# 30 meds - 7 years - Found my treatment



## 106473 (Feb 7, 2017)

Medications Tried, a lot to the max dose apart from AS: 

Nothing for my DP: 
Lithium, Depakote, Zoloft, Effexor, Vortioxitin, Elvanse, Guanfacine, Prozac, Lamotrigine (couldn’t tolerate), Ritalin (not for me), Ketamine (not DP style med at all). Buspirone /Promethazine/Buspirone/Diphenhydra was all awful IMO. 

Helped: 
Quetiapine (50 to 800mg - Higher has mood boost but 800 was overkill), Olanzapine 20mg (weight gain!), Abilify, Risperdal, Shrooms both mini and doses (don't get in over your head, this cleared fog, but it would come back).

Really helped: 
Mirtazapine 15mg + Olanzapine 20mg 

Got me through rough times but doesn't fix a thing: 
Diazepam, Clonazepam, and a year of 4mg of Xanax (withdrawal was 6 months of pure hell). 

My personal story is not gonna be yours, turns out my Nervous System is breached (very rare). 

On Ampitryline 60mg at the moment, does a few things for DP, it lowers everything, makes sure I get a body clock 12-7am (never had one before!), means I can fall asleep, stops some of the stimulation that anxiety was giving me. (if you have anxiety stimulating you 24/7, contact me, that's not just anxiety). 

Gabapentin - 300x3 a day, I knew it was the right thing for me straight away, which is odd as it, after years of feeling funny in my head, I didn't think we'd ever find a matching piece to the puzzle. Don't get lost on the specifics, what works for me isn't really the point, however, It turned off my Anxiety from 24/7 to nothing, my depression, and anhedonia back to 0, and made me actually happy. I went from 80% on the Cambridge scale to a 12%; 

You do you, but I only know one thing, that's being relentless and keep pushing forward. I'm recovering and it has nothing to do with anything other than the medication, when anxiety is a 0, dissociation is pushed back. 

According to you some people "there is no medication to treat DP". 

From my Neurologist;

The approach to stopping DP is usually isolating why the patient is living in high anxiety, in my case, it was the nervous system, so it was lowered with medication, Depersonalization, as a result, lowers and fades, it is just a symptom, not a condition. 

Tips: 

1. Making appointments; Enquire and send them 1 page explaining how, when, and what your symptoms are, then ask if they'd like to take on the case, so many times I paid £250 for someone to listen and then say 'i dunno'.

2. Be honest with yourself and doctors, the more honest, the faster someone can figure out what's going on.

3. Psychiatrists can't recognize anything but mood disorders from the 30 I've met. For me, it wasn't until I got the right Neurologist. During this journey, I've met a lot of people, but by far the smartest people I've come in contact with was Neurologists, they tend to look at a wider picture, they seem to have way more power in prescribing, and you don't feel like hitting your head against a wall 100 times after you walk out of an appointment. 

4. Get a talk therapist that you like, I went on google, emailed 5 explaining what I had, and what I wanted. My email was something like, I have these symptoms, but I don't want someone to say "and how does that make you feel" as I am numb and I can do that myself. This approach weeded out all the lab coat boring people and I found someone who I think I'll always go to, just to make sure my health and happiness is always evaluated from time to time, I've really grown to enjoy it, at the start it was hard, but it's a hard process. 

5. If you are on the NHS, my advice unfortunately is to start saving and get good at writing letters to Health Ministers, Health Chiefs, MPs, GPs. I've had to or my case just kept drifting, no one is in control. Letter writing and going private from time to time was a must in my case. 

6. If you are not working, you have two objectives; one, lower anxiety by going for walks, making plans on DP approach but then slowly, practicing distraction and eventually learning, even 15minutes a day. I learned so much being ill, subjects that I didn't know I even enjoyed, but more importantly, I've 7 years of knowledge, which will someday, be worthwhile. 

Truth is, I get a fair few messages, I'm not here much, this is why people don't see the recovery stories as much as life doesn't pause, I also have chronic fatigue from having so much adrenaline for years, so I've other things to focus on, but when the blank mind bursts open as it has many times once the depression completely lifts, I'll write another, but honestly, i use to spend all day reading these, it's an anxious habit, you have anxiety, turn off the cycle.


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## Aridity (Jun 12, 2011)

So the conclusion is, anxiety needs to be gone completely. I don't experience any anxiety, but I do know that my nervous system is ON 24/7 I am tensed all the time my body is tight and tensed. And because I am in this state for such a long time I don't even notice it that much because it's become my new normal. Do you ever think it could've been done without medication? I don't dare to take any medication anymore, I had a few bad reactions to them and just to scared to take anything, but I do think I need anything atleast because I am getting worse and worse.


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## 106473 (Feb 7, 2017)

The difference which I should have outlined is they chucked a lot of psychiatric medication at something that needed a neurologist, took 7 years to find one, I walk in covered in sweat and the guy says, I’ve seen this and I’ve read your notes…but he did think my depression and anxiety came from psychiatry because I had so many medications under my belt, turned out gabapentin, 5th most popular drug but takes a neurologist it seems here to even consider it. It is odd as the more you read the more people find it cures a lot of random things if you respond, it’s almost a class of its own. People say lyrica is the same class but it’s not even close for what we need. 

hope I gave you an idea of where i stand


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## 35467 (Dec 31, 2010)

I have tried gabapentin in 3x400.mg for 6-8.weeks in 2004 without any effect. I think that depersonalization disorder is a "*Thalamocortical dysrhythmia" disorder. *Brainwaves in the brain comes from different areas in the thalamus and is in a feedback between the cortex in different areas in the brain and the thalamus. In some disorders like depression and other these brainwaves can become dysrthymic and areas will not process normally. Equipment called "synchronized TMS" is in development for treatment resident depression and will with 3.seperate small coils over the cortex like visual cortex, prefrontal cortex try to give a feed-back to the thalamus so brainwaves becomes normal and synchronies again. They will use a Qeeg of the individuals brainwaves and put it into a computerprogram so the coils will stimulate correctly on the individual patient. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalamocortical_dysrhythmia


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## coolwhip27 (Mar 14, 2015)

Aridity said:


> So the conclusion is, anxiety needs to be gone completely. I don't experience any anxiety, but I do know that my nervous system is ON 24/7 I am tensed all the time my body is tight and tensed. And because I am in this state for such a long time I don't even notice it that much because it's become my new normal. Do you ever think it could've been done without medication? I don't dare to take any medication anymore, I had a few bad reactions to them and just to scared to take anything, but I do think I need anything atleast because I am getting worse and worse.


He is implying that anxiety and/or whatever causes overstimulation of the nervous system will result in DP. Very interesting actually. But im not just going to take his word for it, because medications is a mixed bag. What works for him does NOT mean it will work for everyone. I could be wrong, but that is my conclusion for now.


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## 106473 (Feb 7, 2017)

coolwhip27 said:


> Bingo “He is implying that anxiety and/or whatever causes overstimulation of the nervous system will result in DP”
> 
> If they had found my nervous system breach and neurology was first I’d have only tried 2 medications.
> 
> ...


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## 106473 (Feb 7, 2017)

This is not a medication guide *
Eg I know someone who found Ritalin worked yet it made me worse, if anything I’m saying just don’t give up.


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## Cray2344 (Sep 14, 2018)

Could you expand on this "(if you have anxiety stimulating you 24/7, contact me, that's not just anxiety)." I think that i feel anxiety, physically all the time, is this relevant to what you experienced?


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## Cheryl Z (8 mo ago)

Cray2344 said:


> Could you expand on this "(if you have anxiety stimulating you 24/7, contact me, that's not just anxiety)." I think that i feel anxiety, physically all the time, is this relevant to what you experienced?


I have constant dissociation in fight or flight 24/7 a yea in now pls I would love to knw what helped u, I’m currently on propranolol but it’s not changing anything by for me


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