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Avatar universal

Feeling like I am in a dream.. like i am asleep..

Hi.  I was wondering if anyone else feels like this..  I never posted a topic explaining my feeling.  It is hard to explain.

Ever since my first panic attack at age 13 I feel as if I have fallen into a coma.  I feel like I am asleep.  My head feels lightheaded, like there is a soft fog right beneath my eyes that cause me to be unable to see, feel, hear... etc.  

When I dream at night I wake up not knowing if it was a dream or if it was real, because i feel almost the exact same.  I feel like I am floating around in a dream.  There has not been one moment where I have "awoken" or "the fog has lifted."  It has been like this everymoment of every day for 5 years.

I have depression, anxiety, and panic.  I have been on meds which made me feel better, but I am still "asleep".  Nothing has woken me up.  

I feel like I'm just gonna wake up from a coma one day.  

Does anyone else feel like this.. or have felt like this?  Is there hope?  The docs told me the meds should help this feeling in a year or 2, but its been 5 and i am losing hope of ever waking up
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370181 tn?1595629445
While I can relate to feelings of being in a "fog" at times, and I certainly know about the lightheadedness............for me, these feelings are transitory. I feel very badly that this seems to be your "normal" state of mind.

The first thing I'm going to advise you to do is S*H*I*T CAN that MORON who is obviously impersonating a medical doctor! You need to run away from this idiot as soon as possible!

That you have been feeling like this for FIVE YEARS is totally unacceptable if he/she was aware of this. To tell you that the meds they have you on "should" help these feelings go away in A YEAR OR TWO!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT? That is just so bloody lame, I'm actually quite speechless!

You have depression, anxiety and panic..........issues that the vast majority of us are all too familiar with. And all of these conditions can be cured or controlled and it DOES NOT take five years for relief of the symptoms you speak of.

PLEASE find a new doctor, one who will spend time with you and listen to what you've been going through. I hope he will give your current medications some real thought because, in my humble, non-medical opinion, they are not working for you. (You did not say how long you have been taking them, what they are, but you did state they made you feel better) But, you still have some very nasty physical symptoms that need to be addressed as soon as possible. With your NEW doctor, get a thorough physical and ask for a referral to a good therapist...........actually I would recommend you see a psychiatrist, one who is WELL VERSED in the use of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds.They have FAR more training with these kinds of meds than a PCP and I am  100% positive they would NEVER wait around for TWO YEARS for a med to start working to relieve your symptoms! He/she will be able to monitor not only your mental health, but your physical health as well. If they see a need to add/subract or alter any of your meds, they have the power to do that..........(a therapist can only recommend that you speak to your doc about doing something different) and they will be with you each step of the way.
I can't imagine living the nightmare you are, so again, I urge you, VERY STRONGLY, to seek out more and better help as soon as you can.
PLEASE write us as much as you need and let us know how you're doing, OK?
And DO NOT LOSE HOPE! There IS help out there for your. I promise!
Peace
Greenlydia
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thank you for your help.  I have been told this by a couple different doctors.  My phyciatrist is very good.  The meds are helping my ocd, my panic disorder, and pretty much most of my symptoms except this one.  

He is suprised to hear that I still have this one constant symptom and is starting to wonder if it is something else.  I am a little anemic and hyperglycemic (spell?) and he's also starting to wonder if I have a sleep disorder.  Because I sleep a whole lot but I never feel like I've gotton any.  I'm always tired.  We are trying different things and I've kinda learned to live with it.. I just hope that someday I will feel awake again and be able to do normal things.  
Helpful - 0
592278 tn?1235661287
Yep, I can't put a finger on that one; that hella wierd...I remember being in that state for months at a time...it frequents me, but dont know what to relate it to. Its like the biginning of what it means to lose your grip on reality...that's what axiety is doing to us..everything seems real and people make us fell like we are just imagining everything...ok, I might not be right all the time, but dont use my conditions against me and say "thats your axiety"..I aint dumb. Ima be right sometimes, too.
Like not knowing if you're dreaming or not....but I could safely say that the chemicals in your brain are setting up new transitions, so prepare for the unknown.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I totally can relate to you!!! That is exactly how I fell now and have felt for a month now. At first it would come and go, but now it is constant.......And its scary! But noone seems to understand when I try to tell them about it!! I am just starting on Lexapro 5mg, so hopefully that will help! I don't want to live the rest of my life this way!!
Helpful - 0
2 Comments
I've had this feeling for 5 months
Yeah I have this to and I take medicine, but it doesn't seem to be working. I feel like I'm the only one with this and no one seems to understand
370181 tn?1595629445
I hope your p-doc is doing more than "just starting to wonder if there could be something else!" I hope he is setting up appointments for you to see various specialists. Some blood work is decidedly called for as is a trip to a sleep lab. You MAY be dealing with sleep apnea, which should not be ignored, and it will leave you exhausted. Stay in your psychiatrists face about getting you the help you need! He needs to be doing one hell of a lot more than "wondering!"
Peace
Greenlydia
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
I have had these long dreams, where I don't remember the beginning of them but I feel like I wake up during them. I, have some hallucinations and my dreams terrify me because they feel so real as real as the reality I am now. But, the dreams I have are frighting. These have been going on for a long time.I am also questioning what is real and what isn't. And, when you said you felt like you were awake, I realized that I remember telling someone that I am missing time, that all of this kind of blends together reality I mean. And, the thoughts everything...I feel like I am missing some of my life and I don't know why.
Avatar universal
Same here it's been going on for 2 months on & off.I can't remember anything or what am doing.When im sleeping all i do is hear the dream not see it.it's a weird feeling.im afraid to tell my mom don't want her to worried
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I posted on this a while ago, you can pull it up if you want under my name. I get this a lot and this is probably my most distressing symptom. I do know that the more you focus on it, the worse and prolonged it becomes. It IS a common symptom of anxiety and fatigue. I get it worse around that "time". I have had test after test, including a sleep study and brain scans and nothing is wrong. But I know that many anxiety sufferes deal with this. It is something everyone experiences but us with anxiety exacerbate it more, just like any other symptom. My advice is to go with it, let it be there, just like the other symptoms,I know it is hard, but the best way to get it to go away is to let it be there.
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
This helped me so much I was so worried thx
Avatar universal
i can relate to this big time ive had this on going since i was 12 im 16 now going on 17 and i dont know how to make it stop. it goes away and comes back randomly. for some reason i dont have it much at all during winter. i try my best to cope with it but i can barely do anything. sometimes i feel like im just going to disappear. I feel like im not really here but know i am. i take medication but im on a really low dose it helped for a while but it seems to do nothing now. id go up to a higher dosage but my mom wont let me she doesnt understand what im going through. i feel your pain. its awful going everyday like this. the only place i feel somewhat right is at home and i cant stay there forever. I started seeing a councelor and hes talking to me about ways to relax during a panic attack or anxiety but i dont see how relaxing my body will help. cause the only thing making this way is my mind. sometimes i wonder if it even is anxiety.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi,

I am recovering from a terrible addiction to high doses of xanax and the withdrawals are horrible, but getting betting now after over a year. I feel like things are 'unreal' like I'm looking at life through a black veil.  It's very scarry, but I try to cope, use logic. No body knows that I feel this way and I have every body fooled. I am 52 and have a lot of years behind me to have learned how to live based on the good years of my life. Now I go through the motions. A few months ago it was really bad. I would be washing the dishes and not know why in the world I was washing the dishes, but did it based on how I used to do it. I mean sometimes it was like I smoked some really strong pot, but I didn't and haven't in 25 years.  I get night terriors, and in the morning when I wake I have a terrible felling of being disconnected. I don't know who I am, but it passes in seconds.

I almost died  in 2006 and sometimes I think, maybe I did die and this is where I ended up.  I used to be such a happy energetic person.

I have herd of women that have post partum depression feeling this way for about 6 months after giving birth and not even caring about their baby, and then it goes away. They don't know why this happens, expect that is could be a chemical change in the brain.

You are I guess are about 18 and I know it must be very hard. With 5 of those years feeling so bad. Please continue to talk to people and get support. Be proactive about the drugs you take and research them. My advise, based on much experience and  suffering, don't take any benzodiazepines. A drug used to treat anxiety. At least not for over a 2 week period. That is my way of trying to help you.

Good luck
abby

Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi, this is my first post here. I am 16 years old, still in school.  Over the past 2 years, I was pretty heavily into heroin and cocaine. After a month or so in rehab, i was put on a suboxone treatment. Prior to the rehab, my counsellors had said that i had ADD, anxiety, and depression. I also get panic attacks, which are happening more now that i quit drugs. Over the past few months since around the time i got out, this dream-like effect has been happening.  What happens for me is that everything changes, my perception goes off as though I'm stoned on pot or on a low dose of acid. Everything gets fuzzy and I feel as though i retreat into my mind. I get a thought as though I've died, and I'm just dreaming and don't know that I died. i tried to explain this to my counsellor and parents, and they dont know what is up. My doctor said this is normal with suboxone, but i can't find it on the website or from any other patients.  The dream thing, since it startles me, induces a panic attack. It happens every day, throughout the whole day. Any input would be apppreciated, as you all know its very uncomfortable! i didnt think anyone else could relate!

please respond, thanks!
zach
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi everyone! I found this community quite a while ago and found it so comforting that I wasn't the only one feeling as though I am asleep in a world that seems to walk around "awake". I've searched and I've searched for something to call this "disorder" and found nothing. Then suddenly one day, by accident, I found something that I really think can be what all of us here, have on some level. I found out about this thing called
"Depersonalization Disorder". Apparently you can have diffrent levels of this disorder and there are many factors that can contribute to developing it, which makes me wonder if some of us here have this disorder on some level. There's is even a movie called "Numb" where the main character suffers from severe "Depersonalization Disorder". I hope that this info has been of some help, and that everyone can breathe a little sigh of relief if it has been of any help. Stay strong! / Violet
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
i have post-partum depression, i noticed i was in a ''dream''when my baby was around 8 weeks, i hate it,it scares me at times to,im real happy im not the only 1,i thought i was going insane...although it seems to be getting better,or maybe im just getting used to it lol
Helpful - 0
1078126 tn?1256007955
Has anyone suffered from the frightening world of depersonilation all the time.I mean 24/7. ? I JUST STARTED WITH COUNCILING with a Psychologist, who has worked a lot with this disorder. Please answer me. Do you know if any of you has actually been helped by counciling? I really need help. I've been hospitalized 4 times for severe depression, severe anxiety, and panic attacks ( not frequently). I really need some helpful responses. I would rather not get the "I'm so sorry" answer.That won't do anything. I'm not here for pity.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
hi my name is brian,im 15 and this is my first week like this. I feel as if i get by a car or something ill wake up. I dont wanna live my life like this because i feel dumb and i have bad memory. I dont know whta could have caused this but i want it to stop. I sometimes think its because of weed but ive been sober for a month now and ive smoke 5 times in my life. i dont know what i have but i want it to stop and never come back. Ive never met anyone in person thats had the same exact thing so i was assuming it was a dream. But yeah, i always sleep in class and im always pressing on my neck and moving it around hoping that ill wake up. it feels like i just living in the present and theres no point of me living.
is there anyway i could wake up from this without meds?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
dear friend i feel exactly the way you feel from the past one month.i have two little kids.and i am scared to death.i want to b normal again.i am on different antiaxiety med but nothing seems to work.do anyone has idea whats going on.what if it never change.what should i so.i also feel constant stiff neck and i cant sleep well either.is that a side effect of taking escitlopram and clonazepam.plz anyone help me.its freaking me out.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
hello.
I am really sorry to hear for you. I wanna start off by saying to watch what youre taking because sometimes the meds that doctors give you dont work. I also want to tell you that if you have a stiff neck dont make it a habbit to crack it or start moving it around because its really hard to quit. Instead, try to ease the stiffness with your hand. But yeah, i know what youre going through, it really ***** and i hope there is a cure for it before it gets worse. I think that its something big because alot off people have it. Ive notice that through the internet. I think we have something called depersonalization disoreder. You shoould search it up. Oh and i recomend that you just go with it. Try not to panic or stress. But yeah tell me if you learn something new
-brian
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hey i am feeling this too.
Like when im talking to my parents or someone i say what am i doing here?
Than my heart starts beating and i get scared.
Or when im doing something i feel like this is all fake, and i might actually be in accoma or something. or maybe im dead and i start getting scared.
When i was 10 years old ( im 16 now) i remember feeling the exact same way.
and now it came back. Let me tell you that when i was 10 and i had this, It lasted about 6 months and went i way. After 6 years it came back which is now.
When it happened when i was 10, i came back from traveling.
When it happened now, i quit weed.
So im thinking maybe its just your mind reajusted to the world?
message me what you think...thnx
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
howd it go away when u were 10?
and im pretty sure its not the bud..it might be tho because in the movie numb it happened like that and to me it did too.but it happened 3 weeks after i quit.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi,
I can kind of help you. For the past 4 ( nearly 5 ) years, I have suffered from the same problem, I know this was posted over a year ago, but if you're still feeling the problem I can kind of help.

This for me has never fully gone away, every symptom you have described I have had. I thought it would never go away, and its very VERY easy to fall into a slumber of "this will never go away, I cant cope" I know because I have been there myself. Im not sayin this will go away anytime soon because mine hasnt, but I can promise you it will ease. I can tell you one thing for certain. This will not go away through anybody else, no doctor, no meds, no scans, no psychologists, no hypnotists. It's all down to you. I know this because like I say I have the same problem, but I have found a way to cope. You will one day just start forgetting about things, its a strange feeling thats hard to explain, but one day you will just think to yourself "wow, I havent had any bad thoughts in about an hour" and it will get a bigger gap every second.

One day something happened to me, I was in the shower, home alone, and I was thinkin about this whole thing, and i broke down, i fell to my knees and couldnt stop this crying, like crying i havent done before, i was terrified of everything including myself, i just kept repeating to myself "i cant cope". I got out of the shower and sat on my mums bed (the shower through her room) and I just couldnt bring myself together, (i know it sounds like a film but its not lol) I looked over at my mums table and she had a picture of me, her, my sister and my brothers, and I just had such a weird hit of some sort of adrhenylin, it was just as strange as when i first noticed it happened, it was like a rush over my body.. and i just felt amazing, I just thought to myself "I've thought to get on this planet, and im stronger than anything that doesnt kill me". Now it may seem like i was a little depressed or something but this was about 2 years after my first panic attack, the start of my derealization.

Since that day I slowly got better over about 3 months, its never gone away, it still comes back to this day (including today) but you learn to cope, I am bad with this about 2-3 days a month, but hey if you know what it feels like 24/7 then ull be very thankful for the rest of the month being happy :)

trust me, stick with it, change your life, its about time you were happy again, you know what im talking about, think that to yourself..

think positively:
You know you're stronger than this
You know you deserve to be happy
You're an amazing person and you should be living it to the full..

dont give up on urself :)

sorry for the big reply lol
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I feel the same way and I have for about 9 months and Im just hoping it will soon go away. I don't even want to tell my parents to take me to doctors anymore because they think its just an excuse to get out of school or something, its pathetic.  
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
I tried changing my mindset. I've tried about 4 different medications. I first thought it was derealization. Now I think it is a bit of derealization and depersonalization. I had had brain scans, thought I might have some disease that made me feel this way. It is just me. Me and my chemicals. They need to change. I want to feel how I did 4 years ago. Real, included, a part of the world. Instead, I am just going with the flow. Even the happiest things don't phase me. I need help.
Helpful - 0
1121449 tn?1259469893
Im 16 years old.
Wow. You did well at explaining that.
I have anxeity disorder and sometimes throughout the day i feel like im in a dream and lightheaded too.  I start to freak out and think get back to reality but when u try, their is no reality.  It doesnt come back.  Thats how it feels anyways.  But its not all day, everyday like yours is.  I kind of know what your going threw.
Ill pray for you, their is hope!
Helpful - 0
1121449 tn?1259469893
You should really tell your mom!
You can get threw it faster and better!
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I can absolutly relate to these posts. I am a 26 mother of two little boys. My derealization started suddenly about 4 years ago. I was working as a server at restarant and had an optical migrane (which at the time had never had before). For those who are unfamiliar with optical migranes, you see bizzar patterns and zig zag patterns in your central vision. It is caused by spasms within the blood vessels in the eye. Well, since I had never had this before, I had a bit of a panic attack, and since that day have felt as if I am in a dream like state. While I do not feel like this everyday, it is VERY aggrervating. It comes and goes. I can have a week, or even a month when it is not present, but them BOOM it comes back again. Along with that, I have confusion, forgetfulness, and I am just afraid that one day I will go out and not remember where I live. I just hope and pray it will one day vanish all together. I have found that if I engage myself in an activity, or just try not to think about it, the derealization feelings subside for awhile...
Best of luck to everyone who suffers with these horrible feelings. Just remember you are not alone...
Helpful - 0
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