Transient and mild episodes of DP are relatively common in the general population, often related to everyday phenomena such as fatigue 29, sleep deprivation 30, or travelling to new places 31. In the pre-pandemic context, DP had a prevalence of around 1–2% of the population 25, 26, 27, which is comparable to, for example, schizophrenia 28. They reported that persistent burn-out may contribute to depersonalization symptoms and acute stress. 24 assessed the relationship between anxiety and depression symptoms and the development of post-traumatic symptoms in a population of frontline health workers. For example, several studies 21, 22, 23 reported an increase of psychological distress, especially anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The ensuing uncertainty and social distancing requirements have increased stress and anxiety levels in the general population 18, 19, and seems to aggravate symptoms for those with pre-existing mental health conditions 20. Numerous studies suggest that these changes significantly impact people’s mental health worldwide 14, 15, 16, 17. Yet, the current exceptional context allows examination ‘in the wild’ of whether lockdown-related changes affect people’s sense of self and presence in the world, and particularly feelings of DP. Now, experimentally induced social isolation and its impact on one’s self is ethically impossible to study in the lab. The COVID-19 pandemic presents us with a situation in which people are strongly encouraged to drastically change their lifestyle habits, to isolate themselves from others, and to maintain social distance. In December 2019, the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Wuhan, China and a state of pandemic was officially declared by the Emergency Safety Committee of the International Health Regulations. These distressing feelings of being estranged from one’s self and ensuing social isolation and distancing from others 9, 10 is a common complaint among people experiencing DP. Importantly, people experiencing DP report a significant impact of this self-detachment on the quality of their social and emotional life: “Feeling unreal and disconnected from my body and the world around me caused me to lose interest in the people and hobbies I used to love” 8, P. Emotional flatness or numbness, as well as atypical emotional processing are core features of DP 12, 13. the experience of being present and immersed in a real world here and now 11. This dramatic ‘split’ between the self, the body and the world is often reported by those with DP as ‘having a pane of glass’ interposed between one’s self, body and the world 9, 10, affecting one’s sense of ‘realness’, i.e. It’s like I’m on autopilot in somebody else’s body” 8, P. It’s like I’m floating, not actually experiencing the world, and slowly fading away into nothing. DP induces distressing feelings of being detached or ‘estranged’ from one’s self and body and/or one’s surroundings (derealisation): “I look in the mirror and it does not feel like myself I’m looking at. Depersonalisation (DP henceforth) is a common dissociative experience characterised by profound alterations of one’s sense of self 6, 7. The sense of self, the subjective experience of being an ‘I’ or a ‘self’ bound to my body as distinct from the world and others, is a key feature of our mental life 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Our study points to potential risks related to overly sedentary, and hyper-digitalised lifestyle habits that may induce feelings of living in one’s ‘head’ (mind), disconnected from one’s body, self and the world. Our findings may help to address key questions regarding well-being during a lockdown, in the general population. Finally, participants who reported that lockdown influenced their life to a greater extent had higher occurrences of depersonalisation experiences. We also found that the participants reporting higher experiences of depersonalisation, also reported enhanced vividness of negative emotions (as opposed to positive emotions). We found that increased use of digital media-based activities and online social e-meetings correlated with higher feelings of depersonalisation. We have conducted an online study of 622 participants worldwide to investigate the relationship between digital media-based activities, distal social interactions and peoples’ sense of self during the lockdown as contrasted with before the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic forcing millions of people to socially distance themselves from others and to change their lifestyle habits. Depersonalisation is a common dissociative experience characterised by distressing feelings of being detached or ‘estranged’ from one’s self and body and/or the world.

Dissociation vs depersonalization