Derealization

Derealization is an alteration in the perception of the external world that causes a person to perceive it as unreal, distant, distorted or otherwise falsified, along with a sense that one's environment lacks spontaneity, emotional coloring and depth. The DSM-5 describes it as a dissociative symptom that can appear during moments of severe stress, distinct from depersonalization, which involves dissociation from one's own body and mental processes rather than from the outside world, though the two commonly occur together. Chronic derealization is fairly rare and is linked to childhood trauma, with its severity correlating directly with the reported severity of childhood maltreatment, while brief derealization symptoms are common in the general population, with a lifetime prevalence estimated between 26 and 74 percent.