# The First Step



## Kerio (Sep 13, 2004)

Recently I took to the bottle, and got horribly drunk. Had such a bad hangover the next day I vomited water. But, thanks to that event, I've realised certain things.

One, DP does not lessen when drunk. I was aware that I was still thinking logically and could still call a cab and get home, even though I could not walk straight.

Two, I drank because I had a temporary lapse of reality.

We all need something to hold on to. We all need a purpose, a driving force that helps us move forward and stop thinking about ourselves. DP sufferers are all over-logical. We think, we think, and we think. When honed, this sword becomes double-edged. A genius soon becomes demented, because the human mind is not meant to live a life that demands non-questioning of reality, and yet question reality at the same time. The sudden realisation of surreality in reality is like a lightning bolt on our fragile minds.

So what is the first step to regaining reality?

Abandon Surreality. Start by taking up something you've always thought was interesting and fun, but never had the opportunity to try out.

Marathon running, Martial Arts, Writing, even computer graphics generation, programme writing, clothes design, anything at all.

Make sure it's something that you won't give up, or something that has a life or death trend, like setting up stall. Make it something that is fun, but which you can eke a living out of. If you like music, try learning the piano, guitar, join a band, play for your children's school festivals, and get better at it!

In essence, your goal for now is to learn how to do that thing you've decided upon, and make it the ABSOLUTE BEST THING YOU'VE EVER DONE.

Stop questioning yourself. Stop asking yourself questions you cannot answer. Stop asking the world questions the world will not answer. Stop seeking answers to which there is no reply to.

Stand tall, lift your chin, don't doubt yourself, and move forward. Stride - don't creep. Time does not return to those who let it pass by.

Carpe Diem!


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## shazada (jonathan) (Sep 22, 2004)

thanks for that Kerio


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## falling_free (Nov 3, 2004)

> One, DP does not lessen when drunk. I was aware that I was still thinking logically and could still call a cab and get home, even though I could not walk straight


I would disagree with that in my personal expereince as for me alchol tends to lift my dp somewhat and I don't concentrate on questioning and overnayaliss of things I just get on with stuff, like last night I get really drunk and had a wonderful good time went clubbing did some dancing and felt more free than I have for a long time, this lasted util about 11 o clock this morning when I started feeling like I was viewing my self from the 3rd person again, almost like I was in my body and then I kind of go out or retreat back into a dp/dr state of mind.



> Abandon Surreality. Start by taking up something you've always thought was interesting and fun, but never had the opportunity to try out.


I do tend to try out new things all the time like at the moment I am conctraing on making a website and making some grathics for the website, I also try and design levels for computer games whenever I can figure out the level design software and this is something I get a lot of joy out of as It allows me to design and be creative. I do howver think that one of my problems is the fact that I want to try and do so many things or I have a lot of ideas about actvivies I want to try out or improve my understaing of but I tend to try out these thigns for a week or so and then get disorganised and fall behind on trying to get on with certain activites , probably due to having a dp/dr state of mind. I think A lot of this is due to the compolexity of the world we live in and the larger range of resources and oppurtunites people have yoday makes it harder for people to decide what they ultimatilly want to achieve , as there as so many oppurtunites



> Stop asking yourself questions you cannot answer. Stop asking the world questions the world will not answer. Stop seeking answers to which there is no reply to.


Ha ha I don't think I will be giving this up any time soon, as im probably doing philosophy at university.

Anyways cool post , got some positive points from it, I think for me personelly and maybe for other dp/dr people we need to apply our selves to the real world a little more instead of the internal cloud 9 world of the imagination (though I think imagination is an imporatnt part of couciouness , when imagination controls you got to make a bit of a reality check)


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## Kerio (Sep 13, 2004)

Thanks for the post Falling free, I can understand how alcohol 'helps' - I was an alcoholic once because of DP/DR. It made me feel better, but like most drugs (I refer to it as such once it is consumated in vast quantities), the counter-effect is just as potent. Once you drink, your DP/DR will get, in fact, gradually worse. It's like stretching a rubber band little by little. Social drinking is fine, but the message is for the people who, like me, get so drunk we vomit on the sidewalk and crash on our beds the minute we open our doors, smelling like liquor and puke.

The second point about how we tend to give up things and get sidetracked is the key to all of this. The minute we do something we don't find really worthwhile (as in, do you have the passion to do the best you can in that activity? To strive to compete and win?) we tend to slip and take a back seat to our lives again. Think hobby, pastime, 'want', that may turn into a profession. Don't think work or assignment, or 'need'.

Achieve? This is a means to the end. Don't think about that. 

Philosophy makes DP/DR worse. Perhaps DP/DR makes us philosophical, or maybe this is like a machine which, once started, never stops. Wonder why so many people can quote examples from philosophy but can never make up their own interesting quotes or perhaps, truly understand or question the statements our ancestral sophists made? The difference is in the hold on reality and su-rreality. People like us shift from side to side, leaning more to Surreality, whereas most other 'normal' people have a tenuous grasp of the philosophical, metaphorical surreality, while holding on with an iron grip to reality. They could be quoting Socrates one minute and asking about dinner the next.

And I don't think it's really 'imagination', per se. Imagination means we make up things, or see things which aren't really there. I think we suffer from LACK of what I call "Realistic Imagination". We cannot visualize the man-made reality because we can see what it really is. Think "Matrix". What about 'Love' and 'Honour'? Merely words we use to classify that which we cannot justify, like so many other things.

I think once humans evolved the knowledge to name things, they stopped evolving.

So the goal here is to Re-Imagine Reality. If tragedy or trauma made us de-realised, let us Re-Realise. 

(Sorry bout the long post, but isn't it just such an intriging case? XD )


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2004)

> And I don't think it's really 'imagination', per se. Imagination means we make up things, or see things which aren't really there. I think we suffer from LACK of what I call "Realistic Imagination". We cannot visualize the man-made reality because we can see what it really is. Think "Matrix". What about 'Love' and 'Honour'? Merely words we use to classify that which we cannot justify, like so many other things.
> 
> I think once humans evolved the knowledge to name things, they stopped evolving.
> 
> So the goal here is to Re-Imagine Reality. If tragedy or trauma made us de-realised, let us Re-Realise.


Didn't you say don't philosophize?

Soooooo...............
wasn't your last post above philosophy par excellence?


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