# Agoraphobia/anxiety healed - DP FEELS MUCH BETTER



## ed (Sep 27, 2007)

I don't know if I'm on the road to recovery from dp/dr, but it feels as if i may have started, and I'm feeling much better because my agoraphobia/social phobia is being overcome.

If agoraphobia is getting you down, I have the good news that I have found over the last few months that the agoraphobia and anxiety can be successfully treated by Cognitive Behaviour Therapy using the techniques of progressive and systematic desensitisation/graded exposure.

My DP had led to really bad agoraphobia for bridges, wide open spaces and open spaces generally. Over the last few months I have made great progress by following the techniques under the supervision of a psychologist. I still have the DP/DR, butI'm becoming free of the agoraphobia and at last have a handle on anxiety.

I thought I would have to get rid of the DP in order to conquer agoraphobia/social phobia, but this has not proved to be the case. The agoraphobia used to lead to very low self-esteem but I'm just happy I'm coming out of it after about five years.

Now that my anxiety levels have decreased, I also notice the DP/DR less. Don't think that you have to get rid of the DP/DR in order to get rid of agoraphobia. CBT may help you.


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## ed (Sep 27, 2007)

I have found that getting rid of agoraphobia/anxiety through CBT, makes the DP/DR - although it is still there - much less troubling/noticeable.

So far I haven't currently gone for anti-epileptics like lamotrigine, and am continuing to make progress mainly with CBT. I feel I am getting stronger; I'm maybe 60% better.

I think in many cases anxiety and depersonalisation/derealisation are two sides of the same coin both related to the temporal lobes and epilepsy.

The more anxious you are, the more troubling your DP will be and vice versa. Anxiety is amenable to treatment by CBT and if the anxiety is appropriately tackled the DP/DR will get less or at least be less troubling/anxiety-provoking. I didn't seek psychological help for my anxiety until seventeen years after I got DP/DR and that was because the anxiety had come to a head as agoraphobia five years ago. A few months after starting CBT, I'm feeling better than I have for seventeen years.


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## Robsy (Dec 3, 2007)

fantastic! thanks for your report and keep plugging in!! Anxiety is the cause (in most cases) of Dp, so by lessening the anxiety the Dp / Dr is not as prominent, for me anyway.

Thanks for letting us know

Robyn x


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## ed (Sep 27, 2007)

That's just my theory in my case because epileptiform features have been found on my EEGs and because I had a severe hit on the front of my head when I was young. I have not been diagnosed with epilepsy.

The temporal lobes (which are related to DP/DR and anxiety) may be slightly damaged and may be causing epileptiform features, DP/DR and anxiety.

I freely admit that DP/DR is little understood and that this is just a tentative working theory as to how it came about in my case.

There may be dfferent causes/triggers for DP/DR, but it is known that temporal lobe epilepsy can be accompanied by DP/DR and that TLE can be caused by head injury.

See the "Medical Explorations" forum under "Head Injury".


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## dgkallday (Sep 7, 2008)

Good for you. In a week I'll be starting CBT as well. I dont really have panic attacks although I've had a couple, and I don't have fears of doing certain things nor do I have avoidances, it's just my anxiety level after smoking weed and getting a panic attack for the third time, guess it just crossed the line after that.


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## ed (Sep 27, 2007)

I highly recommend CBT from my own experience.

It's good to get anxiety nipped in the bud before it develops into avoidant behaviour.

There are CBT self-help books available including one specifically on DP - although at present I'm dealing with DP/DR "indirectly" by getting my anxiety/agoraphobia sorted :-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Overcoming-Depe ... 175&sr=1-1

On anxiety generally :-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Overcoming-Anxi ... 400&sr=1-1


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## dgkallday (Sep 7, 2008)

Yeah, I was told to order a book for my CBT called "How to master your anxiety and panic" or something like that. Ive looked through it and although I know it says its a CBT workbook, it seems like it focuses too much on panic attacks which isnt really my problem, as I have only had maybe four to six panic attacks in total. Well its good to hear that the therapy was worth it, Im going in on Friday to be assesed by my therapist, hopefully its a good session. Im going to be going every two weeks, how often did you go?


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## ed (Sep 27, 2007)

About once every six or eight weeks.

The main emphasis was on me doing the "homework" in between times after being instructed/shown what to do by the psychologist. But I couldn't have really believed in it because I didn't do it. Until one day the psychologist said something like, "The more you do these exercises the quicker you'll get better.E.g.If you walk through the park for an hour or two every afternoon and slowly take it further you'll be cured in a month".

So for about a year I didn't take the therapy seriously and didn't do the homework - which was things like sitting in parks and crossing bridges until I got used to it. I thought that the agoraphobia/anxiety wouldn't get better unless the DP was immediately removed.

But since last April when the psych spoke to me seriously about doing the exercises, I started doing the "progressive desesitisation"/"graded exposure" and I feel that I'm virtually cured of agoraphobia/anxiety. And because of that the DP/DR is much less troublesome and I'm much less aware of it.

I'll be discussing things again with the psychologist tomorrow. In some ways I feel my poor sleeping pattern of 10-14 hours a day is more of a prob than the DP now.


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