# stages



## kaitlynf (Jun 25, 2012)

hello everyone! i was wondering if anyone could explain the stages of recovery? if there is any? thanks!


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## mancalledpete (Jun 16, 2008)

kaitlynf said:


> hello everyone! i was wondering if anyone could explain the stages of recovery? if there is any? thanks!


I don't personally believe there are actual quotable stages because IMHO everyone with DPDR is a different case with different symptoms and causes and severities etc... I'm sort of in the camp of belief that you never really cure it either. It's part of us. A bit like addiction. That said, I'm also a positive thinker and I do strongly believe there are steps for coping & controlling DP if you have the will power, which is half the battle if not more because our condition attacks the mind & the will. I use the below... They're not a million miles away from the 12 steps of sobriety practised by the AA, although I'm not a religious man, so I've tweaked them for my own thinking & to remove all the religious parts. I try & keep to them & it gives me a kind of polar north to stay on top of my DP. FYI - it took me 2 years to complete all 8 and I often go back and start again when I relapse or my mind wonders (which is often).

Stage 1 - Admit we were powerless over our DP - that our lives had become unmanageable and you need to control it.
Stage 2 - Come to believe that help greater than the help we can offer ourselves could restore us to a better place.
Stage 3 - Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Stage 4 - Admit to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our symptoms & feelings.
Stage 5 - Come to terms with the fact you may not remove all these defects of character.
Stage 6 - Make a list of all things your DP might have prevented you from achieving or doing, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Stage 7 - Make direct amends to such tasks wherever possible, except when to do so would injure yourself or others
Stage 8 - Seek through diet, exercise and meditation to improve our conscious contact with yourself. Lose (even temporarily) drugs, alcohol, nicotine & substances conflicting with a healthy life & well-being.
Stage 9 - Having had a some awakening as the result of these steps, try to carry this message to other sufferers, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

It's no silver bullet. But it's something.


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## kaitlynf (Jun 25, 2012)

mancalledpete said:


> I don't personally believe there are actual quotable stages because IMHO everyone with DPDR is a different case with different symptoms and causes and severities etc... I'm sort of in the camp of belief that you never really cure it either. It's part of us. A bit like addiction. That said, I'm also a positive thinker and I do strongly believe there are steps for coping & controlling DP if you have the will power, which is half the battle if not more because our condition attacks the mind & the will. I use the below... They're not a million miles away from the 12 steps of sobriety practised by the AA, although I'm not a religious man, so I've tweaked them for my own thinking & to remove all the religious parts. I try & keep to them & it gives me a kind of polar north to stay on top of my DP. FYI - it took me 2 years to complete all 8 and I often go back and start again when I relapse or my mind wonders (which is often).
> 
> Stage 1 - Admit we were powerless over our DP - that our lives had become unmanageable and you need to control it.
> Stage 2 - Come to believe that help greater than the help we can offer ourselves could restore us to a better place.
> ...


thank you so much for the reply! I'm really going to work on all these steps and keep a positive mind, i have only had this for two months.. but im trying my best to kick start my recovery. when you say there is no cure, do you mean we dont go back to "normal" and does it always come back.

heres my info:
19 years old. weed induced from panic attack, dp has faded some but still have dr pretty bad.


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## mancalledpete (Jun 16, 2008)

kaitlynf said:


> thank you so much for the reply! I'm really going to work on all these steps and keep a positive mind, i have only had this for two months.. but im trying my best to kick start my recovery. when you say there is no cure, do you mean we dont go back to "normal" and does it always come back.
> 
> heres my info:
> 19 years old. weed induced from panic attack, dp has faded some but still have dr pretty bad.


I don't mean it doesn't go away, it'll fade & remember everyone is different, there's just no silver bullet to 'fix it' which is my opinion. Good luck & stay off the chemicals & herbs, that'll make it a lot lot worse!


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