# I made it through, you will too!



## JojoR (Jan 22, 2015)

Hi Guys,

I have been wanting to come onto a site like this for a while as I used to use them so much when I was sick. I got Depersonalization & Derealization just over a year ago, exactly a week before my 30th birthday - It literally came on one day out of nowhere, my life literally went upside down from that moment. The reason why i wanted to post this, is because you WILL get better, and it WILL pass. There are a few things that really helped me that i wanted to share - When it came on I was totally overstressed and looking back it was stress related which I obviously didn't realize in the moment - Yes, i fled to a psychologist and a homeopath as i was living away from home at the time and didn't really know what to do with myself and needed someone to talk to to assist me with my anxiety - that was my first mistake! I should have gone straight to a doctor when the whole thing started! There is only one thing that can cause permanent depersonalization when it is not medically related, and that is from weed and other drugs. Every other onset has an underlying reason, for example: Epilepsy, Adrenal failure, anxiety disorder, depression, other brain diseases like Parkinson's, vitamin deficiencies and so on. With this being said, you need to go to a doctor and get to the route of what is causing the depersonalization and derealization. For me, it was a combination of an anxiety disorder, stress, as well as post-traumatic stress from losing a brother 5 years before it set in! It is incredible how the brain works. But let me tell you, i went and got tested for everything else before i got to that diagnosis. I went for brain scans, blood tests, epilepsy tests etc etc - Once everything was cleared, we came to the diagnosis that it was definitely mental health related and the doctor put me on 10mg of Lexamil. The next important thing is to ensure that you get help from the right people! 10 milligrams was not enough to help the state that i was in so i suffered even more waiting for the bloody antidepressant to kick in. I then decided that i wanted help from a proper specialist and i went to a proper physiatrist who worked at the neurologist office, because if it didnt get better from him then we would need to revisit my brain as it is impossible to just stay stuck like that. He took one look at me, heard my story and literally doubled the dose of the tablet that i was taking. He said to me that if that didnt work he had a few more things up his sleeve before we revisited anything else and off I went on the road to recovery. The most important thing to remember is that recovery is very slow! I had two instances when i had a wow moment 1) the first time i spoke and it came from me, not somewhere across the room 2) When i looked out of my boardroom at my office and could actually see 3 D, not everything was flat anymore! Otherwise it is like a very slow and steady lift. But importantly - Meds are not enough alone - Besides the medication i also changed my life completely, before i even got onto the meds actually - i needed to cope with what was happening with me so started seeing a psychologist every week which ended up actually helping me learn to live with an anxiety disorder, took up yoga which was a massive help - went at least 3/4 times a week. Diet is very important as well, no sugar or booze, lots of vegetables, water & rest and i also started running which really helped with the day to day anxiety of what was happening to me. It is very important too to tell the people around you what is happening - It is a real thing that effects your everyday life. You need to get family or friends to take note and be there for you because it is flippen scary, and the road is long. As i sit here typing i can honestly say that i am better. I will never be the same person that i was before i got sick, because that person made me sick, I am different in a good way - i look after myself, i don't take on stress anymore, i practice yoga, my life is good. I am still on the medication but plan to go off this year sometimes, when i am ready though not too quickly. In closing i just want to say do whatever you can to get better and you will - It is not possible to stay in that state forever unless you have inflicted it yourself with drugs, you need to find the cause and you will get better. One LAST thing, when you first go onto the antidepressants the symptoms actually get worse - don't panic, stick it out, this is normal and it will fade. It will fade sloooowwwwlllyyyy but eventually you will realize you feel well again. Be strong, you dont know how strong you are until you have to live through this but you will live through it - lots of love and light to you all.


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## butcheniho (Nov 26, 2014)

I'm pleased for you that you're out, but really, you have to be careful saying stuff like "There is only one thing that can cause permanent depersonalization when it is not medically related, and that is from weed and other drugs." Don't you realise that that's going to set off panic in many people? I got mine from weed and luckily I'm at a point now where your comment didn't affect me, because at this point in time I'm feeling more close to being recovered than ever, but a few months ago it would've really made me freak out. There are plenty of stories of people being fully recovered from weed induced DP. It's the same mechanism however you get it, whether it's drugs, stress, anxiety, whatever, it doesn't matter.


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## JojoR (Jan 22, 2015)

To be honet, i realized that after i posted so apologies for that! Thank you for your post! What I should rather say is that it is more complicated if it is induced from drugs to MEDICATE, but still possible. If you speak to a doctor or Physiatrist they will tell you that depersonalization it is NOT a permanent condition under any circumstances actually.


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## TDX (Jul 12, 2014)

> If you speak to a doctor or Physiatrist they will tell you that depersonalization it is NOT a permanent condition under any circumstances actually.


There are many case series which prove the opposite.


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## JojoR (Jan 22, 2015)

At the end of the day i am just letting people know about my experience - I really want to give people hope as i know how hard the road is. What I have mentioned above is what i was told from the experts that i visited. There was a time when i was sure it would never pass for me, but i listened to doctors who were familiar with what i was experiencing, and i got better. Best of luck to you all xx


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2015)

TDX said:


> There are many case series which prove the opposite.


I wouldn't get too hung up on a few sad cases. They'll spend their dying breath telling people 'you'll never recover'. Dissociative disorders ARE quite recoverable in most cases. I've spoken to many therapists about this and the ones who treat people with dissociative disorders always say the majority of people come out fine. If they didn't, they would've been out of work decades ago&#8230;.


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## TDX (Jul 12, 2014)

> I wouldn't get too hung up on a few sad cases. They'll spend their dying breath telling people 'you'll never recover'.


In the literature are many case series, where people did *not* recover from depersonalization disorder, even after years or decades. Experts like Simeon, Sierra and Michal agree that it runs a chronic course in most cases. There are people who recover spontaneously, but this is not as common as some people here want to believe.

The amount of funding for research for a disease is also dependent on how it is perceived by the public. Depersonalization is very under-researched. The "We will all recover"-crowd should think about, what people might think about depersonalization disorder if they read online that everybody will recover. Why research a disorder that always goes away by itself?



> Dissociative disorders ARE quite recoverable in most cases.


The term "dissociative disorder" encompasses a broad spectrum of mental disorders, depending on which definition is used. According to the DSM-5 it could also mean dissociative amnesia and fugue which often have a good prognosis. If the definition of the ICD-10 is used, then there are also things like dissociative convulsions and the conversion disorders. In the ICD-10 depersonalization disorder is not placed under the dissociative disorders. There is no final agreement into which diagnostic category depersonalization belongs. Because of this statements about the dissociative disorders are of little use, when it comes to depersonalization.



> If they didn't, they would've been out of work decades ago&#8230;.


There are disorders like tinnitus where no proven treatment exists, but many "therapists" earn a lot of money with it.


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2015)

Funny isn't it, how the research shows one thing and the professionals working in the field show another huh? Personally give me the truth any day. I'll talk to the therapists for that...



TDX said:


> The amount of funding for research for a disease is also dependent on how it is perceived by the public.


I think you'll find the research is more linked to the 'profit margin' than anything else..



TDX said:


> Experts like Simeon, Sierra and Michal agree that it runs a chronic course in most cases. There are people who recover spontaneously, but this is not as common as some people here want to believe.


People rarely recover spontaneously.. The people who usually recover are the ones who put in the effort, and that's common.

I don't know what your agenda is here.. But one of these days you'll learn that the truth is not just in the published articles&#8230;


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## Freddy_Fred (Mar 4, 2015)

Glad to hear you are doing much better. My question is: Did you only have Derealization? Or both DP/DR?

Also, what where your symptoms? Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


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## trey (Mar 1, 2015)

wow, you really said that caused by weed is permanent? i was told my dp was because of my self esteem and that weed was a trigger. mhmm


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2015)

trey said:


> wow, you really said that caused by weed is permanent? i was told my dp was because of my self esteem and that weed was a trigger. mhmm


Each person differs, in my personal opinion, Weed is a trigger to an anxiety attack, but many people associate weed with being the cause, I dont believe that's the case, I did for many years but after learning more about anxiety and panic, i truly believe that is our cause and weed is simply a trigger.


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