What an excellent description, Karilann! I truly understood that and I don't think anyone who hasn't experienced it could have said it better!

I used to have that same feeling. I told my neuro it was as if I was detached, looking down or back at what was happening around me, that I was still and the rest of the world was moving, or I was moving past everything. I told him it was like being the highest I have ever been without being high, like I was floating and drooling and no one noticed, like how it feels when you come out of anesthesia after surgery. I'd have to tell myself to breathe when it was happening or I wouldn't.

I never could explain it well enough for him to understand and that frustrated me and I quit trying. It happened when I was driving, in stores with crowds, fluorescent lights, heat, etc. It was a feeling of unreality like I never had before (well, I did, but that was back when I was a teenager and I stay away from those drugs now!)

It was my ophthalmologist who figured it out. It had to do with vision, perception, spatial awareness, cognition and how my brain was interpreting things that I saw as opposed to how I used to see and how my brain used to interpret things. It was a part of my relapses for years, and I hated it!

One thing I did, besides steroids, was to get an eye patch. It covered my bad eye when I had this feeling and honestly, within 5 minutes I would be fine! I'd put on the patch and sit quietly, or lay down for a few minutes and it would all stop. It sucked having to use the patch but it was the only thing that made it stop.

Hoshi, give the vision thing a try. Get tested. I had nystagmus, diplopia and a host of other words I can't even remember now! Thankfully it is all gone since Tysabri, but when my old neuro told me my MS wasn't "debilitating", I was incensed and very nastily said "Maybe not in YOUR world, but in mine it is HUGE!"

I got a new neuro after that! I kept the eye doc. He was the one who diagnosed me after my first clinical episode of ON.