# How i recovered



## greenroom1 (Jun 27, 2012)

Hey Everyone. I hope this can help a few people...

I suffered from derealisation for a period of about six months before i had a panic attack and the symptoms got worse and began to include derealisation. This heightened period lasted for another month before the symptoms began to slowly subside. Below i detail how i recovered.

After having the panic attack and reaching a point where i was touching things to see if they were real i was booked in to see a GP. The GP prescribed me with 10mg of Aropax which is a half dose and i was put on a care plan to see a phyciatrist. I noticed a big difference within two weeks from aropax and it really took the edge off my symptons. After six months i am now off it.

I read that derealisation and depersonalisation are caused by anxiety so i spent two days reading as much as i could. From what i could gather anxiety is from overthinking however i struggled to silence the voice in my head. People with anxiety generally have very shallow breathing so the first thing i worked on was my breathing. Every morning i would swim 1km to force me to take deep breaths. All day i practice breathing exercises. The key to relaxing your breath is to breathe in slowly so i would count in 1..2...3...4...5, let it out slowly and repeat. Fixing my breathing was a massive help.

I didn't want to give myself time to think so i kept myself busy at first this was hard as i had become agoraphobic for a week and could barely leave the house but i worked up to it and made sure every part of my day was full. I would wake up at 6am swim at the pool, drive to work. While driving i would turn the music up so i was concentrating completely on the music. In my lunch break i would sit in the park and meditate. I would drive home make dinner, meditate and then i was in bed by 9pm. I didn't give myself any time to think about anything i made myself to busy. I made sure my day (as much as it could be) was calm and relaxed.

The other thing i did was to systematically try and remove that voice in my head. the voice that analyses and talks about things that are happening. I read an amazing book about this by Echart Tolle called "the power of now". It's about removing that voice and living completely in the moment. I did this by concentrating completely on what i was doing, if there was work..i'd work, if i was listening to music..i'd listen to music. I didn't let that inner dialogue come in. If your walking concentrate on the sound of your footsteps if your walking down a busy freeway listen to the sound of the cars. Anchor yourself onto something other than your own internal voice. I really recommend reading "the power of now". If you find that there's nothing to anchor yourself just concentrate on your breath. I recommend reading about meditation and practicing it. I found that it really sped up my recovery. I would meditate half an hour every night before i went to bed. It would also clear my head before i slept.

These are things that personally helped me and i hope someone can take ideas away to aide their own recover so in conclusion the things i personally did to help myself was to:

seek help (GP, Phyciatrist)
Fix breathing
Start meditating
keeping myself busy so my mind didn't become bored and think too much
Swim to fix breathing

I hope this can help someone. Good luck.


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## kaitlynf (Jun 25, 2012)

can you explain the recovery process? did it all happen at once? was yours just from a panic attack?
mine was drug induced..


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## greenroom1 (Jun 27, 2012)

kaitlynf said:


> can you explain the recovery process? did it all happen at once? was yours just from a panic attack?
> mine was drug induced..


The panic atack didn't start it that was just my realisation of what was happening which caused a panic attack. It didn't happen at once it crept up really slowly. First i would look at the trees and think wow they don't look real or the sky looks wierd today and after six months everything started to seem less real. I've smoked marijuana maybe 50/60 times, taken ecstacy 10 times, speed twice and cocaine twice but hadn't done anything like that for about a year before it started. I don't think drugs did me any favours however i was never more than a recreational user. It still would fuck with my head a bit and i always put it down to "bad experiances". I took cocaine on two occasions before it started to get worse and i think that sped it up a little. I would definately never touch drugs again just to be sure.

The other thing i did was to cut out alcohol completely as the anxiety gave me depression and alcohol doesn't help with that at all.

The recovery was slow but my phyciatrist said it was extremely fast and i was very receptive. I put it all down to Mindfulness that was really the key for me. I'm not saying it will work for everyone but i practiced mindfulness every second of every day and i still do. There's another good book called "the mindful way through anxiety" maybe worth a read as well.


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## kaitlynf (Jun 25, 2012)

greenroom1 said:


> The panic atack didn't start it that was just my realisation of what was happening which caused a panic attack. It didn't happen at once it crept up really slowly. First i would look at the trees and think wow they don't look real or the sky looks wierd today and after six months everything started to seem less real. I've smoked marijuana maybe 50/60 times, taken ecstacy 10 times, speed twice and cocaine twice but hadn't done anything like that for about a year before it started. I don't think drugs did me any favours however i was never more than a recreational user. It still would fuck with my head a bit and i always put it down to "bad experiances". I took cocaine on two occasions before it started to get worse and i think that sped it up a little. I would definately never touch drugs again just to be sure.
> 
> The other thing i did was to cut out alcohol completely as the anxiety gave me depression and alcohol doesn't help with that at all.
> 
> The recovery was slow but my phyciatrist said it was extremely fast and i was very receptive. I put it all down to Mindfulness that was really the key for me. I'm not saying it will work for everyone but i practiced mindfulness every second of every day and i still do. There's another good book called "the mindful way through anxiety" maybe worth a read as well.


So would you say you feel completely back to normal? back to your old self?


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## S.Snake (Jul 21, 2010)

i read a new earth by tolle and it helped me cope


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## greenroom1 (Jun 27, 2012)

kaitlynf said:


> So would you say you feel completely back to normal? back to your old self?


I'm sorry for the really late reply i remembered tonight that i posted ages ago on here and i forgot to check if anyone messaged. Yeah back to normal. I would say that i actually feel better than i did before i realised i had the issue. I guess the anxiety was such a slow build up that i would have had it for along time without realising.

I'm working full time, studying part time, active social life etc.

I still work on it all the time though. If i feel worrying thought come back i just go back to concentrating on my breathing. It doesn't matter if i'm in the car, watching tv or exercising. The biggest help for me has just been silencing the little voice in your head that everyone has.

Hope this helps


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