Why Panic Can Cause Depersonalization #depersonalization

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]And it's You don't have to have a panic attack in order to experience depersonalization realization, but the reason why it's very common is because if you think about it, a panic attack, the stress is escalating, escalating, escalating, and there's a very particular point where stress escalates into traumatic stress, which is what produces depersonalization realization, and it's the point that your nervous system feels too trapped, too overwhelmed to fight or flee. You go into the freeze response, and part of the freeze response is preparation to be eaten by the lion just in case it doesn't believe that you're dead, right? Think about it. You're freezing, you're playing dead, and that's because predators prioritize the prey that puts up a fight, and so hopefully the predator will walk away, but just in case it doesn't eat you, there starts to be a misfiring in what Dr. Bessel van der Kolk calls the mohawk of self-awareness, which is a series of brain structures that are responsible for you feeling connected to your body, self, and environment, and that translates into you feel out of body, you feel dissociated or disconnected from your body. You look at your hands, they don't feel like your own hands. You look in the mirror, you feel like you're looking at a stranger. You look You look around you, everything feels fake and dreamlike, like you're watching a movie or you're living in a dream.

[00:01:08]And time can start to feel distorted, your memory fragments, there's all kinds of things that are are part of the freeze response, but this is your brain, body, and nervous system trying to protect you, trying to help you.

[00:01:19]Basically, it's kind of like nature's last gift. If you're going to be eaten, you might as well not feel it,