depersonalization

n. A state of mind in which a person,s experiences seem strange, unreal, and foreign to him or her so that he or she feels as if he/she is watching life rather than living it. Most people feel this way on occasion, and it is characteristic of persons who have been avoiding difficult choices in life and those who suffer from depression, hypochondriasis, dissociative states, temporal lobe epilepsy, and early stages of schizophrenia.