# The solution is simple. Being patient is hard.



## Thidwick (May 30, 2012)

To those who suffer:

DP/DR is a bitch. There's no getting around that. But it's that panic and anxiety that perpetuates the condition. As DP is, at its core, an anxiety disorder, the answer is quite simple -- stop worrying! This sounds overly simple and is something you've probably heard many times before. But, because DP is caused by heightened levels of anxiety and panic, it's the one surefire way to solve the problem. You guys all know what DP is. Many of you have probably studied it endlessly. Armed with this knowledge, now is the time to take a step back and start the road to recovery. However, recovery is so difficult to obtain because it requires patience.

What I mean is that, once you understand that you must stop panicking and accept your condition, you must have the patience of an elephant to weather the storm of recovery. In some ways, crossing the finish line can be the hardest step in the recovery process. For some, DP/DR lingers for so long that it becomes their default state, and feelings of reality are foreign and scary, leading to more anxiety and panic. Others find that they simply are too impatient for a full recovery to occur. They improve, but because they don't improve as quickly as they would like, they worry about their recovery and begin analyzing their symptoms again, causing them to backslide in their recovery.

One thing that helped me greatly when I first recovered from DP was a story I read online about a girl who experienced mental dissociation as a result of childhood trauma. However, she didn't panic when she was in a dissociated state. She used those feelings as a shelter from the trauma and anxiety, and, because she didn't fear those feelings, they held no power over her. I firmly believe that dissociation is a defense mechanism your mind implements to counter extremely high levels of stress and anxiety. The problem is that we don't allow it to work correctly. By fearing our fear, we create an anxiety loop that seems unbreakable.

Get your mind off of DP. Don't spend all your time online researching it or talking about it on forums. When you do, you're signaling to your mind that you're anxious and afraid, and it prevents recovery. Learning to allow DP to float around in your mind without analyzing it or panicking is very difficult. But I promise you that it works. You can begin your recovery today, but you have to be committed to fully, 100% accepting your condition and stop the analyzing and panic. Then you have to be patient -- it may take hours, days, weeks, or longer, but you will soon find that DP doesn't hold the power that it once does. Be fearless, and fear will depart from you.

"The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part"


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## Sueallan (Apr 5, 2014)

Do you guys get depresses. I get the impression that dp has gone down a bit..as in some of the awkward fog has gone but now i'm really depressed. But i'm numb and emotioneless at the same time does that make sense??


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## Thidwick (May 30, 2012)

Sueallan said:


> Do you guys get depresses. I get the impression that dp has gone down a bit..as in some of the awkward fog has gone but now i'm really depressed. But i'm numb and emotioneless at the same time does that make sense??


Yeah, it does. It seems that your anxiety is fading... but since there are still symptoms, you worry about them. Recovery isn't about not experiencing symptoms of DP -- it's about not caring about those symptoms. You'll recover when you no longer care if the thoughts, depressions, numbness, etc. are there, and after a while the symptoms will fade, too.


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## Guest (Apr 13, 2014)

Thidwick said:


> To those who suffer:
> 
> DP/DR is a bitch. There's no getting around that. But it's that panic and anxiety that perpetuates the condition. As DP is, at its core, an anxiety disorder, the answer is quite simple -- stop worrying! This sounds overly simple and is something you've probably heard many times before. But, because DP is caused by heightened levels of anxiety and panic, it's the one surefire way to solve the problem. You guys all know what DP is. Many of you have probably studied it endlessly. Armed with this knowledge, now is the time to take a step back and start the road to recovery. However, recovery is so difficult to obtain because it requires patience.


I'll just talk about your first paragraph..

Dp, at it's core, is not an anxiety disorder. It's a dissociative disorder.

Dp is not caused by heightened levels of anxiety. Anxiety can be a trigger and can perpetuate dp, but it's not the cause.

I don't agree all we need to do is to stop worrying. I agree it's a part of the solution, but there's more to this disorder than just worrying too much. When you think about it, there's a reason why dp people worry and are anxious in the first place. It's not just a case of being unfortunate, and you happened to score excessive worrying. There's a reason why. Find the reason why you worry and what makes you anxious in the first place. We come into this world free from the burdens of worry and anxiety. Our interactions with the world create our anxiety and worry. It's no accident.


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## Guest (Apr 13, 2014)

Malcolm said:


> I'll just talk about your first paragraph..
> 
> Dp, at it's core, is not an anxiety disorder. It's a dissociative disorder.
> 
> ...


So much truth!

I think HH said "You didn't get DP from worrying about it cuz you didn't have it then so why would stop worrying about it cure it" lol".


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## Guest (Apr 13, 2014)

seafoam mellow said:


> So much truth!
> 
> I think HH said "You didn't get DP from worrying about it cuz you didn't have it then so why would stop worrying about it cure it" lol".


That's a good one! And so very true...


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