# Recovery: Does age make a difference?



## Rogue Bullies (Jun 1, 2010)

Just wondering if anyone has seen or knows a difference with age in recovery. Like does a younger brain that is still developing take longer or have a harder time recovering? What about people who get this when they are old? Just wondering if anyone has any idea on how age effects DP and recovery time. It also seems like a lot of people get this in late teens/20's any reasoning for that?


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## sonnl (Apr 15, 2009)

i would assume that its easier for a younger underdeveloped brain but really i dont think it makes much of a difference. btw for anyone who doesnt know this, your brain doesnt fully develope till around 25 or 26 years old.


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## insaticiable (Feb 23, 2010)

Rogue Bullies said:


> It also seems like a lot of people get this in late teens/20's any reasoning for that?


I too have noticed that a lot of people who sign up on here are in their late teens/20's...something about the age 19 particularly. I don't know the reasoning behind it though...

Also, when you say the ''older people'' who sign up.....most of them describe getting DP/DR in their teens or 20's....however they didn't receive a diagnosis or find the term depersonalization back then, so by the time they found out years later, they were already older than many of us youngsters. Hope this makes sense.

But it is definitely a phenomenon that seems to be affecting a lot of young people today, despite race or gender.


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

I honestly think that the age factor has to do primarily with the fact that teenagers and people in their early 20's are in the party pahse of their lives and are experimenting with or using drugs and alcohol (in excess on the alcohol). Not to say that some people don't do this at a later age but the entire party culture and seen seems to be targeted to those ages. So you mix that with the common anxious personality type of dp people and you have a recipe for disaster.

Krystal, trust me, don't go looking for common denominators with dp. It only sets you up to create time limits/restrictions on recovery and makes you feel hopeless when you are either ahead of or behind those boundaries. Every person got dp for a different reason and each person recovers on their own time table. The one common denominator in dp is that doctors don't fully understand exactly how it works. So we live with it and we take steps to recover and do the best we can until recovery comes.


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## Zee Deveel (Aug 3, 2009)

ustabetinyfairypeople said:


> Krystal, trust me, don't go looking for common denominators with dp. It only sets you up to create time limits/restrictions on recovery and makes you feel hopeless when you are either ahead of or behind those boundaries.


This is a very good point.

I reckon young people these days are just under a shitload of pressure from society. We have the media constantly telling us "you should be like this", in no uncertain terms and when we can't live up to that, it fucks us up. Most of my best friends are on Citalopram right now, the world has become a really messed up place and I think young folk just have the hardest time dealing with it. For some of us, it gets too much.


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## York (Feb 26, 2008)

I think you basically need the same help what ever age you are at. Life has difficult stages all the way, you overcome one, then comes the next. Your parents, then school, then having kids, then illness, then work, etc.. You need to become more resilient, less anxious, so you don't go under all the time.

I think at a certain age the risk of getting dp is less, as you know what situations you don't want to be in, and you also feel more comfortable in the world and with yourself. When I hear some of the younger people on here, I want to scream at times, then I feel sorry for them. Life is so much better when your brain reaches it's full capacity.. My guess would be that it's easier to recover the younger you are though. Unfortunately.

A young mind adapts more easily to new things, which can be an advantage when you've fallen ill, it's easier to adjust and move on. I think the biggest mistake younger people make is to root themselves in front of the computer, and make dp their identity. That's the easiest way to never recover. You should think like a caveman, go outside, get exercise, eat healthy, be close to other humans.


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

york said:


> I think the biggest mistake younger people make is to root themselves in front of the computer, and make dp their identity. That's the easiest way to never recover. You should think like a caveman, go outside, get exercise, eat healthy, be close to other humans.


Yes, yes, yes and YES!!!! That's what I've been trying to say. You'll notice that a lot of the people who have yet to recover from dp are the ones who send all day every day on this site. I used to be that person and when I started living life, I started recovering. This is not to say that this rule applies for everyone because there are for sure special circumstances but as a general rule, this rings true.

I think along the same lines of what York is saying about being better equipt to handle things when your brain is fully developed, I have been going a lot of thinking about how dp has equipt me to deal with everything better in general. In all truth, getting dp has been a blessing in one area of my life. My entire life I have had panic attacks. I seriously would get these cycles every few months where I would have panic attacks 24 hours a day. I would have one every 10 seconds at times. It was just this never ending terrifying hell. I would be so sick with it I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't sleep or eat or really do anything. It was just a full on assault of terror. There were certain subjects that I could not talk about because they would set off panic attacks. My biggest fear is death and any time someone even mentioned the word die or death, even on tv, it would set me off. I seriously could not go one single day without feeling physical pain when I would look at my children knowing that they will have to die one day. It literally tortured me and honestly, it really isn't any wonder that I got dp because of the dark hell I used to live in, in my mind. But the good thing is that dp, to me, feels like my panic attack button broke. It like got stuck on and for the first 8 months I did have constantly panic and constant anxiety and then it completely ran out of panic. Ever since then, I have not had one single spell of the 24/7 terror attacks like I used to. I no longer have this all controlling fear of death. I feel like I was this terrified little girl before I got dp and dp has refined me into this strong woman. I honestly feel like there couldn't be many things to could come along in my life that could make me lose my shiz the way that dp has. Panic attacks are a joke to me now. I have learned so many valuable lessons on how to finally have control over that area of my life. I feel a greater calm and a greater sense of control that I never had before dp.

So maybe, for all of us chronic panickers and worriers, dp is a blessing because it finally allows us to face the beast head on and take it in hand. Then when we recover, we are better and stronger people for it.


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## Tommygunz (Sep 7, 2009)

most mental illnesses develop in the late teens to early twenties. i can't remember the reason off hand but there is an actual explanation for it.


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## Rogue Bullies (Jun 1, 2010)

ustabetinyfairypeople said:


> Yes, yes, yes and YES!!!! That's what I've been trying to say. You'll notice that a lot of the people who have yet to recover from dp are the ones who send all day every day on this site. I used to be that person and when I started living life, I started recovering. This is not to say that this rule applies for everyone because there are for sure special circumstances but as a general rule, this rings true.
> 
> I think along the same lines of what York is saying about being better equipt to handle things when your brain is fully developed, I have been going a lot of thinking about how dp has equipt me to deal with everything better in general. In all truth, getting dp has been a blessing in one area of my life. My entire life I have had panic attacks. I seriously would get these cycles every few months where I would have panic attacks 24 hours a day. I would have one every 10 seconds at times. It was just this never ending terrifying hell. I would be so sick with it I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't sleep or eat or really do anything. It was just a full on assault of terror. There were certain subjects that I could not talk about because they would set off panic attacks. My biggest fear is death and any time someone even mentioned the word die or death, even on tv, it would set me off. I seriously could not go one single day without feeling physical pain when I would look at my children knowing that they will have to die one day. It literally tortured me and honestly, it really isn't any wonder that I got dp because of the dark hell I used to live in, in my mind. But the good thing is that dp, to me, feels like my panic attack button broke. It like got stuck on and for the first 8 months I did have constantly panic and constant anxiety and then it completely ran out of panic. Ever since then, I have not had one single spell of the 24/7 terror attacks like I used to. I no longer have this all controlling fear of death. I feel like I was this terrified little girl before I got dp and dp has refined me into this strong woman. I honestly feel like there couldn't be many things to could come along in my life that could make me lose my shiz the way that dp has. Panic attacks are a joke to me now. I have learned so many valuable lessons on how to finally have control over that area of my life. I feel a greater calm and a greater sense of control that I never had before dp.
> 
> So maybe, for all of us chronic panickers and worriers, dp is a blessing because it finally allows us to face the beast head on and take it in hand. Then when we recover, we are better and stronger people for it.


Great post! I totally agree since I have had DP I have completely stepped out of my box and comfort zone and learned to live life! I also had panic attacks bad when I first got DP (first 2 months or so) and now I don't get them at all. I have learned to control them. Recovery is slow by every month that goes by I get a little bit better...one day I hope it to be gone 100%, but I will never forget the experience and what I have learned from this. Its changed my whole world around!


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## Rogue Bullies (Jun 1, 2010)

Tommygunz said:


> most mental illnesses develop in the late teens to early twenties. i can't remember the reason off hand but there is an actual explanation for it.


I get that, but DP isn't really a mental illness on its own is it? Its more of a symptom of anxiety and a temporary state of mind.


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## Lithuanian (Jan 9, 2011)

Depersonalization is NOT an illness, it is a device by which our brain copes with the overloads. However, Depersonalization Disorder IS a mental illness and it is on it's own, and it is not temporary for a good lot of people (20 years for me). Check the website by one of the specialists in the field: www.depersonalization.info

He provides a good overview. Here is a quote:

Depersonalization, as a symptom, is what the majority of us experience at some time in our lives. It occurs briefly, and has no lasting effect. Depersonalization Disorder, however, is a chronic illness that can take a dreadful and long-lasting course. Unlike relatively new disease phenomenon such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, Depersonalization Disorder has been clearly defined for years, (though somewhat buried under the Dissociative Disorders heading) in the Psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the bible of psychiatric diagnoses. 
According to DSM-IV, Depersonalization Disorder, in part, constitutes the following:
... a feeling of detachment or estrangement from one's self . The individual may feel like an automaton or as if he or she is living in a dream or a movie. There may be a sensation of being an outside observer of one's metal processes, one's body, or parts of one's body.
... Various types of sensory anesthesia, lack of affective response, and a sensation of lacking control of one's actions, including speech, are often present. The individual with Depersonalization Disorder maintains intact reality testing (e.g., awareness that it is only a feeling and that he or she is not really an automaton) . Depersonalization is a common experience, and this diagnosis should be made only if the symptoms are sufficiently severe to cause marked distress or impairment in functioning).


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