Have you ever been parasailing? I have.

As described by Wikipedia, Parasailing, also known as parascending, is a recreational activity where a person is towed behind a vehicle (usually a boat) while attached to a specially designed parachute.known as a parasail. The boat then drives off, carrying the parascender into the air.

I went once when I was on vacation in Lake Tahoe. This was when I was in college and was willing to risk life and limb just because a cute guy ran the parasailing boat.

After the fright and thrill of going up into the airharnessed to a parachute, something immediately grabs your attention. Silence. You can't hear ANYTHING, except perhaps the air blowing past your ears. You can see all the people down below, driving around in boats, waterskiing, wave running, frolicking. At ground level, the beach is a noisy place. Then up you go and the sound disappears completely. You suddenly feel strangely separated from the world. You know what's going on down there, you can see them and you understand what they're doing, but you get the clear sense that you could yell and scream and no one would hear you. You're there, but then again, you're not.

I was thinking about that experience the other day and it reminded me so much of how I felt when I suffered postpartum OCD. It was like an out-of-body experience; I was floating above my life watching all the people go about their dayand I couldn't successfully communicate with them. I couldn't connect to them. I was still there, but in a different place, and I didn't know how to come down out of that place by myself. Like the boat that eventually pullsthe parasailerback down to earth, it took professional help to bring me back to myself, my friends and my family. I got it, of course, and mercifully returned to the shore of my life.

For more on this, read "Profoundly Alone: The Disconnection of Postpartum Depression".