Anonymous Caller I feel like I'm going insane.. Somebody tell me why everything feels so much more real when I'm dreaming than when I'm awake. How do I know if this isn't all just some dream or elaborate illusion? I feel like I'm falling towards the sky and I can't ever stop. I don't feel right, I feel like I'm dying from the inside out. Like my mind is in turmoil. I feel pain, emotional pain. And I just want to forget everything because it all brings so much pain to me. -Zelphie Haibane Reki Sounds to me less like you're going insane, and more like you're feeling acutely...human. Dreams some times feel more real than real, just because they can. They are composed of what stimulates and exites you. Real life doesn't come with that rather cool bonus. Sure, we want to get lost in dreams and not have to deal with mundane, real, life, but then it goes and wakes us up, and pulls us back in. Haibane Reki Is this all a dream? Better people than me have spent lifetimes talking that question over. How do you know? You don't. But you just try to live your life, as though the answer to the question doesn't matter. Do the best you can. And hope. Haibane Reki You feel lost, like you could float away at any instant. You don't feel right. You hurt inside. That's not crazy. That's pretty normal...but a lot of us just try to work over, around, and through it. A few of us try means of escaping it, but that usually doesn't work out too well. Forgetting everything won't make the pain go away. It will just mean that you hurt, but won't know why. And really, that's just worse, 'cause you won't know what to do about it. So, why do you hurt? Nobody can answer that question for you, least of all me. But if you can figure it out, you are all that much closer to figuring out what you can do to make the pain less. But I can't say as I can promise you that it will ever go away, completely. Some things are there, they may shrink, they may fade, that will always be there. But at least they'll be something that you can deal with. Like loosing someone you were really close to. Haibane Reki You want to avoid drifting off? Ground yourself. The best way to do that is with the people you love. (And, no, I don't mean the perfect guy/girl, just someone you care about who cares about you.) If you don't have any with you, go to them. If you don't have any at the moment, find some. If you care for someone you want to be there for them. So you're here, in the moment, and not just mired in your own miseries. They are here, for you, as someone to share your happiness with to make it grow, and support you in your pain, to make it less, something you can handle.