# Medical help for DP/DR is available. Don't give up!



## ComesAndGoes (Nov 28, 2012)

I've been reading this blog for quite a while, and now am finally writing. If you have DP/DR, please don't think you have to live with it forever.
In 1988 I came down with such a severe case of DR that I could barely even drive. I was out of work for three months while numerous physicians tried to figure out what the heck was wrong with me. I didn't have a moment's peace from derealization.
Fortunately, I lived in Northern California near Stanford University and had access to their medical community. A neurologist, after sitting back in his chair and proclaiming, "I have no idea what is wrong with you," suggested I see a psychopharmacologist. The psychoparmacologist already had some fame in coinventing a drug for obessive-compulsive disorder. I saw him a few times after which he suggested that a new drug, available for depression, might help me because the serotonin pathway is implicated in DP/DR. That drug, back in 1989, was called Prozac. Within a week I was turning around. Reality was slowly falling into place again. What a relief! And do you know what happens when a non-depressed person is placed on Prozac? They feel amazing and that's what happened to me. I had no other symptoms other than derealization. Nothing else: no depression, no anxiety attacks (although the DR symptoms were pushing my anxiety sky high).
After about five years, the low dose of Prozac (20mg/day) did not maintain my hyper-happiness, and it's effects on my mood turned me back into a "normal" person. However and most thankfully, Prozac has continued to shield me from DP/DR these past 25 years.
If you've not sought a pharmacological solution to DP/DR, I implore you to give it a try. Health may be just around the corner if you do.
I'm now 56 years old and the DR sometimes leaks back into my life, but usually recedes after a day or so. I'd wondered if the disease would return as I aged. It is, a little bit, but I'm fighting and have an appointment with another psychopharamcologist at the Mayo Clinic as my first doctor at Stanford is long retired. I'm extremely hopeful because I see that an anti-convulsant added to the SSRI often does the trick, and several anti-opiods have shown some success.
DP/DR is a disease of the brain and requires real medicine. Go for it. Hang in there. Best of luck to you all.


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2012)

I agree with you Sarah. I was given some antidepressants yesterday and I've been on the same ones before, but they made my brain "shake" if I missed a dose so I quit them after a few months. Withdrawal was long and tedious but do you know what reappeared after going off them? Panic attacks and DP! Having previously rid myself of them for a long time. So the docs can get screwed quite frankly, I'm putting up with the suffering! (That's until I call the crisis team up later telling them I want to die, but y'know... all in a day's work







)


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