in today's video i'm going to be talking about derealization
what it is and what you can do to manage it
hi everyone you may have heard of derealization before which is uh often an experience that can be
extremely frightening and scary for people in today's video i'm going to
be talking about what derealization is what causes it and how you can manage it
but before i get into that just a couple of disclaimers to go over
i'm a registered psychologist in the province of british columbia canada and this video is for
informational purposes only it is not intended as a substitute or replacement for advice
from your doctor or mental health professional now with those things out of the way let's start
talking about derealization now derealization is when a person experiences a sense that
things around them don't seem real almost like they're in a dreamlike state it can seem like
everything's in a fog almost like there's this see-through wall that's separating me from
my surroundings and the world around me objects or people can experi it can appear distorted
like they're they're blurry or they're too big or they're too small or they're sharp or got really
sharp edges uh it can feel that things around you are two-dimensional or or just generally unreal
you could have a heightened awareness and clarity of your surroundings but
even with that heightened awareness and clarity everything feels a little bit off
it can feel like time is distorted almost like recent events things that happened not that long
ago feel like they were in the distant past now these episodes of derealization they can
last for a few minutes few hours days or even months at a time there's a tremendous range
in how long people can experience this sense of derealization now the thing is
we we don't really understand a lot about derealization but what we do know is that
it's a type of dissociation or disconnection from reality that's usually associated with
extremely stressful or traumatic events so uh some of the things that increase the risk of
derealization includes certain personality traits or conditions like borderline personality disorder
severe trauma in childhood or adulthood can be a high risk factor for someone to
experience derealization so things like serious accident or assaults or violence severe stress
can be a risk factor for derealization so um major stressors in relationships or finances or work
um also severe prolonged depression or panic attacks these can also
contribute to this experience of derealization now the thing is derealization can be a fairly common
occurrence with some studies suggesting that about 75 of the population will experience an episode
of derealization at some point in their lives so three-quarters of people will likely experience
some level of derealization and the experience of deja vu that sense of deja vu
that can be thought of as a mild version of derealization
now as as you can imagine derealization can cause a lot of problems for a person the episodes
of derealization can feel extremely frightening and people while they're experiencing these
episodes can often worry that they're losing their mind or that they're going crazy
some of the problems that derealization can cause it can cause
difficulties with focus concentration memory it can interfere with work social activities
engagement in household chores it can cause problems in relationships it can contribute to
depression anxiety it can lead to a sense of hopelessness and helplessness
so lots of problems and lots of difficulties can result from this experience of derealization
so if you're experiencing derealization what can you do about it what can you do to
stop this from happening well well the first step and the key step is to recognize that
derealization is merely a symptom that feels scary but isn't typically dangerous
it usually comes and goes on its own in response to stress or intense anxiety so it's important
to remind yourself that this is an episode of derealization i know what it is it's not dangerous
i know it will pass so just by being able to put that label just by being able to name
that this is a derealization episode can help you distance yourself from the derealization itself
and to start to bring yourself back into reality and what's actually going on now another way to
cope with derealization is what's called grounding techniques and grounding techniques are designed
to help you reconnect with your reality and reconnect with your surroundings so the reason why
grounding is so important is because derealization can become a lot more intense the more you focus
on it and so the idea of grounding is to take your focus off the derealization and bring your
attention back to what's actually going on around you so some examples of grounding or things like
looking around the room and naming and describing some of the things you can see slowing down your
breathing focusing on the feeling of the air flowing in and out as you breathe listening
to music and paying attention to certain aspects of the music like the beat of the drums or the
bass line thinking about the date and time and what you're doing today bringing yourself back
into today and what's actually going on feeling the clothes that you're wearing describing the
physical sensations of the clothes against your skin uh tapping your foot on the ground and
listening to the sound of the tapping counting down backwards uh by seven down from a hundred
focusing on a single object in the room and describing the features of it and what you know
about it if you experience derealization a lot i encourage people sometimes to carry around
mints and if they start to feel that sense of derealization coming on to pop a mint in
their mouth and to suck on it and to focus on the different aspects of what it feels like to have
the mint in their mouth so taste texture feeling of the mint as it gets smoother as you suck on it
a bit longer it again really about just reconnecting yourself with what's going on
so all of these examples of grounding are designed to take your attention off of the derealization
and to reorient yourself to uh the here and now your surroundings and your internal mental focus
so reconnecting yourself with what's going on around you and reconnecting yourself or feeling
like you're reconnecting yourself with your mind so this grounding is all about management of the
symptom and helping a person cope with it but in terms of the ultimate solution for dealing
with realism derealization well the ultimate goal is to address the underlying anxiety and
stress that's contributing to the derealization so grounding doesn't eliminate the derealization
grounding isn't the solution to solve the problem of derealization it's a tool to help
manage the ultimate goal in terms of solving it is to learn how to address the underlying anxiety and
stress that's causing the derealization so if the derealization is occurring in the context
of panic attacks and panic disorder well the idea is to learn how to better manage the panic attacks
and i've done lots of videos on understanding panic disorder and tools that a person can use
to manage panic attacks if the derealization is resulting from underlying ptsd
it's about addressing that underlying ptsd and i've done a number of videos on that topic as well
um if it's general stress uh a lot of sort of stress or uh really stressful time that a person
is experiencing it's about learning better ways of coping with that stress through lifestyle
interventions so making sure that you're getting physical exercise that you're eating healthy that
you're sleeping well and working on your sleep hygiene they have a regular routine and schedule
these are all things that a person can be doing on a an ongoing basis to better manage uh stress
and anxiety and in doing so can help reduce that ultimate that underlying stress and anxiety that
could be contributing to derealization remember the key thing to remember with derealization that
is that although it seems scary derealization isn't dangerous you're not losing your mind
and in many ways derealization is just your mind telling you that you need to slow down
ground yourself in where you are and focus on what's actually going on and what you're doing
so i hope that gives you a little bit of a better sense of derealization what it is and some tips
and tools that you can use to manage derealization if you if you experience it uh a fair bit
so i'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas about this so please leave me some comments in
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when i post a new video so that's all for today's video as always thank you for
making it all the way to the end of this video and i will see you in the next one