6 Signs You Are Disconnected from Yourself & What to Do

If you feel as though you’re floating away emotionally, you could be disconnected from yourself. Yes, you can be present, but also not there at all.

Feeling disconnected from yourself doesn’t mean you’re high or having a near-death experience. Disconnection means feeling detached from the real person. It sometimes feels like walking through dense fog or going through the day as a zombified version of yourself.

Indicators that you’re disconnected from yourself

So, here’s the good part about that. There’s no need to fish around or ask others about how you act. You can recognize on your own, a few signs that point toward disconnection. Here’s how to recognize what’s going on in your life.

1. Feeling unsettled

Do you sometimes feel irritable for no reason? Well, yes, there could be several reasons for that, including hormones, problems with other people, or lack of sleep.

But if you take inventory of all these things, and they seem peachy, then you could be disconnecting and floating off somewhere else. When you come back to yourself, in that jolt of realization, you may feel angry or moody. Suddenly everything around you feels like a nuisance.

2. Mindlessly eating

Eating when you’re hungry is normal. But eating mindlessly is not. If you’re not familiar with this habit, let me refresh you.

Mindless eating is eating when your brain is distracted, and the person is not aware of how much or sometimes what they’re eating. But this is just a simple definition. There are other factors.

When you start detaching from yourself, there may be moments when you dive into a bag of chips and never stop eating until the bag is empty. And to be clear, this is an economy bag. You know, one of those huge family sizes.

And sometimes you’re not even hungry at all. It’s a sign that you’re losing something valuable about who you are, and you’re giving yourself to overindulgence.

3. Out of touch with others

Maybe you’re an introvert, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s not the same as disconnection.

You see, an introvert chooses people they want to be around, but the reason they prefer to be alone doesn’t mean that they disconnect from themselves, oh no. It doesn’t matter what your basic characteristics are when you disconnect.

When you start to split off from yourself, you lose touch with people who mean something to you. This can happen to anyone, and it manifests in absences that can span years of lost time. When you disconnect, you simply forget about things around you, even the people you love.

4. No meaning/no purpose

Where there once was a dream, now stands a dead tree with no leaves. This is how it can feel inside a person who’s disconnected from the world around them. How do I know? I am sure you’re wondering. I’ve disconnected from myself on numerous occasions, and it’s why I seek professional help for that issue.

When you disconnect from yourself, those powerful things that drove you forward start to fade in your rearview mirror.

You no longer care if you get a degree, you’ve lost the passion to chase your dream of honing your craft, and the saddest of all, you’ve just given up. And so, you’ve begun to detach, leaving behind a husk of a wonderful person.

5. You’re out of touch with emotions

Something happened, and you should be angry about it. And yet, you sit and wander off in your blurry thoughts. You see, with detachment, you lost touch with how you feel.

In fact, you’re confused and don’t know how to feel about things. When you should be happy, you can’t seem to feel it. There’s a blockage. And we’ve talked about mental blockages many times before. Yes, they can grow great enough to cause detachment.

6. Too much emotion

On the flip side of your emotions, you could be taking in too many feelings at once. When you become overwhelmed with emotional issues, causing stressful situations, you may start to check out.

While others are vying for your constant attention and needs, you go to a place far away from yourself to avoid the destruction your stress could potentially cause.

While it may seem like this is a good way to remove the stress from your life, it’s an illusion. Everything you’re avoiding by checking out will be there when you return.

It’s like drinking or partaking in substances to kill emotional pain. Stress happens, and sometimes we detach to stay away from its tendrils of toxicity.

How can we minimize our detachment phases?

If you recognize these symptoms for yourself, and you know you’ve started to disconnect from yourself, it’s not too late to remedy that problem. There are a few exercises that may help.

1. When you start feeling irritable for no reason, take inventory

Did you take your prescription medications? Have you eaten today? Are you angry at someone but holding it inside? There are many reasons why you may be angry. Confront them, and this can bring you back down to earth.

2. Take notice when you’re eating that entire bag of chips

If you can catch yourself in mid-bag, stop and think about whether you’re really that hungry. If not, then put that bag away, drink a glass of water and give yourself a few minutes to feel the fullness of your stomach.

Realize where that massive round of munching was really coming from, and then you can hold tighter to yourself in the future.

3. Reconnecting to others

If you’re falling out of touch with others, you don’t have to immediately start going to parties to force your consciousness back into its shell. Simple make a phone call, send a text, or meet up for coffee to touch base with friends and loved ones.

You would be amazed by how grounding this feels. It works.

4. Start dreaming again

Start setting goals for your future, no matter your age. Make a list in the morning of everything you want to strive for during the day. Then make a separate list of things you want in the long term.

5. When you notice you’re becoming numb to emotions, meditate

Come back to the present times, away from past hurts and disappointments. Clear your mind from clutter so you can handle all the new incoming emotional aspects of your life. Then start again, trying harder to see and address your true emotions and reactions.

6. Feeling too much?

Yes, that will make you disconnect from yourself. Meditation also works well for this too. Calming your mind, finding a center where everything meets nothing can bring your life into perspective.

Then during your waking hours in this world of illusions, you can handle your bombarding emotions much better. Just try it. Lose yourself to get back in touch.

Let’s try to stay connected

It’s much worse than you think to become disconnected from yourself. Too much of this for too many years can lead to depression, anxiety, or worse.

I know because I’ve lived it and went too far. But the thing is, and I’ve always said this. There is always hope. I hold on to hope with bloody hands and refuse to give up. This is what I speak over you today.

Go forth and be present.

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