eli5: What’s the difference between depersonalization/derealization and Cotard’s delusion?

479 views

Both of these symptoms make you feel like you’re not alive, so I’m wondering what the differences are?

In: Other

Anonymous 0 Comments

Cotard’s delusion is specifically about feeling like you’re dead. As in, a corpse.

Depersonalisation isn’t that, it’s about not feeling real. I had it, or something like it, briefly this one time. It’s not really a delusion–I didn’t believe that I wasn’t real. It was just a feeling, not something I was convinced of. It’s hard to explain it to someone who hasn’t experienced it, but it’s sort of like feeling detached from your own consciousness. It feels like you’re merely controlling yourself from outside, like you’re a character in a first person game, rather than actually being in your own head.

I’m not entirely clear on the differences between derealisation and depersonalisation, so if anyone with more knowledge wants to correct me, feel free to do so.

In any case, Cotard’s delusion is a long term belief, rather than a temporary feeling, and it’s also classified as a distinct disorder, whereas depersonalisation/derealisation are symptoms of multiple different issues.