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Hi sam
i sometimes feel disconnected from everything and it feels really weitd and i dont know what it is can you help?
Hi there,
Sometimes people can feel disconnected from themselves or their world, this can be a confusing or worrying experience, but there is support there for you.
At different points in our life, we can feel disconnected from everything around us. That can be from reading a book or watching a film and being absorbed with the story. It can also times where we are daydreaming or travelling a familiar route and arrive at your destination with little memory of how you got there. When this happens, it can be known as disassociation.
There are lots of types of disassociations and causes. Sometimes, when someone goes through a traumatic experience, it can lead to them feeling disconnected from themselves mentally, their physical body or feel that the world around them isn’t real. The causes of disassociation can often be when a young person experiences events such as abuse, violence, accident or a natural disaster but for some people there can be other causes, including having a mental health condition.
Disassociation can be the way the mind protects itself with coping with too much stress. Most people have experienced dissociation at some point in their lives and as it can affect everyone differently, it can range from a mild experience to something more severe and last for a few minutes, to hours, for some it could last for weeks or even months.
It can be good to keep a diary of any time you experience feeling disconnected which may help to see if there are any patterns or triggers to you feeling like this and you can use the Childline mood journal to help you track this.
Lifestyle changes can also have a positive impact on our mental health. Things such as having a consistent bedtime and enough sleep, spending time outside, eating balanced meal and exercising can all help to improve our mental health.
It can be useful to learn mindfulness techniques which help you to learn to be more present in the moment. This can be learning grounding techniques to deep breathing. The Childline calm zone shares info and videos to help you learn how to do some of these techniques. You may also find it helpful to on the Childline message boards to get support from other young people and find out how they cope with feeling disconnected.
Take care
Sam
You can talk privately to a counsellor online or call 0800 1111 for free.
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