By HARPER WISELOGLE
Sheridan High School Student
Editor’s Note: The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade English class, taught by Abby Williams.
The feeling of depersonalization and derealization can be compared to living in a dream or watching your life from outside your body as if it were a movie. Many days it can feel like you’re watching someone in a two-way mirror, and it’s scary in many ways, not being able to recognize yourself. It’s as if you are someone else, and nothing around you feels real, as if your entire reality has been warped.
“Many people have a passing experience of depersonalization or derealization at some point. But when these feelings keep occurring or never completely go away and interfere with your ability to function, it’s considered depersonalization-derealization disorder. This disorder is more common in people who’ve had traumatic experiences.” (Mayo Clinic).
The exact cause of depersonalization-derealization isn’t known, but the most common causes seem to be high stress and trauma or childhood trauma. Mayo Clinic also says that it may also be attributed to genetic or environmental factors.
The cause of dissociative disorders is not clear but may be attributed to genetic or environmental elements. Cleveland Clinic says that depersonalization and derealization experiences are found in 50 percent of the population, but a separate diagnosable disorder is found in only about 2 percent of the population. Many cases of derealization and depersonalization can go undiagnosed for years; for some, it’s so frequent that the dream-like world becomes their reality.
The experience of derealization and depersonalization can be a symptom of schizophrenia or other severe psychotic disorders. If these dissociative disorders do form into schizophrenia, there is no cure and the condition can last from years up to a lifetime, causing hallucinations and psychotic episodes. Mayo Clinic says that the cause of schizophrenia is also unknown but can be related to the structure and chemistry of the brain, similar to that of someone who experiences dissociation.
The stigma on uncontrollable mental illnesses such as these is seen every day in our lives, stigmatizing those who cannot control how they see the world or how they perceive themselves, as many people use mental health as a “trend” or something “beautiful” on social media, etc. Individuals dealing with these disorders on a daily basis live with the underlying assumption that they are mentally insane or incompetent compared to those who do not struggle with these mental illnesses.
Indiana has an extremely low ranking compared to other states in the U.S. in how the state handles and treats mental health issues, but this could be changed if more people begin to understand that everyone, whether they struggle with mental health issues or not, is human.