# Recovery is 100% doable!!! Things that helped me get out!



## leeCANADA (Sep 20, 2011)

A few things I have learned that have worked for me, I am 80% better, (I also suffer from hppd so that is what is not that better) Anyways first thing is drugs WILL NOT fix you in this one. I got mine from drugs and when I was using (pot, mushies, m, acid) I had believed that the mind is purely a physical thing and that if you want to feel something take the right drug for it. SO NOT TRUE!!!! I now learned you can get sooo much higher without drugs than with them. Also after tons of CAT scans, MRI's telling me nothing is wrong with my brain I learned that DP is in the mind, not in the brain. You have to change the way you think. LIFE IS AWESOME REMEMBER THAT GUYS. I have been in dp/dr hell for 2 months and although many of you have been in it much longer here is some stuff I have learned to help make me feel way more real. Trust me this works guys!!

1. Put a little bit of gravel in your shoe!! Uncomfortable yes but makes you feel soo much more grounded and real! The slight uncomfortableness will help distract you and will release endorphins that will make you feel a bit better. Feeling really anxious and dp'd? Press down a little bit on the gravel and it will anchor you!

2. Sunglasses!! So awesome, dp makes you feel like you cant really see well, tunnel vision and all that, so for me that is really distressing so just putting on sunglasses makes me think that the unreal vision is just the sunglasses ( sunglasses always made me feel a little bit more distant). Get a cool pair and you are set. Whenever I get really anxious I just slip them on or take them off it changes the derealization. Also bracelets help me feel my arms and make them seem attached to my body.

3. Omega 3's, eating right, vitamins, getting enough sleep, exercising. Quit all hallicinogens including weed also limit the caffeine but its only going to increase anxiety while your on it so it's not going to make you worse in the long run so if you enjoy it go for it







. Drinking can increase anxiety but drink if you used to find it fun I find drinking fun and it stops my dp for awhile although hangovers suck alot more and increase anxiety. And don't push yourself and get worried about your health too much, if you would rather do something you enjoy than going to the gym than go have fun cuz having fun will make the dp go away faster!

4. Help others out! Dp makes you question your point in this world. I felt like I had no point to life, so I just started helping my mom with chores and volunteering everywhere. My rationality was I'm not going to enjoy anything else anyway so might as well spend the entire day raking the lawn for this old lady. I made helping others MY point to existence. I do not need to enjoy it, if I help others enjoy themselves that belief gave me JOY for the first time in so long. I started enjoying again because I accepted that I may no longer enjoy anything so any amount of joy i did feel was cherished and BAM I started living again.

5. Remember that we got DP for a REASON. It is trying to tell us something. It made me seek out god, I went to churches, temples synagoges of every religion seeking out answers, DP made me feel like there was NOTHING out there. There is definitly something out there, GOD is innate within all of us, whether islamic, catholic, aboriginal the fact is that every group of people on separate continents started believing in some form of God without conspiring together. We all have a metaphysical component attached to us we are not human beings with spiritual experiences we are spiritual beings living a human experience. Find what good DP has done for you, it has changed your life outcome permanently so maybe you got it so you can become who you were meant to be. We do not know what the future holds but we all have a place in this universe. God makes no mistakes and no matter how crazy you think you are you are special and someone loves you. I love you. We are all in this together, all on this world with no clue why and we will only find out why when we are old and looking back on our beautiful lives and all the awesome stuff we did. No matter how small your accomplishments enjoy them, you have affected way more than you can imagine, you have changed the outcome of the world just by being here. The butterfly effect guys, everything effects everything.

6. Try to enjoy your dp. Sounds messed up right? I hate dp. And I still hate it. But guess what? We are going to have dp until we snap out of it. Dare yourself to get as dp'd as you can get. Induce it (without drugs obviously). Watch how it waivers in intensity. Notice how noone else around you seems to feel this alien sensation. Only you can. This sensation belongs to you, you do not belong to it. I found daring myself to get depersonalized made it go away. Embracing it actually brought ME back! Plan to watch a movie that you would normally enjoy and drink a tea or coffee and tell yourself "Im going to drink this caffeine and trip balls and explore myself and watch the hell out of this movie". Dp only likes to be with you when you do not want it I find.

7. Remember that DP is temporary only. It is hell and suffering beyond what I could have ever imagined before I got it. But you will snap out of it someday and be able to bask in how awesome life is once again. So remember you just have to play the waiting game and it will go away. Do not obsess over it, I did and even if you do, it will still pass the brain heals itself but if you obsess it will take longer. Once you realize that it is just a waiting game, you will feel less anxious and you will just have to ride it out it can take as little as an hour after you realize this to days to months to years (most likely a few months) but you WILL snap out of it you have your whole life to figure it out and you will!

8. Do not listen to your anxiety. Remember anxiety is telling you to do something. For me it was always telling me I have to find a cure for my DP. So since I was not finding a cure I was not getting better but more anxious. DP cures itself. Isolate the "problem thought" that triggered your anxiety. For me it was always "this shit is going to last forever and ruin my life." Than list counter evidence to your problem thought i.e. nothing lasts forever, tons of people have recovered from dp, etc.

Thanks for listening I know all you guys are skeptical of information but trust me you WILL get better


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## rushdy (Sep 24, 2011)

"we are not human beings with spiritual experiences we are spiritual beings living a human experience." can i steal this ?


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## christy (Dec 19, 2010)

leefulford said:


> A few things I have learned that have worked for me, I am 80% better, (I also suffer from hppd so that is what is not that better) Anyways first thing is drugs WILL NOT fix you in this one. I got mine from drugs and when I was using (pot, mushies, m, acid) I had believed that the mind is purely a physical thing and that if you want to feel something take the right drug for it. SO NOT TRUE!!!! I now learned you can get sooo much higher without drugs than with them. Also after tons of CAT scans, MRI's telling me nothing is wrong with my brain I learned that DP is in the mind, not in the brain. You have to change the way you think. LIFE IS AWESOME REMEMBER THAT GUYS. I have been in dp/dr hell for 2 months and although many of you have been in it much longer here is some stuff I have learned to help make me feel way more real. Trust me this works guys!!
> 
> 1. Put a little bit of gravel in your shoe!! Uncomfortable yes but makes you feel soo much more grounded and real! The slight uncomfortableness will help distract you and will release endorphins that will make you feel a bit better. Feeling really anxious and dp'd? Press down a little bit on the gravel and it will anchor you!
> 
> ...


Thank you, really inspirational


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## SaraBro (Feb 23, 2011)

simonjcummings said:


> I completely recovered from DPD 20 years ago and agree with a lot of the points made. Having come out of the other side my advise would be:
> 
> 1. Avoid doctors, psychiatrists or any other so-called professionals like the plague. None of them have even got the slightest idea of how horrendous this condition is so they are not qualified to give you any advise about this.
> 2. Likewise avoid any medication prescribed by doctors as this will not cure you. Remember, you're only interested in being cured and not just having your symptoms alleviated. I only got better when I decided to stop taking medication. This may have been a coincidence but I am certain that drugs did not help me in any way.
> ...


That's weird suggestions since all of that is what makes me feel better. Having cosy chats with friends/partner makes me really relaxed almost not dp'd at all. Going outside, attending classes, makes me feel more in touch with myself and reality. But off course, these things might not get down to what really is my problem. But on the other hand - why stop doing normal stuff that makes you feel more human?


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## madeleine (Nov 4, 2011)

Interesting idea exploring your dp.
I'd be worried about sinking in and not being able to get out.


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## leeCANADA (Sep 20, 2011)

I disagree, I think the best way to try and beat this is not to "try" at all. Do what relaxes you, do what you would normally do (unless its sit on the couch all day lol), dont let the dp dictate your life, just accept that its there and it will go away but you are still going to enjoy your life the best way you can. I agree that one day you will just not notice it all and it will be gone. But accept that it is in you and you will have days when you are getting better where it is completely gone, than later in the week you might notice it again.
But as time goes on you will notice it less and less until it is completely gone. Everyone is different so for some people you might need to drop out of school or stressful job til you get better but for me I needed the same distraction


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## brittany (Nov 29, 2011)

This is amazing. Thank you so much.


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## 39417 (Nov 18, 2011)

It made me realize that even without this information (but thank you it was great), that I actually already was doing all of those thing (besides the gravel). Yeah thank you it was inspirational







.


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## SocialHope (Feb 9, 2012)

simonjcummings said:


> I completely recovered from DPD 20 years ago and agree with a lot of the points made. Having come out of the other side my advise would be:
> 
> 1. Avoid doctors, psychiatrists or any other so-called professionals like the plague. None of them have even got the slightest idea of how horrendous this condition is so they are not qualified to give you any advise about this.
> 2. Likewise avoid any medication prescribed by doctors as this will not cure you. Remember, you're only interested in being cured and not just having your symptoms alleviated. I only got better when I decided to stop taking medication. This may have been a coincidence but I am certain that drugs did not help me in any way.
> ...


Thanks--I'm really interested in the screaming idea. How did you come up with that, how often did you do it, and how do you think it helped? By making your presence more real or something like that? Any practical suggestions for where to do this in the city without people thinking you're nuts?


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## thfree (Feb 4, 2012)

This is maybe the most inspirational topic I've read here.

It's really like you said: I feel that embracing DP would make me better, but also feel that if I embrace it and stop worrying I could fall definitely into it (it's like if my rational thoughts and worries are what fight and make me a little less unreal). 
To embrace DP, I think I would need someone to help me with this, so that I wouldn't be afraid of forgetting about it, because if the strategy doesn't work I got to have someone remember me what I was fighting against.

I'm thinking about writing some things in a piece of paper that I would put into some drawer, and if the experience doesn't work I will be able to read it and then I'd be reminded of what my thoughts used to be and could start the "old-way fight" again.

I know I should do this without fears, but I'm afraid it's not possible. What do you guys suggest me?

(sorry for my writing, it's very hard to express when talking about DP and English is not my native language)


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## Brizia_F (Feb 7, 2012)

I think the same about enjoying DP







sometimes i just laught at it >.<


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## trooper73 (Mar 6, 2012)

simonjcummings said:


> Again, I can only speak from experience. When I suffered from this, the thing I hated most of all was that I could not relax. I could do all the normal things like got to the shops, drive my car, have a coffee with friends and so on but it was always lurking in the background. It wasn't like I could sit somewhere quietly and read a book or watch a movie and be free of it for a couple of hours. Quite frankly, I didn't want to just live with it and accept it was there. I wanted to get rid of it totally and permanently and the only way to do this was to confront it, to stare down the barrel of the gun so to speak. It's only then that I realized that the anxiety that I was experiencing was not real but just feeding off itself. Once I realized this, I was free. I don't subscribe to the theory that this is some sort of illness which one slowly recovers from. As time goes by, one becomes better at masking it and pretending it is not there but to be cured, one needs to experience a shift of consciousness which is something that can happen in an instant. Don't get me wrong it was like waking up from the worst nightmare of my life and I was a bit shaky afterwards but I soon found myself deliberately doing things that previously would have made me even more anxious just to test that I really was okay.


I signed up with this forum specifically to thank simonjcummings for his posts on this. The part about deliberately provoking a reaction in yourself (like anger at what happened to you) rather than burying your head in the sand did WONDERS for me. I feel the ache in the back of my head and the numbness in the front springing to life again and I just had a couple experiences where I really felt like I used to again. Wow.

Thanks again.


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## katiej (Jan 21, 2012)

wat symptoms did u ave?


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## optimist123 (Nov 1, 2011)

katiej said:


> wat symptoms did u ave?


Where do you start? More or less everything that's already been described at length in this forum. Initially, it started with a vague feeling of unease that intensified to the extent that I remember walking down the road and literally seeing my body walking in front of me. This lasted for a couple of days until I had a massive panic attack and had to get my room-mates to rush me to hospital as I thought I was about to die. I had a few more panic attacks after this but my main memory is of being in a constant anxious state and feeling as if my body had become an empty shell with no solidity or substance to it rather like a ghost. There was a complete numbness that in common with a lot of people on this forum was misdiagnosed as being depression. There was also this horrible feeling of being completely disconnected from the world as if I was viewing it from inside a goldfish bowl. I could go on and on but my experience is described very accurately in the last minute of the interview on this link with the author Melvyn Bragg who experienced this in his teens. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8845047.stm


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## Arianna (Mar 9, 2012)

simonjcummings said:


> I completely recovered from DPD 20 years ago and agree with a lot of the points made. Having come out of the other side my advise would be:
> 
> 1. Avoid doctors, psychiatrists or any other so-called professionals like the plague. None of them have even got the slightest idea of how horrendous this condition is so they are not qualified to give you any advise about this.
> 2. Likewise avoid any medication prescribed by doctors as this will not cure you. Remember, you're only interested in being cured and not just having your symptoms alleviated. I only got better when I decided to stop taking medication. This may have been a coincidence but I am certain that drugs did not help me in any way.
> ...


Most of this is really terrible advice...


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## Tilly223 (Nov 27, 2011)

Really awesome post. Thanks OP. I shall save that and keep reading it. I like your theory on just accepting the DP and not being afraid of it. THAT IS SO TRUE. Even Dr Claire Weekes says that in her book Hope and help for your nerves. I am afraid of my mind/dp/ocd thoughts at the moment and that is keeping it going I think.


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## katiej (Jan 21, 2012)

i had all that too.. as it has moved all my feelings have come bak..yet i feel like i have no identity still and also like the concept of life makes no sense anymore... i dunno why i am here or why i am human... i know nobody else knows this stuff but i mean like extreme anxiety towards being trapped in a body and the world making no sense... does this sound familiar at all? its like the very thought of being concious is terrifying..


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## optimist123 (Nov 1, 2011)

katiej said:


> i had all that too.. as it has moved all my feelings have come bak..yet i feel like i have no identity still and also like the concept of life makes no sense anymore... i dunno why i am here or why i am human... i know nobody else knows this stuff but i mean like extreme anxiety towards being trapped in a body and the world making no sense... does this sound familiar at all? its like the very thought of being concious is terrifying..


First of all, if you're feelings have come back that's very positive and means on you are on the way to recovery. With regards to the existential questions you have; you are right, nobody knows this stuff. If there is a point to our existence, maybe it is to try and find the answers to these questions. However, the problem is not the questions you are asking yourself but the anxiety you are feeling because of them. These are two completely separate entities. In order to be free of anxiety you need to be able able to observe it and then separate yourself from it and see how it feeds off itself. Once you are able to shine the spotlight of intelligence on it, it will become less scary and in the end cease to exist. This is easier said than done and you might not succeed in doing this straight away However, I can assure you that this anxiety is not real and you will very soon discover this for yourself.


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## DP boy (Mar 20, 2012)

leeCANADA said:


> A few things I have learned that have worked for me, I am 80% better, (I also suffer from hppd so that is what is not that better) Anyways first thing is drugs WILL NOT fix you in this one. I got mine from drugs and when I was using (pot, mushies, m, acid) I had believed that the mind is purely a physical thing and that if you want to feel something take the right drug for it. SO NOT TRUE!!!! I now learned you can get sooo much higher without drugs than with them. Also after tons of CAT scans, MRI's telling me nothing is wrong with my brain I learned that DP is in the mind, not in the brain. You have to change the way you think. LIFE IS AWESOME REMEMBER THAT GUYS. I have been in dp/dr hell for 2 months and although many of you have been in it much longer here is some stuff I have learned to help make me feel way more real. Trust me this works guys!!
> 
> 1. Put a little bit of gravel in your shoe!! Uncomfortable yes but makes you feel soo much more grounded and real! The slight uncomfortableness will help distract you and will release endorphins that will make you feel a bit better. Feeling really anxious and dp'd? Press down a little bit on the gravel and it will anchor you!
> 
> ...


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## DP boy (Mar 20, 2012)

Hey dp brutha I got a question are you feeling any enotions yet Im only going on 1 month of this but its some scary hellish shit. your 2 months in how are your emotions looking?


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## Zadkiel (Mar 14, 2013)

Thanx a lot! I just was crying asking myself what is happening to me and now I feel really relieved... Thanx a lot. I love you too.


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