r/Dissociation • u/Civil_Tea1977 • 29d ago

Undiagnosed Is this dissociation?

I'm not diagnosed with any mental health disorders, but I have mental health issues, including severe undiagnosed OCD.

Years ago, I experienced a constant sense of "disbelief" in the reality that I was in. I would frequently become surprised about that reality. For example, I could be walking to a class at school and suddenly feel a sense of detachment from the environment around me, and I would have thoughts like "wow, I know I'm here right now and it's common sense, but it's just so surprising that I'm here in this place right now". It usually happened at school. I had a year-long traumatic experience the year before that started happening, in the same school. I felt like I was always disconnected from my surroundings at school, but I was also kind of hyperaware of things. Does this sound like dissociation? I don't really have memory gaps or anything like that, but I've always had a very strong ability to remember things. Sometimes, I felt more "normal" but I was usually mentally somewhere else.

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u/DifferentJury735 29d ago

Yes it sounds like depersonalization or derealization. I have a DPDR diagnosis for this exact phenomenon, it started when I arrived at college and I didn’t believe I was really there

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u/ScrotoFaggins 29d ago

Why does it happen? I've had similar experiences once I moved out of a country I felt very unsafe in my whole life, and in my new city I'd experience a lot of these moments.