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Derealization
 
 
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Derealization (DR) is an alteration in the perception or experience of the external world so that it seems strange or unreal. Other symptoms include feeling as though one's environment is lacking in spontaneity, emotional colouring and depth. It is a dissociative symptom of many conditions, such as psychiatric and neurological disorders, and not a standalone disorder. It is also a transient side effect of acute drug intoxication, sleep deprivation, and stress.

Depersonalization
Depersonalization

Depersonalization is an alteration in the perception or experience of the self so that one feels detached from, and as if one is an outside observer of, one's mental processes or body....
 is a subjective experience of unreality in one's sense of self, while derealization is unreality of the outside world.






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Derealization (DR) is an alteration in the perception or experience of the external world so that it seems strange or unreal. Other symptoms include feeling as though one's environment is lacking in spontaneity, emotional colouring and depth. It is a dissociative symptom of many conditions, such as psychiatric and neurological disorders, and not a standalone disorder. It is also a transient side effect of acute drug intoxication, sleep deprivation, and stress.

Depersonalization
Depersonalization

Depersonalization is an alteration in the perception or experience of the self so that one feels detached from, and as if one is an outside observer of, one's mental processes or body....
 is a subjective experience of unreality in one's sense of self, while derealization is unreality of the outside world. Depersonalization and derealization are often used interchangeably, although evidence suggests they have distinct neurobiological
Neurobiology

Neurobiology is the study of cell s of the nervous system and the organization of these cells into functional biological neural network that process information and mediate behavior....
 mechanisms. Chronic derealization may be caused by occipital
Occipital lobe

The occipital lobe is the Visual perception of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex. The primary visual cortex is Brodmann area, commonly called V1 ....
–temporal
Temporal lobe

The temporal lobe is a region of the cerebral cortex that is located beneath the Sylvian fissure on both the left and right hemispheres of the brain....
 dysfunction.

These symptoms are common in the population, with a lifetime prevalence of up to 74% and between 31 and 66% at the time of a traumatic event
Psychological trauma

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event. When that trauma leads to posttraumatic stress disorder, damage may involve physical changes inside the brain and to brain chemistry, which affect the person's ability to cope with Stress ....
.

Description


The detachment of realization can be described as an immaterial substance that separates a person from the outside world, such as a sensory fog, a pane of glass, or a veil. Individuals may complain that what they see lacks vividness and emotional colouring. Emotional response to visual recognition of loved ones may be significantly reduced. Feelings of déjà vu
Déjà vu

D?j? vu or promnesia, is the experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously , although the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain....
 or jamais vu
Jamais vu

In psychology, the term jamais vu is used to describe any familiar situation which is not recognized by the observer....
 are common. Familiar places may look alien, bizarre, and surreal. Such perceptual abnormalities may also extend to the senses of hearing, taste, and smell.

Another symptom of this condition can be constant worrying or strange thoughts that people find hard to switch off. Derealization builds up slowly with the underlying anxiety
Anxiety

Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components. These components combine to create an unpleasant feeling that is typically associated with uneasiness, fear, or worry....
 attached to these disturbing thoughts, but shows itself suddenly, often after a panic attack
Panic attack

Panic attacks are very sudden, discrete periods of intense anxiety, mounting physiological arousal, fear, stomach problems and discomfort that are associated with a variety of somatic and cognitive symptoms....
, and is then difficult or impossible to ignore until the affected receives treatment. This type of anxiety can be crippling to the affected and may lead to avoidant behaviour. Those who experience this phenomenon may feel concern over the cause of their derealization. It is often difficult to accept that such a disturbing symptom is simply a result of anxiety, and the individual may often think that the cause must be something more serious. This can, in turn, cause more anxiety and worsen the derealization.

Causes


Derealization can accompany the neurological conditions of epilepsy
Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizure s. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain....
, migraine
Migraine

Migraine is a neurology syndrome characterized by altered bodily perceptions, headaches, and nausea. Physiologically, the migraine headache is a neurological condition more common to women than to men....
, and mild head injury
Head injury

Head injury refers to Physical trauma to the head . This may or may not include injury to the human brain . However, the terms traumatic brain injury and head injury are often used interchangeably in the medical literature....
. There is a similarity between visual hypo-emotionality, a reduced emotional response to viewed objects, and derealization. This suggests a disruption of the process by which perception
Perception

In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sense information. It is a task far more complex than was imagined in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was predicted that building perceiving machines would take about a decade, a goal which is still very far from fruition....
 becomes emotionally coloured. This qualitative change in the experiencing of perception may lead to reports of anything viewed being unreal or detached.

Derealization can also be caused by vestibular disorders such as labyrinthitis
Labyrinthitis

Labyrinthitis is a balance disorder. It is an inflammatory process affecting the Labyrinth s that house the vestibular system of the inner ear....
 and vestibular neuronitis
Vestibular neuronitis

Vestibular Neuronitis, also called Vestibular neuritis, can be a paroxysmal, single attack of Vertigo , a series of attacks, or a persistent condition which diminishes over two weeks....
 because the brain is receiving mixed signals from the vestibular nerves due to damage or infection, and so causes the brain to function slower and create feelings of unreality.

Cannabis
Cannabis

Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa L., Cannabis indica Lam., and Cannabis ruderalis Janisch....
, hallucinogens
Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants

The general group of pharmacology agents commonly known as hallucinogens can be divided into three broad categories: Psychedelic drugs, dissociatives, and deliriants....
, antidepressant
Antidepressant

An antidepressant is a psychiatric medication used for alleviating major depressive disorder or dysthymia. Drug groups known as MAOIs, tricyclics, and second-generation antidepressants such as SSRIs, and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are particularly associated with the term....
s, caffeine
Caffeine

Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug and a mild diuretic. Caffeine was discovered by a German chemist, Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, in 1819....
, and nicotine
Nicotine

Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants which constitutes approximately 0.6?3.0% of dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots, and accumulating in the leaves....
 can all produce feelings resembling derealization, particularly when taken to excess. It can also result from alcohol withdrawal or benzodiazepine withdrawal.

Derealization can also be a symptom of severe sleep disorder
Sleep disorder

A sleep disorder is a medical disorder of the sleep patterns of a person or animal. Some sleep disorders are serious enough to interfere with normal physical, mental and emotional functioning....
s, and mental disorders like depersonalization disorder
Depersonalization disorder

Depersonalization disorder is a Dissociation in which the sufferer is affected by persistent or recurrent feelings of depersonalization and/or derealization....
, borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder is a psychiatry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that describes a prolonged personality disorder characterized by depth and variability of moods....
, bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a Classification of mental disorders that describes a category of mood disorders, or mood swings, defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood clinically referred to as mania or, if milder, hypomania....
, schizophrenia
Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia , from the Ancient Greek Root schizein and phren, phren- is a psychiatry diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality....
, and anxiety disorder
Anxiety disorder

Anxiety disorder is a blanket term covering several different forms of abnormal and pathological fears and anxieties.Although in casual discourse the words anxiety, fear, and phobia are often used interchangeably, in clinical usage, they have distinct meanings....
s.

Interoceptive exposure
Interoceptive exposure

Interoceptive exposure is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique used in the treatment of panic disorder. It refers to carrying out exercises that bring about the physical sensations of a panic attack, such as hyperventilation and high muscle tension, and can be contrasted with in vivo exposure, which exposes the person directly to a fe...
 can be used as a means to induced derealization, as well as the related phenomenon depersonalization.

See also

  • Depersonalization disorder
    Depersonalization disorder

    Depersonalization disorder is a Dissociation in which the sufferer is affected by persistent or recurrent feelings of depersonalization and/or derealization....
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
    Post-traumatic stress disorder

    Posttraumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to one or more traumatic events that threatened or caused grave physical harm....
  • Borderline personality disorder
    Borderline personality disorder

    Borderline Personality Disorder is a psychiatry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that describes a prolonged personality disorder characterized by depth and variability of moods....
  • Panic attack
    Panic attack

    Panic attacks are very sudden, discrete periods of intense anxiety, mounting physiological arousal, fear, stomach problems and discomfort that are associated with a variety of somatic and cognitive symptoms....
  • Dissociation
    Dissociation

    Dissociation is an unexpected partial or complete disruption of the normal integration of a person?s conscious or psychological functioning that cannot be easily explained by the person....
  • Dissociative disorders
    Dissociative disorders

    Dissociative disorders are defined as conditions that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity and/or perception. The hypothesis is that symptoms can result, to the extent of interfering with a person's general functioning, when one or more of these functions is disrupted....
  • Bad trip
    Bad trip

    Bad trip is a slang term for a psychedelic crisis, a disturbing experience sometimes associated with use of a Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants such as LSD, Salvia divinorum, mescaline, or psilocybin....
  • Existential crisis
    Existential crisis

    Existential crisis, derived from Existentialism, is the psychologic panic and discomfort experienced when a human confronts questions of existence....
  • Fugue state
    Fugue state

    A fugue state, formally Dissociative Fugue , is a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, Personality psychology and other identifying characteristics of individuality....
  • Reality
    Reality

    Reality, in everyday usage, means "the state of things as they actually exist". In a sense it is what is real. The term reality, in its widest sense, includes everything that being, whether or not it is observation or comprehension....
  • Solipsism
    Solipsism

    Solipsism is the philosophy idea that "My mind is the only thing that I know exists." Solipsism is an epistemology or ontology position that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified....
  • Brain in a vat
    Brain in a vat

    In philosophy, the brain in a vat is an element used in a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning....
  • Jamais vu
    Jamais vu

    In psychology, the term jamais vu is used to describe any familiar situation which is not recognized by the observer....