# DP/DR recovery



## Lee View (Jan 3, 2014)

I remember i used to read every single post on this forum when i had DP/DR in search for a "cure". I'm gonna be very honest. There is no magic cure!!! You will suffer for probably more than 6 months/1 year. There is not really much you can do about it, at first, except survive. People will notice you just a little "off" so don't worry about your social life, just act like you used to even if you don't really feel like yourself (fake it).

Some advice to "survive": (what i did)

- Get an appointment with a psychiatrist right away because it's an anxiety condition. I took Klonopin for the first 3 months and Citalopram for about 2 1/2 years now, also Buspirone for a period of 1 year (any questions about the drugs i'll be happy to answer)

- Stop thinking about your DP/DR because you are not gonna disappear or fly away from your body if you think about something else (FACT). (i didn't believe it, i hope you do !!  )

- Get off your bed and exercise even if you feel like [email protected]#

- Meditate, do breathing exercises as much as you can

- Don't drink alcohol it will make it worse after the effect it's gone.

- Go out with your friends or invite them over, you need to reconnect with people before you reconnect with yourself

- Distract yourself as much as you can so your brain can take a brake from the obsessive thoughts.

- Be productive, i know it hurts even if you don't have DP/DR but it will boost your self esteem

- Get involved with your studies/work and other responsibilities.

*And the last and probably the most important of all on the big picture:*

- Work on meaningful relationships, be with the people that really matter to you and concentrate on their needs not your own!!! (i believe this is really what "cured" me, but still takes time)

When you'll get out of it you won't even remember exactly how you really felt, you only know it was horrible from remembering what you had to do to overcome this. *You'll remember sitting in bed all day but not really understand how it felt.* That's how recovery feels like.

Any questions? i'll be more than happy to answer!!!


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## StandAlone (Jan 22, 2013)

I'm on month 5 of having chronic Dp/Dr. You said it takes 6-12 months for most people to recover. This is my 2nd time having it, and I recovered last time after 7 months. i was just wondering what changes after 6-12 months that helps most people to recover?


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## JJ123D (Dec 6, 2013)

Hey, thanks for the post.

First of all I couldn't get how much time were you in DP? It seemed to me around 3 years before curing?

And what I'm very interested to know about are the drugs, medications. Do you feel they were a big reason of you getting better? And do you remember their side effects? I'm scared of starting them, especially the strong SSRIs like Cypralex, but I do feel they could help boost my confidence and remove the anxiety symptoms that stop me from trying to be myself. And did you withdraw from them or are you increasing the doses to stay cured.

I believe that what you described, forgetting how you used to feel in DP is how people actually cure.

Thank you!


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## Lee View (Jan 3, 2014)

i was very brief in my description because it was 5 AM when i posted

StandAlone - i had it only once and it was 24/7, every breathing second... but i still take SSRI to this day to prevent relapse in the future. Maybe this year i will quit the pill. Also if you have a good environment, good relationships and no stress is less likely to get it again. If you got it from pot obviously you should quit forever. Even though i sometimes get the normal episodes of DP for a few seconds (which everyone on the planet does for various reasons like too much coffee or too much stress or lack of sleep, maybe fear of something ...) i don't feel threatened by the feeling anymore and it goes away.

JJ123D- I had DP for 2 years. Pills were for me a fairly big part of recovery but not the real long term cure. First 3 months on Klonopin 0.5, once a day, got me out of the bed, Then it's the Citalopram 20 mg which gave me 3 hours of dizziness for the first 6 days, that's it. I upped to 40 mg and felt the kick with no side effects at all. Also took Buspirone that i quit without problems a few weeks ago (stopped taking it cold turkey). Klonoping even at 0.5 it's hard to quit , You have to split the pill in half then in 1/4. Klonopin is gonna save your life but taking it for a long period of time it will probably do more damage then good.


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## JJ123D (Dec 6, 2013)

Lee View said:


> I remember i used to read every single post on this forum when i had DP/DR in search for a "cure". I'm gonna be very honest. There is no magic cure!!! You will suffer for probably more than 6 months/1 year. There is not really much you can do about it, at first, except survive. People will notice you just a little "off" so don't worry about your social life, just act like you used to even if you don't really feel like yourself (fake it).
> 
> Some advice to "survive": (what i did)
> 
> ...


What if you don't know who really means to you anymore? Do I try to help those who meant to me before my DP? I feel that almost everybody is against me now and that I have no true friends, because I lost my rational and experienced view of the world.

What I'm trying to do is to kind of ignore DP and try to force my old thinking patterns and how I viewed the world and thought about stuff. I try to be normal all the time, but only get brief few moments in a day. Because the more I let go and don't think about wanting to be normal again, the more I accept DP and the normal thoughts don't seem to come back. What do you think about that? Thank you.


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## Lee View (Jan 3, 2014)

you need to stop checking for DP because it won't go away in just a few weeks. Stop "scratching" the DP, the more you do that the more in "itches". Think that this "itch" can't go away with "scratching", it goes away with time and accept is there and it will take a fair amount of time to go away but it will eventually stop...


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## JJ123D (Dec 6, 2013)

Do you mean like to forget that there's something wrong with me and interact with people following what I feel like in the moment?

For example DP makes me doubt myself a lot, scared of what the other person would respond to what I just said, because I don't remember the experiences to back up what I'm saying or asking for. So what I usually do is stop, push my old attitude back to the top, and then ask for what I want with a strong backed up frame. It only lasts for seconds. I keep doing this all the time. I don't know if you're understanding what I mean, it's exhausting. And if I don't do it, I would face other questions like "Why do you want to go there? Why do you need the money? Why did you get mad about what I did?" - Questions that I can't reply to in DP, a very weak frame. Which kind of pushes bipolar personality, first asking in a shy way then replying with "Why are you asking this!! It's obvious!! You never used to ask me this before!!! I don't know why!! Just do it!!!"

I feel I'm talking to myself in this post, lol, but I just want to know which way to go, accepting DP and following your DP emotions in the moment, or trying to push your old self over DP (or something like that) The reason I'm going to start an SSRI, is because I think it can help me strengthen myself to beat DP. Can you just explain a bit more about how you handled stuff or problems while in DP? What scares me that I see around people with similar symptoms to mine in DP, and they just accept that and are used to it and live with it. I don't want to accept it and stay in with this weak, bipolar, lost attitude.

And one thing about meditation. I did meditation for 6 months daily, and it was a cause of me getting DP, it gives me a more blank and empty mind, like I can't think clearly anymore OR I can see every thought in my mind, thoughts that I couldn't hear before and made me stuck in them. I wouldn't recommend it but maybe it helped you, I don't know.

Thanks again!


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## Lee View (Jan 3, 2014)

You're not weak, you just think you're weak. Change your attitude don't bring the old ones back, if people tell you things like "you never asked this before" reply "well i do now". Try to be a new you, better, think of the things that would make you a good person and apply them. You feel empty now? Then fill yourself with new things, explore. Don't get scared of living your "old you" behind. I found DP to be a time to think things through rationally, reflect on your life from the outside. In less words move on!!! As long as you are attached to the obsession of being your old self you can't progress

I don't say you should start SSRI, but i'm telling you that i handed my DP to those pills and i stopped feeling the need to think about it. It was still there for a long time but i felt like i had something to "babysit" my DP while i'm busy going out with my friends or go to the university and go on with my studies.

I felt it all, doubting yourself, fearing that what is coming out of your mouth are not really your thoughts. Basically some sort of disconnection with your speech. I was pretty sure i was gonna end up in a mental hospital.

Meditation helped me relax, empty mind means resting mind. You are flooded with bad thoughts when you have DP, it's like a never ending train of thoughts that is running so fast you can't really understand any of it, You can do concentration meditation where you look at something without moving your eyes for a period of time. That can help the concentration.


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## JJ123D (Dec 6, 2013)

Lee View said:


> Try to be a new you, better, think of the things that would make you a good person and apply them. You feel empty now? Then fill yourself with new things, explore. Don't get scared of living your "old you" behind. I found DP to be a time to think things through rationally, reflect on your life from the outside. In less words move on!!! As long as you are attached to the obsession of being your old self you can't progress


Actually that's what happened to me a year ago. First I consciously got rid of my identity, thinking it was based on social standards and fake and wanted to become more free (even though I had a very strong sense of self - I passed through many panic attacks to become what they called "free"). Then I was happy almost free of self in my 6 months vacation. Then I got back to real life, to work, and I was hit by a strong feeling of derealization and emptiness. I realized that I let go myself, what allowed me to deal with society and real life. I became scared and lost and empty. But also unconsciously, I was filling that void with new experiences, identifying with new things, and I didn't like that because I felt getting more away from my old self and becoming something new and undeveloped (You can't compare 23 years of life experience with 6 months). So I quit my job. Then I felt the NEED to get knowledge, I started trying to prove to myself that I still have my old skills, I enrolled with a soccer team, I watched funny videos to get my sense of humor back, I learned about phones, about building a website, about marketing... Till almost today, I'm still trying to learn again to cover up that emptiness and scared feeling of life. But honestly it's 0% comparable to how I was.

Yesterday I went out with a friend, I tried to push for the way I was before DP, I managed to feel it for different moments in the evening, and I'm telling you it was the most wonderful feeling of confidence and strong sense of self. I felt I know who I am, I didn't care about proving myself at all, like it clicked for moments.

This is why I'm really stuck at resisting my new way of being, it's so undeveloped, it sucks! And I read that a lot of people recover and become again like they were before DP, and that they forget how they were in DP. So this can't be my recovery, I still feel like the same person in DP, not like the person I was...


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## Lee View (Jan 3, 2014)

yeah it's true, you won't remember how it was with DP when you're cured. I like the same things i liked before DP, i act pretty much the same but i improved a lot of things too. DP will not change who you really are just forces you to discover yourself deeper, When i say accept the new you i mean explore things you didn't know about yourself before. You'll find out that DP will not affect your personality, after you're cured you will get back the things you had plus new experiences.


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## JJ123D (Dec 6, 2013)

If you can, check this thread I made today, to know where I'm stuck.

http://www.dpselfhelp.com/forum/index.php?/topic/44339-when-i-come-back-to-my-old-self-my-body-and-brain-become-crippled-anyones-having-that/

I would appreciate your opinion on it, there if you want.


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## Lee View (Jan 3, 2014)

i read your post and i can assure i felt the same way at the beginning. I was afraid to let go because letting go made me feel vulnerable and weak as a person and i thought i was gonna lose my old self forever! I realized i need to let go because this search for my old self was always ending in me having a panic attack. After the finish line of DP is your old self waiting for you, like i said DP can't change who you are and your reaction to the world around you. But you are scared now, that's why you act the way you act when you let go not because DP erased your personality and put a crappy one back on. You have anxiety, you are unstable!!! Your unconscious is taken over by DP, by anxiety, that's why you are a "scared child" when you let yourself react natural. Reacting naturally comes from the unconscious.


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