# MUST READ!!!! THE CURE



## Justwannabeme (Jun 5, 2010)

I came across this and had to post it here.

Depersonalisation is a common and understandable offshoot of the anxiety condition. I can also tell you that it is in no way a mental illness. It is not serious or harmful in any way and has a totally logical explanation. It is temporary and, with patience and understanding, eventually passes like any other symptom.

This is really no more than a tired mind, a mind that craves for a rest to re-fresh itself. When your limbs tire they begin to ache, when your mind tires it brings on these feelings of unreality, these can do you no long term harm but will be there for as long as we constantly worry and obsess about how we feel, this means the mind has no rest and can not heal itself.

The key to recovering from this feeling of detachment is to surrender to this strange feeling, to pay it no respect and realise it is just the product of an over-tired mind, fatigued by your constant worrying thoughts and the constant checking in to how you feel. This symptom relies on your fear of it to keep it alive.

When people are caught up in the worry cycle, they begin to think deeply and constantly. They study themselves from deep within, checking in and focusing on their symptoms. They may even wake in the morning only to continue this habit, �How do I feel this morning? �I wonder if I will be able to get through today�. What�s this new sensation I feel?� This may go on all day, exhausting their already tired mind further. This constant checking in and constant assessing of their symptoms then becomes a habit, but like all other habits this one can also be changed.

All this worry is bound to make your mind feel dull and unresponsive. You are so concerned about how you feel, that you are letting nothing else into your day, is it any wonder you have come to feel so distanced from your surroundings? Is it any wonder you find it so hard to concentrate? Some people, when studying for exams for hours on end, get to the point where they can no longer take information in, so they take a break and carry on the day after. For you, there are no breaks and no time outs.

As I have already mentioned earlier, your body has a safety mechanism that protects it from all this worry and slows the mind down to safeguard itself. It takes a step back from this onslaught, which can then produce your feelings of detachment and the world around you may become hazy or out of focus.

Once you understand this symptom as being caused by an over-tired mind, exhausted through worry, that you are not going mad and these feelings can�t harm you in any way, it makes sense. With the fear factor taken out of this symptom, it can start to hold less power over you and affect you less than it did before. Although still annoying, you now know why you feel these feelings. Once you learn to accept them and stop adding worrying thoughts to the mix, this is another symptom that you will be able to overcome in time. Taking a step back and giving up the worrying thoughts, gives your mind the chance to rest, rejuvenate and refresh.

When it happened to me, I recognised and understood what was causing it. I realised that I was checking in and worrying about it and I did fear this sensation, so I just stopped doing it. I also learnt to get busier and stop brooding on this and other symptoms. Being active gives you another focus. Having too much time on your hands can open the door to too much needless thinking. With less worry and fear of this harmless but upsetting symptom, I was eventually able to overcome it. It merely became a nuisance and because I knew the reason for its existence, it no longer held any power over me. When a worry or fear loses its importance, it loses its power and that is why it is essential to realise these symptoms are neither harmful nor serious. Gradually, without all the checking in and worrying, this symptom that so dominated my life began to diminish and eventually disappeared completely. If you feel thoughts come without invitation, then just let them have their space and let them flow through you. This mere action of letting them be there without worrying or obsessing about them will also give your mind the break it needs.

This symptom is like any other. All symptoms are still being fuelled by your fear of them. As long as the fear continues, so will the symptoms. When we start to understand why we feel like we do, we automatically fear them less and they start to lose their edge and importance. This is when symptoms gradually start to fade.

gianttcr
Preferred Member

Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 361

Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:02 pm


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## Antihero (Oct 12, 2010)

thnx for posting this


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## PositiveThinking! (Mar 5, 2010)

Justwannabeme said:


> I came across this and had to post it here.
> 
> Depersonalisation is a common and understandable offshoot of the anxiety condition. I can also tell you that it is in no way a mental illness. It is not serious or harmful in any way and has a totally logical explanation. It is temporary and, with patience and understanding, eventually passes like any other symptom.
> 
> ...


Thanks for posting, but honestly, I don't really know .. I mean, I don't care anymore about DP, I don't pay attention to it, I just live on and I've been doing this for 1/2 months now, and I still feel like crap. This morning I woke up COMPLETELY disoriented, I didn't know where/who I was, I had to rush to my computer to check what day/month it was, and all of this for no reason at all .. It's been a year now, I've learned how to live with it, but it just doesn't want to go away :/


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## York (Feb 26, 2008)

Last time I had this, when it lasted for 4 months, this would have calmed me down. This time around, it's been so much worse, I don't recognise my home, my family, my mind.. I'm so confused, everything I used to be seems to be gone. I too fall asleep like this, and I wake up the same way.. I'm scared of it, but I'm very busy, spending every moment of every day with my kids. I feel like it's become more like schizophrenia and less like anxiety at this point, that's how lost I am. It feels biological.


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## ohwell (Oct 28, 2010)

PositiveThinking! said:


> Thanks for posting, but honestly, I don't really know .. I mean, I don't care anymore about DP, I don't pay attention to it, I just live on and I've been doing this for 1/2 months now, and I still feel like crap. This morning I woke up COMPLETELY disoriented, I didn't know where/who I was, I had to rush to my computer to check what day/month it was, and all of this for no reason at all .. It's been a year now, I've learned how to live with it, but it just doesn't want to go away :/


I don't much pay attention to it for the last 5 years, am calm..., and me too, still there.


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## freodr (May 27, 2008)

The original post comes from a British guy called Paul David. He runs a website and associated blog: http://www.anxietynomore.co.uk/ ; http://www.anxietynomore.co.uk/blog . He has written a book, self-published I think, that I have had for a couple of years. It is well worth checking out for anyone who thinks that their DP might be anxiety-related. Having suffered himself for 10 years, he just wants to help others.


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## el_kapitano (Aug 21, 2010)

thanks for story!

Also, for how long did you have DP?


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## el_kapitano (Aug 21, 2010)

york said:


> Last time I had this, when it lasted for 4 months, this would have calmed me down. This time around, it's been so much worse, I don't recognise my home, my family, my mind.. I'm so confused, everything I used to be seems to be gone. I too fall asleep like this, and I wake up the same way.. I'm scared of it, but I'm very busy, spending every moment of every day with my kids. I feel like it's become more like schizophrenia and less like anxiety at this point, that's how lost I am. It feels biological.


Follow what Justwannabeme said. I know exactly how you feel. You must try to calm down, find a way to relax and it will be better.
I feel just like you most of the time, but it is easier since I accepted that awful sensation. Accepting isn't that hard when you realise that accepting doesn't mean forcing yourself to accept it, but it means simply to accept all those sensations without thinking about them. You can't influence on your DP/DR, but you can influence on you fears and worry. 
Somebody already have said here that he was cured when he simply start to "do nothing". Brain needs a rest and healing process can be very very long... even when you start to recover it will for sure take months or even more sometimes, but positive attitude is the most important. 
I know how scary and monstruos that is when you feel like you're not anymore in your own world or that you are disconnected from everything like in some surreal dream. 
BUT... it can get better. It also doesn't have anything to do with schizophrenia. Such believing simply puts you in much worse situation.

Also, *PositiveThinking!*, you can't expect miracles after 15 days. There will be still worse and better days, but you must give some effort if you want to recover. 
That effort is actualy much easier than feeling scared and worried all of the time because of DP.


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