# Staying home with depersonalization.



## Guest (Sep 25, 2014)

Avoidance is a terrible thing. I`ve found this out the hard way.

Several times, I`ve stopped leaving the house altogether. I had become very depersonalized in public, so I decided to avoid it as much as possible. This led to longer periods of time without going out, which translated into days and even weeks of staying home.

During a particularly bad spell, I tried to go just a few miles down the road with my girlfriend driving and couldn`t do it. All this time I had spent avoiding being depersonalized in public had shrunk my comfort zone considerably. Eventually I started becoming worse even at home. It was like the disorder was closing in on me if I didn`t challenge it.

When you begin to experience depersonalization, anxiety and fear in a specific place, you start to associate that place with those feelings. Then you might begin avoiding them to avoid how they make you feel.

The worse part about this, I`ve learned, is that it can stunt recovery. You will begin a cycle of fear before even entering the situation, meaning your body is primed for depersonalization and fully expecting it. I do believe this stage held me back many times - I wouldn`t even try to go out. If I did, I was so anxious beforehand expecting the depersonalization that I did feel terrible.

What had to happen for me was practice. Going into uncomfortable situations until I no longer associated them with fear. Sure, I was still depersonalized in them sometimes, but I wasn`t hyping myself up beforehand. I was slowly expanding my comfort zone by working through the fear rather than around it.

Some people feel so incredibly dissociated that even stepping outside is a challenge. I implore them to start small and work your way up. There`s never a need to flood yourself, but progress includes transitioning back into your former life. There is a balance between pushing yourself and going overboard, so find what your balance is.

I believe a lack of socialization with DPD can be hugely detrimental, as well as reclusion. Too many people will sit at home for years, dissociated and existing. How can you expect any change if you do not bring it upon yourself? Any recovered person will likely tell you they did not get better by staying home alone as often as possible. Acting like something is terribly wrong with you will make your brain believe it and reinforce it.

Godspeed,

Selig


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## Aust!n (Aug 14, 2014)

Isolation is flat out mental suicide with anxiety and DP. Warps your perception big time. In every aspect it's just bad. True post everyone, please don't make the same mistake I did.


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## Pyrite (Mar 25, 2014)

I learned this in the first month or so I had DP and followed this advice strictly.

It has saved me a lot of grief, and was a huge insentive for me to work my way out of social anxiety.


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## seafoamneon (Jul 16, 2014)

Yeah, I realized it's important to go to places you dont want to go to.

I sometimes go to a further grocery store because its more comfortable than the one neae my house


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## sherodon (Oct 5, 2014)

I do that to lol I go to random places in different days because my anxiety intensifies randomly at different places. I have a huge fear of triggering myself but I think going out first thing when I wake up helps more then anything. So I don't have time to sit around and think about what I'm afraid before I do anything. I just go before I have time to realize how scary certain things can be.


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## Tymmo222 (Mar 27, 2015)

I haven't left my house in 8 months 

Yes I do feel horrible but I have my good days too, I socialize relatively a lot, I talk to my friends on Skype all day long, I have, I wouldn't say normal, but okay conversations with my family members, but every time I think about stepping outside I feeling panic rushing through my body, I can't do it... I'm trapped and I need advice.


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## Guest (May 18, 2015)

Tymmo222 said:


> I haven't left my house in 8 months
> 
> Yes I do feel horrible but I have my good days too, I socialize relatively a lot, I talk to my friends on Skype all day long, I have, I wouldn't say normal, but okay conversations with my family members, but every time I think about stepping outside I feeling panic rushing through my body, I can't do it... I'm trapped and I need advice.


Start out slow.

I'd begin by spending time in your yard, and move to short walks. Don't flood yourself, but set goals where you push yourself a bit more each time. Eventually, that anticipatory anxiety will diminish and your comfort zone will expand.

It's hard work. Very hard. But you can do it!


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## Tymmo222 (Mar 27, 2015)

Thanks man, I'm actually going to seek for help from outside the Internet this time lol
tomorrow actually, with my mom, I don't know if I'll get flooded by this, since it's kinda far from my house and I haven't seen sunlight in all of those months, well, I have been out but for like 2 hours and 30 minutes total in the last almost 9 months now, I think I got this.
Thanks again


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## marduk (Mar 4, 2015)

I also stayed at home or at relatives most of the time in the beginning, but now i have been able to live an almost normal life, in the beginning i couldn't even go to the store by myself and most of my time was spent crying or surfing the net for a cure. My dr and the head pressure still gets quite bad when i attend social gatherings but i can distract myself quite easily and now its an annoyance at most.


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