# Chronic derealization



## AHuseman (Jan 29, 2005)

Hi,

I don't really post here much, though I haven't been back in a while. But can anxiety be the underlying cause for chronic 24/7 DR? Or is it considered the disorder itself when it's chronic? I've had this for 14 months straight and I have anxiety throughout most days. But some days I'm not anxious at all and I notice the DR doesn't get worse even when I'm having real bad anxiety. What do you guys think?


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## Matt210 (Aug 15, 2004)

I absolutely believe DP can be caused by anxiety - and it's not going to be something in which the second you stop worrying the second it clears - it takes time to undo the damage that the anxiety has caused - not that you are doing permanent damage or anything, just that it takes time to mend.


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## Phil M (Aug 14, 2004)

i've had chronic dp/dr for 14 years. For the first 9 years I didn't take any prescription medication at all and did suffer with extreme anxiety.

However, I didn't let the anxiety disable me in terms of getting on with my life, and I would always continually confront my anxities full on. My strategy for anxiety in this period was always one of a flooding type, hence facing the the situations that made me most anxious and just going for it big style!

Unfortunately though, in those 9 years, although my anxiety levels did improve significantly (I could do things I never imagined) my DP/DR didn't change in the slightest. I still felt 100% no sense of self 24/7, 100% no feeling within my body or towards anyone or anything 24/7. No matter how hard I tried with the anxiety it wasn't going to fix the DP/DR. Thats all I've ever wanted fixing to be honest.

For the past 5 years now i've been taking prescription medication. At the moment I am taking lithium (1000mg) and paroxetine (40mg) and I hardly feel any anxiety at all now, but the DP/DR are just the same, I'm just less bothered about it all. I just have this nothingness constantly, like my spirit/soul has died, I just feel nothing but the frustration of not being able to feel..

Regards 
Phil


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## Scattered (Mar 8, 2005)

This whole anxiety or not anxiety argument has been bothering me alot lately. My family wants me to go on medication for anxiety, but I don't see how taking a pill to clear up anxiety is going to make me feel like "me" again. I'd rather not take medication if all its going to do is make me feel ok about how empty I feel. I'm sure it helps in terms of reducing obsessions and other psychological distrubances but I rather just not take anything and deal with the way I am. Anxiety can be horrific but I believe that depersonalization is worse. The chronicity and feeling of having your soul slowly grinded down to nothing can be unbearable. When they find a drug that is proven to significantly reduce symptoms of depersonalization directly and safely, then I'll be the first in line. Until then, I think I'll hang around in this hell and just try to get my life together.


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## jft (Jan 10, 2005)

Phil M. Your story is identicle to mine. In fact I wish I had the final summary of the several anxiety specialist therapists that I saw for extended periods as to their comments on my "treatment resistant disorder" and why they pulled their hair out over me.. One therapist who so beleived in flooding and exposure made meticulous incremental progress notes with my anxiety versus the "fog" as I called it. Turns out the dp/dr never responded at all in relation to the anxiety reduction. I felt better because I was less anxious and learned alot about many things but I was still dp/dr'd. 
The other therapists just gave up after ten sessions or so, two of them saying something to the effect that there jsut "seems to be something more there than just anxiety", but yet in all the verbal testing I did nothing ever showed up (such as mmpi testing) abnormal outside of anxiety issues. That something was dp/dr.

And then there were the anxiety meds. If benzoes and all the different ssri's and even atypical antipsycotics and sometimes anticonvulsants that were prescribed to many here by docs trying to attack our anxiety in order to cut the dp/dr to the quick, then why are we still here? I remember my last psychiatrist being more frustrated than me after trials that never responded to the dr/dp. And then of course some do respond well, add it all to the mystery..

All that being said I still say there is certainly some relationship between dr/dp and anxiety. But it is a conundrum. Anxiety may or may not be present for me when I go into dp/dr mode. I can predict dp/dr episodes in situations that also affect agoraphobic and panic disordered folks (shopping malls etc), but I also find no rhyme or reason in other situatiuons why dp/dr would enter with such a vengeance(e.g. walking in a nice quiet woods or cross country skiing). My dp/dr is always worst in afternoon and evening, comes on no matter what I am doing or not doing. It is happening now as I write this. What I am saying is that stimuli does evoke dp/dr, but also does not need to.

Possibly anxiety can be hidden, and takes many forms. Also maybe as others say dp/dr takes on a life of its own after anxiety has unleased it. Who knows. But for me, although I do indeed have anxiety issues, dp/dr seems to be mostly a separate monster. I am looking forward to Dr. Simenons book to see how she dicusses this issue. 
jft


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## university girl (Aug 11, 2004)

If you meet the DPD criteria, you have the disorder (if you don't have some other disorder with DP/DR as a symptom). I too have chronic DP/DR often without anxiety.


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## brett88 (Sep 21, 2005)

Ive had 24/7 chronic Derealization for the last 26 months, without so much as an hour's relief from it. I experience little "anxiety" persay, with the occasional nervousness and obsessive compulsive tendancies here and there; however, I have taken about 8 different types of anxiety/panic related medications either combined or seperately. In my case, the medication hasnt even done so much as put a small dent in my symptoms - although I dont believe mine DR was triggered by anxiety. I hope, if yours was caused by anxiety...that medication eliminates your anxiety thus eliminating your DR.

I wish to God that a medication were created that focuses purely on eliminating DR, but unfortunately I think were a ways off from that. In the mean time, we've just got to keep hopeful that the word of DP/DR keeps spreading and more doctors take notice to the disorder and its devistating effect that it can have.


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

im positive my dp/dr is linked with my anxiety. when ive had the worst bouts of anxiety and panic attacks thats when ive had the worst episodes of dp/dr. all the same i have had dp/dr when i wasent anxious but this doesent happen that often. since ive started taking clonazepam my anxiety has been greatly reduced and my dp/dr has been going away. i still get it every now and then but not nearly as bad.


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## Martinelv (Aug 10, 2004)

It's a viscious circle I'm afraid AHuseman. Anxiety = DR/DP, DR/DP = Anxiety.

However I'm a true believer that anxiety, or trauma, is at the root of DR/DP, and that's fairly well accepted in the medical community. that alleviate anxiety, while only 'masking' the symptoms, are very effective at getting rid of the anxiety and usually, the associated DR/DP. Usually, but not always. But they are only a temporary measure. Use them so you can get 'your head together' and then plan what you are going to do about the root cause of your problems. They are not a cure, but they helped me get out of my bed and force my way back into life, and thus, help rid myself of DR/DP.

Remember, they are NOT a cure, for most people. Some people may have to take them for the rest of their lives, and if it gives them some semblence of normality, then I'm all for it. But they are addictive and habit forming, so don't abuse them. Think of them like you would use a crutch if you broke your leg. Throw them away when you are healed.

Best wishes,
Martin.


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## jft (Jan 10, 2005)

Uni Girl. Wish I knew how to cut and paste, but that technology has not made it to Fargo.ND yet. I wanted to respond to your last post and ask you if you have dp/dr with or without anxiety,(as you stated) and if one has dpd only if they meet the criteria, then where are you in the scheme of things? I personaly feel I am in limbo, for I do not meet the dsm criteria for dpd but I also cannot find any professional to attach my dp/dr only as a symptom of another disorder. To them (functionally) and to me it exists on its own. It is too prevalent to be ad hoc to something else. They cannot explain it or help me with it.. They cannot diagnose it because it does not fall into the realm of insurance numbered categories. It hangs out there just like it is, as if it is not real. How ironic, for this to be an "unreal" and impossible malady to those who want to diagnose it but at the core that is the very nature of the beast. This is not jsut me, I see this same situation with many here on this board as they describe their own journeys. One seemingly cannot throw this experience (mine and others) or split it into a total dissoitiative, anxiety, drug induced, psychotic, temporal lobe, bipoplar, mpd, physiologcial or whatever category. Sure it smacks of all of them at times for some of us, but it does not work to reduce it to those denominators. I swear by jeesus that it seems to stand on its own.
jft


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## Gussick (Jan 27, 2006)

I've had DR with some DP aspects for my entire life, anxiety or no. It's possible to have it without the possibility of a cure, you just have to learn to live with it.


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