# You can recover.



## = n (Nov 17, 2004)

Well i thought i should report here that i am feeling significantly better.

Whether or not i have some kind of relapse in the future seems almost irrelevant to me because i have now felt clearly that it is possible to recover completely and what precisely it feels like to do so. I can go for many weeks, even months without any symptoms and the less i think about it, the better (hence unfortunately my virtual abandonment of this forum, once having said what i needed to say and read what i needed to read).

It may be that i'll never be 100% normal (whatever that is), but i now feel like i can cope with and contextualise my symptoms in ways that i never could in the past. This forum has been incomparably helpful with that. I thank everyone here who spends time trying to help others out of the deep, dark hole.

I'm not sure there's much point in me suggesting things as it seems to be different for each person but i certainly think that being positive helps. I had a kind of revelatory period, an epiphany or whatever last year, i enrolled at college, i started listening to a lot of classical music, i have been reading, watching films, making new friends, creating Art, doing Chi Kung exercises etc. I've even met a pretty girl who seems to like me as much as i like her. With all this my disorder has fallen away. It's not the centre of my life anymore and that's important. Even when it's there i ignore it as much as possible.

Stop creating rhetoric about how terrible things are for you and start _acting_ like everythings fine (even mentally). After a while you start to forget you're acting. Thats all i'll suggest.

For me this started before the age of seven and for a long time i thought my problems were unique in the world. Now (aged 23) i have a great chance of getting over this. Thank you.


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## Guest (May 10, 2007)

So in other words... you have begun to "live"... well done mate, you deserve the reward of feeling better =). *Thumbs up* keep it up.


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## brandon is not taken (Mar 29, 2007)

excellent.

I have one question for you, if you happen to come back and read this. I am the same age as you, and being at this age alot of my social scene is built around comsumption of alcohol. I dont drink too often anymore though.

Do you drink, and how do you feel it contributes to anxiety/recovery?


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## = n (Nov 17, 2004)

Its true that i don't drink as much as i have in the past. I would describe my alcohol consumption as moderate. I drink a bit, now and then.

I get the worst hangovers of anyone i know, in which this disorder plays a large part. Some of my hangovers have been almost life changing experiences. I suppose i try to avoid those now, although i haven't taken a really conscious decision to cut my intake, it's just how i've started behaving of late. I'm sure i'll get totally trashed in the future and no doubt that will bring about some exacerbation of DP/R. I just won't make a habit of it, that's all.

Drinking lots of alcohol certainly doesn't help you recover. Although it might feel like that at the time :!:


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