The term "depersonalization" appeared in the late 1890s. It characterizes a condition in which there is a loss of connection with one's "I" at the level of the body and / or psyche, the so-called disorder of self-perception. The feeling of depersonalization sometimes lasts only a couple of moments and disappears suddenly, and sometimes it lasts for several months, years.
Depersonalization is usually classified as a neurotic disease. Moreover, most often this strange, unpleasant sensation arises as a symptom of some serious pathology, for example, schizophrenia or schizotypal disorder.
In some cases, depersonalization exists on its own, developing, for example, due to severe stress or an excessive amount of emotions experienced by a person at one moment.
If the disorder of self-perception is combined with the feeling that the whole world is distant, distorted, then it is customary to talk about the syndrome of depersonalization-derealization.
The state of depersonalization in some cases accompanies panic disorder, anxiety disorder, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Sometimes the loss of contact with your mental or physical "I" occurs as a result of taking medications. In this case, as a rule, the unpleasant sensation does not last very long and disappears altogether as soon as the person stops taking the medication.
Feeling depersonalized is accompanied by the following signs and symptoms:
- deja vu and jame vu, which last for a very long time or are always present at all;
- disturbances in the perception of heat and cold, movement and time; a person does not feel pain or cannot understand where it originated in the body; distortions of tastes and colors of surrounding objects appear; with a somatopsychic form of depersonalization, the patient is not aware of his body and his own needs;
- emotional reactions to various events and situations are distorted or dulled;
- a person is not able to describe his own feelings, it seems to him that he does not feel anything; but at the same time the ability to demonstrate emotions is retained;
- depersonalization is often accompanied by a complete absence of thoughts, stopping the internal dialogue / monologue; the patient may say that there is cotton wool, a complete vacuum and silence in his head;
- there is a feeling that all personality traits disappear, character is distorted;
- with depersonalization, emotions directed at friends, relatives, other relatives, or even strangers disappear;
- in some cases, memory impairment may occur; a person performs all actions as if automatically, without analyzing them;
- accompanied by a feeling of depersonalization, a complete lack of mood; the patient feels neither good nor bad, can treat everything neutral, indifferent;
- with depersonalization, the ability to fantasize and imagination suffer very much, violations on the part of figurative thinking are noted, it becomes impossible to engage in creativity and to be creative.
There are many reasons for the development of a self-perception disorder. In addition to mental illness, stress or taking inappropriate medications, depersonalization occurs as a result of excessive stress, due to fatigue, nervous tension, and so on. Some doctors suggest that the propensity for this type of disorder is inherited (a genetic cause of depersonalization).
Such a condition, if it seriously affects the quality of life and accompanies a person constantly / regularly, requires treatment. As a rule, if depersonalization occurs on its own, it is possible to completely get rid of it after a course of medications (selected individually) and psychotherapy. When a self-perception disorder arises as a symptom of another pathology, then with the help of medications it is possible to bring a person to a state of prolonged (persistent) remission.
