# You can get through it, I promise!



## zoie (Oct 29, 2007)

So four years ago was when everything began for me. I could go into the long story of how everything started for me and all of the anxiety and struggles that I went through and all of the scary thoughts and feelings that came with it but my guess is that anyone who might be reading this is not looking to hear how I struggled but more so how I got through it. So, here is where I started. I went to a counselor on a regular basis. I was dealing with anxiety and had become depressed about how it was spinning my world out of control. Reluctantly I agreed to get on an anti-depressant (I had tried two others before the counselor suggested the one I am currently on, which is Luvox). I was pretty quickly diagnosed with OCD which fits with the DP. I began to understand that the DP thoughts are just that, thoughts. I was so obsessed with monitoring myself and thinking about thinking for fear of going crazy that I was keeping myself in the cycle of DP. The thoughts are an obsession fueled by a compulsive need to check that I was "still me", "still sane", ect ect. It was a process to stop the DP thoughts but I had to retrain my brain to stop the analyzing. A good book to read is "Brain Lock". It is a book geared toward OCD, but the general idea is how to retrain your brain against obsessive/compulsive behavior. The general basis of the book is when you have the intrusive thought or urge to 1st relabel it; or call it what it is (just a thought) you train yourself to identify what is a valuable thought and what isn't and refuse to be misled by intrusive destructive thoughts and urges, then reattribute it, asking yourself "why does this thought/urge keep bothering me?" -Thats when I would say "it's not me, its my OCD brain that keeps my stuck on this thought." Then REFOCUS your brain on something else. Do something that you really enjoy that takes your mind off of it. In the beginning it may only be a few minutes (or seconds) at a time inbetween thoughts but the more you work at it the better your brain gets at shifting gears from the DP thoughts. The last step is to revalue, or to not take your scary DP thoughts seriously, but push them aside like the sensless noise they are.

Ok so that was long but the first step in me getting better was to go through that process with every scary DP thought.

Over time I got really good at pushing the thoughts aside. I also had a lot of experience in NEVER actually going crazy that I started to believe myself when I would tell myself that I was not going to go crazy. or lose control or any other scary thing that I was sure was going to happen to me.

Distractions were very helpful in the process of getting better. I would read, play video game, ect. The best distractions are ones that require you to be fully engaged in what you are doing. Watching TV or taking a walk (although they may work for others) did not work for me because they allowed my mind to wander too much.

Some other things that I found helpful were getting plenty of rest and keeping my stress level low. When my symptoms first started I was in an intense college program and I worked late shifts and was trying to maintain my family life. The DR symptoms started first (after a panic attack) which were followed by the DP.
I hope this is not disappointing to read but I still get fleeting feelings of the DR. I can say that they ALWAYS happen when I am over worked, tired, stressed ect. BUT THEY DO GO AWAY! I take the feeling for what it is, a harmless annoying feeling, I blame it on being tired or stressed ect..., I don't get worked up about it at all, and I go back to what I was doing and it goes away.
Please don't get me wrong, I know I am making it sound like this is easy to get through and I will be the first one to admit that it is not. It takes time, be patient with yourself. Your brain has to heal from the stress of the DP/DR and you are having to retrain yourself how to not think about thinking about thinking.

I hope this helps.


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## Jayden (Feb 9, 2011)

This definitely helps Zoie!

I can relate to this because I have intrusive thoughts related to "going crazy" all day every day and it grips me with fear.

I appreciate this post

Thanks,

Jayden


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## zoie (Oct 29, 2007)

Jayd said:


> This definitely helps Zoie!
> 
> I can relate to this because I have intrusive thoughts related to "going crazy" all day every day and it grips me with fear.
> 
> ...


Thanks! 
I soooo understand EXACTLY what you mean! It took a long time for me to truly believe and know that I was not going to go crazy, but I PROMISE you that you won't!


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