# Is there any evidence that we can recover?



## Fluke93 (Nov 2, 2010)

Not just peoples testimonies but solid medical or psychiatry evidence? Like for instance i heard a DP'd brain is different from a normal functioning brain? Even though we are functioning but you know what i mean. Really would like to know?


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## TheGame (Feb 1, 2011)

Asking this is like saying "there is a conspiracy against me and thats why i have this disorder" Thats the meaning underneath the question for me. So its a really weird question to ask in the first place. Secondly what makes you think or believe that you cant recover EVEN IF people with DP have uncommunicative brains?

The brain is an amazing organ. And it has all the potential in the world to recouperate and heal itself. However if you keep feeding it with negative thoughts anxious worrysome behaviour and selfhatred it will take you longer to get cured and thus create the illusion that your gona have this forever.

Never ever think of DP as something permanent. it is transient and abnormal brainfunction will normalize and the chemical balance will be restored with time, patience, virtue and love.

yes i said it LOVE. =) also changing up the negative thinking pattern will do your brainchemistry alot of good and it will dramatically increase the quality of your life.


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## Fluke93 (Nov 2, 2010)

think its a reasonable question to be fair... And i never said i never thought id recover just wanted to know if there was hard and fast proof. Even if there wasnt i try to have hope even though im depressed and angry 24/7


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## Fluke93 (Nov 2, 2010)

Wheres Dreamer when you need her?


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## Thidwick (May 30, 2012)

You can recover, and you can recover much quicker than you think. I know that's hard to believe, and it's something I'm dealing with as this is my second time experiencing DP/DR (and my brain tries to tell me otherwise because that would require the past to have been in reality). When I had DP the first time, I had it for ten months but on two separate occasions was briefly able to break free of it. The thing most responsible for your recurring feelings of DP is your constant fear of it. I understand - it's what plagues me, too.

It is very, very difficult to rid yourself of the fear and anxiety. Both times I've had this have been the result of anxiety related to my fear of death. But that subsides and my fear of DP itself becomes the new fuel for it. I lay on the couch watching TV trying to distract myself, but I'm constantly aware that I'm DP. I'm constantly fearful that this reality is real and my whole life has been a lie. I'm constantly afraid that this will never go away even though I've been through it before and defeated it. It completely controls you, but only because you let it. You might now know that you're giving it so much control. And occasionally I can let go and not be afraid -- but since I don't immediately recover, I get impatient and start fearing it again, and that puts me back at square one!

I don't even know how I'm typing these words. Language doesn't make any sense to me because I'm so dissociated. I'm only able to do this because, deep down, there is a fragment of me that lives on in reality and wants to help you. I've experienced both the language dissociation and a form of dissociation where I can't comprehend colors when I didn't have DP/DR, and I have all three now. But I can't lose hope. I have no other option.

What you're essentially aiming to do is to get to where you brain forgets about DP/DR. This doesn't mean that you'll have no memory of it once you're healed. What it means is that your brain needs to reset to where it first filters everything through reality. Right now it's filtering everything through your DP. The DP seems rather silly once your brain is functioning properly and you are reconnected to reality.

I know that this doesn't really fit in the context of your question, but I just wanted to give you a message of hope because 99% of the doctors I've seen out there talking about DP/DR don't know jack shit about our condition. The best way I can describe it as someone who has previously recovered is that it is a paper-thin prison. That's all it is. We perceive it as walls of impenetrable steel, but it is a paper tiger. If you're free, you'll never see the walls, but if you aren't, the walls are all you see.

No matter how bad it hurts, you can't give it any power. One of the big turning points for me the first time was understanding how fear keeps the cycle running. I read about how some children who experience a lot of trauma at a young age develop DP but don't fear it -- it acts as a refuge for them. When they can't handle the trauma they are experiencing, they retreat into the walls of DP. That's how dissociation is supposed to function. Those children knew that it wasn't real -- to them, it was essentially a mental trick to help calm them down and make them feel better. When our mind slips us into a state of unreality, it is to shield us. It's supposed to be a comfort from external pressures. But instead of embracing it and letting it do its work, we become terrified of it. Since this fear is real, the only way our body knows how to respond is to further dissociate. Funny how that works, isn't it?

I have a feeling that I'm not really telling you anything you haven't heard before. But it's important to reinforce this stuff. I hope you're doing well.

EDIT:

I'm doing my best to remain positive because this site is like a cesspool of negativity. It's full of people who are convinced that they are seriously fucked in the head and that it is impossible for someone to recover. But if they were seriously as bad as they thought they were, they'd be believing that they could shoot lightning out of their fingers and fly around the universe. People like that are psychotic. We are not psychotic. Sometimes our brains might try to make us feel that way, but the fact that we fear that we're going insane is proof that we are, in fact, perfectly sane.

EDIT 2:

Again, I know this all woefully off-topic to the question in the thread, but I also wanted to point out that when I recovered the first time that I didn't take any meds and didn't see a single psychiatrist. I don't know if you've done these things in the past, so this is more like general advice for anyone reading. The thing here to remember is this: You can regulate your diet as much as you want, you can take as many capsules of fish oil as you want, you can pay for as many rounds of therapy as you want, but unless you stop fearing DP/DR you won't recover. The therapy might be a legitimate way to reach that point. I don't know. But I'm pretty positive that the diet shit is all placebo.

EDIT 3:

Here's an example of a "good" reaction: You are watching TV. Let's say you're watching a soccer/football game (since you're English). It's stoppage time, and Arsenal needs a goal to beat Bolton. Van Persie scores a stunning goal. You are elated -- not because you're supposed to be, but because you've forgotten about your DP for just long enough to enjoy the moment. You are truly experiencing that moment.

Unfortunately, you'll probably realize a few seconds later that you weren't feeling DP and immediately dissociate again. "Son of a bitch," you think. This is always what happens. But these brief moments of reality are good. In these instances, you have to push the DP out of your mind. When you think about it, push it away. Focus on the match. It will take everything you've got, but focusing on it immediately after those moments of reality only worsen the anxiety. Even when I recovered, I would occasionally be hit with a sensation of unreality. But I was in a good frame of mind for fending off these attacks, and I would simply ignore it. It soon went away. It's hard to do that with chronic DP, but it has to be done. You'll know you're close to breaking through when you start having more and more of these "good" thoughts.


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## Fluke93 (Nov 2, 2010)

Cheers mate. Yeah i can relate to the football example more than anything funnily enough. Nothing makes me feel more alive and more happy when arsenal when. And nothing makes me feel more like shit when my beloved arsenal loose. I guess its just keep going with the now and stop thinking back.


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## DP boy (Mar 20, 2012)

solid poof most people with depersonlization recover completly especIlly those who accuried it from trama that cann be explored. offical prognonsis


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## Fluke93 (Nov 2, 2010)

sweet


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## SongBillong (Sep 20, 2011)

Fluke said:


> Cheers mate. Yeah i can relate to the football example more than anything funnily enough. Nothing makes me feel more alive and more happy when arsenal when. And nothing makes me feel more like shit when my beloved arsenal loose. I guess its just keep going with the now and stop thinking back.


Too right!


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## Walkingzombie (Jul 7, 2011)

Trust me, once you recover, you never think about DP again. You're too concerned with living life. You'll always have the scars from DP, but they're only scars. Look at them when you want, but don't become obsessed because the scars could always turn into open wounds again.


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## insaticiable (Feb 23, 2010)

Walkingzombie said:


> Trust me, once you recover, you never think about DP again. You're too concerned with living life. You'll always have the scars from DP, but they're only scars. Look at them when you want, but don't become obsessed because the scars could always turn into open wounds again.


This is true.

I recovered from DP/DR COMPLETELY 100% last April for 3 weeks, and while I was concerned with going about living my life, there was that lingering fear of ''what if dp returns?" and at one point if I remember correctly...I actually wanted dp to return. Messed up, right? Anyways...it DID return after 3 weeks, but I don't know if it was because of my fear of it returning. My life had improved 180 degrees when I recovered for that short period of time, so I am not certain what the ''trigger'' was.


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## Walkingzombie (Jul 7, 2011)

Well that was the trigger. DP is really just a huge mind fuck. It feeds off of and actually NEEDS those "DP-esque" thoughts to stick around. Feed the fire with those thoughts and it'll only get bigger. It can be even worse, like your situation, if you recover only to find yourself in the same boat with no paddle. If you, or anyone else on this forum, needs any help at all please don't hesitate to message me/check my 2 recovery threads. My number is posted there. Call/Text anytime. I know everything there is to know about this disorder because i got fucked so hard by it and am a billion times better. Haven't had a single DP thought since the day i finally realized i had recovered completely. It is 100% possible. Don't believe any bullshit on this terribly negative forum. DP stays as long as you give it a place to set up home in your mind. Take away that shelter. Let DP freeze its ass off in the cold. It'll try and knock to get back in. Tell that mother fucker to set up shop elsewhere because he's not welcome in your mind.


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## insaticiable (Feb 23, 2010)

Walkingzombie said:


> Well that was the trigger. DP is really just a huge mind fuck. It feeds off of and actually NEEDS those "DP-esque" thoughts to stick around. Feed the fire with those thoughts and it'll only get bigger. It can be even worse, like your situation, if you recover only to find yourself in the same boat with no paddle. If you, or anyone else on this forum, needs any help at all please don't hesitate to message me/check my 2 recovery threads. My number is posted there. Call/Text anytime. I know everything there is to know about this disorder because i got fucked so hard by it and am a billion times better. Haven't had a single DP thought since the day i finally realized i had recovered completely. It is 100% possible. Don't believe any bullshit on this terribly negative forum. DP stays as long as you give it a place to set up home in your mind. Take away that shelter. Let DP freeze its ass off in the cold. It'll try and knock to get back in. Tell that mother fucker to set up shop elsewhere because he's not welcome in your mind.


Thanks Pete.









You know what saddens me is that the first time I had DP...I eventually after a couple months started to believe that I WOULD eventually recover down the line...and like 14 months later I did.

This time around, after the relapse...I don't have the same uplifting, encouraging, intuitive message in my mind anymore.

My mind really is my worst enemy, and sometimes I wonder if I am somehow ''doing'' this to myself....if that makes sense.


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## lauzdp (May 31, 2012)

I'm loving this positive thread


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## AThilgers (Jun 18, 2012)

Walkingzombie said:


> Well that was the trigger. DP is really just a huge mind fuck. It feeds off of and actually NEEDS those "DP-esque" thoughts to stick around. Feed the fire with those thoughts and it'll only get bigger. It can be even worse, like your situation, if you recover only to find yourself in the same boat with no paddle. If you, or anyone else on this forum, needs any help at all please don't hesitate to message me/check my 2 recovery threads. My number is posted there. Call/Text anytime. I know everything there is to know about this disorder because i got fucked so hard by it and am a billion times better. Haven't had a single DP thought since the day i finally realized i had recovered completely. It is 100% possible. Don't believe any bullshit on this terribly negative forum. DP stays as long as you give it a place to set up home in your mind. Take away that shelter. Let DP freeze its ass off in the cold. It'll try and knock to get back in. Tell that mother fucker to set up shop elsewhere because he's not welcome in your mind.


Whole heartedly, this fucking rocks.


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

Walkingzombie said:


> Well that was the trigger. DP is really just a huge mind fuck. It feeds off of and actually NEEDS those "DP-esque" thoughts to stick around. Feed the fire with those thoughts and it'll only get bigger. It can be even worse, like your situation, if you recover only to find yourself in the same boat with no paddle. If you, or anyone else on this forum, needs any help at all please don't hesitate to message me/check my 2 recovery threads. My number is posted there. Call/Text anytime. I know everything there is to know about this disorder because i got fucked so hard by it and am a billion times better. Haven't had a single DP thought since the day i finally realized i had recovered completely. It is 100% possible. Don't believe any bullshit on this terribly negative forum. DP stays as long as you give it a place to set up home in your mind. Take away that shelter. Let DP freeze its ass off in the cold. It'll try and knock to get back in. Tell that mother fucker to set up shop elsewhere because he's not welcome in your mind.


This made me giggle. I absolutely LOVE this.


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