Certainly this is not a new occurrence as a reaction to media of any kind. Some of my favorite novels have left me experiencing a similar melange of feelings and detachment from the real world (not to a severe extent by any means). Turning the last page has left me with the reminder that not only will I not ever be able to experience the world of the novel in a physical sense, but won't even be able experience the thrill and excitement of vicariously living the story of the characters through reading, not knowing what will happen next.
Having experienced slight feelings of melange/detachment following novels, video games, and movies in the past, and having experienced what this article is describing: it's not quite the same feeling.
With movies/novels/etc., I've always experienced what you're describing as something similar to a feeling of loss--the world you experienced or the story you were involved in or the characters you cared about will no longer be there as a new experience, no longer have new experiences as characters, etc. That 'world' is gone.
With VR, even if I don't really miss the experience, I've experienced what I'd describe as a "readjustment" phase of between 10 minutes and a couple hours (depending on length of experience and how recently I'd been in VR) where the real world feels disconnected/less real. It's a much more intense and visceral feeling, and doesn't have the same undertone of 'loss' that movies/novels have. It isn't a "Man, I'm not actually a space pilot in the year 3000" feeling, or a "I'll never be able to experience that world again" feeling, it's more of a visceral disassociation from the real world, as though my senses don't feel like they can quite trust the inputs they're receiving anymore.
