# Dp/Dr and driving a car on the highway



## amazin (Aug 10, 2013)

Does this affect anyone here?


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## SongBillong (Sep 20, 2011)

Yes. Driving was/is definitely among the parts of my life most affected by DP/DR. Whether it's at night or in the day, the different lights (either car lights or sunlight) make everything a blur. I also take massive risks. Even the other day, there was one of those temporary walls that they put round road works in the first lane and I was just coming onto the motorway/highway and therefore heading straight for it. If I was driving on my own that day, I'd either be dead or in hospital right now. Thankfully, I had a couple of friends with me and they nervously pointed out that we were more or less about to plough into the concrete walls at around 70 mph. It scares the shit out of me and it's not even as bad as it used to be.

Have you ever had momentary blackouts whilst driving? Just wondering because I used to and I'm interested to know if anyone else did and how they dealt with it.


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2013)

I used to get more dr and dp when i would drive for sure but its been a while since i have felt like that....it kinda just went away i guess like I stayed stayed doing things that made me feel positive and i no longer feel that way

the things i do to keep in a good mental state is a combination of therapy and exercise and work and omega 3 and vitamin b12 and just staying busy and not caring about dp


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## SongBillong (Sep 20, 2011)

redcomet2011 said:


> I used to get more dr and dp when i would drive for sure but its been a while since i have felt like that....it kinda just went away i guess like I stayed stayed doing things that made me feel positive and i no longer feel that way
> 
> the things i do to keep in a good mental state is a combination of therapy and exercise and work and omega 3 and vitamin b12 and just staying busy and not caring about dp


As much as I commend you for trying to be positive, I'll never understand anyone who can say they got better by "not caring about dp". If that was an actual possibility, this website wouldn't exist. If we COULD do things that made us feel positive, we obviously would. Sorry, but it just doesn't make sense seeing as the disorder itself is exactly what prevents us from feeling pleasure from anything...?


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2013)

well I have had dp for 2 years and I have come to the point where I dont really care about dp anymore like to me it wont stop me from achieving what I wanna achieve be that in a career or in my personal life and I used to feel emotionally numb alot too but that was more to do with me taking xanax

xanax would decrease my anxiety but would turn me into this like person with turned down emotions

now that I have come off xanax I am feeling more emotions but also more anxious and I have my good and bad days but I know if I just exercise or if I stay healthy my mind keeps me in a good state....sure I get brain fog some days and somedays I feel down but its just no longer very severe and I stay as active physically as I can and thats enough for me to keep in a good mood

now i think about dp everyday but mostly because i keep coming back to this site cause this site has like a support group quality to it i think

all i can say is if you feel like you cant feel pleasure then just focus on that through therapy. like my therapist would probably tell me to stay away from ruminating and do things that keep you feeling positive even if you dont feel postive at the time you are doing it

I feel good, but I still get brain fog and anxiety and some lite dr from time to time but I just accepted dp and dr so well that it made me not care about dp or dr and so I dont feel anxious about it and so it doesnt feed my dp or dr

all I can say is if dr ever goes away then great but if its something I have to deal with for a while then so be it but i wont let it steal my happiness or my quality of life and I do things on a daily basis to prevent it from doing that


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## n1ck (Mar 29, 2013)

When I was just learning about my DP/DR I had an incident where I was driving on the highway and felt an episode of DR so intense I felt I could no longer effectively operate the vehicle. I used to have a lot of trouble focusing on the cars in front of me, and any music I would put on would just wash over me with little absorption of what I was listening to. It was such a scary experience to feel unsafe behind the wheel and I had a really bad panic episode as a result.

However, if feel like you can operate the car on "autopilot" I think you'll be okay. "Drive think" is a state of automation many people without DP/DR get while driving, so it isn't surprising that there is some interaction between the two. Don't focus on the DR and just enjoy the ride and things will sort themselves out from there.


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