Depersonalisation — when nothing feels real
All In The Mind
ABC listen
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Have you ever felt like things were not quite real?
That you were no longer connected to your body or didn’t know who you were?
Nathan Dunne felt this way for years. And it’s never quite stopped affecting the way he sees himself or the world around him.
Today, depersonalisation disorder — and what we know about its symptoms, causes and treatments.
And a heads up, this episode discusses heavy topics such as suicide. Please take care while listening.
Guests:
Nathan DunneAuthor, When Nothing Feels Real
Dr Emma CernisClinical psychologist and researcherAssisant Professor of Clinical PsychologyUniversity of BirminghamCentre Lead, Midlands Dissociation & Depersonalisation Centre
Credits:
- Presenter/Producer: Sana Qadar
- Reporter/Senior Producer: James Bullen
- Producer: Rose Kerr
- Sound Engineer: Tegan Nicholls
If you enjoyed this episode, you might like:
- Can we trust our memories?
- Memory loss and identity
- Dissociation and coping with trauma
- Depersonalisation — when Nathan lost his sense of self and nothing felt real (Conversations)
More Information:
When Nothing Feels Real - Nathan Dunne
Unreal: Depersonalisation and Derealisation Support
Support resources:
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | ABC Listen, Podcasts, Radio, News, Music and more. |
| 0:07.8 | Hello there, I'm Mark Fidel, and if you're tired of history podcasts that just |
| 0:11.8 | drone on for hours and hours and you just want something a bit different, well, check out |
| 0:17.4 | no one saw it coming. |
| 0:19.1 | Each week we hunt for the crucial moments, the inventions, the people, the stuff-ups even, |
| 0:24.0 | that changed the world that you did not learn about at school. |
| 0:27.2 | Like, did you know that the treadmill was actually invented as a torture device? |
| 0:32.2 | Kind of tracks, though, right? |
| 0:33.6 | Listen now on Radio National and the ABC Listen app. |
| 0:37.3 | This episode contains discussion of suicide. Take care while listening. Listen now on Radio National and the ABC Listen app. |
| 0:40.2 | This episode contains discussion of suicide. |
| 0:41.7 | Take care while listening. |
| 0:53.3 | I was living in London in 2008, and I was a student, |
| 0:58.4 | and I was in this brand new relationship with this completely enchanting woman called Maria and in a fit of spontaneity and real excitement we decided to go for this |
| 1:05.4 | midnight swim so we jumped on our bikes and the spot of water that was close by was in Hampstead. |
| 1:14.6 | Something happened to me during that swim which I've been trying to work out ever since, really. |
| 1:23.1 | It's taken a couple of decades. |
| 1:25.0 | But really that moment, that particular onset, was when |
| 1:29.0 | it's not hyperbole to say that my life really changed forever. |
| 1:32.9 | There's like a before and after that moment. |
| 1:36.6 | What happened was I had a severe out-of-body experience. |
| 1:42.9 | It was incredibly traumatic. |
... |
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