[clearing]

I haven't seen this, but as someone who's had DPDR for the better half of a decade, I don't think this article frames it 100% properly (which, to be fair, is harder with this than, say, general anxiety).

Yes, fear does come up during derealization experiences, but the difference is there's no grounded "you" experiencing this fear, more that the fear comes as "the experiencer" reconciling the reality one experiences with a new and disconcerting distance. This reads more like a profile of Pure-O OCD (they're comorbid so I got the two-for-one), where there is somewhat logical rumination about a specific fear.

I've never really had a DPDR experience where I was questioning my own free will. To me the external world at the time is best described as seeming aggressively real to the point it seems false, objects indistinct from others, bereft of any intent or memory. You feel like you've lost some foundational understanding of the world that has been instilled in you forever.

[bonesmoses]

I had a very protracted DPDR experience start around when I was 12, and slowly dissipated over the course of a decade. I woke up one morning, and it was like I was slapped out of my body. It's like I was piloting a Me(ch) suit.

I wasn't seeing through my eyes. They were transmitting, with perceivable lag and some kind of acknowledged overlay, their sensory data. It's like being embedded in _extremely advanced_ and nearly seamless VR, but also hyper aware of the "nearly" part. It's like the Uncanny Valley effect, but directing it toward your own sensory system.

It doesn't feel quite real anymore, and you don't know why. So that's probably how I'd convey it. "You know the Uncanny Valley? Imagine everything you experienced felt that way."

It's uniquely awful.

[kall1sto]

Very well described.

[fumar]

Asking for a friend, did you seek a professional diagnosis?

[clearing]

I was seeing a CBT therapist for severe OCD at the time I was diagnosed with this. Unfortunately there isn’t really a specific therapy targeting DPDR like OCD, but anxiety reduction does help overall.