# 80-90% Recovered



## lusionnz (Oct 4, 2008)

Hey guys,

First post on these forums after lurking around for a while and reading peoples recovery threads. I know it helped me a lot to read other peoples ideas on recovery and their methods so heres my story:

Basically it all started last new years (10 months ago) when I decided to take some party pills over new years. I'd had them before and everything was sweet on them so I decided to try this new pill my mate said were awesome. Up until new years i'd been smoking heaps of weed but the day of new years I hadn't had any and still kind of felt stoned so I just put it down to there still being a bit of pot in my system. Had a bit of gin before I went into this NY concert and decided to take the pill a few hours later. Pretty much straight after I took it I felt kind of weird, didn't go down that well and semi got stuck in my throat so wasn't really enjoying myself. Ended up getting way worse after the pill kicked in, started throwing up pretty violently and got pretty dizzy and just wanted to leave the concert. Unfortunately all my mates were pumping in the middle of the d-floor so I ended up just walking out and trying to get over the effects of this pill. About 6-7 hours later and after coming back to our campsite I finally got to sleep after some weird thoughts about life, it sort of felt like I had an epiphany about what had happened in the past and I started over-analysing everything.

Anyway after I woke up I felt extremely strange and assumed it was the effects of the party pill and just being hungover as well. After being back home for a few days I had exactly the same feeling and started wondering wtf was going on. I didn't get any panic attacks tho, as im generally pretty calm/laxed, but was just semi-worried that this feeling wouldn't go away. Pretty much this entire year has been a blur to me, did pretty bad in my uni exams first semester and failed one of my papers. When I was with my mates I would act all weird as well and not know how to act, as well as this I was extremely self-conscious in public, constantly checking myself to see if I was acting out of the norm. Because of this I stopped going to lectures and spent most of my time in my flat, on the computer (used to be into games) or watching tv.

About 2-3 months ago I decided i'd had enough and starting looking on the net for answers. Typed a few symptoms of what I was feeling in google and came accross this website and was relieved to find that I wasn't alone in my condition. I spent most of my time reading through this sub-forum in particular and tried to use some of the methods these people had used to recover as well as trying to get my head around it myself and find a solution. I'm up to a point now where I feel a lot more in touch with reality however I still do not have the same sense of emotion as I did before DP/DR. I'm a lot more focused about work however and when i'm in lectures or reading over the material i'm taking a lot more of it in than before.

Anyway i'll post a few of the methods I used which helped the most:

1) First method I tried was trying to focus on what was going on in my head that made my head feel foggy. Basically it felt like my thoughts were traveling at a million miles an hour so I just focused on relaxation and calming myself down. Generally i'd be in bed when I did this just before I went to sleep so I was at my calmest. I started to focus on what I was doing (breathing/movement etc) and also on the noises around me while trying to slow my thoughts down to a normal level. Takes a fair bit of patience and it may not work for some people but it definitely helped me at the start.

2) Second was a thread about body realisation I came accross a few weeks ago. Basically involved focusing on different parts of your body while lying down in bed and trying to feel each part as you think about it. I noticed a huge improvement after trying this a few times and when I went about my daily activities I would consciously try to think about what im doing and what im feeling at the same time.

3) Last method that also helped drammatically was acting like I didn't have DP/DR. At the time I thought how can my head feel like this when there aren't any drugs in my system? After a while I started actually believing it and started to feel a lot better and that it was something that if forgotten about would just go away.

I think what helped the most when trying these things is that you have to be in the right mindset. You can't attempt to recover in the middle of a panic attack, you actually have to believe that you can recover and that it will just take a bit of time and patience which I think is true. Obviously the intensity of DP/DR varies for everyone but if you honestly believe you can get better, then you will!

Think positively, and know that the thing makes dp/dr worse is believing you have it. If you take a bit of time each day to relax and genuinely believe that DP/DR is nothing then i'm 100% confident that you will feel a lot better.

I found the DP/DR a lot worse when I was on the comp/watching tv so if you can avoid these things then I highly reccommend it. Pick up a hobby, engage in sport/social interactions and make sure you can have some time to relax and try some of these methods.

BTW I never tried any drugs while I had dp/dr because if you do take drugs than you're only admitting to yourself that you have dp/dr which I only felt was going to make it worse if I stopped taking them.

Wall of text I know but im sure it will help a few of you 

good luck


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## sjkdfjsdlf (Apr 8, 2008)

thanks for this! I can relate to so much, especially the part about not allowing yourself to label yourself with a particular. Some people need that label, but I fear it.. it's like giving up for me. A disorder is simply a set of symptoms, and it's a set of acquired habits. And what's most important is that the symptoms are gone, right?


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## meghan28 (Jan 3, 2008)

Inspiring post! Thank you for sharing. I'm going to do the things you suggested =)


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