# TO ALL SUFFERERS - my theory



## ph10 (Nov 24, 2012)

Depersonalization disorder is one of the most mysterious, widely debated and vague disorders out there. And it is also, without a doubt, one of the most painful. There are TONS of different theories out there about when causes it - all of which are visibly irresistible to argue about - on this forum and elsewhere. I've literally almost rage quit this forum several times because of all the conflicting info on it.

Depersonalization in itself can be a symptom of just about anything - literally it can pop up as a side effect of the entire spectrum of mental disorders. It's the third most common psychiatric symptom in the world after Depression and Anxiety. So lots of people feel it every once in a while, even for no specific reason. It's simply a chemical alteration in the brain that dulls the emotions and senses, and overactivates the neocortex - responsible for "higher thinking." In the context of anxiety, this dissociative response is logical from an evolutionary perspective. If you are about to be attacked by a tiger, and you're so overwhelmed by fear and panic that you can't think straight, your anxiety responses to the extreme situation will hinder your chances of survival instead of helping you. This will go away once the situation is resolved... usually.

People who acquire depersonalization disorder are frequently creative, introspective, and/or have preexisting anxiety/OCD/depression/etc. Jeff Abugel noted they are more likely to have a "predisposition" to depersonalization disorder. Though he implied the predisposition is a neurological one, I think that instead the predisposition is that we are all prone to analyzing our own thoughts. When we experience depersonalization, we notice it, and due to the very nature of the feeling we blow it out of proportion and panic, expecting some sort of "collapse of reality" or insanity, etc. From that day forward, our very anxiety towards the condition is what prolongs it as an anxiety symptom. It seems unbearably terrifying, and therefore it commands every second of our attention. The more we focus on it, the more anxiety it causes us, and the further it throws our brain chemistry out of whack. The only times in which it completely goes away are when we're not thinking about it at all for a long enough period that our brain chemicals have a chance to rebalance.

As hard as this sounds, the only way to recover is to completely eliminate your fear toward your symptoms, and shift your focus ELSEWHERE. If you're thinking "don't think about DP" then you are. You've got to immerse yourself in reality again. Occupy your attention span and push DP out of it. Treat it like it's the flu - you know you feel like shit, there's no denying it, but it does no good to spend every second while you're sick analyzing and moping around about it. Instead, you try to shift your mind to other stuff to lessen the suffering. You know that it can't kill you, and that it'll go away soon enough, so you have no need to worry about it and want to make the most of your life anyway. I know that's not a perfect analogy, but that's exactly the type of mindset you need to beat depersonalization disorder. It's a psychological parallel of an auto-immune disorder, with your conscious mind as the immune system. Your natural response to depersonalization is to fear it and to fight it, which prolongs it. With the disorder, your fight-or-flight response is on overdrive every second that you feel DP - that anxiety toward it keeps it going.

Without a stimulus, the mind will not simply maintain a dissociative state - especially not forever as many people fear. The brain is a remarkable system with a tremendous capability for healing itself. Depersonalization is the stimulus, and once you are able to stop your anxiety towards it the disorder will go away. It's a difficult task, and I myself haven't fully achieved this yet, but I'm drawing on the knowledge of many people who have. Sean Madden, Jeff Abugel, Shaun O' Connor, Charles Linden and Harris Harrington have all helped me a ton and what I've shared here is what I've concluded from their stories and research. This information is invaluable and will practically save lives DP has virtually stolen from people. Please reshare this if you want, and look up the above mentioned people to see who helped me conclude this.

Good luck to everybody with DP and congratulations to those who've overcome it.

-Penn


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## OvercomeTheAnxietyDP/DR (May 8, 2013)

pennh10 said:


> Depersonalization disorder is one of the most mysterious, widely debated and vague disorders out there. And it is also, without a doubt, one of the most painful. There are TONS of different theories out there about when causes it - all of which are visibly irresistible to argue about - on this forum and elsewhere. I've literally almost rage quit this forum several times because of all the conflicting info on it.
> 
> Depersonalization in itself can be a symptom of just about anything - literally it can pop up as a side effect of the entire spectrum of mental disorders. It's the third most common psychiatric symptom in the world after Depression and Anxiety. So lots of people feel it every once in a while, even for no specific reason. It's simply a chemical alteration in the brain that dulls the emotions and senses, and overactivates the neocortex - responsible for "higher thinking." In the context of anxiety, this dissociative response is logical from an evolutionary perspective. If you are about to be attacked by a tiger, and you're so overwhelmed by fear and panic that you can't think straight, your anxiety responses to the extreme situation will hinder your chances of survival instead of helping you. This will go away once the situation is resolved... usually.
> 
> ...


I always check on many peoples forum daily, including yours, because you and others alike helped me greatly, including your videos, even when I'm not recovered yet, (but feel some sort of borderline recovery sensation getting ready to happen).. You are right, I have severe anxiety,pure o (ocd), and depression which all fuel my dr/dp,existential thoughts,solipsism thoughts,philosophical thought process which is hell. Anxiety and pure o I stress plays a huge part init, I know for a fact if I never got anxious over me questioning my reality,or other delusional thinking like thoughts, I would never dwell over this bull shit, when I get anxious over a thought, I feel I have to obsess over it, which is bad (probably the ocd in me).. Anyway, I feel and agree with just about everything you said, I strongly feel, though very hard, if you stay rooted in reality without thinking from your dp thoughts. and pretend you never thought these thoughts,you will eventually re-balance the chemicals in your mind, and 100% realize we are living in a real world. Trust me on that, the shit that was going through my mind, and still kinda is, no one I believe thought what I thought, my shit was just manifesting.. If my mind can start to bounce back from that, anyone's can I feel. here is an analogy that helped me, I turned on cold water in the bathroom, and thought "what if the water will be hot, what if the water will be warm" I thought of the feeling of the warm sensation in my mind, and then put my face in the cold running water, and guess what, that water was fucking cold. You see how I psyche myself into thinking the water could possibly be hot or warm if I turned it on? That is dr/dp/existential/solipsism thoughts right there. We just a bunch of creative people living in our mind, the difference is we get anxious over it, people with no anxiety or obsessive thinking become rich from their thoughts, Christopher Nolan who made inception, other guy who made other movies like Vanilla sky.. We can be those people, not on the level probably, but similar, we just need to kill the anxiety/pure o rethink until our mind rewires and re balance


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## Guest (Jun 21, 2013)

Creative people aren't disturbed by abstract thoughts because they are grounded in reality.

Thoughts are secondary (theory), and only ever have power of disturbance when we're disconnected.

I'm no authority on all those money-grabbing parasitic experts mentioned, but "You've got to immerse yourself in reality again" is good advice.

Most people think this means full on exposure therapy, and don't know that it can be done gently and peacefully at home, although that doesn't mean it will be emotionally easy. Open to the reality around you.


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## ph10 (Nov 24, 2012)

Demoralize said:


> I don't like confrontation, but I say dp is purely genetic in origin. There's no reversing you're genes/ chemical imbalance inside you're brain.


I promise you that if you spend the rest of your life believing that, you won't recover. I can ASSURE you that. But the truth is TONS of people have recovered once they believed in the stuff I just said above. Your choice. Just give it a shot bro.


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## Guest (Jun 25, 2013)

Saying it's genetic in origin isn't really saying anything, I think. Because if something is possible then there must be a genetic possibility, but then it's likely/possible in anyone.

It's possible to get hit by a meteorite, but not very certain!


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## ph10 (Nov 24, 2012)

Phantasm said:


> Saying it's genetic in origin isn't really saying anything, I think. Because if something is possible then there must be a genetic possibility, but then it's likely/possible in anyone.
> 
> It's possible to get hit by a meteorite, but not very certain!


That's right. Also if it was genetic, then why would people be able to recover by reversing the "shift" to DP?


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## wise (Mar 29, 2012)

Demoralize said:


> I don't like confrontation, but I say dp is purely genetic in origin. There's no reversing you're genes/ chemical imbalance inside you're brain.


I used to think that and maybe genetics has a role but I used to always feel that the world was a scary place and I'm sure that contributed the most to having dp. It's almost like you have
to sit yourself down and repeat over and over 'I am not afraid, I can handle
anything that comes my way, I am not ashamed', basically affirmations
to ground yourself out of dp so there is no need for it to stick around and 'protect you'. The real reason that it's so hard to kick is that we allow our emotional well being to be tied to people that are dysfunctional and our financial well being tied to the unstable, we compare ourselves to others and then despair, etc etc. so that there is never any tranquility for the mind and the constant crashing waves of our thoughts
creates the chemical imbalances that become so difficult to correct.


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