Depersonalisation disorder: Why are some people unable to feel love? BBC News

For people living with depersonalisation disorder the world appears unreal, as if through a haze or fog - or even in 2D. Many are left emotionally numb, unable to feel love. One in 100 people is thought to have the condition, but experts are warning that few medical professionals have heard of it.

[umaimasaeed]

Sometimes i get so scared of myself. I feel like i can never love anyone wholeheartedly, not even my parents or my friends or myself.

[briannabonilla]

I would never wish this disorder on my worst enemy. It's the worst feeling and leaves you feeling lonely and numb.

[KaranPatel-nsjc]

I feel that I am unable to love anyone anymore..it feels like after waking up I am just acting to be a son, a bf, a friend, a brother with different people.. literally just pretending to be myself..it feels like I am employed by me to act like me.

[jenniphermariea]

The music/sound in this video is horrendous and distracting.

[leoapoldrakowski]

I clicked on this because I was trying to figure out why I can't feel love towards another person

[rafael]

I feel like im in a dream and every second im gonna wakeup but i never wakeup

[sportsnewz]

It starts at any time but usually at early adolescence or early adulthood. It appears as a defence mechanism against severe anxiety, trauma by switching of reality. You know that you love your family but you sort of know it academically rather than feel it.

Relationships that you value deeply suddenly lose their essential quality

Those with this condition claimed to see themselves detached from the world or seeing the world as if through a haze or fog. The World appears 2d or flat like a cartoon. Watching themselves from a far or out of body experience feeling detached from their own body parts and an emotional moment. You can't feel someone that you love them because you don't feel it. You're emotionally blunt

[johnnybrix]

Anyone ever get scared about relationships because not sure whether your feelings are correct and feels artificial?

[strrysy]

i cant feel love for anyone anymore. but like..i know who i love. i just don’t feel it.

[Dingleberry_smith]

So much ignorance in the comments, you don't know the pain until you experience it. 2 years of DP for me and counting.

[velvia]

DP/DR is a blessing in disguise. It's the beginning of the ego not being the in drivers seat all the time anymore. The ego thinks it's dying. You're not. It's actually a very beautiful thing that is happening. You are waking up. Give yourself time to go though this process. The greatest help I found in my process was this:

Acceptance. 100% accept at all times what your are feeling. You don't have to engage with it. Just as radio noise in the background.
Let go. Let go of all the thoughts you have. Don't take them seriously, no matter how grotesque or annoying they are. They are just thoughts. They don't control you unless you actively want them to.
Relax. Don't fight the process. Breathe. Spend time in nature.
Curiosity. Be curious and face your fear. Try to find where the actual fear is coming from. You will sooner or later see that the source does not exist, and the fear will dissipate by itself.

Hope this helps

[esiahs-life]

I always feel like I am no longer human. I am just existing doing role-playing in real life.

[Ddmm]

Everyone in this comment section saying you a living with this...holy hell. I had no idea something like this even exists..this is like hell on earth..I am so very sorry and I wish you all to return back to normal asap. Doctors, specialists, scientists where you at??

[keviness]

Such ignorance here. Depersonalization is the third most common mental health symptom in the world, right behind depression and anxiety.

Forget what you've been told. I'm a working man from a construction background. This isn't some "feminist made up illness", this is a well documented mental disorder. Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows has had it for years. Rapper Vinnie Paz from Jedi Mind Tricks has had it for years. I am friends online with people all the way from Tunisia to Japan that have this. People of all kinds of backgrounds are at risk. This isn't just some "triggered" feminist disorder. Actually read up on something instead of bringing your politics into something. This illness I've been living with for years is finally getting publicity, which means better odds of a cure, which means I might finally get to live a normal life, and the vermin of the internet gotta come out of the woodwork to fuck it up.

[snowflower._.]

Waking up and you can just end it all, cause nothing feels real, nothing. It sounds so simple but you have no idea how scary and empty it feels

[Gregory-luup]

This is very real, and it is hell. I've had depersonalization disorder since 2004

[anteyes]

I believe there is a form of this where you can love those close to you but still have an overwhelming feeling like you are never really there with them, even if you want to be. You can be sitting right next to them and be a billion miles away.

[katelynsmith]

I don’t want to be one of those people that self-diagnose them selfs but I relate to everything in this video 😐

[amalajohansson]

Finally I understand what happened to me this fall and winter! I WAS FEELING THIS. I’ve never felt so certain, I had disorder. I went through a personal trauma/crisis and after that. For MONTHS I was feeling absolutely detached from the world. I felt as though I was a flying orb going through life and stuff just kept happening to me, without my respons to any of it (because I was detached from myself). When people asked my questions like ”What do YOU think about this Emelie” I answered in my head ”But I am not Emelie or a ”you” or a person at all, why don’t anyone ask the trees outside what they think? I am a part of everything in the world, and I am also nothing.” It felt like I knew something beyond normal peoples comprehension, like this huge secret that life was of no other substance than things happening.

A couple of months ago I had a nervous breakdown, where everything just sort of let go. After that I cried and screamed and sobbed and mourned for about a MONTH. Every waking moment where I wasn’t preoccupied or distracted with anything I cried. Like somebody pulled the plug and the water run out. And after that, even though I’m still ashamed whenever I display emotions, I know I have to feel them, I must feel them. Or else in the end of this ”no-feelings-cycle” there’s only emptyness which (in my case) can lead to addiction.

I wouldn’t wish DP/DR on my worst enemy. It’s one of the strangest and scariest ”headspaces” I’ve ever experienced.

[eliettalcantara]

Amazing how she describes it. Very accurate