# recovery



## sam13 (Nov 10, 2021)

I am not someone who does these type of things like write long post about stuff but knowing how hard this is to deal with I thought i’d share with some people who are dealing with this in hopes to help.

I got dp from a panic attack back in February and after that my life started to go downhill. I experienced probably all the symptoms you experienced like thinking i was in a dream, thought I was dead, I was permanently tripping/high, thinking I had schizophrenia, or had dementia you name it I probably thought all the crazy/scary thoughts. This is an extremely scary/horrible experience and I just want to say you’re not alone, many people feel this way and almost everyone in the world will feel some sort of level of dp/dr in their life but for us we got stuck that way because we focus so much on it and thats perfectly okay. I had dp/dr for awhile I would say about 6-7 months and it was not easy, there were times that I would just hide in my room all day playing video games and watching movies. I remember the first months of having it I called off of work and stopped talking to my friends etc. I would spend all day watching youtube videos and reading articles on dp and how to recover but doing all that did was it prevented me from recovery. So as time went on I wanted to get better and wanted to feel “normal” again and get back to my daily routine. Yes it took awhile but I made the effort to do so. No matter how bad I felt I still would go out and do things and try my best no matter how high my anxiety was or how crazy my thoughts were I did it. Im not going to go super far into my story or recovery but I just want to say It gets better I promise you that, I am back to my normal self again, I still have the same interests, still love all the things that I did before dp/dr. For recovery you need to find out what’s causing this, what is causing these high amounts of anxiety because that’s all it is, its just anxiety. So i’m just going to give some tips on how to recover.

1. STOP READING OR WATCHING VIDEOS ON DEPERSONALIZATION!!! I cant stress that enough that is a huge part of why people can’t recover, because you keep reminding yourself about it. If you want something to make you feel okay go buy the dpmanual by Shaun O connor that was by far the biggest help in my recovery. 

2. Keep doing what you normally do, if you have a job don't call off, if your family or friends want to hangout or go out go do it no matter how bad you feel you just gotta get out and do it because by doing that you’re telling yourself and your brain its okay. Do not hide from things!!

3. Exercise big help was running or biking, go run on a treadmill or even better go on a bike ride through nature. 

4. Distractions is a big one, find something to do whether it be playing video games, drawing or watching an interesting movie because by distracting yourself you forget about the dp even if its for a few minutes you get the mental clarity that you can recover. I remember there were times Id spend hours playing Zelda and I would be so distracted in grinding that game that everything would just feel normal, yes it did come back when I would get off but during the time playing that game and how i felt i knew I can recover from this.

5. Limit your stress, If there are things in your life that are stressing you out you must try your best to stop those things. I understand for some of you if you have stressful job you can’t just quit but you got to do your best to limit that stress. I dated a girl for 5 years and the relationship was becoming way to stressful for me and mentally draining for reason i don’t want to get into but I broke up with her, I was very sad but as time went on it relived a lot of my symptoms of dp. Your mental health is more important that anything.


6. Last of all Don't do drugs it’ll just make it worse especially weed that just increases the dp/dr. Also don’t drink to often, yes a couple drinks here and there are okay but don’t depend on it. Drugs and alcohol are only temporary effects yes they may make you feel better but in the long run it’ll only make you feel worse. Also during your time of dp try to lower your amounts of caffeine that just increase the anxiety.

Recovery is possible I promise you that, It f*cking sucks but I promise you it does get better you just have to put the effort into it. You’re not going crazy this whole thing is perfectly normal.


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## SotMeint01 (Jul 29, 2021)

sam13 said:


> I am not someone who does these type of things like write long post about stuff but knowing how hard this is to deal with I thought i’d share with some people who are dealing with this in hopes to help.
> 
> I got dp from a panic attack back in February and after that my life started to go downhill. I experienced probably all the symptoms you experienced like thinking i was in a dream, thought I was dead, I was permanently tripping/high, thinking I had schizophrenia, or had dementia you name it I probably thought all the crazy/scary thoughts. This is an extremely scary/horrible experience and I just want to say you’re not alone, many people feel this way and almost everyone in the world will feel some sort of level of dp/dr in their life but for us we got stuck that way because we focus so much on it and thats perfectly okay. I had dp/dr for awhile I would say about 6-7 months and it was not easy, there were times that I would just hide in my room all day playing video games and watching movies. I remember the first months of having it I called off of work and stopped talking to my friends etc. I would spend all day watching youtube videos and reading articles on dp and how to recover but doing all that did was it prevented me from recovery. So as time went on I wanted to get better and wanted to feel “normal” again and get back to my daily routine. Yes it took awhile but I made the effort to do so. No matter how bad I felt I still would go out and do things and try my best no matter how high my anxiety was or how crazy my thoughts were I did it. Im not going to go super far into my story or recovery but I just want to say It gets better I promise you that, I am back to my normal self again, I still have the same interests, still love all the things that I did before dp/dr. For recovery you need to find out what’s causing this, what is causing these high amounts of anxiety because that’s all it is, its just anxiety. So i’m just going to give some tips on how to recover.
> 
> ...


And what if someone doesn't feel stressed? I don't feel stressed at all. I just feel like a brainless zombie and nothing else. I got used to dp. Even if I read articles I'm not even stressed. I'm just stuck on that. I can't remember how I used to be. I actually forgot thinking that I have dp. But I've never felt like the way I used to feel before. My memory and perception are also affected. But I still can work and do stuff. I'm not numb, I'm also sad and happy if we talk about feelings. I just don't feel my hands and legs, like if you hit me I won't even feel it. I don't know how to fix that actually. Medication doesn't work and even meditation cuz I feel so brainless, like a zombie as I said, like playing 24/7 on pc, where I don't. I can face reality, I'm not scared, but I can't understand clearly what I see (I don't know if I'm saying that correctly). And well, I know it's something normal, I know it's now an issue, but still I can't find the way do deal with it. Ignoring doesn't seem to help since that's what I'm doing (except now where I decided to search for a while, not even a day). Medication just worsens my symptoms, antidepressants are bad triggers for me (not to mention that I think that this could be the root cause since I had only GAD before).


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## sam13 (Nov 10, 2021)

Are you still on the medication? I took lexapro for 4 months and those 4 months were miserable and also getting off of it was worse. The medicine just made these feeling worse. I felt completely numb to everything, i felt like robot on autopilot similar to you feeling like a zombie, I felt zero emotions to everything and had lost all motivation to do anything.


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## SotMeint01 (Jul 29, 2021)

sam13 said:


> Are you still on the medication? I took lexapro for 4 months and those 4 months were miserable and also getting off of it was worse. The medicine just made these feeling worse. I felt completely numb to everything, i felt like robot on autopilot similar to you feeling like a zombie, I felt zero emotions to everything and had lost all motivation to do anything.


Finally I'm out of any medication. I don't think I will try anything again. I feel much better after stopping antidepressants and accepting it. I'm still trying hard though. But at least I have feelings. Just my perception is affected. I stopped taking antidepressants and I immediately stopped searching about dp. I just remembered to text back here. I don't even feel stressed most of the time. I just have memory issues and deja vu and everyone knows what caused it... Natural way is the only way to treat dp. I hope I'm on a good road...


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## sam13 (Nov 10, 2021)

Yes I found the natural way is much better then being on medication. Keep going you will get there I promise It takes time but don’t let that get you down all these weird and strange feelings will soon pass and soon or later you will start to feel like your normal without even realizing it!


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## SotMeint01 (Jul 29, 2021)

sam13 said:


> Yes I found the natural way is much better then being on medication. Keep going you will get there I promise It takes time but don’t let that get you down all these weird and strange feelings will soon pass and soon or later you will start to feel like your normal without even realizing it!


I hope that a lot and I never get down! I just want to understand though what could be a great daily routine to fix it. For example, could the fact that I work a lot of time on pc cause it? I'm literally like 7 hours per day there and some others on phone for texting. I mean, I just want to find all of my triggers. Right now I'm really happy and I live my life as usual. I even like dp sometimes, cuz it makes me stronger. Oh and no numbness at all! I just want to know exactly though what life vectors actually develop dp. I know it's not traumatic for me etc, it just started from severe stress. But do you think that phones and computers make us dissociate?


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## sam13 (Nov 10, 2021)

Yes I do think being in front of a screen for long periods of time can increase the dp/dr. I recommend writing things down in a journal or your phone on what triggers you that’ll help a lot with identifying what increases it. Also take breaks from the computer and try to get outside even if its for small periods of the day, that helped a lot for me.


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## Trith (Dec 31, 2019)

SotMeint01 said:


> I hope that a lot and I never get down! I just want to understand though what could be a great daily routine to fix it. For example, could the fact that I work a lot of time on pc cause it? I'm literally like 7 hours per day there and some others on phone for texting. I mean, I just want to find all of my triggers. Right now I'm really happy and I live my life as usual. I even like dp sometimes, cuz it makes me stronger. Oh and no numbness at all! I just want to know exactly though what life vectors actually develop dp. I know it's not traumatic for me etc, it just started from severe stress. But do you think that phones and computers make us dissociate?


For a part of my life using a computer was making it worse (mostly DR), but strangely enough it happend only if I used a computer to spend time procrastinating, not if I was using it to work (Perhaps because I was using procrastination to escape something? Who knows). When I did use it to procrastinate, like watching many videos only for entertainment, it could become quite strong. So for sure there was an effect. Then a few years later it changed and now it doesn't affect me at all, even if I spend many hours watching videos (and somtimes I do that, unfortunately - quite rarely but I do), whereas before it affected me strongly even after 1h or so. So if it can be different for different parts of my life, I imagine it can be very different for different people. I find that relying on other people's experiences is sometimes useless for this, because everyone is so different. One way that might help to check if computers affect you could be to try to find periods of time where you did not use your computer, if such periods of time exist. Personally, when I go on a vacation in nature, for something like ten days, without any computers and very little phone usage, my symptoms don't change a single bit. In my case I thought it was better to do my own experiment.


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