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Depersonalization is the feeling that you are observing yourself in a situation rather than being part of the situation. When depersonalization happens, you can feel as if you are living in a dream or you are no longer living in reality. It can be frightening to go through an episode of depersonaliza...
I experience Depersonalization quite frequently during panic attacks. It is one of the earliest signs of panic and will usually last through most of the attack. I describe it to my doctor as a "sense of unreality". It will sometimes appear suddenly and I will feel a quick flash of questioning where I am and what I am doing. There is some short of shift that takes place and I am quite aware that it is happening. It does not decrease the fear as I know that I will be okay, however, my body respones are screaming the opposite in terms of hyperventilation, racing heart, visual disturbances (sometimes with a brief loss of vision in a portion of one eye), and a burning, flushed face, neck, chest and arms. I once went through an entire attack in my doctors office and talked her through my symptoms. I told her I knew it would pass, but did not feel as if the conversation we were having was actually taking place with me being fully present.
I experience the exact same symptoms as this during depersonalization, it's the most frightening aspect I sometimes find, and I believe in turn it is what makes me feel even more unbalanced and dizzy. It sounds odd, but I feel as though my mind (brain) is actually physically separated from my body.
An example would be on the train the other day, a panic attack came on extremely horribly, I lost my clear vision (became wobbly and blurred), and I felt as though I was a kind of puppet on a string walking through hundreds of people just mumbling, as I sort of watched myself experiencing this.
Like as though I could come out into reality to know what was happening was all just my mind, yet then I'd get sucked back in even more intensely by the fear, making the symptoms even stronger and more frightening.
It eventually reduced me to tears, I was sat on the chair next to the door though, so know one was aware of me crying. Once I had cried the Panic subsided, as I then focused on being upset. Sometimes, I try to get upset when experiencing a Panic Attack to try and stop the Panic.