I don't know that I believe that reality is something that means anything outside of your perception. There's common thought experiments like the Boltzmann brain which kind of get at what I'm saying, but my point is that all you can rely on for what reality means is based entirely within your perception, so why should anything other than that perception matter? As for how that picture of reality has existed for me personally, it has started to feel a lot more cohesive and understandable over time. Things actually feel like they go together in a way with consistent internal logic and cause and effect operates in a way I can follow, which has not always been the case for me.