Quick ask. A few days ago, when I was at school, I feel kinda 'zoned out' - seeing myself as a puppet/doll for a while then snapped back to reality. I only have it for around 10 seconds because I'm so afraid, it's like your soul gets detached from your body. Why am I feeling like this? I had another, similiar one, way back around a month ago and it lasted roughly the same. Thank you! -Cuckoo
What it sounds like to me is going on is something called depersonalization or derealization. When this happens, it might feel like you’re viewing your life through a movie or a dream. It can actually become very frustrating and confusing for people who experience this but don’t know what’s going on. But there are ways to pull yourself out of this episode of derealization safely and easily. It will take a bit of practice, but eventually you will get the hang of grounding.
When you ground, you’re trying to make as many connections between yourself and the world around you. There are plenty of different ways to ground, and you can find them all here, but I’m going to share my favourite way with you.
First off, when you’re grounding you need to be calm. So first you need to calm yourself down, take a few deep breaths and then ground. Start with sitting down with your feet on the floor and start naming off things around you, like is there a desk, book, pencil, blanket, anything? Just name them out loud, then start describing them what does each of them look, feel, smell, sound, and (if possible of course) taste like? When you’re doing this you’re making connections from yourself to the world, so it’s really important that you say this out loud.
You can even do grounding after one of these little episodes to try to take your mind off of what just happened and to make sure you won’t slip into another episode. I know these can be scary and confusing but they don’t have to be. I hope you’re okay love <3