# Advice for rTMS?



## Patrick H. (Mar 18, 2018)

Hey guys, I'm going to try rTMS at Smart TMS. Does anyone have advice for what to tell them? Are there certain areas that they should focus on?

My symptoms are: spatial distortion (watching eyeballs, head far away), mental dissociation, vocal dissociation, loss of self, existential anxiety, derealisation

My symptoms are not: emotional numbing, 2D vision

Thanks for any help


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## DPFighter (Apr 8, 2013)

They will know what to do just tell them your symptoms. There are only two different sites they do for depersonalization, the right VLPFC and the right TPJ. I'm not even sure if they do the VLPFC anymore because I only know of them having success with the TPJ. Based on your symptoms not having to do with emotional numbing this is good news for you. They will most likely do inhibitory rTMS on your right Temporal Parietal Junction (TPJ). An overactive TPJ is thought to cause symptoms of disembodiment and derealization.

I contacted them last year to get coordinates for my psychiatrist to try rTMS on me here in the U.S. They were very helpful and upon my request they arranged for me to talk to a DPD patient who had success with TPJ rTMS. I talked with him on Skype and he said the first session was the most beneficial and he kept getting better after that and continued for 30 sessions. He said he had an improvement of 70% or 80% in derealization and it felt good. He was nervous going in but it doesn't hurt at all and was the best thing he ever did for his DPD.

I underwent 13 sessions of right TPJ rTMS in April of 2017 and unfortunately I had no luck whatsoever. I didn't notice improvement nor did I notice much of anything really. It may be the rTMS did not hit the correct location because my psychiatrist had never preformed TPJ rTMS on a patient. My experience does not mean it will not work for you and I believe it is absolutely worth a shot if you have the means to try it.

Here is a post I made with lots of info about DPD rTMS:

http://www.dpselfhelp.com/forum/index.php?/topic/74602-some-helpful-info-for-those-interested-in-trying-tms/

Feel free to ask me if you have more questions.

Also please make a post letting us know how it went if you choose to try it. Especially if it works for you. Success stories give us hope!


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## Patrick H. (Mar 18, 2018)

Thank you so much for your time and info DPFighter. I am commencing treatment on Monday: 5 sessions to TPJ, then probably another 5 the next week. I will update here


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## Patrick H. (Mar 18, 2018)

I have completed 5 sessions of rTMS - 1hz inhibitory stimulation at right TPJ for 20 minutes.

It has affected my DP, but not in a good way. It seems as if it has made life more dream like. My memory, or the memory of myself, is more abstract and distant. Derealisation is also worse. I will probably be switching to PFC next week, and will report back.


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## DPFighter (Apr 8, 2013)

Patrick H. said:


> I have completed 5 sessions of rTMS - 1hz inhibitory stimulation at right TPJ for 20 minutes.
> 
> It has affected my DP, but not in a good way. It seems as if it has made life more dream like. My memory, or the memory of myself, is more abstract and distant. Derealisation is also worse. I will probably be switching to PFC next week, and will report back.


I'm sorry it didn't work for you but don't lose hope there is always more things to try and people do recover. Did you end up trying the PFC?


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## Patrick H. (Mar 18, 2018)

Hey DPFighter,

I did 5 sessions of PFC. It made me worse unfortunately, and worse than the TPJ. I have somewhat "normalised" now after a few weeks. That is the second neuro-stimulation treatment that has made me worse (I also did Neurofeedback). I wonder what that means. I am in the process of ordering a comprehensive test for Lyme and related co-infections. I seem to have a lot of symptoms. I kind of hope I have something, despite the seriousness of the diseases. At least it will be another clue.


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## DPFighter (Apr 8, 2013)

Patrick H. said:


> Hey DPFighter,
> 
> I did 5 sessions of PFC. It made me worse unfortunately, and worse than the TPJ. I have somewhat "normalised" now after a few weeks. That is the second neuro-stimulation treatment that has made me worse (I also did Neurofeedback). I wonder what that means. I am in the process of ordering a comprehensive test for Lyme and related co-infections. I seem to have a lot of symptoms. I kind of hope I have something, despite the seriousness of the diseases. At least it will be another clue.


Thanks for letting us know and for sticking yourself out there and giving it a shot. For me I also felt worse after it was all done but it faded. I'm actually thinking the worse feeling came from anxiety and stress of doing the procedure rather than the TMS itself. I was horribly nervous to do it especially the first time and I wasn't on any meds at the time to shut the anxiety down. When considering you are going in and having an experimental treatment done where pulses are being sent into your brain and it working could mean the world to you and be so shocking to feel normal again it's going to cause anxiety. On the other hand it not working will feel so devastatingly disappointing so there is such a build up of suspense and anxiety for each session because there is so much riding on it. Not to mention we are exhausted from carrying this weight of DP around with us so are mind gets easily worn out from this much stress and there is also the fear of the TMS making it worse. Dp is notorious for getting worse during times of high stress, anxiety, and panic, so trying this is a recipe for worse DP in my opinion. That being said I still believe trying it is worth it because there are success stories from it. I met someone personally who recovered 70% from TPJ TMS. Anyway, I suggest taking it easy on yourself for a while because I know you've been through a lot. Much respect for trying it. Take care


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