The fear of going crazy is a relatively common fear that can affect many people throughout their lives. In general, this is one of the recurring worries that are usually associated with very high levels of anxiety.
It is often seen in (GAD), , hypochondria, impulsive phobias and in some obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD).
In many cases the fear of going crazy is, in reality, the fear of losing control on the part of the person and of not being able to control their body or their actions.
There are symptoms linked to extreme anxiety that make us believe that we are losing control, such as anxiety disorder. depersonalization and that of derealization. In the first of them, the person feels alien to himself, while in the second the feeling of strangeness refers to his own environment.
What is depersonalization disorder?
In this disorder the person suffers recurrent episodes of separation from one’s own body or what your thoughts, feelings and mental processes are. The individual feels like a spectator of his own life.
Depersonalization involves a very intense emotional reaction accompanied by a feeling of unreality and distance from oneself.
You may feel like an automaton, unable to control your thoughts or expression.
The limbs themselves may be perceived as distorted in size or shape.
These patients often feel that their thoughts are not their own, they do not recognize themselves in the mirror or they do not know who they are.
What is derealization disorder?
Derealization is often defined as the feeling of living in a dream or a movie. It is distinguished by the feeling of unreality or distance.
These patients have lost the feeling of being familiar with their surroundings, as if there were a barrier or veil between themselves and the world around them. They feel it as artificial.
This disorder is frequently accompanied by subjective alteration of the sense of time and difficulties with memory and locating one’s memories.
Likewise, subjective visual distortions are common, such as blurred vision, alterations in the size or distance of objects (macropsia or micropsia), greater visual acuity, exaggerated three-dimensionality; auditory distortions, silences of voices or sounds, etc.
All this is specified in a significant clinical discomfort.
Depersonalization-derealization disorder
Both disorders can be combined into what is called depersonalization-derealization disorder, when all their characteristics come together. That is, when the person observes himself from the outside and, at the same time, feels that the world around him is not real or feels absolutely disconnected from it.
Sensations of tingling, fainting, headache… are common to both psychopathologies.
These disorders, alone or in combination, can be intense and seriously interfere with people’s daily lives: deterioration of their labor and social relationships, etc.
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