Altered state of consciousness - anxiety symptom

Written by: Jim Folk.
Medically reviewed by: Marilyn Folk, BScN.
Last updated: November 1, 2020

Altered state of consciousness feeling

You feel like you are separate from yourself, not part of reality, disconnected from the real world, in a dream-like state, in a state of unreality, having an out-of-body experience, and/or experiencing an altered state of consciousness.

Others describe it as you feel like you are not a part of what is going on, that you feel like you are ‘out of touch with things,’ feel that you are an observer of the world and/or yourself, but not able to feel a part of reality. Yet others describe it as feeling very unreal then think that you are losing your mind or will cross over into some other non-real world or consciousness. These thoughts can have you questioning your sanity, and thinking that you might be losing your mind.

This symptom is commonly referred to as Depersonalization.

Chapter 9 in the Recovery Support area of our website is our Anxiety Symptoms chapter. We list all of the symptoms commonly associated with anxiety disorder in this chapter, including depersonalization. Each symptom listed there contains a complete description of what the symptom feels like and how others describe it, we explain why each symptom occurs, we provide natural and practical ways you can eliminate each symptom, and how common each symptom is (the percentage of people who experience it).

Common Anxiety Symptoms

The combination of good self-help information and working with an experienced anxiety disorder therapist is the most effective way to address anxiety disorder and its many symptoms. Until the core causes of anxiety are addressed - the underlying factors that motivate apprehensive behavior - a struggle with anxiety disorder can return again and again. Identifying and successfully addressing anxiety's underlying factors is the best way to overcome problematic anxiety.

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