# Understanding is the stepping stone to overcoming



## weedDPeedMe (Dec 12, 2009)

After having experienced Depersonalization first hand, I have seen (along with many others) a set pattern. These behaviors listed below are common in people with DPD/DP/DR.

-Feelings of alienation, from oneself; towards people they love; from this world as we know it.
-Obsessive thinking about the Universe, Time, Consciousness, and philosophical values.
-Anxiety that they're brain is somehow defective; that they have made the "realization" that they are in the matrix, or feeling consistently "odd".
-The Anxiety stems from one of two distinct varieties: The person remembers a period before an event (drug incident/traumatic event) where things were "real". 
-Inability to focus, get work done, manage relationships, continue jobs; the condition impedes every aspect of the individuals life.
-Inability to feel pleasure, pain, happiness, jealousy, everything feels like "nothing".
-Feelings of "non-existence"
-Feelings of guilt if it was related to a drug experience/traumatic event, whether or not the individual caused it.
-Inability to assert oneself of any "proofs", existence becomes questionable.
-Depression
-Panic Attacks+Panic Disorder
-Introspective behavior taken to an extreme.
-Feeling delusional
-Deeper understanding of "ignorance is bliss", many DP'd people will know this one!
-Hyper vigilance
-Emotions seem non-existent/lost 
-Extreme levels of fear over "reality/unreality" itself.

Understanding the brain, nervous system, and how the two interconnect:
The nervous system which is our gateway to the world has two main functions. One to allow us mobility and maintain bodily functions essential for survival, and two, to give us a fight/flight/freeze response. Within the Nervous System there are two distinct systems. The Central Nervous System, and the Peripheral Nervous System. The Central Nervous System connects the Brain to the spinal cord. The Peripheral Nervous System does everything else. The somatic is voluntary control, and the Autonomic controls the organs, heart, and glands- both are within the Peripheral Nervous System. The Autonomic Nervous System also has the *Sympathetic System*, and, more importantly *Parasympathetic System*. Whenever YOU feel *extremely tense/worried/hyped up this is the Sympathetic Nervous System*. The Sympathetic Nervous System has the role of the fight/flight/freeze response. During this response *several key changes take place*. Among those changes are; pupils become dilated (this is why some people feel their vision go blurry when they're having a panic attack), heart and breathing accelerate to pump blood to muscles and core (tingling sensation is caused by this), and the reproductive and digestive system are shut down, and *hyper vigilance*. Now the problem is, is that when their is *no danger*, the *brain*essentially says "Now what?" the body is still in its heightened state, the hyper vigilance is still present looking for a danger. The brain understandably has one of two options, most of often it kicks in the Parasympathetic Nervous System. This *undoes what the Sympathetic Nervous System started*, it restarts digestion, pupils go back to normal, normal thought processes resume, heart and lungs resume normal rate, and things continue. When the brain decides that "No, all is not well" the conscious sector comes into play. This is when you became aware of these *odd feelings* despite *no perceived threat, mentally, emotionally, and physically.* What may have started as an accidental misfire, which happens to many people from time to time (rarely but nonetheless) *has now found some catastrophic meaning*. The hyper vigilance is still present and the once handy loss of emotions to help you execute otherwise risky maneuvers is all of a sudden absent. "Dull, lifeless, like a zombie, like my head is full of cotton, Going through the motions of life without emotional coloring, non-existence". All these words are used by individuals with DPD/DP/DR to describe their feeling. Ironically they can't feel anything but despair, sadness, outbursts of anger, and emotional turmoil over their condition. Its extremely common for this feeling to turn into depression, anxiety, and continually feel the sensation of having no emotional sensation. 
The Problem is, is that the brain had one misfire, which then had a catastrophic meaning assigned to, which then leads to constant feelings of being on edge, anxious, depersonalized, confused about abstract thoughts, and obsessiveness. Whether or not you realize this, your brain needs a healthy amount of variation of thought. The rut builds, its never unachievable to climb out of it, the brain is incredibly plastic, but the fear of the depersonalization, anxiousness, panic attack, is what needs to be lost. If no real threat is perceived the brain can fall into a pattern of firing off the fight/flight/freeze response the first thing in the morning when you wake up, setting off more "hyper vigilance". Most common in DP/DR/DPD suffers is the sensation that they are watching their life as a movie, they don't feel immersed they feel lost in their head and thoughts of non-existence, and everything lacks emotional coloring. The amygdala is the reason. The amygdala is a portion of the brain devoted to emotions, social skills, and familiarity.* Hyper Vigilance is the leading cause of Mental/Emotional Exhaustion*. *This can lead to LONG TERM and SHORT TERM DP/DR/DPD*. Many people who have been "DP'd" for years need not be! The amygdala which was put at a much higher level after any traumatic event if the person feels noticeably different long after the event occurred. The amygdala needs a "switch" to lower it to a normal level. People who have their amygdala set to a much higher level than usual for a long time feel depersonalized because they are inherently anxious, however here is the tricky part; they don't feel anxious. A subconscious area of the brain notices a difference in the persons neurochemistry but the person themselves don't because their brains have made adaptive changes to "cope" with the switch at a much higher level, but this change in neurochemistry may also be a cause for the . To lower their anxiety the person has to have several things in order. 1) Plenty of rest. Good sleep for seven days doesn't mean you "tried" it. Good sleep for two months is considered the level at which you should notice a difference. 2) Plenty of things to DO to keep them busy. An idle mind is prone to fall back into OLD habits, the only way to prevent this is to KEEP yourself ESPECIALLY BUSY. 3) Therapy/Meds, talking to people about the experience and bringing it out will help you to cope. 4) Conscious attempts to be positive. 5) Losing yourself in the moment. 6) Understanding that nothing "catastrophic" happened 7) Hitting your anxieties head on. Some people are able to get rid of the DP altogether by consciously trying to make the attack "worse" finding themselves unable to, this leads to the amygdala lowering its set levels.

Hope this helps


----------



## Mario (Oct 26, 2009)

Thank you for this great post


----------



## coeus (Jan 11, 2010)

weedDPeedMe said:


> After having experienced Depersonalization first hand, I have seen (along with many others) a set pattern. These behaviors listed below are common in people with DPD/DP/DR.
> 
> -Feelings of alienation, from oneself; towards people they love; from this world as we know it.
> -Obsessive thinking about the Universe, Time, Consciousness, and philosophical values.
> ...


Thanks heaps for this post, mate. My anxiety occurred similarly to smoking weed as well. How's your recovery by the way? Do you think you're fully recovered now?


----------

