What is the difference between derealization, depersonalization, and dissociation? Can a person have one without the others?
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Full disclosure: I dropped out before finishing my bachelor’s in psychology, but I was a good student and this is my best recollection.
Derealization is the mental disorder where you fully don’t believe anything is real. Not you, not me, not that dog, not the sun, they’re convinced it’s all virtual reality or a vivid hallucination or any justification because none of this is real anyway.
Depersonalization is the mental disorder where you feel as though *you* aren’t real. Like everyone around you is functioning at some sort of fundamental level that you simply can’t achieve for some reason. It inspires apathy and depression because the person in question no longer considers themselves “a person” in a way.
Dissociation is usually a trauma response. It’s when something happens to you that’s so bad, your mind sort of “unhitches” (for lack of any better word) from what’s happening to your body. This is the phenomenon people are talking about when they talk about something traumatic happening and not experiencing it directly. It’s often described along such lines as “being outside your body” or “watching it happen to someone else”.
It’s certainly possible to experience any of these individually, particularly since dissociation is more related to trauma than actual mental disorders.
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