To anyone who is having problems discerning reality
One thing that has been helping me more than almost anything else is keeping what I like to call a reverse dream journal. It’s going to be a reality journal, and it doesn’t take much time out of your day to keep it up. Someone else recommended this to me about 8 months ago when I was having particular issues figuring out what was real and what wasn’t.
So to do this, you’re going to pick a method of documenting. I personally use individual sheets of paper for each day, and then file them away, but I know people who use texting, notes in their phone, tumblr, or a traditional journal.
Then, you’re going to want to try to take time throughout the day when you’re feeling like reality is clear (it only has to be a minute or two at a time for each entry) to write down what you’ve done. For instance, I’ll take a break every hour or so, or after any major thing that I’ve done, to just write down that I did the thing. It’s important to note that you don’t need to give a ton of detail, just “took my meds 11 am, ate lunch 1 pm,” etc.
So now that you have that, you keep the journal (whatever form it is) near where you are, especially when you’re sleeping. When you wake up in a panic, you can read the journal and remind yourself of what things actually happened.
You want to make sure to try to never write in it while you don’t feel like things are real. This journal needs to be something you can trust no matter what.
If you are having delusions or are dissociating and writing helps, keep this writing in a separate journal from your reality journal, the reality journal is there to remind you of what’s happening and what isn’t.
If you are having trouble figuring out what is real so that you can make entries, you can always go to someone you trust to help you record what you have done that day. Have them put the date, time, and their name there, so that you can ask them about it at a later time if you need to.