Why Does Everything Seem So Surreal After Brain Injury?

I suppose it is the nature of the beast, but I have always felt like the only person having had this occur, or neurology would not comprehend what they hadn't experienced. But like anything, it can be verbalized and thereby imagined by others. At the age of 11, I was accosted in the schoolyard, and kicked extremely hard in the face. Losing a tooth or consciousness didn't trouble me as much as finding the world was now foreign to me. I knew I should be in it, but now was only observing it as through a window. It was terrifying. I couldn't explain it to anyone. I tried to tell my mother, and saw a GP and psychiatrist, who put me on chlordiazepoxide because all they could see was my anxiety...I have remained anxious since my condition never changed. That was 1975. Since then I have tried to do what other people I observed did, but in spite of graduate school, of my IQ and potential, find myself in my 3rd marriage, unable to hold a job (10-years now), and stressed by every event, noise, or movement I encounter. I fear being alone, but also burdening another with being incapacitated by the 2-dimensional world I see.

I suffered a spinal injury as a kid playing basketball. Knee to my lower back as I was coming down from a rebound and my body went numb and hit the ground. Head too and instantly blacked out. I don’t remember hardly anything about my childhood, possibly related. Not even sure how old I was when this happened. Don’t even remember being in an ambulance and the hospital stay. I do remember always comparing life to a movie or dream and that nothing seemed real.

Only as an adult have I started noticing the complications of this persistent disassociated state. From mood swings, to irrational decisions, to interactions with people being shallow and others not seeming real. Partly because it’s almost like I forget that I’m even looking at another human being.

It’s like my memory is so fragmented. My experiences of life are compartmentalized and only accessible depending on my “state of mind.” Lots of back problems growing up. Lots of behavioral problems. I never considered that the injury could have caused some significant change and it was never discussed with me. I just correlated it all to stress at home.

There’s times when I feel like completely different people because I guess my brain has problems correlating specific experiences in the moment with my entire self as a whole. Past and present.

Good write life is a darn move, but it is your life.

Great article and something I have experienced following a head injury last year with intracranial hypotension and a subdural haematoma. The surreal nature of recovery is quite unusual. As a musician I have used it within the creative process to write songs inspired by my slightly altered reality. I'm lucky.

Brain surgery... for 14 years I “felt” like I was watching myself in a movie everyday. No one believed me.. drs thought I was nuts.. ‘Cause their surgery went perfect’ lol It was bizzaro world and very frightening. I eventually lived on anxiety, checked myself into psych hospitals cause I thought I was nuts.
Then one day.. literally walked out of grocery store and it’s like I just stepped back into my body before surgery.
It was strange and wonderful, I cried. I was me, again.

Years ago my Doctors didnt believe me when I told them I felt like I was having outer body experiences. Like I was watching myself. When I had flooding before It was called flooding I could hear myself crying, speaking, or yelling but it wasn't me. Like I was watching this person control all my emotions and I had no control. It was scary. I was told a few years ago, I had what they call a "deep" head injury.
I went head 1st through the side door window of a car- opening the window with my head on impact from the other car. She was going estimated 55mph. We were stopped. I was in the back seat, exactly where she hit. My head was split open in the front as my body, in shock landed on the sidewalk with the back of my head banging up against the corner of the side walk.
When I woke in the hospital I knew I had parents but couldn't remember what they looked liked. My sisters and brothers - I felt like I didnt really know who these people were.
My mother and I well it was just awful. I thought she was just mean and she thought I was being a brat.
I was having trouble hearing and everything sounded muffled.
I struggled to understand what people were saying. If I said I didnt hear or understand and asked... I was told I was a liar and got punished. My thoughts all came right out my mouth - I had no control over it. My music was to loud for my mom. She would lower it and I couldn't hear it. She would disagree and become very angry and fustrated with me. This was on going.
Eventually they took me to get my ears checked and sure enough my ear drum was barely reactive. I couldn't understand what the tester was saying because she covered her mouth.
I pushed myself to get better and go back to school. I was lost - very lost. In a chronic state of confusion. I actually couldn't really understand much. I would be in the halls feeling like I was watching myself -watching everyone around me. This happened for several years after my TBI. 1985

very helpful to read, 20 years in from multiple concussions over a small span of time, I often say to family members I feel like Im outside looking in, viewing a world in technicolour, and as a joke flicking the lightswitch here in my house but turning the light on in the room 3 houses down ..... I kinda am getting better at dealing with it and it comes and goes, but anxiety always seems to lie there just under the surface.... keep up the good fight people, you are not alone ....

I was in an accident October of 2000. I don’t know what happened. I don’t remember anything at all. My injuries did not match where or what I was doing. I lost all memory of my life and people in it. One and a half years later my memory came back due to a drug I had taken. I had some long term issues due to the accident and some short term ones that are thankfully now gone. However, I don’t feel like I’m from here anymore. I don’t mean this area or my hometown. I mean this planet. This is not my home. This body may have started here but who or what’s inside is different. As if a voyager on a far off mission sent here to do what I’m unsure. I am knowledgeable about things I shouldn’t know anything about. I’m am driven by an unexplainable force I cannot stop and yet still have no clue where it’s taking me. What I have learned about this planet is that it is filled of a world full of learned responses blind to the true realities of life and this world. The primitive nature of our existence is just that, primitive and somewhat disappointing. This planet is a vacation destination for the universe. A melting pot of universal species forced to live on the same rock.

What you don’t understand is that I now see they the filters of society and learned behavior. On this planet anything is possible if you know how to do it. Literally anything. We are only confined by our inabilities to see past our own hinderance of imagination and belief that anything is truly possible. We are given a gift to live on this rock. This planet of possibilities. I am here for reasons I have yet to figure out. I walk among you in the masses and yet do not belong.

Life is daily, never forget. Perspective is everything.

I had a high grade TBI 6 years ago from a car accident. Saturday 4 days ago I banged my head hard. I feel like I’m dreaming and don’t have emotional feelings inside right now, but other things feel quite amazing. Like my bath water feels like silk but my close feel awful. I just don’t want to be going backward it took 2.5 years in regard and I’ve just regained my word flow. I’m scared.

Since 2006 and a brain injury I have experienced situations similar to the movie the adjustment bureau and star trek next generation parallels season 7 episode 11 almost as if I exist or experience a parallel reality. It now 12 years later and I have come to grips that what we consider life as linear is not what I experience. I would not wish this experience on any one I welcome my return back home one day.

About 3 months ago I suffered a concussion only about a month and a half after having another concussion. I'm 18 years old and have had 6 concussions in my life and 4 of those are in the past year and a half. The symptoms from the 5 previous concussions were all the same with a headache, some nausea, and maybe some dizziness. However, my last concussion was a lot different. As soon as I got hit in the head, I had a lot of ringing in my ears and had confusion and shortly after, the derealization began to start. I had very bad anxiety trying to dealing with this from that day until around 2 months later. I was desperately searching the internet searching for other people who had this feeling and if it would go away when I came upon this thread. Reading these comments made my anxiety so much worse because I was reading these stories about how their derealization hadn't gone away for years and were still dealing with it and I never thought I would return back to normal. I just want anyone that comes upon this thread with a similar story to mine or anyone with derealization to know that IT CAN go away. For me it took around 2 and a half months for it to really go away. The brain is a slow healing organ and it does not go away instantly like I was and I'm sure you are hoping for. It takes time. I know all you want to do is just stay and inside and not move or go anywhere but BELIEVE ME after a certain amount of time resting, go outside and do things. It's very scary I know because everything feels unreal or like a dream, but you have to do your best to try and push through it. The more you do this the better it's gonna help you. You CAN get better and I know it's very hard to believe that you will, but there are plenty or people out there including myself who have gotten better out there and returned to normal. And for the people who have commented on this thread and have had derealization for years, I have the upmost and tremendous respect for you. It feels like a nightmare every second of every single day and the fact that you all go out and live your lives or even if you don't is incredible. This was by far one of the hardest or the hardest thing I have ever gone through in my life both emotionally and physically. I know how difficult it is to really explain to people how it feels and it's impossible for someone to really understand how it feels unless they have gone through it themselves. So again, the fact that you all choose to go out and live your lives with this is ridiculously brave. I just want to help people that come to this thread understand that their lives aren't over and that there is hope. If anyone ever wants someone to talk to about this or how they are feeling feel free to email me at adam9129129@gmail.com. DONT LOSE HOPE.