Feelings Of Unreality In Anxiety Disorders – Waking Up From The Dream
Posted on November 21, 2008
Do you ever feel totally out of it? Spaced out? “In a dream”? Like you are floating? Is this symptom, known as unreality, depersonalization, or derealization, one of your scariest anxiety symptoms?
Breaking through the fear of feeling unreal can be a huge turning point in overcoming anxiety and panic disorders. Read on to discover a simple technique used to overcome the feeling of unreality.
Desensitizing Yourself to Unreality
Accepting feelings of anxiety is often what anxiety sufferers resist the most. By welcoming anxious feelings and symptoms rather than being afraid of them, your anxiety will pass more quickly. For people with anxiety, that can be a very challenging task!
One way that is helpful in reducing fear of anxiety symptoms is called desensitization. Desensitizing yourself to unpleasant symptoms such as unreality can radically change how you react to anxiety, helping you feel better faster. The following exercise is a great way to desensitize yourself to that freaky feeling of living in a dream. By inducing feelings of unreality and forcing yourself to feel them, you will realize that unreality is just a symptom of anxiety and that it does not need to scare you (and in turn make you feel worse!).
The Exercise
Turn your hand palmside up . Hold it about a foot from your face. Pick one point. Now here’s the fun part. Stare at it for at least a minute. Try not to blink too much, but when you do, return your focus to the exact spot that you picked. If you start thinking any thoughts, just catch yourself, don’t get upset, and return your full attention back to that same spot on your hand. What happens?
Did things in your vision field start to look weird? Did they look fuzzy or wavy or like they were moving? Did your hand start to look blurry? Did you start to feel like you were in a weird dream-like state similar to when you feel “unreal”?
If you did, that is the point. Staring at one spot for any amount of time will often induce feelings of unreality. It’s sort of similar to when you stare at your computer screen for hours on end. You get up and feel totally spaced out.
You may not have been able to stare at your hand for over a minute, but that’s ok. You may have quit because the changes in your vision scared you, or it reminded you too much of the scary anxiety symptom you dread. Just try again. Persevere through the weird feelings.
You will probably become very scared of what you are experiencing, but if you persist, inevitably, the odd feeling will start to seem like no big deal, or maybe even funny! At this point you will start to realize that feeling unreal is just a benign symptom of anxiety. It will not harm you, and it is tolerable. The less that it scares you, the sooner your anxiety will pass.
Repeating the hand exercise is critical in becoming desensitized to the scariness of feeling unreal. Try it a few times in a row, then repeat the series each day for a week. Doing it over and over is what will make it seem like no big deal. You can also try staring at your reflection in a mirror in the same fashion, rather than staring at your hand if that does not work for you. It has the same effect of inducing unreality. Each time you do the exercise, it will become easier, less scary, and more silly. That’s what you want!
The Outcome
Now when you experience unreality it will be much less scary. Instead of thinking “Oh no, here is that feeling again! Do I have a horrible illness? I am going to die? What is wrong with me?”, you will now say “Oh yes, this. This is just anxiety. It’s the same thing that happens to me when I stare at my hand. It won’t hurt me. It is here now, but that’s ok, I can handle it.” Just thinking the latter rather than the former will help relieve the unreal feeling more quickly and will prevent your anxiety from spiraling further out of control.
Remember, you will overcome anxiety and panic disorder!
For more information on anxiety and panic disorders, visit Summer’s site, LoveYourAnxiety.com, a site devoted to helping those suffering from anxiety and panic.
