Hi Julz, sorry you are going through this I understand how you feel and its extremely frightening.

I’m not an expert but based on my experience I would say for me detachment is a defence mechanism, the minds way of protecting itself. I would experience this in times of stress or anxiety, the problem with anxiety is there is not an actual real fear or anything to be fearful of and this is what feeds it. The detachment is a further manifestation of this as if to give you something to be fearful of, to make sense of the anxiety you are feeling.

I also found these feelings would appear while I was having therapy, which makes sense as therapy is hard work trawling through everything is exhausting and its not surprising our mind wants to feel ‘detached’. Feelings of detachment are a common symptom of anxiety, I used to feel I was the only one who had experienced this and I was weird and going mad but it really is rather common and not a mental disorder or anything like that, just a normal reaction to what you are going through.

Remember when you are feeling like this not to give it power, I always think to myself ‘ah I know why this is happening its just my mind trying to make sense of things, whats really bothering me’. Sounds silly but it gives me back control, it kind of stops it going further and brings me back to reality.

Thats my experience anyway, I hope you find some of this useful. Remember just because you are feeling bad it doesn’t mean things are bad and with the therapy you will feel better and the feelings of detachment will reduce and subside.

Wishing you all the best xx