Most people daydream now and then, and if that happens to you, it’s perfectly normal. But if you have a mental health problem called “dissociation,” your sense of disconnect from the world around you is often a lot more complicated than that.Dissociation is a break in how your mind handles information. You may feel disconnected from your thoughts, feelings, memories, and surroundings. It can affect your sense of identity and your perception of time.

The symptoms often go away on their own. It may take hours, days, or weeks. You may need treatment, though, if your dissociation is happening because you’ve had an extremely troubling experience or you have a mental health disorder like schizophrenia.

What Are Symptoms of Dissociation?

When you have dissociation, you may forget things or have gaps in your memory. You may think the physical world isn’t real or that you aren’t real.

Continue Reading Below

You may notice other changes in the way you feel, such as:

  • Have an out-of-body experience
  • Feel like you are a different person sometimes
  • Feel like your heart is pounding or you’re light-headed
  • Feel emotionally numb or detached
  • Feel little or no pain

Other symptoms you can get are:

  • Have an altered sense of time
  • Not remember how you got somewhere
  • Have tunnel vision
  • Hear voices in your head
  • Have intense flashbacks that feel real
  • Become immobile
  • Get absorbed in a fantasy world that seems real