Derealization-depersonalization disorder is not enlightenment! Stop telling people that it is please

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on here from people saying they don’t feel like themselves or they feel like they live their lives through some kind of lens. This is not healthy nor is it enlightenment. We can argue and discuss what it means to be enlightened, but the effects of this disorder are quite severe and do not benefit the individual.

If you feel like you’re living your own life through a lens or that everyday you are playing some sort of game through your body, you should seek professional psychological help. I say this due to my own experience with the disorder, which I once believed was “enlightenment.” The sad truth is that this problem prevented me from experiencing my own thoughts and emotions as fully and authentically as possible. Before you write some long paragraph about why I’m wrong ask yourself this: would all the wise teachers of history and myth really advocate for you to be separated from your own thoughts, emotions, body, or life?

I write all of this not out of hatred or a desire to prove myself right, but rather out of love. Once you stop feeling like yourself or like you’re not living your own life, you are no longer truly in touch with yourself. There’s a difference between mindfulness and drug-induced derealization/depersonalization or even psychosis. Masters of meditation and prayer don’t see their lives through a lens or become dissociated, they become more in-touch with themselves and capable of control through practice of cognitive self-discipline.

Please be careful out there and, if anything, stop smoking or tripping for a while and see how you feel.

With love and respect,

A concerned psychonaut