# memory lapses....familiar things become unfamiliar



## Dreamland (Jun 1, 2005)

Do you ever have slight memory lapses whereby familiar things seem unfamiliar all of a sudden? Like a word that you always use seems strange like it has lost its meaning? Or the name of a familiar landmark seems strange or foreign? You know that in reality in makes sense, but it's almost like day to day things are losing their emotional connection sometimes.


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## Lunar Lander (Feb 17, 2006)

Yes, that's a classic depersonalization symptom. I pretty much just chalk it up to anxiety crowding out your other emotions, including the sense of familiarity. There's a lot of things I can't feel quite as well until I distract myself and calm down.


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## Sojourner (May 21, 2005)

Anxiety.

Part of an elaborate scheme our minds create to help us defend ourselves against unwanted painful feelings that are trying to move from our unconscious mind into our conscious mind.

It's just another defense against feeling the feelings.

It's a drug, like alcohol.

If unaccompanied by other symptoms, it's entirely normal and everybody has those thoughts.

But the latching on to them as if they were significant or important is a key datum of evidence that we are avoiding something and will do nearly anything to continue to avoid it.

Everybody has strange thoughts -- and a thought like you describe is NOT derealization. It's entirely normal. It's perceiving your environment in its fullness. It's recognizing that everyday things can be seen every day but then not REALLY seen. It's normal -- wholly and entirely normal.


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