Eyes closed, where are you? One arm carefully out to the side, nothing. Hand feeling for a wall on the other side, nothing. So you are in middle of some lost and lonely room, not yours. (You know this because you have always had a wall to lean on, one side or another). The idea is to find a
frame of reference without looking around. Quiet, if there is anyone watching you, you do not know about it. If there is anybody at all concerned about your detachment, you do not want to know. It should be easy for you now to surface or submerge,
you can still choose. Sink back.
Sometimes there is denial: Nu-uh, I wasn't asleep. I didn’t miss a thing. No, really, I just had my eyes closed because I was thinking, I NEVER sleep. (Yeah, kid, whatever. We know depression when we see it.)
Again you are awake, it comes smoothly so that you are just aware. Keep those eyes shut, I’m telling you. There is no need to discover where you have been, how long you have been gone. What you need know least of all is what you have been doing while you were checked out. It was nothing, it was just a way of passing time. Looking around can come soon, as long as you are awake now.
Point to the sleep creases on your arms and faces as proof that you have, indeed, slept. (Point to the scars on your arms.) It is the right thing to do, if they really need this proof.
This time you wake with a start, sit up. Turns out it is your room, only bare. If you have packed everything away you do not remember doing it, you do not recall moving into an island center of the carpet. You do not remember stranding yourself, but you have, and you are finally ready to come back.