don't," you "do," but you "don't," you "do," but you "don't."
Exactly.
And, Jess, as you probably can tell, lots of people know exactly what you are talking about. I always thought of it as a sort of "detachment," as though I were observing myself, as though there were 2 of me, one about 1/4" offset from the other. I like your explanation better.
And YES, I've had that.
Yeah like I'm day dreaming, but I'm not...lol...Weird..
I understand what you are talking about I get the same feeling you are trying to describe I thought I was the only one I hate the feeling
I have the same feelings. Then sometimes my eyesight gets blurry. I feel like I'm in a fog and can't get out of it.
you kinda feel like you're on autopilot? i've felt like that lately, like i'm just milling through and not really doing much. i'm trying to snap out of it. i walk down the street and i see people milling around and doing stuff, yet i don't notice them. they seem like ghosts, and far away from me.