# It's all indeed in or head...



## ComplicatedFool (Dec 19, 2005)

Just read a few posts on this board. Or think about your own theories and coping methods. Complicated stuff, impossible rules, that's our daily life.

"I try to feel like I exist"

"Ground yourself in the floor"

"My obsessions suddenly turn into blah blah"

"I think I can't feel emotions, as if life is a dream"

Some of the typical material I get to read here.

We have something called imagination, and something called panic. When both of those elements combine we turn our creativity into this negative cycle. A desperate man will think of ANYTHING and do ANYTHING in order to stop being desperate. Desperate times, desperate measures.

Here's my OPINION, it's not a fact;
I don't think we are sick at all. I think we are just desperate and insecure. We are in panic, so we come up with all this kind of symptoms. We even feel them, but our imagination is so powerful we can actually feel stuff that are not real. For example, just imagine the smell of chocolate or something you like, right now... imagine it. You can probably "smell" it right now if you try. The smell almost becomes real. For some of us the symptoms are the same as that chocolate example, part of our imagination.

..you all describe your life as if was dream. "Nothing is real anymore." Almost as if you were dreaming/imagining stuff. DP sounds just like a complicated daydreaming to me, though in this case daynightmaring.(yeah "nightmaring" so what, I'm trying to prove a point that is hard to explain)

So could you describe DP as something real and specific? Are they REAL symptoms? Do they feel real?

I think we are imagining some sort of serious disease we have, it's all REALLY in our head. I'm stating the obvious, but a lot of you are not ready to admit this. Just my 2 cents..


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

i respect that you said this was just your opinion.

however, to say that this is only a product of panic and imagination doesn't add up with my experience or with the recent research that has been done on this.

everytime a period where dp/dr disorder pops up in my life i am neither unhappy, nor in panic, nor in anxiety. it follows a period of intense stress followed by relaxation and happiness and my brain obviously shuts down a part of itself because it doesn't like that kind of rapid shift going on. it literally feels like it has come out of nowhere, until i realized the pattern that it often comes on after stressful times have passed and now i am quite content/relaxed. dr simeon describes this as one of the trgger patterns for dp disorder in her book.

there is also brain scan evidence that there are temporal lobe issues going on in the brain, and that the cortex between the temporal lobe and the parietal and occipital lobes may also not be functioning properly.

when people describe the symptoms you mention in your post, they are using metaphor. we are not daynightmaring. this feeling (dp/dr) came upon me and it took me a while to even find adequate metaphors to use for it.

the reason i say this is that thinking it is all in your head can cause undue guilt or stress on a person. it is much healthier to recognize that something is malfunctioning, but that it is not going to make you crazy or kill you or anything like that. but it can be managed, and hopefully, with time and prudent management will fade. but it is not just overactive imagination. when i have severe dp/dr, i have no imagination...


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## empire (Jul 2, 2006)

derealization and depersonalization for me it's very simple to understand them.

Really, you see, when you question existance and examine and analyse everything around you, you get to became distant from them... Well put anxiety in to the mix and voila there you have it, everything now is unreal and you can't understand them at all.

*Stop *thinking like that for a day or so and you'll start to understand everything around you again like you always did.

John.


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

empire said:


> derealization and depersonalization for me it's very simple to understand them.


perhaps this is true for you. perhaps you have experienced these symptoms, but it is not so simple for everyone.



empire said:


> Really, you see, when you question existance and examine and analyse everything around you, you get to became distant from them... Well put anxiety in to the mix and voila there you have it, everything now is unreal and you can't understand them at all.


this is not at all true for me or many others on this board. when i'm not suffering from dp/dr i can question existence all i want and it doesn't bother me at all, it just fascinates me. everytime dp/dr hits me i have not been anxious or questioning existence. as i said above, the first time the feeling hit me i was neither anxious nor questioning existence. it was the feeling of detachment and the feeling of the surrounding world as bizarre and foreign that led to the anxiety and the questioning which, of course, made things worse.



empire said:


> *Stop *thinking like that for a day or so and you'll start to understand everything around you again like you always did.


i appreciate the advice here as an attempt to help people, but it doesn't work that way. you might as well tell a person with OCD to just stop washing their hands all of the time. or tell a clinically depressed person to just "cheer up." or tell a schizophrenic to stop hallucinating.

you may have experienced the feeling of depersonalization/derealization, but if you can just "stop" thinking about it and it goes away you do not have depersonalization disorder. as i've stated above, this is simply not the case. people need to do real research about this disorder before they decide their simple solutions will help everyone.


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## Guyver-Gabriel (Oct 29, 2005)

for me, whom i think am in a recovery process, it all started wheni sat down gazed outside and asked to myself if i really wanted to recover...i started picturing myself recovered, trying to see what was currently going wrong but i didnt try to FIX them or figure out a way to go around them....i just thought out what was i doing wrong then i accepted...once that was done i tolf to myself that its ok to be sick...whos never been sick?be it a simple couch or a flu.its ok for people not to understand me...but i can always try to explain...its ok if i have weird behaviours...time will teach me to correct them...but ULTIMATELY...i realized that nothing is gonna come all cooked up in my hands...so i'd need to put my back into it...even if it was pointless...but ill never know if it is...ive got my whole life to see if i can beat this crap.

Gabriel.


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## Guyver-Gabriel (Oct 29, 2005)

so...yes...healing dp...might NOT be a simple in our heads thing...but feeling better is.so...FEEL BETTER.


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

absolutely. we can control how we deal with dpd, and that can help us on the road to recovery. it takes resolve, and it takes a concerted effort on a lot of fronts, often psychological, physical, biochemical, and, for many people, spiritual. but we can get better.

what i see is that if you know that there is a genuine problem but that there are ways to cope and deal and slowly recover, then recovery is manageable. on the other hand, if you think you just have to stop thinking about it and it will go away...well, most people are in for a miserable guilt-ridden impossible journey.


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## Starz5 (Jul 5, 2006)

Gabriel and Californian, very wise words, verrry true..good stuf...keep on posting.


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## jeremy (Apr 28, 2006)

...


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## Lease (Nov 1, 2004)

Mine IMO was/is deffinately a product of stress, illness & chronic anxiety all of my life. I can now say that, but in the thick of it I probably would have said 'hogwash' it has nothing to do with it.
Hindsight it had EVERYTHING to do with it. My mind was always going, I was always thinking, what if, what about this, what about that? It never slowed down... Now I can actually have periods of relative quiet inside my head, which I see as an awesome accomplishment.
Maybe for each of us the contributing factors are different, but I do honestly believe that for some of us they are something that we can work toward reversing the effects of.
I have noticed a pattern now as to what brings the dp/dr on. I lived for a period of time in my teens where I was permanently in a state of dp/dr, & then again for about 3 years as an adult. It is now back to where something triggers it. For me it's anxiety or stress & I will go from having a reasonably clear mind to POOF! Pure fog, spacey, dizzy, lost, freaked out, that lasts the rest of the day.
My breathing has a large part to play too, I believe that I subconsciously hyperventilate, & that that can bring a state of dp/dr straight on.


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## empire (Jul 2, 2006)

californian said:


> this is not at all true for me or many others on this board. when i'm not suffering from dp/dr i can question existence all i want and it doesn't bother me at all, it just fascinates me. everytime dp/dr hits me i have not been anxious or questioning existence. as i said above, the first time the feeling hit me i was neither anxious nor questioning existence. it was the feeling of detachment and the feeling of the surrounding world as bizarre and foreign that led to the anxiety and the questioning which, of course, made things worse.


I didn't say that when you question existance you instantly go to full dp/dr mode. It's that when you do it too much (how much depends on the person) you build anxiety inside you and stays with you subconciously, and sometime AFTERWARDS (maybe the next day, maybe a week later) with a little stress manifests itself through dp/dr and other symptoms.

I don't know, I was thinking the same way, that I had no questions or existential thoughts when dp/dr hitted me. But in retrospect I fully understand what was going on. My anxiety was like 90% and with a little bit of stress of like waking up and trying to get a grasp of yourself and your day ahead of you, got to 100% and dp/dr set in.

But I'll take your example for a second and examine it a little, you say that you suddenly felt your surroundings bizzare and that lead you to a full dp/dr state. Well That's exactly how I was thinking too, I feared the bizzare and surealistic feeling I got at times with no reason at all. But that is how dp/dr starts. You already topped your anxiety and your mind can no longer handle it and have started dissasociating.

Maybe this does not apply to everyone and I don't think it does, but I guess when someone comes here and wonders if someone "recovered" can think of deep and existential questions without getting anxious I see that he probably must be like this.

When you are constantly and chronically anxious for years and you start dissasociating it's logical to be confused and thinking that you got dp/dr at of the blue. Because as it is very hard for an anxious person to aknowledge whe he has anxiety (*before* the symptoms kick in).

The thing I understand know is that by questioning everything around me and trying to find meaning in every little thing and concept, I was building up anxiety without knowing it. Afterall it's all in our head, thoughts are doing this to us. It doesn't just happen!



Lease said:


> Mine IMO was/is deffinately a product of stress, illness & chronic anxiety all of my life. I can now say that, but in the thick of it I probably would have said 'hogwash' it has nothing to do with it.
> Hindsight it had EVERYTHING to do with it.


Thank you Lease for your clarification, I agree 100%.


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## empire (Jul 2, 2006)

californian said:


> you may have experienced the feeling of depersonalization/derealization, but if you can just "stop" thinking about it and it goes away you do not have depersonalization disorder. as i've stated above, this is simply not the case. people need to do real research about this disorder before they decide their simple solutions will help everyone.


I fully understand how you feel and how hard it is for it to go away, but I come as a "recovered" and say what conclusions I got now. And my conclusions are these, I was afraid of everything, now matter how little no matter how big and vast, now matter how important no matter how unimportant. I was even being totally freaked out once by a coca cola bottle sitting in the table in front of me! I was terified about that bizzare and sureal world feeling and that made it worser and worser. When I decided to stop thinking about them for many days I got much better the following days.


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

no doubt, empire, your clarification of yourself has made your position seem much more reasonable and helpful...

if you notice, my point was that the thoughts can complicate the situation. but the surreal feeling is not necessarily caused by the thoughts. some people, like yourself, may have it go away by simply stopping the thoughts. but that is just not universally true.

as i have said, some people have chronic dp/dr and no obsessive thoughts about existence at all. some people have been reported to be able to induce it by the thoughts and then be able to stop it by not thnking the thoughts. perhaps you fall into that category. but statistically you are in a small minority of dpd sufferers.

there is not a one size fits all. a comprehensive approach is what will work best for most people including:

1) exercise
2) diet
3) sleep
4) psychotherapy/spirituality etc. that helps control the thoughts
5) meds/supplements/etc. that help clear the brain

this is what always helps me to recover. but that doesn't mean something doesn't go haywire in the brain for a lot of people...it most certainly does. if you notice, this doesn't absolve responsibility. i believe people have to take responsibility for what they do and how they think. but hormones and neurotransmitter levels also play a big factor in this.

can you tell a stoned person to stop feeling high? tell a drunk person to just sober up? like i said, there is a LOT of evidence that something goes haywire in the dpd brain. perhaps you can restore that through simply not thinking about it. but not everyone can. it is a big component of my recovery, but it is not something i could do without the other four things i've listed above...


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## Guyver-Gabriel (Oct 29, 2005)

hum californian, id add 'socializing' to that list...cuz you can exercise and feel bold and strong, keep a good diet and be fit and good looking, sleep well so yo got energy to face the day, follow psychotherapy so you re not so dreaded anymore, take meds to restore chmical balance but if you aint trying it on the outside world then its bullcrap...so socialize! go outside start talks, live!

californian said:

can you tell a stoned person to stop feeling high? tell a drunk person to just sober up? like i said, there is a LOT of evidence that something goes haywire in the dpd brain.

cmon man do you really NEED to be this negative?its like youre building up a list to JUSTIFY the fact that youre dpd , or was. but IMO it aint like that. youre just the way you are.period. feel free to improve yourself , or dont. its your choice but you ve always got a choice.


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## Guest (Sep 9, 2006)

I like ur list of things to do. I suppose it makes sense and is simple. not easy....... but simple.

I met with my therapist today. And we decided that the focus of this week was to reduce the obsessional thinking. I find this very difficult to do. It seems as if I cannot do anything without thinking this or that. What do i do with my thoughts? How do I handle the constant analyzation? Even when i do things to 'distract' myself, im still thinking in my mind "how does this make me feel? what am i thinking right now? etc etc.

Very distressed,

Eric


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

socialize is a good addition indeed.



 Guyver-Gabriel said:


> californian said:
> 
> can you tell a stoned person to stop feeling high? tell a drunk person to just sober up? like i said, there is a LOT of evidence that something goes haywire in the dpd brain.
> 
> cmon man do you really NEED to be this negative?its like youre building up a list to JUSTIFY the fact that youre dpd , or was. but IMO it aint like that. youre just the way you are.period. feel free to improve yourself , or dont. its your choice but you ve always got a choice.


??? i'm not at all being negative, nor am i trying to justify anything. i don't know why you think i am. you are clearly misunderstanding me.

it's simple. it is a fact that dpd brains behave abnormally. that doesn't make me angry, nor do i feel this justifies anything. why would you think that i don't think i have a choice??? can't you tell that i think you do from the rest of my post.

my point is that you don't have a total choice about how you feel, but you do have a choice about what you do. and you can do a lot of things to feel better.

but it is quite simply damaging to a lot of people to think that if they could just stop thinking certain thoughts they would all go away. that in itself can inspire guilt and anxiety and make things worse.


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

jesusmyangsthasabodycount said:


> I like ur list of things to do. I suppose it makes sense and is simple. not easy....... but simple.
> 
> I met with my therapist today. And we decided that the focus of this week was to reduce the obsessional thinking. I find this very difficult to do. It seems as if I cannot do anything without thinking this or that. What do i do with my thoughts? How do I handle the constant analyzation? Even when i do things to 'distract' myself, im still thinking in my mind "how does this make me feel? what am i thinking right now? etc etc.


a technique i use is rooted in my Christian spirituality. if you aren't a Christian, it can still be adapted to some extent to any situation. it involves breathing techniques and meditation, but a big component is to cultivate a controlled hostility towards those thoughts. if your hostility is directed at the thoughts, NOT AT YOURSELF, and you replace them with something positive in a controlled meditative manner, it can really help.

if you'd like me to elaborate more, please let me know


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## Guest (Sep 9, 2006)

I still dont know what the hell to do. Im desperate. Im going fucking crazy in my head. I dont know what i think/feel. I try to focus outwards but it doesnt work. I still question everything how i think/feel. I cant just be natural etc. I want to jump out of a fucking window this is maddening. I cant even explain it. Somebody please help me!!!! f*ck.

what the f*ck do i do!? I analyze everything constantly thinking how i feel /think. f*ck.


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

we've all been there man. try and take some comfort in that.

1) you are NOT going crazy.

2) this particular desperate phase WILL pass. don't do anything drastic

3) you are clearly having a panic attack of some sort at this moment.

4) close your eyes and practice DEEP breathing. hate the thoughts, not yourself. focus on someone/something that you love. THIS BREATHING IS VERY IMPORTANT to try and keep doing.

5) try to be with someone who cares about you right now.

6) if you don't have someone that you can be with, i'll be checking back on here every ten minutes, so keep writing.


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## Guest (Sep 9, 2006)

i know im not going crazy............but this is torture.

I just, dont know how to explain it. Its inexplicable, what im going through. Its like for example, i will say to myself.......ok get out of your head. So i go play guitar for awhile or read a book. But the whole time I feel like im outside of myself sort of detached while im playing the guitar. Like it doesnt make a difference if i think externally or internally. Because all the thoughts are coming from a detached point of view. Its just maddening. And while im playing the guitar i will be constantly running thinking "what do i feel? how do i feel? what am i thinking? " etc.

I want to calm down and relax and get out of this obsessive loop but im lost in it.


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

jesusmyangsthasabodycount said:


> I just, dont know how to explain it. Its inexplicable, what im going through. Its like for example, i will say to myself.......ok get out of your head. So i go play guitar for awhile or read a book. But the whole time I feel like im outside of myself sort of detached while im playing the guitar. Like it doesnt make a difference if i think externally or internally. Because all the thoughts are coming from a detached point of view. Its just maddening. And while im playing the guitar i will be constantly running thinking "what do i feel? how do i feel? what am i thinking? " etc.
> 
> I want to calm down and relax and get out of this obsessive loop but im lost in it.


from what you describe, i know EXACTLY how you feel. it always felt that way when i was playing guitar or reading a book to forget about it.

this all goes back to what i've been saying on this thread. remind yourself that there is something a little haywire in your temporal lobe. it is a normal coping mechanism that all human beings have, but has been set off a little more drastically in you. it causes you to feel weird and very distressed.

but if you constantly remember:
1) i'm not crazy, i FEEL crazy
2) you breathe deeply and rhythmically
3) this is a known condition with a cause that is being better and better understood all of the time by researchers
4) you WILL get better
then it will become easier to bear during this particularly tough time.

some people have also found one of the two techniques to be helpful.

a) to focus on just one thing and its reality, instead of being overwhelmed by everything around you(this always just made me feel worse, but it helps some people)

b) keep your eyes shifting around the room not focusing on any one thing too long, repeating to yourself "i'm here, i'm real, i'm alive" (this one helps me). do this calmly and rhythmically with the breathing. not frantically and desperately.

these two techniques are both mentioned in dr. simeon's book. in either case, keep up the controlled hostility towards the thoughts...


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## Rozanne (Feb 24, 2006)

jeremy said:


> I am sorry californian, however I am going to have to disagree here. I dont think it is much healthier to recognize that something is malfunctioning. We can blame something else all we want.


Blaming is not the same as looking at a situation and finding the reasons for why things have occurred. Finding reason doesn?t imply a bitter and negative emotional process. If you find the actual reasons for a negative consequence and you can change it, then you can change your situation. If not, then you can begin to start on a journey of acceptance.

Also, the sad fact is that things do _malfunction_. Again there are reasons for this. If you are not prepared to accept that things malfunction then you fundamentally do not accept the ways of the world. I suppose your tv has never gone on the blick, and nothing you have owned has ever broken in your life? I assume you have never gone to a lecture and had to sit there for the first half watching people run around in a faff because the system isn?t working?



jeremy said:


> Our body, god, our sister, our parents etc etc etc however blame and resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.


Actually if you are looking for reasons for why things happen, you are more likely to say it is a part of the body that wasn?t working right, or something your sister or parents _did_.

Finding some abherent process taking place in the body is not the same as "blaming the body". If you separate yourself entirely from the functioning of the body then it probably does seem strange to make the connection between the body and the person. But if you identify with the body, it is perfectly reasonable to look at the way the body functions and highlight pathology as a cause for suffering.



jeremy said:


> At the end of the day, we have to take 100% responsibility for the situation we are in as we create our reality. I feel it is much healthier to recognize that we have 100% created this and therefore we are much more in control of our situation.


If you are inclined to think that you are able to control everything in yourself and your life by the way you think and feel then you are co-operating fully with the pathological process.

If you believe that your decision making is the sole cause for things which occur in your life, I can only presume you deny that anything external to yourself has any influence on your life. Like it isn?t the toothpaste cleaning your teeth, it?s you just thinking that it is cleaning your teeth, and willing the chemical process to happen. Nothing happens independently of your mind? Then you must have a mind that permeates the whole world then and you must be in control of many things, everything in fact. I don?t envy that as it sounds like a hell of a lot of responsibility.



jeremy said:


> Whenever some issue happens for me, I always question myself "Why I am I creating this" or "What am I beleieving to create this". Its well know that our thoughts, beliefs and actions create our reality so if we feel unreal then it is most likely that there are some TBE's to work through.


In my humble opinion, this ritual of trying to control your life by controlling yourself is not the same as being in control; it is the illusion of being in control.

Not surprising that us humans want to be in control of things because we are so undeniably at the mercy of what goes on arround us. We are lucky that the climate is hospitable, the fields grow food and the rivers contain water because we are totally dependent on these physical circumstances. If you don?t believe you need food, drink and shelter, you are denying that you are human.

That?s the problem with the depersonalised state. The spirit (which I believe exists), seems more real than the body. But just being particularly aware of the sublte body doesn?t mean the physical body doesn?t exist. For those of you that don?t believe in the subtle body, you are probably in a better position to recover than those of us that get carried away with our experiences.

Jeremy, your beliefs are very similar to what I invested myself in just a year ago. I would just say that is it not good to deny the existance of the physical world and the way it works. That turns out to be an expensive belief system because in the end you may be willing to give up your life, health and security altogether because you do not believe that it is necessary to involve yourself in this imperfect world where you need things. It is painful to go through the process of accepting your finite nature and that you can?t have what you want all the time, and you cannot control everything either. It is a process of dissillusionment that you need to go through if you want to live life as a human being though.


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## jeremy (Apr 28, 2006)

...


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

as usual, the problem here is coming from a tendency to have an all or nothing attitude towards this stuff. dr. torch believes the treatment for dpd is something like 80% psychological and 20% medication. i am inclined to agree with this statement. we can control it and help it through many of the things stated above and more, but it isn't something that can just be turned on and off. and this doesn't mean that something hasn't gone haywire

your example of an ulcer is a good one. we do participate in the production of an ulcer. but simply stopping worry/anxiety doesn't make the ulcer just "go away" like that.

plus, there are clearly people who are predisposed to this condition, whose bodies shut things down in certain regions of the brain as opposed to other people. just like some people are predisposed to heart attacks/cancer/etc even if they live healthful lives. taking care of yourself helps alot. i lived dpd free for four years before my most recent bout, and by managing a lot of factors in my life i'm 99% better right now.

there is a danger to taking no responsibility when you have any sort of psychological disorder. there is also a danger to burdening yourself/other sufferers with the idea that you can simply stop thinking a certain way and the feeling will go away.

even if you can do this, it is NOT the case for everyone. we can all benefit from not overgeneralizing about the human brain which is the most complex structure that we currently know of...


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## Pablo (Sep 1, 2005)

jeremy said:


> If you can find one person on this board who has religiously taken care of themselves and taken responsibility for themselves from day one, in respect to all those levels and has still managed to create dis-ease in their body in whatever way, shape or form I will gladly eat my hat.


Taking good care of yourself on all levels can help your nervous system fend off illness but it does not prevent you getting ill. Some of the most psychologically healthy people in history such as enlightened people like Sri Ramana Maharishi, Mother Teresa, Krishnumurti, Gandhi, Rajneesh who were masters of the human mind and body all got various illnesses in their lives. There are many reports of Taoist masters dying of cancer and it is rumoured that even the Buddha died of some sort of food problem. All of the people I have mentioned are far more in tune with the law of attraction than you Jeremy but they still suffered illness and I dont think microbes care much about belief systems to be honest.

It seems to be the new age moto that you create your own reality but I think it is a narcissistic view that you have that much influence over everything that happens in your life, very often things happen to you that you cant influence or even understand. I have found from my life that just accepting the illness or problem rather than beating up myself about creating it is sometimes the only way to get relief which I know is paradoxical but I think life is sometimes like that.


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## Guest (Sep 10, 2006)

Im tryin so hard to take the advice that you all have given me. Unfortunately, I dont think things have changed any, as im still caught in my old ways....

I am trying to do the things you mentioned in the book, californian. the nagging thoughts of "what do i think/feel" everytime i look at or do anything is unbelievable.

Should I just ignore these nagging thoughts? and this terrible f*cked up feeling? i always get caught up in it......so i should just keep on going and not question how i feel so much?


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

jesusmyangsthasabodycount said:


> I am trying to do the things you mentioned in the book, californian. the nagging thoughts of "what do i think/feel" everytime i look at or do anything is unbelievable.


yeah, it sucks to feel that way. i've been there many times where you really think that this is it and this time you're just gonna go crazy. but it never happens and it won't happen to you. like i said just keep working at it and don't beat yourself up that you feel like you have to start all over again every two minutes.



jesusmyangsthasabodycount said:


> Should I just ignore these nagging thoughts? and this terrible f*cked up feeling? i always get caught up in it......so i should just keep on going and not question how i feel so much?


ignore both as much as possible. self-monitoring of thoughts and feelings is definitely the enemy. like i said, i've found it helpful to cultivate a controlled hostility towards them.

you have to resist the idea that you can finally "figure this all out" by thinking about it.

tomorrow i'm going to post a summary of the psychotherapy techniques they did at mt sinai (that are in the book) for anyone who is interested and can't get their hands on the book.


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## missjiller (Sep 8, 2006)

i, exactly like californian ... only have feelings of dp/dr after my stress and anxiety has calmed down and i am happy.. relaxed and content.

through the most stressful point in my life a few months ago.. i was completely fine... i carried myself quite well and delt with my problems well... about a month later... dp/dr reared it's ugly head and i've had it on and off ever since. almost always it comes after a bad episode in my life... like right now i have a great job... loving relationship with my boyfriend.. close relationship with my parents... etc etc.... and i'm totally f'U..ck''ed up with dp... mind you when i am unhappy or stressed... i feel like normal again.... how in the hell does this make any sense?


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## californian (Jul 24, 2006)

it actually makes a lot of sense to me in that immune systems often work the same way. people can be under a lot of stress, which strains the immune system, and it kicks into overdrive. when the stress goes away, the immune system is glad the stressor is gone and takes a holiday--bam, the person gets sick on vacation instead of during their stressful work time.

since dpd seems to be a coping mechanism related to a stress response (in most people anyway), it seems to make sense that it would kick in for many people after the stressor is removed. it is documented that a significant minority of dpd cases are like yours and mine, missjiller, for whatever that's worth... :wink:


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## missjiller (Sep 8, 2006)

it's actually worth a lot 

i totally get you on the immune system thing too...
it's funny i never thought of it that way before.


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