I cant say I have quite the same experience. Mine is generally like I know I exist but almost as if nothing else does. Walls, people so on. Needless to say this is a bit disconcerting when driving and you see the break lights of the car in front of you turn on but your brain is saying "oh you don't need to stop, its not really there". I have not discussed it with any therapist or anything because I already know what they are going to say and frankly I don't believe that what they will say is the case. Is it the norm? I don't believe so. Is it a mental health issue or problem? Not unless it is interfering with your ability to live your life. I believe they are going to say it's disassociation. Me personally I am not sure if that is the case. If it is then the act of day dreaming or zoning out can be considered disassociation because you can "see through" things to an extent when day dreaming. I choose to consider it a state between day dreaming and being locked into your mind completely and not. You are almost there but not quite. Kinda like looking at one of those posters that if you stare at it just right it makes a 3d image.... you have this moment where it keeps coming in and out or you can only see bits and pieces but not the whole thing. It's kind of the same feeling for me as when I look at those. So I don't know how common it is among the population, but I can tell you that you are not the only one.

hi thanks for the response....yeah I think I am not alone...but in my head i think i'm if that makes any sense.
I asked my T yesterday as I saw her, she said how long ago i had dissociated...as I have parts of self. It's been a while I said but lately been noticing this quite often, kind of different persona and mood changes...
it's all the same part and parcel of when it all began in 2010. As far as driving to work and it interfering, I imagine as I am driving, that I'm dying and I getting into an accident, the moment feels like it's still...like someone took a remote control and hit the pause button...the moment when someone hits the pause button and then presses on the play button, an eternity seems to have passed. Thoughts were lost, moments were lost, seconds are missed. I am still driving i can see, I can see the road, I can see the vehicles on either side, yet I don't see it, what is that? It's like been someplace and then not been there...used to happen to me a lot growing up as well..kind of thought i was going nuts, I think so much already that this seems like an added load of thinking. Mind is going bonkers as I am writing this. thanks for replying anyways. It was good to let it out and see it and read it actually, rather then imagine it and not talk about it

well I can assure you that your aren't going bonkers. Again, its kind of a tween state of the mind. If you consider the phenomenon of vivid dreaming. Dreams where they are so real that you can swear beyond a doubt that they actually happened and they even paste a hard memory in your long term memory. This I would say is a similar effect. When you day dream for instance you generally have no clue on what is going on in the world around you. You lock yourself up in your mind and to somewhere entirely different until you either choose to come back or are awakened rather rudely. There is a moment in there where you are in both places at the same time but not in either. Some can hold that state for a far longer period than others. This usually means you have a gift for sleep control as well. Meaning you can say "okay I need a nap but I have to let the dog in so I need to wait till she barks" the dog barks and you realize you were asleep but still were able to respond to the dog. If you are having a nightmare you can alter it so that it becomes less disconcerting. So what you are doing is the reverse of the falling feeling when you go to sleep. That said, you do need to be careful when doing that while driving because you could end up in an accident, but all in all I don't think it is an abnormal thing.

a matter of degrees i have had similar experiences ,, if it was a very stressful time or a stressor currently dealing iwith it could happen during my working years,,,,,, and usually as i worked on the underlying issues once i could identify then i did not experience as much,,,,,,, i have come to really appreciate a theory of degrees when i am disassociating and know i can always find something to help me get back to the pesent, i have been reading alot about the normal human experience of daydreaming where we lose some time, it seems to be a human commonality ,, a matter of degrees for each person for sure,, it was recommended to have a rubberband or some way or stimulus to snap back to present , i can surely relate you are in a normal range of it sounds like pretty common maybe assess stressors

thanks for the replies...I am seeing my T again today, has been a bad few days, not sure what else to add...it's just another day and still I think that I have left a part of me on the side and a part of me is breathing and watching the world go by!

sometimes watching it go by is exactly what we need. The world as a whole is a horribly fast paced place and lets face it... its gonna kill you if you always have to keep up with it. So sometimes sitting down and watching everyone else run around in a hurry is just what we need to do.

wow now that is a great piece of wisdom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well said and agree!!

thanks, the problem with watching is that I am watching myself go by and I am seeing myself behind as well..it's me all the time. I am done with people and trying to get something from them - I would care less about other people, what about self?
I talked to my T last evening during the session, certain things came out and she said that I was too uptight and I told her I was not. I was having this internal debate and then all of a sudden it kinda felt like what the heck I can let it go and I did and then I don't recall what happened...
its kinda similar for me to push down on the gas pedal but the car is not going anywhere and then u are realizing that u never turned the ignition key on...crap!
oh! well, thanks for all the replies...gonna get a jump start somewhere...I was sitting on the cloud while coming bak from work the other day, this lone cloud smack in the middle of the sky and I stopped driving (someone took over) i was sitting with my back to the world and wow did that feel awesome :)