When Things Feel Unreal, Is That a Delusion or an Insight?

Have you ever felt like nothing is real? A student in my classroom at Stevens Institute of Technology has experienced feelings of unreality since he was a child. For her senior thesis, she made a film about this syndrome and interviewed herself and others. In her film, which she calls Depersonalized; Derealized; Deconstructed, she says that there is a glass wall between her and everything else in the world.

There are feelings that the external world and your own self are not real. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatry, depersonalization/derealization disorder can be defined as being an outside observer of one's thoughts, feelings, sensations, body, or actions. Both syndromes are referred to as derealization.

There are some people who experience derealization out of the blue and others who experience it under stress. When the syndrome results in stress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning, psychiatrists prescribe therapy and medication. Derealization can be a result of serious mental illness. Cotard delusion, also called walking corpse syndrome, is a belief that people around you have been replaced by imposters, and Capgras delusion is a belief that people around you have been replaced by imposters.

Derealization raises profound philosophical questions, and I am happy that Camille has brought attention to it. The ancient and modern believe that reality in which we live is an illusion. Shadows cast on the wall of a cave are similar to our perception of things. An undifferentiated field of consciousness is what the eighth-century Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara claimed to be. Our individual selves are not real according to the Buddhist doctrine.

Nick Bostrom is one of the modern philosophers who believes that our universe is a simulation created by aliens. Solipsism suggests that everyone around you is conscious, and that you are the only conscious being in the universe. The status of objective reality is undermined by some interpretations of quantum mechanics. Is derealization the reason for all these metaphysics?

Many people don't know what derealization is. You suppress the feelings because they disturb you. You don't mention it to others when you try to put it out of your head. If you tell people, they won't know what you're talking about, and you don't want them to see you differently. Derealization can be frightening.

A drug trip in 1981 left me convinced that existence is a dream of an insane god. For a long time the world felt flimsy and wobbly. I didn't know what was going to happen so I was afraid that everything would disappear. The intellectual effects of these feelings linger even though they have lost their power over me.

Derealization leaves me confused. I don't like the idea that reality isn't real. These assertions can become escapist and nihilistic. If the world is just a video game, why should we worry about poverty, oppression, environmental destruction, and other causes of suffering? We have a responsibility to care for each other.

Derealization is an antidote for habituation. Our brains are designed to do a lot of things. We take things for granted because we get used to them. We become like zombies if we don't know what we're doing.

The slap across the face is called derealization. It wakes you up by cutting through the monotony. The strangeness of the world reminds you of yourself. Infinite improbability and inexplicability are called weird. Our existence is a mixture of good and evil.

Our moral responsibility to others isn't affected by seeing the weird. It's far from it. Derealization makes it more real. It makes me care more about humanity. It used to feel like a curse, but now it's a gift.

It is what I tell myself. Derealization is different for others, including those interviewed for her film. The syndrome is a way of taking a break. Everything is turned off because it thinks you can't handle certain things. She knows that she can get through episodes if she just lets her feelings flow. If we can talk about it openly, we are better off than if we don't.

The views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those ofScientific American.