Disconnection with reality?

Post Reply New Topic

I don't know if everyone on the spectrum has these feelings, but I rarely feel connected to the world around me unless I'm using electronics. Is anyone else like this?

Try flying a plane (as a pilot, not a passenger) or sailing a boat or ship (at the tiller, not a passenger). This will put you in very intimate connection with the world. Flying is the ultimate no-bullshit experiences. There is no faking it, talking it to death, talking around it. One either flies right or one dies. If that does not connect you with your surroundings nothing will.

I usually feel pretty disconnected. Like I'm watching TV instead of it being real.

I do all the time. My subconscious takes over motor control most of the time, and I do often stop paying attention to my surroundings and block everything out as I chill in my mind which distances me from reality.

I have also experimented with lucid dreaming so I am well aware of how real something not real can seem, which just adds to it because I know that I could be dreaming right now and I would be none the wiser. That realization is arguably one of the woes of lucid dreaming.

I just did a reality check and I can confirm that this is most likely not a dream.

Apart from that everything does generally seem to have a quality of unrealism to it, I suppose it probably it's a coping mechanism for sensory processing issues, or maybe it's a direct result of sensory processing issues. It might even be the result of logging so much time in the confines of my mind while my subconscious takes over motor control. Whatever the reason, it's certainly interesting.

Wikipedia Article on Dissociation

I feel disconnected from people as a whole. I feel connected to the world otherwise. Things, animals, nature; just not people.

I feel connected with 1/2 of my immediate family. The other half is from my mother's side of the family and we're jsut completely disconnected. That's about it.

I feel like that all the time. I often feel like I connect to fictional characters and animals, but not real people too often.

What you are describing is called disassociation. Every human experiences a degree of disassociation. It varies from mild (spacing out while driving) to severe (forgetting who you are and all your past life). It's very common in PTSD, DID, and other anxiety disorders.

But I think its a common experience for those on the spectrum too. It seems to happen a lot more severely during shutdowns, but also more mildly any time sensory or social things are overwhelming. It can become a habit, because its more comfortable for some to be disassociating than to be present and aware of every little detail that we notice.

You can experience it as where you don't feel like you are real, or you can experience it as if your world is not real.

For me, I think of it as a mini shut down. Where my mind removes itself partially from my surroundings before it's overwhelmed and cannot function at all. Like an underground shelter that I go to when a tornado is coming.

I'm not sure mine would be DID. I don;t connect with people because I can;t figure them out. As you said, I have begun, over the years to just withdraw because it's easier. But, I can connect with certain people. But, overall, it is very acute in NYC.

I think that plays into your statement about the overwhelming part. NYC is very overwhelming to me.

Yeah, its probably not DID, unless you are missing gaps in time (blacking out) and/or have more than one distinct personalities. DID is usually on the more severe end of disassociating.

WORD on the NYC is overwhelming. The few times I have been there....*shudder*

Nope, no blacking out. Any deviance in personality is when I am getting overwhelmed. What's also a problem is that when people get through the few things I know how to do to be entertaining, they find out I'm boring and then move on. So, even when I connect, I can't keep the connection.

A partial disconnection feels like activity becomes passive, for me.

Glad to see a thread about this, because I experience this quite a lot. I think it just associates with anxiety and/or depression for me. When I'm feeling very depressed, things around me don't seem real and it's like I'm just watching myself in a video game or something. When I have days where I feel strongly anxious, similar thing happens. Then other days when I calm down and relax I feel okay again. It's strange.

I do the same thing. I daydream all the time.