(Stillness in the Storm Editor) Personality is mysterious but we know one thing for sure—it helps us make sense of our reality. Reality, for us, is a kind of biological virtual reality environment, wherein everything is given a specific meaning related to our personal experience. Dissociation, often experienced during trauma, interrupts the normal process of meaning generation, which in extreme cases, can feel remarkably unsettling, as if you’re not yourself anymore.
The following article discusses Depersonalization Disorders. Below, I’ll offer some musings as to what might be causing them and how to address the situation.
While psychology still has much to learn about the ultimate nature of consciousness, one thing is certain: as conscious beings, we define ourselves in relation to our values and desires. The more potently you can express all your values within your desires, the stronger and more stable your personality apparently functions.
Unfortunately, we’re living in a world were a lot of people were raised in less than ideal situations. Insofar as personality integrity (the ability to stay sane and rational despite unexpected events), the early years of life are the most important. Your parents, especially your mother, act as a stabilizing force for the extremely intense experience of making contact with a new and strange world as an infant. Literally, your ability to ground and make sense of life is outsourced to your parents, until the ego-boundary forms at around one years of age, at which point you internalize the habits of your parents. If this critical time of development is interrupted, by abuse, neglect, or trauma—no matter how seemingly mild or innocuous—life long personality issues can form, such as borderline personality disorder.
Experiences, in general, are fraught with things we don’t understand. The personal work comes from taking the time to make sense of your experiences, ideally in a way that empowers you with wisdom and accurate knowledge. The less you seek to make empowering sense of life, the more unstable your personality becomes, eventually you can suffer a breakdown.
Think of it like this.
What if you lived in a house and never cleaned or tidied up anything? How quickly would the clutter make living in that house almost completely unbearable? Would it be easy for you to find the things you need? Would it be easy for you to perform basic tasks, like cooking, cleaning, and entertaining guests, if you had to climb over piles of junk and trash? It would be very difficult for you to feel good about your living space, as many with this problem can attest to.
Now imagine, your consciousness is a kind of house. It needs cleaning—you need to process your experiences, make sense of them, and derive morals or lessons from experience to improve your life in general. If you don’t do this, the trash piles up and eventually, as a defensive reaction, you dissociate. Part of you “runs away” causing dissociation that in some instances results in a depersonalization episode. This can sometimes be confused with the so-called walk-in experience discussed by some in the Ufology community.
Sadly, we’re not taught how to maintain our inner temple of being.
Religious institutions, as dysfunctional as they are, historically offered ways of how to live a good and fulfilling life. They at least paid lip service to the idea that you need to do inner work.
However, within the age of scientific materialism, where your inner experience is marginalized as nothing more than a synaptic illusion, essential life wisdom has all but been purged. In the aftermath, in conjunction with less than ideal parental environments, hosts of people suffer from the inability to manage their inner world.
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Social support systems can be very helpful in offering solutions.
We are social creatures, and one of the best ways to process experiences is with a trusted friend, a confidant. Again, here, the modern-age works against human nature.
Social media and the internet have given us access to people all over the world, allowing us to make thousands of connections. But what is the quality of these connections? Some can manage social media and still form strong bonds with trusted friends. But a growing number of people can’t build strong relationships, which can be masked by social media connections. In essence, the tension felt by not having a deep and meaningful friendship can be obscured by a plethora of social media connections, which often lack depth. Furthermore, much of communication is non-verbal. Face-to-face interactions, in the flesh, are far more rewarding than chatting, texting, telephone and even video chats.
If you know someone suffering from this disorder, being a good friend that cares to listen and help can make a world of difference. Sometimes this means having to let repressed frustration come out, like letting someone scream into a pillow. The “therapy” occurs in the discharge of unprocessed experiences through speaking with someone they can trust. Doing so requires a great deal of tolerance so that you can love and support the other person in their time of need.
In more extreme cases, professional help may be required. Additionally, shamanic practices that incorporate spiritual philosophy can also be incredibly healing.
The watch world of the universe is progress. Consciousness, like a good business, needs to be maintained and improved so it can thrive. Spirituality, that is genuinely empowering and uplifting, often gives one the tools to heal and stay healed throughout life.
Studies have shown spiritual philosophies help people deal with intense life situations, making them more resilient.
It is helpful to understand these things, even if you don’t suffer from any issues, because it imparts understanding about the nature of being itself.
– Justin
(Exploring your Mind) If you’ve ever felt like you were going crazy or that you were in a dream or in a bubble, you may have suffered an episode of depersonalization. The main characteristic of depersonalization disorder are persistent or recurring depersonalization episodes.
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by Staff Writer, March 25th, 2019
During these episodes, you might experience a sense of unreality or unfamiliarity. In addition, you might feel detached from yourself. The sufferers feel like they’re external observers.
Depersonalization episodes
Depersonalization episodes bring a sense of unreality or detachment. You may also feel as if you’re not familiar with the world, inanimate objects, or your surroundings. You might feel as if you’re in a fog, a dream, or a bubble. Also, you may feel as if there was a veil or a glass wall between yourself and the world around you. You might see your environment as artificial, colorless, or lifeless.
Depersonalization is usually accompanied by subjective visual distortions such as blurred vision, increased visual acuity, enlarged or reduced visual field, two-dimensionality or flatness, exaggeration of three-dimensionality, or changes in the distance or size of objects (e.g., macropsia or micropsia).
Depersonalization disorder can affect your social life or work life.
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Am I going crazy?
People with depersonalization disorder may have difficulty describing their symptoms. They may think they are “crazy” or “going crazy” or fear irreversible brain damage.
A common associated symptom is a subjective change of one’s sense of time (e.g. time is passing too slow or too fast). Another common symptom is difficulty vividly remembering things from the past.
Headaches, tingling, or dizziness are also not uncommon. People may also suffer from obsessive worrying and rumination.
In this case, people become obsessed about whether they really exist or control their perceptions. This is often associated with different degrees of anxiety and depression. People with this disorder also tend to have a physiological hypo-responsiveness to emotional stimuli.
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How does this disorder develop?
The average age of onset for depersonalization disorder is sixteen. However, the disorder can manifest in early or mid-childhood.
Less than twenty percent of cases develop after the age of twenty and only five percent after the age of twenty-five. Development at age forty or later is very infrequent. On the other hand, the onset of the disorder can be gradual or extremely sudden. The episodes can last hours or days to weeks, months, or years.
While for some people the intensity of the symptoms can increase and decrease considerably, others experience a consistent level of intensity. In extreme cases, the symptoms can last for years or decades.
The internal and external factors that affect the intensity of symptoms vary widely, although there are some typical patterns. Symptoms can be worsened by stress, mood, anxiety symptoms, new stimulating or overstimulating circumstances, and by physical factors such as lack of sleep.
Depersonalization disorder can be extremely unpleasant. Those who suffer from it usually feel as if they’re going crazy or living in a dream, which can make them seek medical help. Fortunately, it isn’t dangerous.
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Stillness in the Storm Editor: Why did we post this?
Psychology is the study of the nature of mind. Philosophy is the use of that mind in life. Both are critically important to gain an understanding of as they are aspects of the self. All you do and experience will pass through these gateways of being. The preceding information provides an overview of this self-knowledge, offering points to consider that people often don’t take the time to contemplate. With the choice to gain self-awareness, one can begin to see how their being works. With the wisdom of self-awareness, one has the tools to master their being and life in general, bringing order to chaos through navigating the challenges with the capacity for right action.
– Justin
Not sure how to make sense of this? Want to learn how to discern like a pro? Read this essential guide to discernment, analysis of claims, and understanding the truth in a world of deception: 4 Key Steps of Discernment – Advanced Truth-Seeking Tools.
Stillness in the Storm Editor’s note: Did you find a spelling error or grammar mistake? Send an email to [email protected], with the error and suggested correction, along with the headline and url. Do you think this article needs an update? Or do you just have some feedback? Send us an email at [email protected]. Thank you for reading.
Source:
https://exploringyourmind.com/depersonalization-disorder-feeling-living-in-dream/
Pinch me!! I can’t believe Justin posted this! I have been dealing with DPDR everyday since 2014.. keeping my brain happy and engaged is the cure. I TRUELY hope to find remedy and resolve with the disclosure and availability of advanced technology.