# How does DP/DR effect your thinking?



## BiZaRRe (Dec 1, 2008)

Am I alone when I say that dp/dr has effected my mind so much that I cant think about anything but my symptoms and the fact that the only feeling I do feel is that of being disconnected from every aspect of life physically, mentally, emotionly, spiritually ect. Is there anyone that has this blank feeling in their head and finds it really difficult to remember anything, doing math, concentrating, imagining, visualizing. I feel like i have dropped my IQ level by more than half and I even have forgot what alot of words mean and now find it difficult to talk to people without my mind totally freezing up to a complete blank. Im an artist, atleast I was an artist before this shit, that fuels my anger the most because I feel as if Ive lost my creativity and imagination. Can anyone give me some tips or advice about getting your thoughts rolling more freely and ways to gain those creative juices again? Seriously any advice would be appreciated immensly. Cheers


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## MasterMind. (May 9, 2008)

Without a doubt! I have horrible concentration & short term memory, & even long term memory is affected. You should check & see if it's actually DP/DR or if there's an underlaying layer of depression that's causing this. After being 90% DP/DR free, I still struggle with the mental anguish, which has to be depression.


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## Brandon78123 (Nov 1, 2008)

Wow, yes, everything you described is what i feel to a T. I feel like im losing my mind, and i am a dumb stupid loser, with no personality whatsoever. When i watch TV, i am baffled at how people can talk so easily off the top of there heads, because its something i find soooo hard to do. I wish i could help you with some advice but im going through the same exact thing myself. I feel like i have brain damage or something. I just cannot live like this for the rest of my life, Ive been thinking about suicide a lot lately. IDK what to do, ive lost all my personality and creativity and feeling myself!


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## BiZaRRe (Dec 1, 2008)

Its sucks doesnt it Ive also seriously contemplated suicide also I think about it everyday I think the only thing that prevents me from doing it is my family and hope for a better future. I also suffer depression and panic/anxiety disorder too man im a freakin mess.


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## BiZaRRe (Dec 1, 2008)

I here ya mastermind. I was diagnosed with Anxiety/DP/DR before I had depression and I felt exactly the same as I above mentioned before the depression. Thanks for your opinion though mate.


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## optimusrhyme (Aug 24, 2004)

to the OP .. your symptoms relate exactly to mine.. my concentration,memory, thinking, thought process, attention span, is all F U C K E D UP plus what makes it even omre f u c k e d up for me is I have Attention Deficit disorder so its like two whammys to my mental proccesses it friggggin sucks. I find it hard to talk to people because im too busy trying to concentrate and process what they are saying then i get lost in there sentence and I cant respond and I have to ask them to repeat themselves and I look like an idiot! This is the worst aspect of dp for me.. I feel for ya brotha.. I have atempted suicide multiple times.. my last attempt being a cuple months ago.. but currently im doing alot better I'm not suicidal anymore.. I find that meditation helps you ease your mind and let it breath for a while.. Its helped out a bit with the above symptoms i mentioned. if you dont already meditate .. give it a shot.. it takes alot of practice and alot of dedication but its worth it.

well im done rambling

peace and one love brotha


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## SistA HazeL (Aug 10, 2008)

It affects my ability to problem solve (depending on the severity)
also affects my ability to be creative... it involves imagining things and i find it difficult now to imagine.
Every now and then I forget how to think... weird.
Sometimes I just can't think at all.
Sometimes I think waaaaaay too much.


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## BiZaRRe (Dec 1, 2008)

Yeah Its nice to know Im not the only one who feels some what retarded from this shit. In response to you OPT I meditate twice everyday and most the time Its pretty difficult depending on what method I use but it does help a little bro and sista Hazel im right with you to if you guys want to talk let me know. Cheers


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## Mark (Jul 21, 2008)

I don't know.


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## AllmindnoBrain (Jun 28, 2007)

Brandon78123 said:


> Wow, yes, everything you described is what i feel to a T. I feel like im losing my mind, and i am a dumb stupid loser, with no personality whatsoever. When i watch TV, i am baffled at how people can talk so easily off the top of there heads, because its something i find soooo hard to do. I wish i could help you with some advice but im going through the same exact thing myself. I feel like i have brain damage or something. I just cannot live like this for the rest of my life, Ive been thinking about suicide a lot lately. IDK what to do, ive lost all my personality and creativity and feeling myself!


I could have written this post myself. Speaking freely is almost an impossibility for me. The words never come easily. Most of the time I have trouble organizing and figuring out what I want to say , i also tend to take simple statements that could be communicated with just a few words and make them extremely complicated and verbose. I think this isn't just a symptom of dp, but also of anxiety. It is also difficult to talk when you aren't fully focused on what your saying, 80% of my brain is usually set on other things like what other people are thinking and how I must seem to them and all of my insecurities/anxieties are their to filter everything i say. I dont think having difficulty communicating your thoughts is a sign of stupidity, but rather it shows your thoughts might be too complicated for articulation and or your focus is heavy on other things. There are plenty of not so smart people out there who have no trouble talking, they can yackity yack for hours.

-B


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## letsgetbetter (May 29, 2008)

DP messes up your conentration and short term memory and your mental processes are generally more sluggish. The only way I've found to improve things is to just keep ploughing on. It hurts your ego to be struggling in conversation when everyone else is nattering away and when you find things you know you found easy before to be hard but you just have to forget your ego, it's not doing you any good. To get better you need to accept that you are this way now and will be for a while, then you can think of everything you do as a step towards getting better. So if you find something hard, keep doing it and don't get freaked out or depressed if you mess it up cos it WILL get easier. I wrote a freakin 2000 word essay a week ago, no IDEA how I did it but I did and it will pass so I'm stoked. I remember when I was bad it was hard to just put a sentence together. I've heard meditation is good for centering and focussing on your sense of self and getting things calm and working smoothly.

I personally find I can suddenly feel like my head has been empty all day, like OMG have I lost the ability to think?? It's like the room in which my thoughts used to bounce around has suddenly got much smaller and quieter. Then suddenly it errupts into action but it's a big mess of anxiety and negativity! I'm probably 80% better and I still have problems with concentration. I actually think that the short term memory problem is just the effect of not being able to concentrate on the thing that you're trying to remember in the first place. So the info doesn't go in. I find that my memory works fine when I really want it to like remembering a phone number or something I can still do after hearing it once.


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## AllmindnoBrain (Jun 28, 2007)

Good points ^^

I agree with you about why the memory doesn't seem as good. We aren't really soaking information in to begin with, we are kind of passively taking it in. But memory recall is a big part of why i have problems speaking, i will often have problems coming up with a name or a certain word when I am in the middle of talking. Its strange because i have a really good memory when it comes to school, if i sit down and try to memorize something it usually sticks.


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## Guamboy (Jan 8, 2009)

I have had DP, DR Anxiety, Chronic Depression and Chronic Fatigue for 13 years. But now I am about 90% cured. I only have DP now but it has minimized to the feeling of light headedness. For all the years that I have had this, I can say that my critical thinking and my ability to be creative had decreased dramatically. For my past experience, I think the reason why the mind gets sluggish is because you havn't truly let go of certain fears yet. You have not fully accepted to live and go on with your life, your mind is subconciously still busy looking for answers. It thinks that if it does not find the right answer, you will not be able to function... which is not true. Keep in mind that we can only use 10% of our brains. We have not learned how to use the other 90% of it yet. Some peole think that they have no"fear" but if you just monitor your mind, you will find many fears. Since fear is the Fuel for Anxiety, it is tiring you out. It is impossible to get better without minimizing fear. Do you have fear that you might have this for the rest of your life? If you do have it for the rest of your life, would you accept it, and would you accept CHANGE, or would you be "fearing" change. All of this thinking and emotions are very dangerous. Take it from me, I have developed other ailments because of the way we "THINK'. We do not conciously realize what we are doing to ourselves. It does not help when the world we live in today is very stressful.

What works for me is the following:

To minimize stress. Do some breathing exercises. Get into Yoga or Pilates and exercise regularly. Meditate twice a day if you have to. Take 30 minute naps if you have to. It will feel very weird when you exercise, but if you have anxiety, it will help. When you exercise try and do it outside where you are in nature. When you are outside, appreciate everything that nature has given you. LIterally, stop and smell the roses. Do not overwork your mind. Write things down on paper if you have to instead of trying to remember it. By trying to remember it, you will only be frustrated and you will only get worse. accept the change that you would have to do to live life the fullest. If you have lost your Legs, would you still want to run? Ofcourse you would, but if you don't accept a change, you will never get to run again. Your mind would be too busy thinking about how it was when you had legs etc. etc. etc... which slows down the process of change and achievement.

Getting rid of obsessive thinking will also minimize stress. before you sleep at night, try and only count all the good things that you have done that day and exclude the negative things... once again, It will be hard to do this everyday, but now that you "KNOW" that ther is something wrong with you...you have to conciously make a "PLAN OF CHANGE". Be consistant, do it everyday.

Basically anything you can do to minimize stress will help you live a better life than you can imagine.

For me I do some stretches before I sleep and I also do some stretches when I wake up. listening to music without words will help also. I will spend about 30-45 minutes just stretching out. it is like a ritual for me now and it acutally feels good and makes me feel more connected to myself.


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2009)

it makes you focus inward because the outside world seems to not matter.
it makes you think about thinking 
it makes you be more self conscious because your constantly thinking about your problems and thus creating a poor image of yourself to the outside world.
you go through a wide arrange of thoughts and it's up to you to filter and control those thoughts. If not you then who

All I know is that when you're dp'd and dr'd then you have nowhere to hide, at least when you're dr'd you can hide inside yourself but when your dp'd and dr'd you want to escape everything but you just can't because your trapped in a mental wheel of hell.

That's why radical changes in life need to be made in order to get better.


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## egodeath (Oct 27, 2008)

I read a study about how DP/DR affects cognitive powers, which I'll include below. I think four things would be good for boosting your creativity:

1) Trying to train yourself to get out of the DP trap of thinking "this isn't real," or "the world is so strange," etc.
2) Excercise/other stimulating activities
3) Metal stimulation (i.e. word puzzles, sudoku)
4) Nootropic drugs such as Methyphenidate (Ritalin) or dextroamphetamine (Adderall, Dexedrine)

Feeling Unreal: Cognitive Processes in Depersonalization by Orna Guralnik, Psy.D., James Schmeidler, Ph.D., and Daphne Simeon, M.D.http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/157/1/103


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## Guest (Jan 11, 2009)

life is such a trip its crazy

I think that bringing out some subconscious thoughts into the open really gives you a great perspective on you, your life, who you think you are etc.

Now I know many of you will think i'm crazy, but for the last 7 months i have been using marijuana everyday to manipulate my own mental state so that I can get out of the hole of dp/dr. Now 7 months later my life has improved so much it is unbelievable. I know longer think the same I used to, I am a medical marijuana patient here in so-cal, and even though I first got dp/dr from marijuana use, i realized it wasn't the marijuana at all that caused this, it was me and my own thoughts. How I dealt with my own emotions, what i thought of and which direction my thoughts lead me.

Now I have the ability to control the beast that I have been feeding for much of my life. I have control over my mind and my mind doesn't control me. I control the way I talk, the way i walk, what i look at, how i speak, all of these are important factors in life.

I have made tremendous improvements because of this, because I didn't allow my mind to control me and send me off into a bad trip. What marijuana gave me was a more visualistic perspective on my life and the lives around me. The whole system itself. Listen if you're not gonna be comfortable with who you are and have the ability to control your own mind then marijuana can be dangerous because it can completely throw you into the depths of your own mind and it could be an ugly trip.

I'm not recommending pot to anyone, i'm just saying the craziest things happen in life and I am very thankful for the perspective I have now even though it cost me a lot of pain it was worth it.


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## Gregarrio (Aug 28, 2008)

This was my main concern when I was in the trenches of DP. It still happens from time to time. Just to give you that oh so needed sigh of relief, for me it was completely psychological. That immediate thought suspension in conversation... the changing faces of even loved ones when you realize your no longer listening... when you've suddenly become this ghost of a spectator watching a game you've forgotten how to play...

All that has gone away. Well actually it still comes and goes. But more often than not, it's not even there unless I look at it. It's a complete mental trip. If you focus on the four legs of a chair too long, I promise you at least one will seem to disappear. The same thing happens when you focus that intensely on yourself.

But I'm no expert. And a lot of times I find myself writing these posts if only to remind myself how simple it all looks when you're out of the trenches. You'll see that it's absolute bullsh!t, then get stuck in it again wondering how you ever convinced yourself of that fact before.

Sh!tty cycle, but it helps me to know it's just a cycle. If anything in our perception has become unreal, it's DP/DR itself. IT ISN'T REAL.

I just had to throw a couple pennies on the thread because I remember feeling the same way, and want to tell you how much better it gets.

Best wishes,

Greg


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