# The little things: Personal advice from my experience so far



## KJames (Feb 29, 2016)

Hi there.

I have experienced DPDR episodically from the age of five years old. I did not know what DP was until it became chronic after a panic attack 7 or so months ago. Since then, no relief. My heart goes out to anyone suffering from ANY mental health issue, but in particular DP. It is most likely that you will always feel misunderstood, this is because although the core symptoms of DP are roughly the same throughout the whole of the DPDR community, everyone's individual journey is different. Impacted by culture, brain chemistry, support networks. In spite of these differences, I am going to share with you a few things I found that did not improve my DP but that provide me with a platform to survive the day. (I am not going to discuss anything to do with doctors, psychiatrists, medication).

*1. Wake up and go to sleep at the same time every day*. All I wanted to do (and still want to do) is hide in bed all day which I thought might help me limit the amount of time I had to suffer the warped perceptions and I was under some illusion that I could 'sleep away' my DPDR. I have listed the benefits that I experience below:

a) It is easy to let DPDR control your life, but sticking to a wake/sleep time puts you back in the drivers seat. Waking earlier helps me fall asleep earlier, this eased my existential thoughts which were most prominent before bedtime.

c) Adequate sleep is essential for repairing and healing the body and processing memories. It helps you feel refreshed.

*2.* Relating to the point above, I try to help my *sleep schedule *in two ways:

a) I get up within ten minutes of waking up, and I get washed, dressed, make up, etc. Even if you are staying in the house and not having visitors, getting ready to face the world with your best foot forward and positive self image is important.

b) Try not to eat or watch TV in bed if you have trouble sleeping. Your brain needs to associate 'bed' with 'sleep', not watching entire series of 'Bones', 'Sons of anarchy', 'Fringe', 'Sabrina the teenage witch', 'Lie to me' and drinking Vimto. A mistake I made for several months.

*3*. *Goals.* Try to make a really small and achievable goal for your day. At the start of my Chronic DP, when all I wanted to do is sleep/cry/hide under the duvet, my goal was for example to 'take a shower' or 'read one page of a book'. Again, this helps me feel like I have a thread of control over my life.

*4. Keep a diary*. I understand that at the start of horrific DP you can't focus on writing without wooziness and/or wondering how your hand is gripping the pen. Developing coping strategies is important. If you can't face writing, you can dictate to a friend or family member who could record your daily experiences. Anyone who has DP, I think, has the potential to have it several times throughout life and those suffering with memory loss may find keeping a journal helps them evaluate their symptoms and development. This is also useful if you are meeting with mental health professionals who may not have been present from the beginning of your DPDR symptoms.

*5. Eating as clean as possible*. Although I am a vegan who eats regularly and mainly veg and salad dishes, when I developed chronic DPDR I would barely eat and when I did eat, it was at irregular intervals and I would scoff a bag of crisps or some oreos. Because my mood swings between negative and positive without warning, sometimes I don't feel like cooking a meal. What I try to do now is make a salad sandwich or such in the evening, ready for the following day. So that if I do wake up unable to move much with DPDR symptoms, I still manage to eat a healthy lunch at a regular time.

*6. Meditation, Yoga, music therapy.* When in the midst of intense DP, meditating was virtually impossible as I felt that I was about to float into space, or as if my spirit was floating out of my body. I still experience about two full-on panic attacks per day but meditation, yoga and music definitely help. After I get up and have breakfast, I will meditate for around one hour whilst listening to positive affirmations and 'Calming' music on YouTube. Although it takes a good 30 minutes for my mind to calm down, it is definitely worth the perseverance.

*7. Distractions. * I am quite sceptical of distracting myself with endless TV shows, movies, gaming. I think that distraction is important but sometimes screens can make my warped perception worse. I prefer things like painting (you don't have to be a great artist, but painting can really be a good medium for your emotions).

*8. Avoid googling. * Spending time on forums like this one, is a great way of feeling less isolated. But excessive googling of symptoms and negative posts really drags my mood down, especially if I am already having a bad day. If I have a new physical symptom, I record its intensity etc in my diary and if it hasn't eased in 5 days, I make a doctors appointment.

*9. Comedy shows*. If you have a film or sitcom that really makes you laugh, that is great. For me, I watch an episode of 'Everybody loves Raymond'. Not everyone will find this outdated show funny, but its light-heartedness and reliance on facial expressions/tone forces me to engage with it.

*10. Self help. *I understand that everyone has different reasons for acquiring DPDR, several people I know report to feel 'lost' in their sense of self. This activity might help some people:

a) I pin a piece of A2 plain, white, paper to my bedroom wall.

b) I draw a stick figure of myself in the centre

c) Around this figure I draw bubbles, in each bubble I write an aspect of my personality/my likes and dislikes, etc.

It is easy, sometimes, to allow DPDR to take full control of our lives and the sense of who we are can fizzle into the background. You may suffer from DPDR, but that is not the only thing that defines you. You are still there, your DPDR is like a sign in a shop window that reads 'Gone Fishin', be back shortly'. This is how I see it anyway. Your body is trying to look after you and forcing you to go on vacation, albeit an uncomfortable, bumpy and awful one.

*11. Nostalgia. *In addition to building a timeline of my life to shine a light on my DPDR past, I also try to have a box of nostalgic items to remind me that I had a life before and I will have one again. Mine includes a CD of Blink 182 and NOFX (music that takes me back to my angry but fun childhood), a favourite toy from my childhood (this used to comfort me when I became poorly), photographs (I try to keep only photographs of happy memories) among other things.

I don't know if any of these will help anyone else and most sufferers will have already tried these but I want to share all of my experiences because seven months ago (and still now!) I was in a DPDR crisis and relied on the information and contributions of other sufferers.

Love and Peace

KJ


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## frenchguy (Mar 20, 2016)

i agree with your point they do are good, and i'll give a look at your show, i like when there are clear facial expression, helps me getting back in touch.

good post


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