A science-based path out of depersonalisation and derealisation - without fighting your mind.
You’re not broken.
This is a nervous system response.
Learn what’s actually happening in your nervous system, why you feel stuck, and how recovery unfolds step by step.
This isn’t psychological weakness - it’s a nervous system stuck in survival.
Depersonalisation and derealisation happen when the nervous system stays in a prolonged state of threat.
Your brain shifts into protection mode — not because something is wrong with you, but because it believes you’re unsafe.
When this happens, the system reduces emotional intensity, sensory clarity, and self-connection. The world can feel flat, distant, unreal. Your thoughts may loop. Your body feels unfamiliar.
This response is biological, reversible, and well-documented in neuroscience and trauma research.
The problem isn’t the symptoms. The problem is that most people try to think their way out of a state that requires regulation — not reasoning.
What’s actually happening in depersonalisation and derealisation
Depersonalisation and derealisation are not signs that something is “wrong” with your mind.
They are protective responses from a nervous system that has been under prolonged stress.
When the nervous system detects ongoing threat – anxiety, panic, overwhelm, trauma, chronic stress – it can shift into a defensive state.
In this state, perception changes. Emotions dull. Reality feels distant or unreal. The sense of “me” can feel muted or unfamiliar.
This response isn’t dangerous – but it is uncomfortable.
It’s the same system that helps animals freeze when escape isn’t possible.
Your brain is not malfunctioning. It’s trying to keep you safe.
The problem is not the initial response — it’s what happens next.
When fear, monitoring, and resistance keep the nervous system on high alert, the state becomes self-reinforcing.
The body doesn’t get the signal that it’s safe to come back online.
Recovery doesn’t come from forcing symptoms away or analysing them endlessly.
It comes from gently teaching the nervous system that safety is possible again — through understanding, regulation, and consistent signals of calm.
This is a reversible state – not a life sentence.