# RECOVERING



## Mansoor

I continued to look online all the time to find the magic answer. I read books on anxiety and DP, and joined online forums. I was OBSESSED with my disorder and in getting rid of it, which is EXACTLY why it stayed so long.
Put down the damn phone and laptop and stop looking up what is wrong with you and how to cure it. You can't cure it, it simply fades away over time after YOU have made adjustments to your lifestyle.
Time was the biggest recovery tool, I firmly believe your nervous system neurotransmitters etc., I also cannot grasp how little is known about this and how severe it can become so quickly, need time, I kept busy and very very gradually got better. I wish I could explain more but it seems so distant to me now.
I have been cured for months now and I can say that once you are... you literally don't even care about the word depersonalization.
The main mistake I made was when I'd feel somewhat like myself again, I would get really excited and then the DP/DR would come back usually within 4 to 7 hours, if not sooner.
Two steps forward, one step back for a while. Hang in there. It gets better. And I never thought in a million years I'd be able to say this.
Lastly, once you start to get glimpses of yourself feeling normal again, your mind remembers. And so with each little glimpse, you are getting closer and closer to recovery.
Expect setbacks, though. Hell, a few weeks ago I thought I was good and then BAM! the next day it's like I had lost all progress.
But please remember that you're not losing progress. Your mind/body is going back to adapting its old, natural way of being and if it hasn't been "there" in a while, there is going to be some conflict and the symptoms will flair up. Eventually you win by not giving a damn about those symptoms
Get to the gym or outside what ever it may be, get on with life, face your fear....this WILL NOT last. Trust me

I swear by my advice and suggestions below...you need to give your brain and body time to cope and eventually heal. Time, space, understanding, patience, and hope.
Everything was the same as it had always been; I was, my room was, my life was- but I felt different. Better. Happier...I felt like I did before this cloud of DP/DR shadowed over me. I didn't jump out of bed and turn the lights on, I didn't scream out for joy, I just laid there, staring into the darkness, smiling, happy inside my heart. I fell asleep immediately and when I woke up, my DP/DR was there again- but I had this new found hope. I was so happy and excited when I realized that once this "sickness" wears off, I will be the same person I had always been. It hasn't changed me one bit. It hasn't ruined my life. It was encouragement and faith in the most amazing way. I experienced this "glimmer of hope" two or three more times, each time laying in bed in the dark, and every time it just restarted my "You're okay" cycle in my head. And it felt so good.
By now you're probably wondering what my cure-all answer is. That's something I want everyone to understand. There is no one solution. There is no set date. Everyone (including myself) says I want to be different and happy, I want to be myself again, but rarely try anything that isn't immediate or guaranteed. You need to realize this isn't going to happen over night- it could, but for many people it won't. It takes time, it requires you to stop feeding it all your attention. Stop letting the DP/DR control your life. When you feed something, it makes it stronger and more powerful. You are feeding it every time you let it decide what you're going to do tonight, every time you lay in bed depressed and hopeless, you are feeding it when you even think about it. That needs to end. You need to starve it, and let it die. Ignore it. You are so much stronger than anything going on in your brain.
For me, minus my glimmers of hope, my DP/DR disappeared so gradually over time that it wasn't a "ZAP" like the first few times. It was just me being happy and carefree one day and thinking, Oh my God, I'm all better! It was a wonderful realization. Somewhere in between getting my degree and being broken up with by like 23875 different guys and quitting jobs and being broke and considering just being a cat lady and living in a robe forever, and having hard days at work and fun times with friends, my DP/DR sort of...evaporated. It didn't just disappear, it

Trust me guys, you have got to keep living your life, it might feel like I'm asking you to do the impossible, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. For some of you it will be a long walk in the darkness, for some of you it will be a short one. I do however believe in all of you guys, you all have the power to take your life back. Some of you might think that your depersonalization/derealisation is so bad that you're beyond saving. But that doesn't make sense at all, I truly believe stress and anxiety is the cause of the condition. Once you really manage to cope with that, recovery is within reach. As I stated in the summary; recovery is real and recovery is possible - for everyone with the right mindset.

Don't freak out if you relapse, see it as a PROCESS, it is not a on/off switch situation. In my case I started feeling better and sometimes completely normal when I talked to friends and loved ones, definitely normal when I did exercise and yoga, and then I started having the horrible sensation again, but since I stopped worrying about it (because I understood what it was), it was never that strong again, so I continued with my life and eventually and gradually it went away.
Your central nervous system is a little fragile right now, and it needs COMFORT, so make sure you give him COMFORT, which means giving yourself as much COMFORT as you can.
- So DON'T WORRY, it feels like hell but it's nothing, it WILL GO AWAY QUICKLY!
You will recover quickly but don't make it a goal, DON'T OBSSESS ABOUT RECOVERING QUICKLY. Recovering is all about not worrying, not obssessing about anything. Just think that if you do all these, it will go away by itself!
You can do this! I swear!
Don't give up, if you have a bad day (which you will) just get back up and use the tools the next day. The recovery cycle is almost never linear (at least for me) it's more 2 steps forward one step back. First you will have seconds of "normalcy", then minutes, then hours etc...
Second and this is extremely important. STOP researching this condition, STOP reading the horror stories on the internet about how bad off people are, this only makes you worse. You need to stop thinking about this. The reason you find so few success stories is because those that recover are out living their lives. I know cause I've been there. If you have to read something try to focus only on success stories and positive posts. You can usually tell by the subject heading what tone the post is going to have. You have to get busy, if you don't work go volunteer, start small but do something to get outside yourself. You have DP/DR, it doesn't have you.
Good luck to all and remember. No more researching. The answer is here at your fingertips.
I finally recovered from that bs derealization. And for real guys,the people who say just forget about it and live your life are 100% correct. Just drop it, and alot of people say don't do drugs or drink, the thing about that is not to quit anything cause of fear. I made alot of bad lifestyle changes out of fear and now iv got to try and work my way back. But the derealization is gone because I focused on other things like work.....for the love of God do not obsess over it...give it time and live your life as normal and you will forget about it.


----------



## Mansoor

Hello,

This my first post on dpselfhelp. Apologies for the LONG post, i have a lot to get through.

I'm close to a year with drug induced DP/DR, feelings of unreality, anxiety and depression. I'm coming out of the DP/DR and the anxiety levels are a lot better now. I'm starting to live again and things are becoming very positive. I'm not fully recovered yet and still have a way to go but I'm close enough to write this and i think it could be of some help. 
I've been here and to other websites a thousand times, read and re-read a thousand posts but never posted anything as after i knew what was happening all i wanted was for this feeling go away. It's not helpful or relevant for me to be coming here anymore but since this forum has helped me a lot i wanted to leave something here that hopefully can help someone else in the same position. Sorry if this does not cover some of the trauma and abuse DP/DR people please read it and i hope you get something out if it.

There are two parts to this post, the first is the story of my experience with DP/DR / Anxiety and the second part is my manual/guide to get in control and integrate what has happened / is happening and recover from DP/DR. There is no single thing you can do, this is a list of the things and ideas that i think are very important.

PART 1

I had a bad trip / panic attack on mushrooms almost a year ago which was the trigger for my DP/DR. I was at a point where i was completely exhausted from years of stressful late nights studying design at university, working at the same time, with some anxiety and depression from feeling i wasn't where i wanted to be with things and the LAST thing i should have been doing was pushing the limits with hallucinogens. The first night of the weekend was perfect, we ran around a huge beach/cliff front coastal property owned by a family friend in the Otway ranges (Australia) under a full sky of stars exploring the tree fern covered gully's and forest, laughing and enjoying the trip the whole night. One of the best nights i have ever had with my friends.

The second night was pushing the envelope, no one wanted to do mushrooms again but we did it anyway. Wrong setting, wrong start to the night, took way too much. Was not fun at all. Three hours of pure panic attack heart pumping out of my chest feeling like i was going to die and having a bad trip that seemed to last forever. During the next week things seemed VERY different. It was as if i only existed in my thoughts, i was totally detached from myself and nothing seemed real. I had no idea what was happening and i was 100% sure i had lost my mind and gone crazy. Every day all i experienced was fear and panic and at night i slept with the light on so i had some reference point of reality from the fucking CRAZY racing thoughts and panic. Every morning i opened my eyes to experience this every second of the day up to when i went to sleep. 
Over the next 6-8 months i totally withdrew from my friends and family experiencing the worst depression and anxiety that i was one step away from totally losing control and being checked into psychiatric care to remain there for the rest of my life, every day they were asking what was the matter and i went from being a very confident outgoing person to giving one word answers because the sound of my own voice was so foreign and i didn't feel any connection to myself, my family, friends and anything around me.

My experience in detail;
- Feeling like i had lost myself only my thoughts remained.
- Feeling very detached/diassociated from reality.
- Feeling very disconnected from myself.
- Not honestly smiling or laughing/feeling joy for months on end.
- Fear of losing control, losing my mind or that i already had.
- Very quiet and withdrawn, not wanting to see/speak to my friends or family.
- Panic attacks 10/20 times a day, happening at any point in the day for no reason.
- Racing, racing thoughts. Totally uncontrollable direction/content all day.
- Feeling very foggy/cloudy/fuzzy in the head.
- Very irrational thinking, overanalysing everything to it's inevitable disastrous ending.
- Loud tinnitus (ringing in the ears) from the very first day to this moment.
- Memory disassociation, feeling like my past memories experiences happened to someone else.
- Memory loss, knowing that i was somewhere or doing something during the day but had no memory of experiencing it. 
- Only experiencing distress all day all night at the prospect of living like this for ever. Pure distress.
- Concentration/focus completely lost. Could not complete simple tasks or focusing took great deal of effort.
- As if life is happening to someone else, I'm observing life as it passes me by.
- I have no emotions cannot connect with anyone or anything.
- Loss of confidence and high level social anxiety.
- Loss of sex drive and any interest.
- Constantly self monitoring for any sign of change. Obsessive about what was happening to me, thought about it all day.
- Spending HOURS on the internet searching for anxiety, derealisation, depersonalisation, personality disorders, 
mental disorders, brain tumors, blood problems, psychotic episodes, forums, wikipedia, health sites, blogs, youtube etc. etc.
- I've had about 10 doctors appointments, full blood tests, hearing tests for the tinnitus which went as far as MRI's looking for tumors. 
- Feeling like giving up and what is the point to a life like this. The way i describe it is if someone had a gun to my head i really wouldn't care.

The worst fucking experience of my life.

PART 2

ALMOST EVERYTHING I HAVE WRITTEN ABOVE IS NO LONGER HAPPENING. 
- I HAVE TINNITUS
- I HAVE SOME ANXIETY STILL.
- I'M DOING MORE THINGS WITH MY LIFE THAN I DID BEFORE THIS EXPERIENCE BECAUSE OF IT AND THE THINGS WRITTEN ABOVE SEEM LIKE THE MOST FOREIGN THINGS TO ME NOW.

MY FIRST MESSAGE IS THIS;

FROM WHAT I EXPERIENCED OVER ALMOST A YEAR TO RIGHT NOW..

â€¢ YOU WILL NOT BE LIKE THIS FOREVER, IT WILL PASS WITH TIME. (Read this a thousand times if you need to). 
â€¢ YOU ARE NOT GOING CRAZY.
â€¢ YOU HAVE NOT LOST YOUR MIND.
â€¢ YOU HAVE NOT RUINED YOUR LIFE.
â€¢ YOU DON'T HAVE A BLOOD DISEASE.
â€¢ YOU DON'T HAVE A MENTAL DISORDER.
â€¢ YOU DON'T HAVE ALZHEIMER'S.
â€¢ YOU DON'T HAVE ANY OF THE BAD THINGS YOU THOUGHT YOU HAVE OR LOOKED UP OR HAVE BEEN TESTED FOR.
â€¢ YOU ARE STILL YOURSELF AND YOU WILL BE YOURSELF AGAIN.
â€¢ YOU DO NOT NEED ANTIDEPRESSANTS, AND ANXIETY MEDICATION. STAND UP WALK OUT THE DOOR AND RUN SOMEWHERE AND BACK.

THE DEPERSONALISATION AND DEREALISATION WILL PASS WITH TIME AND HARD WORK. IT WILL NOT BE LIKE THIS FOREVER.

PART 2.1

This is the difficult part, both for me to write well and for you to DO.

1. Read this post. It is an excellent description of DP/DR from start to finish it covers everything and my experience has followed it almost exactly. The most important part is to read the bottom paragraph. Again, PRINT IT and read it a thousand times. Use this when seeing doctors, telling your parents, talking to trusted friends about it. It means they know exactly what is happening not what you 'feel' is happening, they can be very different sometimes. You have been living with this everyday but for the person you're telling some of the descriptions of how you're feeling and experiencing the world might be confusing and distressing even for healthcare professionals i know my doctor had no idea what i was talking about. 
http://www.dpselfhelp.com/forum/index.php?/topic/13358-the-old-intro-page/scroll down 
http://answers.yahoo...10013023AAmfeqn

2. Read this post. PRINT IT and read it a thousand times. I have had a printed copy for six months. Force these positive things and ideas into your head and DO them, even if you do one a day/week/month. IT'S ALL THERE FOR YOU TO DO.
http://www.dpselfhelp.com/forum/index.php?/topic/20892-the-holy-grail-of-curing-dpdr/

3. Read this book. Again, it's describes the symptoms and feelings very accurately it goes to the next step of explaining why you feel/think like this and gives a very different perspective on things from a medical perspective not someone who has experienced it like I'm doing. Trauma, drug induced etc. are all covered in it. It describes the treatment options and how they work. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Overcoming-Depersonalization-Disorder-Mindfulness-Acceptance/dp/1572247061/ref=pd_sim_b_5

4. Watch this video. This is a Charles LInden youtube video. It describes the mechanism of flight or flight response and why when you are a highly anxious person you have a constant flow of chemicals that are designed to get you out of harm in the best way possible. That's the important part that you don't just turn and run away/swing your fists in the general direction of the fight, your brain will work out the best way for you to avoid perceived danger or deal with a a situation by thinking of and analysing all the possible scenarios that may occur given the information it is presented with. For me this is was KEY to realising all the things I'm panicking about and thinking of in the WORST CASES is just Anxiety. Why did i think i had a mental disorder, brain tumor, going to lose control and end up in a psychiatric ward day after day for months and months, all because I'm in fight or flight anxiety/panic mode which make me think what is the worst thing that can happen in this situation? It's the same now as it was walking on the serengeti plains thousands of years ago, you hear a rustle in the bushes that may be a lion, instantly you assess all your options to their final conclusions.
ANXIEY charles linden

PART 2.2

All of the above are things that reassured and gave me the understanding and explanations i needed of what was happening. They helped a great deal. 
The next things are what you must do to reconnect with yourself and the real world.

1. One thing that changed the way i see this whole experience of the last year was something one of my close friends said to me and one of only about six people i have talked to about this..

"This shouldn't be something that is ignored and separated, this is a story which should be ingrained and connected to your whole"

This was by far the most connecting concept for me. There is so much focus on getting 'better', getting 'back to normal' feeling 'myself' or '100%' what ever it is, it's about focussing on a day, in the future when everything is going to be okay and this is done at the cost of living in the now. The now or today suffers because you're living for and working towards that time in the future when everything will be okay. All i wanted was for this whole experience to stop and i was fighting against it every way i could. What has helped the most of every thing i have read, watched, done is ACCEPTING and INTEGRATING what i've experienced. That It's not something happening to me or separate from me. I'm not fighting it anymore and each day i feel better and happier about the whole situation. It has taken me HOURS and HOURS of reading, talking, writing and thinking about this to get to this point and for months i was thinking HOW THE FUCK DO I ACCEPT THIS???? it's written in the books and other posts and everyone is saying to do it, HOW THE FUCK DO I ACCEPT THIS???? It's living in the NOW. Not living for the day when everything is okay. LIVE YOUR FUCKING LIFE NOW!

2. You need to speak to your parents, family or loved ones or close friends. Speak to people you trust. See a psychiatrist, see a psychologist. Speak to someone. Everything you have thought up in your head can be stopped in one sentence from another person in the same room looking you in the eye TALKING to you. NOT on the internet, NOT in a book, NOT on youtube. SPEAK TO SOMEONE ABOUT IT. VERY IMPORTANT.

3. GET OFF THE INTERNET. DELETE your dpselfhelp account and every email or update you're been sent, delete your youtube account where you talk about DP/DR. Delete the bookmarks and all the websites you go to. You can spend your life on here looking for the right things to read and reassurances. EVERYTHING you need is in the articles linked above, nothing more nothing less. The internet is perfect for escaping and avoiding the real world. GO OUTSIDE, GO FOR A WALK, GO OUT WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND NOT SAY A THING, GO TO A NIGHTCLUB OR GIG BY YOURSELF. DO ANYTHING THAT IS NOT ON THE INTERNET.

4. You NEED a job, if' you're at school get a job outside of school. It gives you value as a human being and one of the most important things as a human is to be valued and connected to community or society this happens by working. Every single person before us has had to do it. Get a job if you don't have one. When you HAVE to spend time doing something other than what you want to do the value of your own time increases and you start to think more about the things you want to DO and in this case the things you SHOULD be doing.

5. It's listed in the linked articles above, the things you SHOULD do are things like see friends, cook a meal, go outside for a run, see a movie, listen to music, go to a gig, go and get a coffee, go to the beach, go swimming, read a book, drive somewhere. Do as much as you can with other people. Not the longest list but the important things to do are the sensorial activities (a lot is written about this in the book that is linked above). I recently went surfing and it was one of the best experiences for DP/DR the water was freezing and the waves were bigger than i should have been out in. It was pure exhilaration and enjoyment for two hours all of which matched with the feeling of the sand under your feet the undertow on your body and waves slamming you around, smell of the salty air and taste of salt water on your lips with the sound of waves and water around you. It was THE most reconnecting thing i have done in the last year. I really felt alive. EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE. RUN AT 3:00AM AS LONG AS YOU ARE EXERCISING.

6. EAT HEALTHY, DRINK A LOT OF WATER, DEVELOP A FUCK IT APPROACH.

THAT'S IT.

This post is almost a year in the making sorry it's so long but it's the only way i know how to do it.

Ciao, all the best and GOOD LUCK. Please share this if you think it could help someone. 
I don't have any more time to give to DP/DR so this will be my only post, all i can say is GO OUTSIDE AND LIVE YOUR FUCKING LIFE! (if i could write this big enough to take up the whole screen i would)

Enjoy.
Austin.
Quote
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Avalanche
15 May 2011
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Guest_Lowrey_*
15 May 2011
I experienced about the same symptoms as the OP. The only difference is that my trigger wasn't mushroom, but whyskey.

And I'm about 90% recovered, and it's not the optimisn talking. I still have a few hours every week when I feel bad, especially if I have a little hangover.

BUT the reason I'm posting is to CONFIRM what the OP says.

Quote
â€¢ YOU WILL NOT BE LIKE THIS FOREVER, IT WILL PASS WITH TIME. (Read this a thousand times if you need to). 
â€¢ YOU ARE NOT GOING CRAZY.
â€¢ YOU HAVE NOT LOST YOUR MIND.
â€¢ YOU HAVE NOT RUINED YOUR LIFE.
â€¢ YOU DON'T HAVE A BLOOD DISEASE.
â€¢ YOU DON'T HAVE A MENTAL DISORDER.
â€¢ YOU DON'T HAVE ALZHEIMER'S.
â€¢ YOU DON'T HAVE ANY OF THE BAD THINGS YOU THOUGHT YOU HAVE OR LOOKED UP OR HAVE BEEN TESTED FOR.
â€¢ YOU ARE STILL YOURSELF AND YOU WILL BE YOURSELF AGAIN.
â€¢ YOU DO NOT NEED ANTIDEPRESSANTS, AND ANXIETY MEDICATION. STAND UP WALK OUT THE DOOR AND RUN SOMEWHERE AND BACK.


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## Mansoor

WHAT DIDN'T WORK:

I continued to look online all the time to find the magic answer. I read books on anxiety and DP, and joined online forums. I was OBSESSED with my disorder and in getting rid of it, which is EXACTLY why it stayed so long.

Put down the damn phone and laptop and stop looking up what is wrong with you and how to cure it. You can't cure it, it simply fades away over time after YOU have made adjustments to your lifestyle.
Time was the biggest recovery tool, I firmly believe your nervous system neurotransmitters etc., I also cannot grasp how little is known about this and how severe it can become so quickly
, need time, I kept busy and very very gradually got better. I wish I could explain more but it seems so distant to me now. 
I have been cured for months now and I can say that once you are... you literally don't even care about the word depersonalization.
The main mistake I made was when I'd feel somewhat like myself again, I would get really excited and then the DP/DR would come back usually within 4 to 7 hours, if not sooner.
Two steps forward, one step back for a while. Hang in there. It gets better. And I never thought in a million years I'd be able to say this. 
Lastly, once you start to get glimpses of yourself feeling normal again, your mind remembers. And so with each little glimpse, you are getting closer and closer to recovery.

Expect setbacks, though. Hell, a few weeks ago I thought I was good and then BAM! the next day it's like I had lost all progress.

But please remember that you're not losing progress. Your mind/body is going back to adapting its old, natural way of being and if it hasn't been "there" in a while, there is going to be some conflict and the symptoms will flair up. Eventually you win by not giving a damn about those symptoms
Get to the gym or outside what ever it may be, get on with life, face your fear....this WILL NOT last. Trust me

I swear by my advice and suggestions below&#8230;you need to give your brain and body time to cope and eventually heal. Time, space, understanding, patience, and hope.

Everything was the same as it had always been; I was, my room was, my life was- but I felt different. Better. Happier...I felt like I did before this cloud of DP/DR shadowed over me. I didn't jump out of bed and turn the lights on, I didn't scream out for joy, I just laid there, staring into the darkness, smiling, happy inside my heart. I fell asleep immediately and when I woke up, my DP/DR was there again- but I had this new found hope. I was so happy and excited when I realized that once this "sickness" wears off, I will be the same person I had always been. It hasn't changed me one bit. It hasn't ruined my life. It was encouragement and faith in the most amazing way. I experienced this "glimmer of hope" two or three more times, each time laying in bed in the dark, and every time it just restarted my "You're okay" cycle in my head. And it felt so good.
By now you're probably wondering what my cure-all answer is. That's something I want everyone to understand. There is no one solution. There is no set date. Everyone (including myself) says I want to be different and happy, I want to be myself again, but rarely try anything that isn't immediate or guaranteed. You need to realize this isn't going to happen over night- it could, but for many people it won't. It takes time, it requires you to stop feeding it all your attention. Stop letting the DP/DR control your life. When you feed something, it makes it stronger and more powerful. You are feeding it every time you let it decide what you're going to do tonight, every time you lay in bed depressed and hopeless, you are feeding it when you even think about it. That needs to end. You need to starve it, and let it die. Ignore it. You are so much stronger than anything going on in your brain.

For me, minus my glimmers of hope, my DP/DR disappeared so gradually over time that it wasn't a "ZAP" like the first few times. It was just me being happy and carefree one day and thinking, Oh my God, I'm all better! It was a wonderful realisation. Somewhere in between getting my degree and being broken up with by like 23875 different guys and quitting jobs and being broke and considering just being a cat lady and living in a robe forever, and having hard days at work and fun times with friends, my DP/DR sort of...evaporated. It didn't just disappear, it gradually lessened over time. I still have my down days as everybody will, but knowing I have beat it once and can do it again is the most exhilarating, encouraging thought. You can do it.

DP is a SYMPTOM. It is not your permanent state of mind.

STOP!

Stop reading and researching and racking your brain about the terrible possibilities. This "thing". This endless feedback loop of stress, desperation, and self loathing ate up about a year and a half of my life before I began to understand that there was no "it." There was only "Me"

Take back your life

Trust me guys, you have got to keep living your life, it might feel like I'm asking you to do the impossible, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. For some of you it will be a long walk in the darkness, for some of you it will be a short one. I do however believe in all of you guys, you all have the power to take your life back. Some of you might think that your depersonalization/derealisation is so bad that you're beyond saving. But that doesn't make sense at all, I truly believe stress and anxiety is the cause of the condition. Once you really manage to cope with that, recovery is within reach. As I stated in the summary; recovery is real and recovery is possible - for everyone with the right mindset.

- Don't freak out if you relapse, see it as a PROCESS, it is not a on/off switch situation. In my case I started feeling better and sometimes completely normal when I talked to friends and loved ones, definitely normal when I did exercise and yoga, and then I started having the horrible sensation again, but since I stopped worrying about it (because I understood what it was), it was never that strong again, so I continued with my life and eventually and gradually it went away.
Your central nervous system is a little fragile right now, and it needs COMFORT, so make sure you give him COMFORT, which means giving yourself as much COMFORT as you can.

- So DON'T WORRY, it feels like hell but it's nothing, it WILL GO AWAY QUICKLY!

You will recover quickly but don't make it a goal, DON'T OBSSESS ABOUT RECOVERING QUICKLY. Recovering is all about not worrying, not obssessing about anything. Just think that if you do all these, it will go away by itself!

You can do this! I swear!

Don't give up, if you have a bad day (which you will) just get back up and use the tools the next day. The recovery cycle is almost never linear (at least for me) it's more 2 steps forward one step back. First you will have seconds of "normalcy", then minutes, then hours etc...
Second and this is extremely important. STOP researching this condition, STOP reading the horror stories on the internet about how bad off people are, this only makes you worse. You need to stop thinking about this. The reason you find so few success stories is because those that recover are out living their lives. I know cause I've been there. If you have to read something try to focus only on success stories and positive posts. You can usually tell by the subject heading what tone the post is going to have. You have to get busy, if you don't work go volunteer, start small but do something to get outside yourself. You have DP/DR, it doesn't have you.
Good luck to all and remember. No more researching. The answer is here at your fingertips. 
I finally recovered from that bs derealization. And for real guys, the people who say just forget about it and live your life are 100% correct. Just drop it, and alot of people say don't do drugs or drink, the thing about that is not to quit anything cause of fear. I made alot of bad lifestyle changes out of fear and now iv got to try and work my way back. But the derealization is gone because I focused on other things like work.....for the love of God do not obsess over it...give it time and live your life as normal and you will forget about it. 
•	chelsy010 and SantosB like this
Sorry you had to go through a setback. I am an ex-sufferer who's been DP-free for a year and a half (check my recovery thread). My humble guess is that you were so overly happy that everything lifted that you wanted to be like that for ever. Needless to say, you disliked getting back into the DP/depression state. From my experience, having such an emotion is a major reason why you are not getting better. Never attach any emotions to anything that is DP-related. Stay indifferent. Don't get happy or excited, nor you get sad or frustrated. Don't try to recover or even desire it. When it hits you, just say: "ah it's dp again", and carry on whatever you were doing. Even if you feel like hell and you think you will never recover. Just assure yourself that this is temporary and it will fade very slowly and gradually. Decide not to speed up the process of healing. Stay distracted and never let DP prevent you from doing anything you like. ANYTHING. I wish you all the best.

I also did things that I use to love. Like playing guitar, laying in the sun, singing, taking selfies, reading and drawing. What ever came to mind, just to distract myself from my constant stress.

AND I STOPPED GOOGLING DEPERSONALIZATION. This probably was the hardest step for me!

So..

1. ACCEPT your state of mind as it is right now. 
2. STOP forcing yourself to get better.
3. Get in touch with your values and start acting on them asap!
4. Consciously narrate your life. This will help you differentiate what thoughts are "yours" and which aren't.
5. Meditate and get back in touch with your senses.
6. Eat, Get some sleep, and do not lose hope!

Time was the biggest recovery tool, I firmly believe your nervous system neurotransmitters etc., I also cannot grasp how little is known about this and how severe it can become so quickly, need time, I kept busy and very very gradually got better. I wish I could explain more but it seems so distant to me now. 
Yes!! They are all back to normal!! No need to worry!! You'll be val to your athletic state again my vision and memory were both extremely horrible!! But I got them back as well!!! :3 everything will be okay!! Not to worry <3

he problem is that it stays like that because you start worrying about the symptoms. So you are afraid of your fear and it's a vicious circle.
You need to know that is a normal defense mechanism in your body and it's HARMLESS.

- The second thing to know is that YOU CAN RECOVER QUICKLY. When I read that people had been living with this shit for months and years I also started freaking out making things worst because I thought "I cannot live with this for so long! It's like I'm a walking dead! I don't want to live if I have to live with this for so long!" This is not to offend the people who have lived with this for long, I completely understand that you've been though hell guys, but I also imagine it's because you didn't know what was happening to you and because you didn't know the steps to recover. Once you understand what is going out with you and take some steps to recover, you will recover QUICKLY!

- Some people say that this is something that happens to people who have been traumatized about something... Maybe... But in my case I have not the feeling that I have been traumatized at all. I've been through difficult times, but I have always been a very happy person and my life was wonderful before DP/DR and still is!
I read that in order to recover you have to solve personal problems and traumas... Maybe that is the case for some people, but reading it for me made me freak out because is still seeing it as a sort of "mental health problem" that requires a lot of "mental healing" and therefore it would take a LONG time to recover... I started thinking "maybe I have to call my ex-boyfriend and talk about the issues that were not resolved in order to get better..." BULLSHIT! You can recover without having to deal with whatever problems you had with other people. Recovering is not a complicated thing, it's very very SIMPLE!

Imp
- Don't freak out if you relapse, see it as a PROCESS, it is not a on/off switch situation. In my case I started feeling better and sometimes completely normal when I talked to friends and loved ones, definitely normal when I did exercise and yoga, and then I started having the horrible sensation again, but since I stopped worrying about it (because I understood what it was), it was never that strong again, so I continued with my life and eventually and gradually it went away.
Your central nervous system is a little fragile right now, and it needs COMFORT, so make sure you give him COMFORT, which means giving yourself as much COMFORT as you can.

- So DON'T WORRY, it feels like hell but it's nothing, it WILL GO AWAY QUICKLY!

You will recover quickly but don't make it a goal, DON'T OBSSESS ABOUT RECOVERING QUICKLY. Recovering is all about not worrying, not obssessing about anything. Just think that if you do all these, it will go away by itself!

You can do this! I swear!

Everytime a thought would come in my head I'd just dismiss it and tell myself everything will be fine, don't worry about it. Within a week of doing this I started to see short glimpses of normality,
I know when i was derealized and people said these things to me like, ignore it, ur still the same person, etc. It didn't register but now that i'm normal i'm just like why the hell didn't i listen in the first place... So guys try to find someway to get it through your head that the only way to get rid of this is to ignore it, forget about it, do whatever u can to do that.
ime is your friend, symptoms fade away as time goes by. You will come out on the other side like I did, promsie


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## Mansoor

Hey guys! I've been on DP/DR for 3 years already,with loads of anxiety,panic,etc..for somewhat reason after I "developed" DR/DP I started to fight against these feelings,and they perpetuated till now.I even won my panic disorder
but I developed more stuff towards DR/DP such as floaters,blurried vision,static also know as visual snow(very mild),blue field entoptic phenomenom,of course gradually.And ALL because in these years I for some reason I changed my approach to it and tried to have control over DR/DP,tried to get rid of the symptons(makes you stressed out),tried not to feel them(makes you fearful and anxious),and all that stuff.What happened? I ended fugging myself even more,but I really don't know why I stopped the accepting approach that was working and started to "try" to fix it.There's nothing to fix.There's only a stressed and tired MIND,CRAVING FOR RELIEF.But YOU don't let it heal itself.Your mind wants resting from you over worrying,and stress usually caused by anxiety.

By remembering the early months of this,back on June~July of 2011 I had days like 4-5 days without feeling anything.And I wondered why? I went to look my olderposts and here's a little of what I foundthe italic are the messages and the bold parts I think are important things)

July/August 2011 posts.
Fighting against it may be worse,cause you'll get more anxious.ANXIETY is the main cause of this. ---> I'll add that it also causes extreme stress/and mental fatigue which DR/DP really is.

Simply accept it,doen't check if you're having it or not,then you'll be cured. ---> I did this in the first month and managed to get days of relief! It was the beggining and I wasn't so stressed out.

It's hard?Yeah.Takes a time?Sure.

We're addicted to check,at least,I was,that was I was having 24/7 DR.

Now I don't have it anymore.I've stopped the vicious cycle of checking it. ---> I returned to this self-check after I started feeling DR/DP again from reading the "How I feel" part of the forum trying to help people.

---

I Think people must come here,see some answers,tips,pratice them for a while without being here.Then came back to tell their results,and if they're cured at all,well then it's their choices to left or help others.I Came here to help people,I don't even have a symptom of DR/DP anymore,but I know how it was horrible and I thought helping people could be good. ---> that's where I made my mistake to relapse on it,I was still senstized by it's memories and even thought I wanted to help people because I knew and still know how this is the SHITTIEST thing you can even feel in life.

In my case that's it.But it's a vicious cycle.Anxiety>DR/DP>MORE Anxiety>More DR/DP...and it goes on and on,on and on and on it stills the same.Just keep in mind that it's the overworry/stress generated by anxiety that cause DP/DR not only anxiety.I would call it more of a sub-effect of constant anxiety.

With the time it goes away.Acceptance,Distraction and not dwelling the symptons are the easiest way to recovery. ---> Believe me,believe others who have done it,it's the only way.

---

THIS ONE IS A PRIVATE MESSAGE I HAD WITH A MEMBER WAY BACK IN JULY 2011
I got my DP/DR induced by weed too,but in fact i got Panic Disorder.

I'm still handling it. ---> handling the panic,which I "cured" already,I'll explain that later on

But my DR/DP are gone.I'm much better.

I've been living with a bit more then 1 month

In fact everything started and June 17th when I had a second panick attack.My first one was induced by weed so I thought,I'll never use it again and OK.When I had my second one the first sympton I felt was Derealization and Depersonalization.I Don't even like to remember it.

I'm 4 days without having DP or DR at all.

It's not too much but I'm okay.I Think it won't come back. ---> It did because of the reasons I told ya up there.

In fact it's not like a Rebirth.

Do you remeber your oldself before DP/DR? Your vision of the world and feeling will be the same,or even better.

----
I Got it induced by marijuana.

I Don't know if you stopped thinking about it at all,but i'll give you some tips:

First:
Acceptance and do not isolate your self.Do not think staying home you'll get better,basically you're just digging your own way to the end.

Seems like you've done it.Accept that you're with anxiety.Don't deny it.You're not crazy.Crazy people doesn't know they're going crazy.Simple as that.

Second one:
Stop thinking about it.Do not care too much about it,itwon't last forever,only if you keep thinking and feeding it,because thinking it'll never ends,grows up your anxiety,growing up the DP/DR.

Third one:
Distraction.Distracting is the best thing you can do to help with the others above.Play games,play guitar,I don't know anything to distract yourself.I Did this by playing computer games,really felt better when played them.Forgot my problems.

---
I Decided to left the site,since I started to read some stories and began to slighty feel DR again. ---> The How I Feel forum is full of triggers,be carefull on that if you're sensitized.Tons of negativity in there.

Now I logged in again,I have no DR at all,just some minutes of DP,I feel 98% cured.

I Won't be logging in for sometime here. ---> I should have done it,but I didn't.

It becomes addicting,and well,kinda get's you stuck in DP/DR condition.Just get the information you need and get out. ---> Totally true,get good information and go live your life with accepting the way you're.

-----------------------------

Basically I'll go back to the acceptance approach.I'll do nothing to fix my dr/dp,I'll let it do it's course,let my stressed mind that's craving for relief have some.Stop fearing DR/DP it'll do you no harm.

There are some books you might find usefull and I find them usefull for my panic/dp/dr.

They're:

"Hope and help for your nerves" by Dr. Claire Weekes (Popularized the acceptance approach towards panic/anxiety/unreality - yes she talks about unreality in this book that was written in 1962 I think.)
"The Panic Switch" by Jeffrey L. Hammes(creator of the website http://panicend.com/index.htmlTHIS alone can cure your panic attacks,but if you want more in depth info and support him,buy the book,he uses the Acceptance approach but with some very good additions.) 
"At last a life" Paul David (great book telling the history of Paul,I highly recommend it too,seems like he was DP/DR'd for 9 years and got out...by doing what? Nothing.(acceptance).

Other people recommended to:Waking the Tiger:Healing Trauma by Peter A. Levine (bought it but didn't read at all so can say if it's good at all in my view)
H
Topics from people that recovered by accepting,living life,and losing the fear of dp/dr(as know as desensitization).Soon I'll make this topic too.

http://www.dpselfhel...35742-im-cured/

http://www.dpselfhel...ary-my-friends/

http://www.dpselfhel...rely-recovered/

The moment you don't give a fugg if DP/DR comes,if it gets stronger or not,you lose the fear of it,and you kill the root of it.Which is the worry/tension/anxiety created by the fear of your symptons.

Also look at my signature people:you're the key to the life that you see! It's up to you to get out of this,since you put yourself here in the first place!

Courage to everybody! I leave it...and when I fully recover I promise I'll come back here.

This forum helped me a lot,but it can also harm you! Keep that in mind people.

Wish the best to you,from Victor Roberto Ouriques.


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## Mansoor

I made a complete recovery. Don't listen to any doom and gloomers who say they have had it for decades, they did me no good and will do you no good either. You CAN get better and WILL. You will be fine. Unlike DP/DR's ability to come on rapidly, It doesn't just up and vanish immediately. It takes time, and eventually you realize that it is gone, and you didn't really notice when exactly it went - It's so gradual, at least was for me.

It is also strongly linked to anxiety. You'll feel it even when calm, sure... but I remember it being that much worse when panicked about it. And panicking about it all the time will just exacerbate the feeling.

Main thing to remember, don't fight it and don't dwell on it. Accept the fact: you have to deal with it for now. Acceptance will NOT hinder your recovery, it will only help it. You are not throwing in the towel either. I'm saying that you gotta seriously say F___ it. I mean that. Whenever it seems to be occupying your thoughts too much, say "F___ it" and go do something. Sure, you'll notice it all the time. F__ it. DON'T LET IT BEAT YOU! You are recovering. You are not going to get worse, you are not going insane either.

It isn't going away over night, no matter how much you wish. But it WILL go away, I promise. And it will go away faster if you stop dwelling on it and being anxious about it. I promise you, just because you are like this right now, doesn't mean you will be forever. You just have to force yourself to live again, and it will slowly go away.

I know I wouldn't have believed it back in the dark days of it when I was having this issue... but you will be okay, it will be overcome.

I used to post my entire story and recovery on forums after I had gotten better. But I feel that this short one will do for now.

Hell, I don't think I have given my past DP/DR much thought in years, until tonight when I came across this forum and figured I'd give my words of advice, from a guy who has been where you once were


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## allison84

Thank you for coming back to post your recovery story and it's fantastic your well again . I'm still at that 90% normal feeling like you had this gives me massive hope that I'm getting well again good luck with your life I wish you the best


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## yoloking123

Are your distant thoughts gone?


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## PeterMe93

Did you stop coming to forums and stuff?


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## Hosscat

Would this work for the odd thoughts about the nature of reality? I feel ive been sucked so far in and they feel so true that I cant ever see the world the way I used to.


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## Mansoor

It is not my Recovery story it is someone's else
And Im at 90% now feeling hopeful 
This will pass


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## Mansoor

Its not my story 
I read it Somewhere and I thought it will Be helpful


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## SueParisParis

Hi sorry for the english, i'm french. First i want to say thank you to share your story with us. I have a question. When you was in Dp, do you feel like a prisoner of your own mind ? It's like i live in my head. This is hell. It's like i feel just my conscience/mind. And evertime im scared. But i know it will pass. I believe in God. It's hard but i know that somme people were worst ans today they are safe so i keep believing . We have to be patient and it will be ok for all of us. We are not different that others people who have experienced dp. Guys and girls just keep your head up.


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## Harris izaar

Hello brother mansoor may i ask what city you are from


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## SueParisParis

I don't know how to say thank you ! Your are a good person. And Thank you. It's a bad bad bad moment in my life and you give me hope. My boyfriend want to marry me and i'm so sad because of my dp i can't have good time with him and get out my house with him. But when i read this i have smile. ( sorry bad english) . In France we don't really have a place to talk about dp, and french people really suffer about dp. God bless you.


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## SueParisParis

Hi Mansoor. Now i feel like i'm prisoner of my mind. Like i leave in my head. Like i can't escape. Its hard very hard to do distraction. I have headhache and feel like i loose my mind. I have vertigo. And it's like i can feel what i have in my mind, my head, it's crazy to describe i know... ( sorry for my english ) This is symptom of dp ? A psychiatrist say that i'm in depression. Can you help me ?


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## Mansoor

Not ro worry About ir
Ut will go aways With time
With time ur Dr feeling will subside(reduce) itnwill take some time vut it will fade aways with time
Time is a good healer.
Recoveey is 100% possible for everyone
Keep urself syrroned by people all the time
Socialize
Talk to frnds and family
Go out even if ur heart rate is 130 plus
U will not pass out.
Just do whatever u did before havig it.
Give it some time it will subside.


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## Mansoor

Did you recover instantly or did DP/DR fade over time for you? Instantly meaning did it go away in a night or over time? (Not asking about the time it took to go away)

Also how long have you had your DP/DR before recovering?

Guest_Jeff?

03 Dec 2014
From most people I've talked too, recovery is not an instant thing, for example you're not sitting there one moment feeling derealized and the next feel suddenly normal. It's a gradual process to come out of it, many on here are suited to help you understand the recovery process better though.
Like This
newbie101
03 Dec 2014
Ya it definitely hasn't been a snap for me ... it's been gradual but each week I feel better and better 
grunge14
03 Dec 2014
Okay thanks for the replies, I guess I'll stick around this section more. Also, does it fade away from the moment you got it or did it start fading in like 6 months in for example (having dp for 6 months)
Guest_Jeff_*
03 Dec 2014
I havent yet recovered but i can tell you it does tend to fade a little over time, that or i just got used to it.

newbie101
03 Dec 2014
Yes fades over time... not like 6 months later. If u don't care about it. Like I feel completely like myself 100% right now. But I am having little points in the day where I feel it a bit. Can't wait for them to be gone ! I'm not scared of it anymore... and that's really the key. I can come on here and read the biggest trigger stories now and they don't even bother me at all! That's how I know I'm pretty well there..

THEDerekHardin
03 Dec 2014
Long time since I've come to this site. The answer to your question really just depends. Some people notice it immediately. Most, however, do not. As a100% recovered person, I can tell you - at least in my case - it tends to slowly fade. Its kinda funny how you mentioned "6 months" because thats about how long it took me to conquer it. And I know alot of ppl will say "6 months? Are you kidding me? Ive had this for years" and yknow what? DP is DP & 6 months is a pretty damn long time to put up with it. So yes, it will slowly fade more often than not. And then one day... you just forget about it. Its really that simple.

Best of luck, dude. You got this.
spamdubs
06 Dec 2014
I actually just made a new discussion in the recovery stories section about this and other things. Recovery happens slowly and to the point where it is barely noticeable (at least for me) and even when I made progress it was hard for me to see how far I had come because I still felt like I wasn't recovered. So basically even if you don't feel great, or even notice recovery you are getting better, and it just takes time and some positive thinking.

SantosB
06 Dec 2014
For me it came suddenly!! And the process of recovery very slow...

In my case, decades to be ok. No one told me the thing I was suffering, I had no good advices from any doctor. They didn't know this disorder.

I am putting in written a number of concrete exercises to accelerate this process of recovery... visit my blog and have a look!

http://dpdrenglish.blogspot.com.es

You will be better for sure!

Regards!
Like This
SheWontFollow
07 Dec 2014
It's so gradual that you kinda don't even notice it, you just continue living.
Like This
MSP93
08 Dec 2014
Veeeeeery slow. I know it can be so awful that you want an instant snap recovery but that doesn't happen. Just live, and forget about it. Do that for long enough and pretty soon it'll be ancient history. I started feeling significantly better around the 7 month mark.


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## Mansoor

analyzed and experienced this fucking life consuming blackhole disorder for a longtime since I got it and have found the 10 most important steps in recovery:
1) Acceptance
2) Letting go
3) Distraction
4) Tuning focus back on external world(reality) and interact with it 5) Socializing
6) Facing your fears& burried surrows
7) Eating right 8Sleeping/Exercising
9) Changing your thinking pattern
10) Re-enter reality & Never looking back
Seems so easy and simple, in a sense it is and on the other hand it's not, it's hard work.
However it IS infact THE only cure that ANYONE with DPDR has used to recover. there will never be a magic pill, so take my word for it and cure yourself by the end of this year and live life happily ever after in REALITY.
Acceptance
This one is probably the hardest, one thing is acknowleding and being aware your suffering from DP/DR.
I think anyone who read this book with DP/DR acknowledges the fact they are fuckedup and got DP/DR.
The thing we however don't do is ACCEPT IT.
Infact we refuse it and fight it with all our energy and time.
Accepting seems like defeat like, damn, I'm fucked. But that's not the case.
Accepting means stop fighting it with all ur power, it's the first step in recovery (seems clich�) but it's actually true.
Before you can ACCEPT (again not acknowledge, but ACCEPT the fact that ur DP/DR'ed) you won't recover.
It's also the first step of letting go.
Accepting is not a easy process but it's a quick one. Just say it out loud a few times and really MEAN it:
"I accept I got DPDR, and I know I'm not insane, this is a temporary illness and I accept that I got it"
It wants you to give it attention but you got to accept it's pressence and don't give a fuck.
It's like the bully who picks on other kids in school, if they fight him/pay him attention, he'll keep coming back. If they ignore him, it won't have the same effect and the bully will leave.
It's kind of the same with Pure O thoughts and DPDR, so accept it and you'll soon be ready to let go of it
Letting go
This is the next step in the process of recovery, managing to actually let go.
Letting go of the questioning, philosophing, worrying, thinking and wondering "WHAT IF" "COULD IT BE?" "BUT?" etc.
Letting go is different from ignoring, ignoring is forcing yourself not to pay attention which actually means your paying it attention.
Letting go means really letting something go without picking it up 10 minutes later again. I'm guilty of this.

The 3 persons I've interacted most with from dpselfhelp is curedone, ihavemessedupdreams & Fightingdepression, they can testify I had a enourmous amount of trouble with this "letting go" thing.
I couldn't, and I think I've read all the information on every topic there is on the internet, seriously.
Google is no longer my friend, but my enemy.
Letting go is ofcourse a process, it's not something you manage to do while you read these lines just by saying "OK I LET GO OF THIS IRRATIONAL FEARS" and then your cured. It's a process.
You must adopt a I JUST DONT GIVE A FUCK attitude to these thoughts and lable them as "my mind sending me false information again" and let them go.
In the beginning this is hard but after awhile it becomes easier.
it's the same in treating OCD and it's actually altering the thinking pattern in your mind thus also changing the chemical balance in your brain. This might sound like mind over matter, but it's not mind is matter in you brain and this have been scientifically verifyed and is realy ancient knowledge of buddhists.
Letting go leads to the next topic, distraction, which is essential in letting go, if you just sit around doing nothing, letting go is next to impossible. It's like trying to quit crack addiction while selling it by the kilos.

Distraction
It's the most fundamental way of curing Panic disorder, depression, OCD etc.
Distracting is hard, ecspecially when your so not connected with your surrounding environment. Distraction simply means shifting your focus from DPDR to ANYTHING, I don't care if it's singing
Britney Spears HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME or jumping in the shower with ice cold water on. Distraction is the key to letting go which is the key to recovery so distraction is a key to the door of both your soul(self) & reality for DP/DR victims
Everytime you find yourself ruminating over some stupid ass philosophical questions GET UP, run around your house 5 times and do 20 pushups.
Throw a bucket of icecold water over your head and clean your room.
Put on a song and sing to it, watch a exciting movie(not a boring one which will lead your mind to think and not follow the movie)
Something / Anything which involves taking the focus from inward internal conflict of mind to the outward external REALity.
This would be the great time to start learning new things, get new hobbies etc.
I can not stress enough how important consistant 24/7 distraction from DPDR is to recover.
It's either that or your doomed, it's simple as that, honestly put.
Tuning focus back on the external world/reality and interact with it
Now that your letting go of irrational thoughts, distract yourself from DPDR it's time to enter reality and interact with it again. No more isolation, I bet most of you spend 6+ hours aday on the computer with focus on the screen then another 2 hours on the TV screen and the rest in bed.
How do I guess so right? because I've done it for the past year too.
Isolation is the worst thing, it's proven it leads to solipsism syndrome and derealization states.
NASA is experiencing this and studying ways to defeat it in space travel where astronauts surroundings are very little unchanging and they live in COMPLETELY controlled environment for safety.
Their currently finding ways to combat this by having plants which grow without human intervention, animals and random number generators etc.
In your home your in a controlled unchanging environment, which means no surprises, no changes, no challenges & therefore no feeling of reality.
It's when your fantasy/hopes/expectations are proven wrong by reality that you learn to deal and handle reality.
So how do we enter the scary "unknown" without breaking down and killing ourself or going insane? First we watch this movie(ya'll spiritualist will love this one, but for atheists fuck the "God" part and just watch the relaxing and beautiful nature and the encouraging messages)
:
Now realize this is our fear, the beautiful nature and world there is out there for us to explore and experience.
You live rougly if your lucky 75 years. That means most of us 30-50%+ of that time is already up. Another fact is that we sleep like 1/3 of our life so this means basically we cannot waste it on this stupid retarded disorder and sit alone in a room killing ourselves emotionally, mentally and personally.
I suggest starting slow, going outside, if your not in a big city, taking walks in nature will be great grounding experiences, hearing the birds sing, watching rivers floath, the trees swinging in the wind, feeling the fresh air and seeing the biiig biiig world out there which you got absolutely NO control over and is completely real and natural independant of your mind. (this is a fact I trust in after studying the philosopher Ayn Rand)
I know buddhists might disagree, but seriously, the objective world is primary, your consciousness is secondary and a direct result of evolution and natural selection.

It's mother earth, and we are it's children.
Feel the happiness of belonging, theres tons of smells/tastes outside too which will bring back memories and sense of self.
Anyway, staying in the safezone = controlled environment = increased belief in your stupid delusional thoughts(doesn't make them real,nothing ever will, but it'll appear more real, thus make you feel more unreal).
So get out, you need the earthquake of facing the scary uncontrolable REAL world to shake you back to reality.
Try not only observing it passively, instead feel the leafs, throw some rocks in the river, walk and feel the ground beneath you, see the changes in the sky, the surroundings etc.
Also I know humans seem strange to you at the moment, faces appear dead/cartoonish if your severily DR'ed and it seems like people got no mind, there's no persona in them it seems, but look at yourself in the mirror u cannot see ur own mind either.
Their minds DO exist and you'll be able to understand it again once ur back in reality and fully conscious and awake.
Start out small, it's great if you got animals, ecspecially cats as they are so self centered and dont give a fuck about you, you can see they got their own mind and do as they please and their cute as hell too. I've found it easier to connect with animals in DP/DR moments, their so full of life and different and unpredictable from us.
Also try to move around to new places, something unpredictable and new is the greatest way of killing of DP/DR.
It's scary so you don't dare to do it, but it's the only goal your seeking, ironic isn't it?
DO IT seriously.

Socializing:
After you manage to get out of your house and trust reality again and start to see it's realness and randomness and you got no control over it, socializing is the next step and the most important of them all. You will NEVER EVER realize that people exist by studying evolution, watching experiments and brainscans, you will know it intellectually but not EXPERIENCE AND KNOW IT in reality.
To do so you must socialize, with old friends and new people.
For some strange reason the more familiar the people are in reality more unfamiliar people look when your in the DPDR'ed state of mind.
I guess it got to do with the defense mechanism in your brain shutting off the self and "protecting you", but anyway, this is the most crucial and important step in the world for DPDR'ers, realize there really are others out there.
Your not alone, and this will bring back reality to you in so many ways, and is the greatest distractor of them all.
Socializing will also bring back common sense to you too, slowly but surely this will help you greatly.
Don't talk to them about your DPDR, if they ask whats up just tell them your a little depressed stressed and exhausted, don't go into details about it, when your with others try not to focus on it at all, try to focus on the present and REALITY not your deluded fearful fantasies.
Antisocial behavior and isolation while DPDR'ed is like playing russian roulette with all chambers of the gun loaded. It's straightup suicide.
Facing your fears and burried surrows:
The best analogy for this is : your stuck in a endless tunnel you've brought yourself into, every fear that has attacked ur mind that you have tried to fought and ignore has put you deeper into this tunnel. And you see no light at the end, and when you think you do it's a train.
Well ok, lets face that train(fear) then, let it kill you, you must die a few times in this process.
After awhile the train drags your corpse out of the tunnel and you'll rise from the ashes like a pheonix and the fears will no longer affect you and you'll be able to conquer and finally realize and see how irrational and nonexistant the things you feared actually is.
If you fear dying it doesn't mean go to the bathroom and slit your wrist so you can "FACE DEATH".
It simply means say "I dont care if I die", but you got to MEAN it, not just say it.
Death is real and its invetiable, but it's not in the present so don't worry about it.
The other existential philosophical nonesense don't even exist, so facing those is different, here you must either PRETEND their true for awhile until your mind realize it was wrong and you can finally let go or skip that and go straight to the "let go part"...
Let the thoughts occupy the mind, don't pay them attention, acknowledge them, don't agree or disagree, just let them be, starve them to death, everytime you attack them or try to resolve 'em you give 'em a big cheeseburger with fries on your expens(this being your life) so fuck that scavanger and let it die out from starvation.
Survival of the fittest. =P
If you've as me gone through traumatic events such as loss of loved ones or other similarly traumatic experiences facing it is a great therapeutic way of recovering.
The last time I felt reality and emotions was encountering my deep burried sorrow of my dad's tragic

Eating right
While studying anxiety disorders and ecspecially Pure O I found that what we eat contribute a whole lot to our situation.
Our brains is basically billions and billions of neurons which are connected through myelin sheets, same as our nervous system is and anxiety / ocd / slightly schizophrenic / tourette syndrome etc. people got damaged and torn up myelin sheets which is the prime cause of this.
Eating right so that these can heal can be a great great contributer to your healing and recovery. I suggest this eating regime:
Primrose oil: 2capsules in the morning with breakfast, 2 in the afternoon with dinner, 2 at night with supper. (Must be taken with a protein so it's absorbed up in your system for effect)
Primrose oil is great at rebuilding the myelin sheets and nervous system
Fish oil: 1 before sleep
Fish oil is probably the most known natural mental health supplement it has helped heal brain damage, help brain fog, schizophrenia etc. etc.
Vitamine complex: 1 pill in the morning
Vitamine B complex: 1 pill in the morning (vitamine B has been reported on several OCD forums I've been at as a great supp to lessen the thoughts and mind noise in their heads)
Zinc supplement: zinc is great for mental health and health generally, 1 capsule in the morning and one at supper is all that's needed.
Flaxseed oil: 1 capsule a day
I suspect in very few cases will this eating regime alone eliminate DP/DR(although SOME reports of people changing their intake of food/supps has magically cured their brainfog and dpdr) it will atleast help a great deal.
Also eating healthy is good, fruits, vegtables white meat etc, yeah this almost sounds like some sort of training gainweight/lose weight diet but, logically eating the healthiest will make you healthier.
You are what you eat is a fact in physics not just a setence.
Your body reproduces cells every fucking second, give it the best and it'll reward you for it.
After all, ITS YOUR BODY.
Avoid these: sugar, cigarettes and coffee
Again I'm guilty as charged in all of these, I used to be smoking 20 cigarettes a day and consuming gallons of cocacola (lot of caffeine and sugar).
Everything that ends with INE is negative for you and will make your situation and condition ten times worse, all INE's are stimulants and increase anxiety, pulse and heart rate.
I'm no preacher, but sorry nicotine caffeine amphetamine cocaine heroine is not good for DP/DR.
So if you like me loves cigarettes, this will be the greatest time to quit and when your recovered from DP/DR you'll be so glad you did it and now you got a GOOD reason to.
Another thing is that quitting cigarettes is a goal, it's dicipline, taking control over one of your bad habbits, which in itself is great selfesteem boost it's also a good way to start breaking other habbits like DP/DR thinking, isolation etc.
Plus it will increase your health enormously just the first months, just the first few weeks it'll increase your smell/taste and breathing and lower your chances of heart attack etc.


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## Mansoor

DP/DR do's and don'ts
DO's:
Participate in life (self explainatory)
Get new hobbies and interests (change is very advantagous to cure this disorder and it'll refocus your mind)
Make new friends (again change factor, plus new friends mean non predictable/controlable events)
Have sex (sex is the most fundamental emotional and instinctive of all human behavior so enganging in it should bring fourt the human in you)
Fall inlove (this is hard while DPDR'ed, but if you manage you'll be cured faster than anyone)
Make music (if your an artist, self expression through music is the best way to spark emotions and unleash your own)
Listen to music (if your NOT an artists listening to others will do the same, music is played on instruments by the creator but plays on the emotions of the listener)
Make art (drawing/painting is another way of self expression so if your good at it, do it, if your not good at it but want to be, pick it up as a new hobbie and learn it)
Express yourself (every person feels the need to EXPRESS themselves, find someone who listens and take a long chat with them, very therapeutic and also connecting, to others and therefore yourself again. Distract, (already explained)
Make socializing your second nature (explained before)
Stay occupied. (explained)
Party (but without drugs, if you manage alcohol without increasing DP/DR great, it's a good social event and also drinking increases social behavior and let your guard down a bit)
The list is endless....
DON'TS:
Isolate yourself (staying in the tunnel)
Dwell on DPDR (dwelling is burrying yourself alive)
Think deep thoughts (just increasing your DPDR and anxieties)
Study shit that scares you (it won't lead to anything good, trust me)
Spend more than 1hour on the computer a day(not even on dpselfhelp) (computer is a way of "escaping reality which is the opposite of what we're trying to do)
Letting this disorder take over your life (self explainatory)
Do drugs(yeah it sucks but ECSPECIALLY if your DPDR was drug induced stay the fuck away no matter if you recover, you'll kill yourself and never forgive urself if u recover, do drugs and relapse.)


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## Apollo13

Nice post


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## Mansoor

Check this link
http://www.itsjustafeeling.co.uk/depersonalisation


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## JacobG

Really powerful post.  this will be my last day on this forum.


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## Guest

There are things you said there that resonated with me Mansoor.

I tried all sorts of things over the years - trying to "figure out" my mental health issues. Always I was focused on what was "Wrong" with me, what I "Should" be doing, all the while putting more pressure on myself. Ultimately I think all I was doing was adding more stress to the situation, more fuel to the fire. I've probably re-traumatized myself a hundred times.

The mind does seem able to settle symptoms and resolve a lot of things all by itself, but it can or will only when it feels the circumstances are right, ie, when we're relaxed and it feels safe to do so - what you said about giving ourselves comfort. So much can just be about calming down, taking the pressure off and learning simple ways to relax ourselves.


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## mezona

Did you have the blank mind, too?


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## partiedtoohard

I think he was finding recovery stories from different people and other sites and posting it on here.

Was confusing the hell out of me.


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## PeterMe93

Yeah, this thread is a bunch of recovery stories in one. It's a good thread, thanks Mansoor.


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## mikedango

Mansoor said:


> I made a complete recovery. Don't listen to any doom and gloomers who say they have had it for decades, they did me no good and will do you no good either. You CAN get better and WILL. You will be fine. Unlike DP/DR's ability to come on rapidly, It doesn't just up and vanish immediately. It takes time, and eventually you realize that it is gone, and you didn't really notice when exactly it went - It's so gradual, at least was for me.
> 
> It is also strongly linked to anxiety. You'll feel it even when calm, sure... but I remember it being that much worse when panicked about it. And panicking about it all the time will just exacerbate the feeling.
> 
> Main thing to remember, don't fight it and don't dwell on it. Accept the fact: you have to deal with it for now. Acceptance will NOT hinder your recovery, it will only help it. You are not throwing in the towel either. I'm saying that you gotta seriously say F___ it. I mean that. Whenever it seems to be occupying your thoughts too much, say "F___ it" and go do something. Sure, you'll notice it all the time. F__ it. DON'T LET IT BEAT YOU! You are recovering. You are not going to get worse, you are not going insane either.
> 
> It isn't going away over night, no matter how much you wish. But it WILL go away, I promise. And it will go away faster if you stop dwelling on it and being anxious about it. I promise you, just because you are like this right now, doesn't mean you will be forever. You just have to force yourself to live again, and it will slowly go away.
> 
> I know I wouldn't have believed it back in the dark days of it when I was having this issue... but you will be okay, it will be overcome.
> 
> I used to post my entire story and recovery on forums after I had gotten better. But I feel that this short one will do for now.
> 
> Hell, I don't think I have given my past DP/DR much thought in years, until tonight when I came across this forum and figured I'd give my words of advice, from a guy who has been where you once were


I am a first time poster, and the thread that contained the above comment was an absolutely inspiring read with very important information to help those like us with DP/DR..

Now for Mr. Mansoor "Don't listen to any doom and gloomers who say they have had it for decades, they did me no good and will do you no good either".

I need to take issue this this sentence. I developed DR/DR on October 18, 1979 after a horrific panic attack after smoking lots of weed the Sunday night before, and four days later on a Thursday evening as I sit in my favorite chair as the evening news was just coming on. It was at 5:00pm, and suddenly, everything about my world, self, suddenly changed as this "thing"took hold of me. It wasn't until the summer of 2008, as I was sitting at my desk at work when somehow this article on DP/DR popped up on the screen - and my life changed again this time for the better. I literally cried when I found out what this "thing" was - I wasn't possessed by something evil, I wasn't crazy, it wasn't my fault, AND marijuana only indirectly caused me to develop it. Up to that point I truly thought that the pot permanently screwed up my brain, and I I lost all hope in ever getting well. It was then to take another 5 years to actually find psychiatrists that new anything about this. In fact, I needed to see several psychiatrists before finding the one I have today (whom I only found last fall), and I'm only actually now beginning to recover after over 38 years through which I went to college, worked with different jobs till I found something interesting, all through the haze of DP/DR.

Mr. Mansoor, you are bucking heads with medical professionals, and actual sufferers who have had this for many decades, who's writings on this very topic clearly say that what you think is 100% wrong. And someone like you should no better since you actually lived this horror for what I assume, based on your thinking, lasted perhaps only a few short months.

I'm saying this to you because how many "decade" sufferers may have seen this very entry, only to click off in utter disappointment at what you have written. And what proof do you have that will back-up your comments.

We need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. At least do some research before posting something like this thoughtless nonsense, since how many people out there have not yet been diagnosed with an illness which they may already have had for weeks, months, years, and yes, decades And how many still think they are crazy and that there is no hope for them.

Those of us who are finding the way out MUST find ways to reach those who live like robots day to day. And we need to be sure that what we say is true.


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