# My Depersonalization/Derealization Story (Minocycline)



## LiveLife30 (Aug 2, 2011)

Hi everyone, im new here and this is my first post. I have been in a significant struggle with DP/DR for awhile now. Heres how it all started. Im 17, and had an acne problem. For this reason I went to my doctor as i have had it for about 3 years. I went in and instead of giving me a topical cream he gave me an anti-biotic called minocycline. Understandable i had never heard of this but filled out the prescription (which they almost forgot to give me a side effect sheet for until i asked). I went home and researched this before using it and read the side effect sheet etc. I heard the most common side effect is diziness. So i opted to go on it. I was on 200mg a day, but after 2 weeks made the abrupt decision to stop it (a decision that should have been made within a week max). Let me just state that I was the happiest teenager ever before i went on those meds, Literally i had one worry in the world, and that was acne, now thats all different. When i was on the medication it made me soo dizzy, i experienced vertigo on these meds, but that wasn''t it. I had trouble sleeping the first few nights i was on it (didnt help this was during exam time), i had a major fever for the first week i was on it, but the last symptom i had was something i had never experienced before and didnt know what to call it, I described it as "feeling like im in a movie". Sadly i did not know this was the onset of my depersonalization so i continued the medication for 2 weeks. One night i decided it was too much for me and stopped, thinkig it would go away as the meds got out of my system. Sadly the only thing that went away was the diziness, the apaced out feeling still stayed. I took the medication on January 27th and stopped ealy-mid february... this is still with me in August. I went through a period of depression because of this and when i would get home from school i would just go to sleep cause thats when i wouldnt have to worry about anything. I have high anxiety because of this and can't stop worrying. There was a period where i lived on google and looked up my symptoms and conditions and probably found out more things thsn I should have. Well my symptoms today are as follows: Derealization, (my deperonalization for the most part wore off after awhile, the next biggest issue is my vision, i dont understand it. To sum it up it feels like i stepped back into my eyes/vision and am seeing things i shouldn't be. First off, everything appears to be shimmering?? its soo annoying, i cant look at walls or anything as they do not look solid because they are shimmering, its like there are these dots too small to pinpoint on everything, i dont know its hard to explain but it looks something like visual static but not as severe. the next thing is eye floaters. I never had a clue what those were before i took those meds but once i got dp i began seeing a few in my left eye. When i look at the sky its a floater and sparkle festival lol i miss looking at the skyline. Oh also it seems like everything is a little bit too far away, like things look farther away from me then they should. I feel that I could beat this DR if it wasn't for my vision because it constantly reminds me of my state. Last thing is that i noticred my ears are having a dull ringing constantly, although this is probsbly my anxiety making me notice things i shouldnt. I have had an mri, eeg, etc everything came back normal just as i expected it to. My neurologist is "dumb" for lack of a better word (yes 40 year old virgin reference







, he said i could have HPPD, (Oh I have never done drugs in my life btw, not even weed, never have never will, this experience definately confirmed that), i realize you can get hppd without drugs but i told him dp/dr is a much more likely cause and he kinda dismissed it and i left the room with absolutely no hope for recovery. He said he could reccomend a few medications for me but advised me not to take them and on top of that didn't even tell me what gthey were. I should also add that I took Accutane for 2 weeks 5 days after i stopped minocycline but its only side effect was dry skin, also stopped that once i realized how important life is and not to mess with it. So in summary, i don't expereince dp anymore. i have tried lowering my anxiety and stress but when nothing changes i just get stressed again. There are no events in my life that could have contributed to this, and i have never done drugs, this was all caused by minocycline and has been going on for about 5 months. Im soo scared Il never get beter but i still have hope, ths experience has changed me as a person and i now appreciate life soo much more. if that magical day of recovery does happen it will be the best day of my life. I know this was long but thankyou soo much for reading. Oh and btw whats your take on medication to treat this? i have not taken any as i think it may just make things worse than they already are. Im begggining to excersize more and eat healthier, although i already did both of these before dp. It seems like this is going to be with me forever, did anybody recover from this? what about the vision issues? its completely shot my quality of life but im hanging in there. Thanks any responses I would appreciate


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## Fleurs_Du_Mal (Aug 5, 2011)

check a reply I left in another thread my sister experienced the exact same thing as you and her DP/DR is now gone after these tablets.


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