# Advice Requested



## Avenged (Feb 21, 2008)

Hello,

My name is Eric. I have suffered with anxiety and depression for nearly 10 years now. I am twenty two years old. I will just get right to it. I have intermittent bouts of depersonalization that seem to come and plague me. I was on the subway the other day after a long days training for my job. I was so tired that all I wanted to do was just lean my head up against the glass and doze off. To forget myself and lose consciousness would be the greatest thing after lots of stress and a long day. I find myself not able to do this, and it is extremely frustrating beyond description. I have an "over-consciousness" where I seem to be always "aware" of myself and my thoughts and feelings. I know this is the byproduct of having an obsessive mind, and Claire Weekes talks about it somewhat in her books. This is most exhausting and just torturous. I have tried various techniques, such as doing the best I can to not react to this awareness when it comes. I try to say things such as, I will let it be there and I don't need to make it go away. Normally I just wish it would go away and I try to usually "will" myself to just forget about it and relax. But I find that practicing the aformentioned techniques is rarely successful and am in need of some solid basic advice for dealing with this problem of over awareness and the constant feeling of enclosure within myself that i wish i could just lose. It is more or less with me all day long, making spontaneous feeling and interaction very difficult, and making me stiff and rigid with myself because I feel like I am always one step ahead of myself in my mind. Its a deeply unnerving experience and very stressful and strange, trying to lose this "depersonalization awareness" and feeling of being somehow detached from myself in an over analytical way. This "clenched" feeling of always being on guard. Ironically I have found that in trying to forget yourself, you actually secrete more adrenaline and exert more control over the situation, which spurs your mind to be further on guard. However, I see no way out of this.I have severe OCD and was able to overcome it using intensive exposure and response prevention, however, this problem seems to be one that is tough as nails and I really need help.

Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am receptive to all.

Eric


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## Avenged (Feb 21, 2008)

Also,

I notice that my mind constantly pops up with "Is that feeling still there" ...automatically, as I do not want to keep checking in.

Then I will find myself just probing into and thinking about all the weird symptoms. I have read from Claire weekes that you should let go and not keep checking in to see if its "still there". However, I find my mind does this automatically and makes me think about it.

Please offer your advice on some coping strategies.


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## Conjurus (Oct 25, 2008)

If you havn't given this a read- viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16967, try it. I hope you find something in there useful.

Other than coping techniques, are you on any medication? I would recommend talking to a doctor or psychiatrist(preferably) about Anafranil. It is a very good medicine for obsessive thinking and OCD. I too suffered from over thinking and over analyzing everything possible. Anafranil is such a relief to me and life is just so much better for me with it. I can concentrate on the things I want to better. Also, it seems like you've got a lot of anxiety in there too. I'd talk to someone about some possible anxiety relieving meds. Vistaril is what I take- It's best to try to take it about an hour before whatever makes you anxious happens. For instance I take mine about an hour before work and I take one in the middle of work. This helps prevent the anxiety before it happens. It's not so great for dealing with anxiety quickly since it takes about an hour to kick in, but if you take it regularly it will be in your system preventing you from getting anxious.

Do you ever have really good moods? Like really super happy or excited? Just wondering if you might have some bipolar or just depression/anxiety. The bottom line is I recommend seeing a professional, but hopefully some of this info will help you. The meds I'm on don't take dp completely away, but it takes away the obsessive thinking and the anxiety, making the actual dp part quite a bit easier to handle and cope with.


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