# 20,000 people



## Brando2600 (Apr 22, 2010)

Nearly 20,000 people have joined this site since, what, 2004 is it? I wonder if we could use this data to estimate how many people get DP.

I just did a google search and it seems that 20,000 people is about this much:


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## SaraBro (Feb 23, 2011)

and how many that recover from it...

and... it's probarly alot more people who have it, that didn't join this site.


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## Brando2600 (Apr 22, 2010)

According to this website 28.7% of the world have access to the internet.

People on earth in 2010: 6,845,609,960
Internet Users: 360,985,492
People on this site: 20,000

Now lets assume that ALL people with DP and internet access join this site (I know that's not the case).

20,000 / 360,985,492 = .00005

This means that MORE THAN .00005% of the population on earth has had DP and internet since around 2004.

or

More than 1 out of every 20,000 people has had DP and internet since around 2004.

(is it coincidence that the number 20,000 showed up again, or did I do something wrong?)


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

Imagine a stadium full of dp'd people.


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## York (Feb 26, 2008)

surfingisfun001 said:


> Imagine a stadium full of dp'd people.


 I don't know if I want to laugh or cry..


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## resonantblue (Mar 15, 2011)

surfingisfun001 said:


> Imagine a stadium full of dp'd people.


 kind of a hilarious idea for some reason..


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

sara said:


> and how many that recover from it...
> 
> and... it's probarly alot more people who have it, that didn't join this site.


I did my own estimate a while back, based on the total number of registered users on this site and saying that all those who no longer post are recovered, it comes out to be that 98.75% of people recover from dp. Those are very high odds and I think pretty accurate based on what I've seen in my year and a half being here.


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

surfingisfun001 said:


> Imagine a stadium full of dp'd people.


That would be the saddest stadium EVER.


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## Jayden (Feb 9, 2011)

surfingisfun001 said:


> Imagine a stadium full of dp'd people.


I don't know why but I found this funny


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## Monochrome (Mar 11, 2011)

surfingisfun001 said:


> Imagine a stadium full of dp'd people.


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## Brando2600 (Apr 22, 2010)

ValleyGirl said:


> That would be the saddest stadium EVER.


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## resonantblue (Mar 15, 2011)

from Wikipedia:

"Men and women are diagnosed in equal numbers with depersonalization disorder. A 1991 study on a sample from Winnipeg, Manitoba, estimated the prevalence of depersonalization disorder at 2.4% of the population.[26] A 2008 review of several studies estimated the prevalence between 0.8% and 2%."


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## TheStarter (Oct 19, 2010)

surfingisfun001 said:


> Imagine a stadium full of dp'd people.


That'll be a unforgettable moment in my life


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## Brando2600 (Apr 22, 2010)

resonantblue said:


> A 2008 review of several studies estimated the prevalence between 0.8% and 2%."


But by the 2% that means that one in fifty people have a predisposition. That doesn't seem anywhere near the actual number...


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## Guest (Mar 22, 2011)

Brando2600 said:


> Nearly 20,000 people have joined this site since, what, 2004 is it? I wonder if we could use this data to estimate how many people get DP.
> 
> I just did a google search and it seems that 20,000 people is about this much:


thats way more than 20,000 people
btw more than just 1 in 20,000 has dp. More likely 1 in 1000?
Many people dont realize they have dp. My thoughts are only like 40% are aware of it, or even less.
I think it can be even compared with schizophrenia, which is a common disorder affected by around 0.8% of the world population.


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## = n (Nov 17, 2004)

Brando2600 said:


> Nearly 20,000 people have joined this site since, what, 2004 is it? I wonder if we could use this data to estimate how many people get DP.
> 
> I just did a google search and it seems that 20,000 people is about this much:


If the global population is 7 billion and 2 % of them have DP, i made that to be 140 million DPd people. Thats a hell of a lot of stadiums full of people; we can start our own country!

BUT - there are probably less that 7 billion on earth people at present. Global incidence may differ from coutry to country. STILL- i reckon there are probably 100 million or more people with this disorder worldwide.


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## chunks (Apr 6, 2011)

ValleyGirl said:


> I did my own estimate a while back, based on the total number of registered users on this site and saying that all those who no longer post are recovered, it comes out to be that 98.75% of people recover from dp. Those are very high odds and I think pretty accurate based on what I've seen in my year and a half being here.


i like ur thinking


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

I have heard that 2% of the population has DP from a few different sources but I simply can't buy that statistic. That means that 2 out of every 100 people have DP. 1 out of every 50 people?!?! No way. Not at all. That would mean that 1 out of every 50 people you come in contact with during your day has DP. That would mean there were 60 kids at my high school who suffered from DP. That would mean that a few people on each block have DP. If this were the case DP would be well known. DP isn't even known by most mental health professionals. How is it even possible to arrive at that statistic anyways? I imagine a survey was done asking the question, "do you sometimes feel like you are in a dream." In which many people who hadn't drank their coffee that morning replied "yes." 2% of the population has DP = bullshit. More like .02%


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## Visual (Oct 13, 2010)

surfingisfun001 said:


> Imagine a stadium full of dp'd people.


It might be fun - as long as we don't all get a panic attack at the time


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## Guest (May 25, 2011)

Brando2600 said:


> Nearly 20,000 people have joined this site since, what, 2004 is it? I wonder if we could use this data to estimate how many people get DP.
> 
> I just did a google search and it seems that 20,000 people is about this much:


Using this site or any internet forum is not good for statistical data like this.

1. There are people who have registered under various names over the years ... some under 3 or more.

2. MANY people are self-diagnosed which doesn't make for a very controlled study

3. Out of those who have computers (and that may be WORK or HOME) or computer access (Library/Cafe, etc.) many may
be as private about their concerns, perhaps moreso. Many with such problems DO NOT SEEK HELP in real life for
the fear of being "labeled" or thought of as "crazy." Shame, stigma, yada.

4. Also, this is a website geared mainly towards those who are fluent in English. It is international in scope, but
there used to be a German site some years back, there are OTHER sites in other languages.

5. Some cultures are far less likely to discuss such problems as well.

6. The statistics that seem to keep coming up though are from CLINICAL STUDIES over decades. And the number comes up 
as being 1-2% having Depersonalization DISORDER. The DISORDER has very specific criteria -- and length of time and
chronicity are important. Someone who has DP/DR with panic attacks would be considered having DP SECONDARY to panic

7. We recognize the similarities of our experiences here, but that doesn't mean they all came from the same cause.
One difference is those who have red drug onset and those who don't. There are similarities, but I don't believe that
is yet clearly understood.

Re: anxiety (which I feel this is obviously connected to) -- THAT is extremely common ... pathological anxiety. It comes with EVERYTHING.
Depression ... all the major mental illnesses. And it is common to have anxiety in and of itself -- anxiety which causes social/occupational
difficulties. OCD is an ANXIETY Disorder. Look in the Merck Manual under Anxiety Disorders and you will find a host of illnesses that also
show up, COMORBID with a main diagnosis. Here again diagnosis is far from precise. But generally nothing is in a vacuum, and a general
MAJOR diagnosis of an individual can be made IF YOU HAVE A VERY GOOD DIAGNOSTICIAN WHO SPENDS TIME WITH YOU IN PERSON.

I have 2 family members with a wide range of problems -- psychosis, paranoia, mood swings, panic attacks, suicidal ideation, depression. BOTH have gotten different
diagnoses over the years -- schizophrenic, schizoaffective, bipolar (of some type or other -- there are a various types). It takes time

And one in four individuals will have a diagnosable mental illness in HIS/HER lifetime. But that includes Tourette's, anxiety, 
post-partum depression, dementia, etc. One if FOUR will have one of the diagnoses in the DSM, and yes DEMENTIA (that one would
get in later life) is included.

The whole purpose of going into high level research is to sort these things out. And I've written before that say in a developing country
it would be even less likely to get accurate statistics on ANY mental illness, when children die by the age of 6 from starvation, etc.

I have NO doubt that the feelings of DP/DR are common to many people. But I know many -- and I ASK -- who have NO IDEA WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT, and
they are not "anxious." They don't understand what excessive anxiety is. My therapist, despite her 25+ years of training has said to me
that she can recognize symptoms, empathize, but does NOT know the experience, cannot fully understand it. You can't get inside someone else's
head. But this is why there are diagnostic criteria.

There was one online questionnaire done here. I took it. It had many faults, as do most of the DP/DR questionnaires out there. Someone
WITHOUT DP could say, "Oh, yeah, I feel spacey sometimes, I feel I'm going through the motions at work, it's boring .... " and average
people dissociate in times of stress and it goes away. Personally I don't feel the journal article should have been published for various reasons.
But that is IMHO. I have participated in other studies where the questionnaires were far more detailed. Took me a period of days to complete
them, and even then they couldn't capture the entire experience.

I believe 1 in 6 develop a "serious mental illness" (per BringChange2Mind) which includes schizophrenia, bipolar and clinical depression.
Thing is, again, I am 52. I didn't "find out" about members of my family with illness, friends with illness, or the children of friends, or
extended family members sometimes for decades. I have discovered that I know NO family who doesn't have a relative with some form of brain disorder.
Anything from anorexia in a daughter, schizoprhenia in a child, anxiety disorder in a mother, or someone who actually has DP/DR who has been
diagosed and treated for it.

Although Dr. Sierra said the internet is a viable way of obtaining data on DP/DR ... I would disagree re: a forum like this. If it is in a 
questionnaire taken online even, it is NOT the same as a doctor or researcher interview an individual in person over a period of time. The 
stats simply aren't valid.

[And one has to include DP/DR DISORDER from brain tumor, stroke, head trauma, migraine, epilepsy, etc.] Individuals can have chronic/permanent DP/DR from tumor, stroke and trauma. Others can have episodes with migraine and epilepsy.


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## Guest (May 25, 2011)

Forgot to say, this site seems to have far more young people (22 and under?). This eliminates all those adults who have DP/DR. They feel less comfortable on a site like this. Adults who seek help are more likely to find a therapist and/or keep it to themselves, again skewing the statistics. When they cannot function they may be forced to seek help and are seen by therapists whose reports to insurance companies NOTE THE DIAGNOSIS in another way of keeping statistics. Another reason for diagnostic criteria, including heart attack and broken leg.


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## = n (Nov 17, 2004)

Dreamer* said:


> Using this site or any internet forum is not good for statistical data like this.
> 
> 1. There are people who have registered under various names over the years ... some under 3 or more.


Right, 1-2 %: so _if_ those findings can be applied globally then if pop. is 7 billion we have between 70 million to 140 million people with Depersonalization Disorder.

If the population is currently *6.92 billion* as according to the US census bureau then the global DP population is between sixty-nine million two hundred thousand (*69,200,000*) and one hundred thirty-eight million four hundred thousand (*138,400,000*).

If we arbitrarily only include Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand (perhaps assuming prejudicially, for whatever reason, that the prevalence of the disorder is different in non 'western' societies, or at least shows up differently), then out of a total 'western' population of one billion four hundred and thirteen million fifteen thousand and twenty-four (*1,413,015,024*), including Mexico, Russia and Turkey, the DP population works out as between fourteen million one hundred-thirty thousand one hundred-fifty point two (*14,130,150.2*) and twenty eight million two hundred and sixty thousand three hundred point four (*28,260,300.4*).

So even in this arbitrarily limited count, there might be more than 28 million people with DP.

And there's really no reason i can think of why this thing wouldnt occur in China or South America (though the numbers might be lower than for Europe and America).


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## BusyBee (Aug 7, 2010)

ValleyGirl said:


> I did my own estimate a while back, based on the total number of registered users on this site and saying that all those who no longer post are recovered, it comes out to be that 98.75% of people recover from dp. Those are very high odds and I think pretty accurate based on what I've seen in my year and a half being here.


That great. You need to post this is the 'Start here' section and have it pinned. I would have felt greatly encouraged to see this when I first joined just under a year ago.


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## Nouf (Apr 9, 2011)

surfingisfun001 said:


> I have heard that 2% of the population has DP from a few different sources but I simply can't buy that statistic. That means that 2 out of every 100 people have DP. 1 out of every 50 people?!?! No way. Not at all. That would mean that 1 out of every 50 people you come in contact with during your day has DP. That would mean there were 60 kids at my high school who suffered from DP. That would mean that a few people on each block have DP. If this were the case DP would be well known. DP isn't even known by most mental health professionals. How is it even possible to arrive at that statistic anyways? I imagine a survey was done asking the question, "do you sometimes feel like you are in a dream." In which many people who hadn't drank their coffee that morning replied "yes." 2% of the population has DP = bullshit. More like .02%


will that what i was about to say
Totally AGREE


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## Guest (Aug 19, 2011)

Nouf said:


> will that what i was about to say
> Totally AGREE


I stated this before and these are statistics from NAMI and BC2M, etc.

ONE IN FOUR AMERICANS have or will have a mental illness in his/her lifetime. One in six have a serious mental disorder.
1-2 in one hundred have schizophrenia. The number of children with autism is staggering.

Yes, these numbers change by culture, but generally certain illnesses show up at a relatively constant rate world wide. In those countries where we don't have data -- well consider certain countries in Africa where people die by age 30. Consider countries where there is more stigma attached to mental illness and NO ONE reports anything. In China they don't even acknowledge there is mental illness.

And for example .. use physical disorders ... as you get older you find out how many of your friends have had life-long struggles with various illnesses, mental and physical. EVERY family has probably at least one mentally ill family member (how its panned out with my peers from private school and Uni). In my family there are a ton of individuals with mental illness.

Then -- OK, why cancer. I am 52, I am one of the lucky 1 in 6 women to get breast cancer. As you get older the statistics of getting it are 1 in 3. If you life long enough your chances for getting dementia are FIFTY PERCENT.

I'm suprised the imperfect human body and brain -- both extraordinary and prone to malfunction does as well as it does!

In the 1800s/early 1900s people had huge families as many children and mothers died in childbirth. "Old age" used to be 62 -- just about the time your social security benefits kicked in, lol. Well, people live to be 90 now.

We also see the huge prevalence of PTSD in military personnel. There was ALWAYS PTSD, but individuals didn't SURVIVE wars in the vast numbers they do now. They survive serious head injuries they never would have survived.

If you look at your own family as well, how many have not spoken about a mental illness, or even a physical illness out of shame?


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## Guest (Aug 19, 2011)

PS as the World Health Organization has already posted. "By 2020 mental illness will be the leading cause of death and disability worldwide."

TWENTY-TWENTY.

Statistics are imperfect. But I'd say lack of understanding, lack of an ability to treat, misdiagnosis skews DP/DR statistics ESPECIALLY IF YOU INCLUDE NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS where DP/DR are also chronic and untreatable.


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## Sleepwalker (Dec 4, 2008)

Dreamer* said:


> Using this site or any internet forum is not good for statistical data like this....
> Although Dr. Sierra said the internet is a viable way of obtaining data on DP/DR ... I would disagree re: a forum like this. If it is in a
> questionnaire taken online even, it is NOT the same as a doctor or researcher interview an individual in person over a period of time. The stats simply aren't valid.
> [And one has to include DP/DR DISORDER from brain tumor, stroke, head trauma, migraine, epilepsy, etc.] Individuals can have chronic/permanent DP/DR from tumor, stroke and trauma. Others can have episodes with migraine and epilepsy.


Completely agree.


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## kate_edwin (Aug 9, 2009)

Yeah that part about the people who don't come back are cured is completly unfounded. Some leave because of trolls, some still can't relate to people (many of my experiences are not had by people here), there are people who loose Internet, or loose interest in talking about thensame things over and over, there are people who aren't chatroom instance MSG kind of folks in general... There's all sorts of false reasoning here guys. Statistics are a bit more complicated.

The numbers for depression is 2% , dp could be the same, but dx'd dp is far far less


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## toshibatelly (Sep 13, 2011)

Jayd said:


> I don't know why but I found this funny


Same. Maybe we would all get along wonderfully and our symptoms would dissipate in the company of our depersonalized brethren lol, or maybe there would be a crush as thousands of people had simultaneous panic attacks and fled, running past the zoned out zombies slave to DP? Sorry for being so dark.


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## toshibatelly (Sep 13, 2011)

= n said:


> Right, 1-2 %: so _if_ those findings can be applied globally then if pop. is 7 billion we have between 70 million to 140 million people with Depersonalization Disorder.
> 
> If the population is currently *6.92 billion* as according to the US census bureau then the global DP population is between sixty-nine million two hundred thousand (*69,200,000*) and one hundred thirty-eight million four hundred thousand (*138,400,000*).
> 
> ...


Is there an ethnic background poll anywhere? It would be interesting, in many ways, to see what the responses looked like, it could well be the case that DP affects all groups equally, or relatively equally, but that certain groups are more likely to seek help than others.


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## toshibatelly (Sep 13, 2011)

kate_edwin said:


> Yeah that part about the people who don't come back are cured is completly unfounded. Some leave because of trolls, some still can't relate to people (many of my experiences are not had by people here), there are people who loose Internet, or loose interest in talking about thensame things over and over, there are people who aren't chatroom instance MSG kind of folks in general... There's all sorts of false reasoning here guys. Statistics are a bit more complicated.
> 
> The numbers for depression is 2% , dp could be the same, but dx'd dp is far far less


It would depend on at what point one is said to be 'suffering from DP', I don't know anyone who is unable to relate to the feeling of 'not really being there', but obviously the vast majority of people don't suffer from DP out of the blue or for long periods of time.


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