Why do I feel completely disconnected with myself and reality and how do I bring myself back?

@Skeee

I may be a teen (17), but I get the way that you are feeling. In fact, I felt the exact same way for a time in my life. There was a point in my life where I felt overworked, like the agony so immense that I did not know who I was anymore, why I was doing anything at all. I used to think of myself as a husk of a human being, that nothing was real, that I was just fading into nothingness.

There is no easy way to get out of that state of mind, to bring yourself back. For me, I was able to bring myself back by finding a purpose in life; I decided that I wanted to spend my life working my hardest to help others whenever possible. It may sound like a simple purpose, but internalizing if that was really made me happy and grounded was a long haul. For you, regrasping your sense of reality may be similar or entirely different. Perhaps I would say is that the first step is simply accepting the way you are feeling. You are not alone in the way you are feeling, and the way you are feeling right now is nothing to feel ashamed about. I congratulate your courage for taking the first step and posting the way you are feeling to the community; I understand that it is difficult to open up about these kinds of things.

Hi there, I completely understand what you are describing. I have experienced the same thing, and it is exhausting, confusing and scary. But you are not alone in going through this. It can be hard to know what’s causing you to experience this, but maybe try thinking back to times you know it was happening, like you mention it used to happen when you were stressed, and come up with healthy ways to cope if a situation like that arises. I’m not an expert and it may not be helpful, but try researching derealisation and depersonalisation as they are slightly different but both similar in ways to what you describe. I don’t think it’s something that will just go away overnight, but there are coping methods, self care techniques and treatments available. What helps me if i’m feeling separated from reality is meditation and yoga (but I know it’s not for everyone) and grounding exercises using the senses, e.g. naming 1 thing you can touch, 1 you can see, 1 you can hear, 1 you can smell, and 1 you can taste. And similarly to the other comment on your thread, in the long term finding purpose and figuring out what you enjoy most and doing that will hopefully help you feel more like you know yourself again. Try to make decisions about what to do in a conscious way, maybe writing down somewhere things you’ve chosen to do and which ones you enjoyed the most and if any of them made you feel present and like yoursekf again.