# Looking for someone who understands DP/DR



## toots27 (Jan 28, 2015)

Hi there, my name is Natalie a 38 year old female from the UK who has suffered from DP/DR for 6 months now and am really struggling to try and love with it.

I have a psychiatrist, CPN, support worker and counsellor and have been on a mood stabiliser and antidepressants since May and nothing is helping me to stop feeling like I'm going crazy which I know is the DP/DR.

Can anyone suggest something other than distraction as I just spend most of my days in bed or locked away in my bedroom to keep my craziness away from others and I cannot bear to live like this any more.

Thank you.


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## sunjet (Nov 21, 2014)

If staying locked away doesn't help so much. Did you tried going out and facing your fears?


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2015)

toots27 said:


> Hi there, my name is Natalie a 38 year old female from the UK who has suffered from DP/DR for 6 months now and am really struggling to try and love with it.
> 
> I have a psychiatrist, CPN, support worker and counsellor and have been on a mood stabiliser and antidepressants since May and nothing is helping me to stop feeling like I'm going crazy which I know is the DP/DR.
> 
> ...


Hi Natalie and welcome to the site,

I have some thoughts you might want to consider.

A little bit of my story.. I've been recovering for 5 years and I'm well and truly on the way to being free. One thing that helped me immensely was understanding what dp/dr actually is/was (for me). Maybe i was lucky in a sense b/c the first counsellor I saw recognised straight away the dissociation was a form of protection for me. I was being protected from difficult feelings, emotions, fears and memories. I looked up the definition of dissociative disorders as well (many times) and I saw 'defence mechanism of the mind' over and over again. That was the basis of my understanding and the starting point for my recovery. Do you think this applies to you too? Do you find in times of stress your dp gets stronger?

One thing about antidepressants and mood stabilisers that comes up here quite often is the fact that they don't help with reducing the dissociative symptoms. There is no medication that successfully targets dp. So the question is, why take them if they're not helping? They'll only make it harder to recover in the long run and you'll suffer from the side effects both mentally and physically. Unfortunately doctors keep prescribing these meds even though they don't help and can often make people worse&#8230; It's clutching at straws basically, with a big dose of ignorance thrown in as well.

A question about the counsellor and psyche you're seeing.. Do they know much about dissociation? It's vitally important that they do. I've seen 6 therapists all up in a period of 5 years. The psychologist I see presently is 'right on the money'. She knows her stuff and I reap the benefits of her knowledge. She's been helping people with dissociative disorders recover for decades, attends conferences regularly and is well respected in her field. She KNOWS how to help. It's a not a big mystery for good therapists who specialise in this field. If anything this type of therapy is actually quite easy for her. So, I throughly recommend asking your counsellor and psyche how much they know about your disorder and move on if they're unsure.. after all, you spend your time (and maybe $$) seeking their help.. may as well make it worth your while huh? Besides.. if the therapy's not right they can make you feel worse than before, and that's a fact.

Anyway&#8230; just some thoughts.

Zed


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## 35467 (Dec 31, 2010)

If you have severe anxiety and panic with DP this site can be educational for you, it is UK based: http://anxietynomore.co.uk


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## inferentialpolice (Nov 26, 2012)

Natalie, I suggest you consider an assessment to pin down the exact nature of your dissociative symptoms, of which DP/DR may be only one of them. Here are two possible contacts for that within the UK:

http://clinicds.co.uk/?page_id=57

http://www.dissociation.co.uk/

Either of those centers can give you guidance on where else in the UK you might want to consider for purposes of evaluation and treatment of your dissociative condition.

Further, given your feeling that nothing is helping to date, you might wish to read the book Stranger in the Mirror (see web site of that same name at: http://www.strangerinthemirror.com). It would be interesting to learn if you identify with the symptom complex described in that book, including depersonalization. There are five self-tests in the book which are useful to explore your symptoms further.


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## toots27 (Jan 28, 2015)

Thanks everyone your replies really are appreciated very much indeed.

Zed - as well as DP/DR I have bipolar disorder which is why I 'have' to take the other meds even though I have a suspicion that they may actually be responsible for the feelings associated with DP/DR so I'm stuck in a very nasty catch 22 situation sadly.

Thanks again everyone for replying to me though.

Natalie


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## toots27 (Jan 28, 2015)

I forgot to say my sleep is awful and I'm sure this causes my DP/DR if not makes it worse - does anybody else feel that and, if so, do they have any sleep tips? I'm trying Valerian, lavender oil, hypnotherapy downloads and sleep lullabies all to no real avail as I just never seem to feel truly tired like my brain is wired up wrong at the moment?


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## newbie101 (Nov 13, 2014)

Chamomile tea organic from health store


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## inferentialpolice (Nov 26, 2012)

toots27 said:


> - as well as DP/DR I have bipolar disorder which is why I 'have' to take the other meds even though I have a suspicion that they may actually be responsible for the feelings associated with DP/DR so I'm stuck in a very nasty catch 22 situation sadly.


Studies that have assessed bi-polar patients for a possible dissociative disorder have found that 1 out of 4 have an undetected dissociative disorder. Mood shifts are part of the symptom complex observed in higher order disociative conditions, and they can abate with successful psychotherapy. Essentially then, these patients mood swings are possibly dissociative, not organic bi-polar, and primary treatment is psychotherapy, though medications are used to stabilize pending uptake of psychodynamic treatment. DP/DR in the presence of mood swings are a double reason to make inquiry with those two UK dissociation clinics I mentioned earlier.


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