Hey, Deserving listeners, I thought I would answer patron emails. I feel like it's been a while

since I've done this, and I'm looking forward to it. This first email is from super long-term patron,

middle-tier patron, annual patron, Alex from Toronto. She says, hi, Dr. Kirk. I sometimes experience

a psychological state. I wondered if you could help me put a name to.

So Alex from Toronto has a psychological state that they would like a name to. Now, of course, I can't

diagnose from afar, but we can hypothesize here. I described it to a friend who witnessed it as a power saving mode, and that seemed

accurate to her as an astute observer who knows me well. I should chime in right now and say that

there's a chance I already answered this email in a previous episode, but I don't think I have. I think I answered a similar email,

but we'll answer it again. How about that? All right, so I described this psychological state to a

friend who witnessed it as a power-saving mode. I'm not outside of my body, but it feels heavy, and I'm very inside my body with the world seemingly separated from me by a glass wall.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I answered another email that was similar in terms of it seemingly like a dissociative state.

But let's highlight some of these details.

I'm not outside my body, so Alex is saying it's not experienced as being outside my body.

So that's a key element of this experience that can help us zero in on a possible hypothesis.

And then she says it feels heavy.

By the way, right off the bat, it sounds like a possible candidate for dissociation in that

the way that people will describe it is often filled with these kinds of descriptors

where it's described as like it feels heavy, but it's not heavy. It feels like I'm in the back

of my head, but I'm not in the back of my head. It feels like I'm there, but I'm not there.

And if you've never experienced association or you don't study or treat it, it can sound bizarre,

or it can maybe even sound mundane, right? Because in a certain way, we've always had

moments where we don't really feel exactly connected to the room around us, you know, that kind of thing, or we're daydreaming or where we kind of zone out.

...