“This is going to sound much more dramatic than I mean it to be, but have you ever had, like, one of those surreal out of body experiences? Not anything supernatural, but like when you glance a bottle, partially broken on the side of the road and think it’s you. Yeah, in a metaphorical sense, but there’s a millisecond where it feels literal. And it has nothing to do with depression or feeling fragile; it’s just this weird mind trick your brain plays. Or like when you hear sirens and wonder, again for the briefest millisecond, if the ambulance sirens are for you. You think ‘Did I blank out for a second and something happened to me?’ then life goes back to normal.”
Pause. “Yeah, I don’t know. I guess maybe. I haven’t really thought about it.”
She suppresses the urge to explain that it’s not something you “think about” and instead just responds with a “yeah.”