# Checking back in!



## woodenspoon (Apr 26, 2012)

Hi everyone,

I haven't been on this forum for a couple of years

I had DP for about 4-5 years. The way I recovered in the end was to just accept my brain was tired and protecting itself from the threats I was 'perceiving' by worrying, stressing etc about my symptoms, trying to analyse and think myself better and just to live as if it wasn't there and NOT TRY to force myself better. It's like just letting a broken leg heal in a cast whilst living as best you can with the 'inconvenience' (I know thats a very off hand way to describe dp but hey, it's a metaphor). All you achieve by worrying, analysing etc is tiring your brain more, telling it there's something to be afraid of and thus feeding DP and making it harder for your brain to come out of the 'protection' mode it's gone into (as you are telling it there is still a threat by worrying etc). I know it might seem a very strange form of protection but my own theory is it that it is an outdated form of fight or flight where the brain shuts down unnecessary function to make you very aware of the situation you're in. Nature isn't perfect, far from it (look at the spine) so it doesn't necessarily make sense!

Anyway I've attached a little DP mechanism diagram (link below) which I created after my experiences and realising the way to deal with it, which was, to stop trying to find a magic cure all day every day, stop analysing every little symptom, and to live as normally as possible, however basically it had to be for me to cope, and just accept thats how it was for a while and take life one day at a time. So even the smallest things like getting up, washing, eating, doing a bit of cleaning and going to work (although I won't deny it was hellish, I went back 8 months into DP and wasn't properly better for another few years but for a couple of them I was still trying to force myself better)

I think the trap a lot of people fall in to is that it takes a good few months of living without falling back into the trying to think yourself/force yourself better before you see any improvement at all, even then it is very small and very very gradual but you do get there! There will be bad days and set backs but the trick is to just keep reminding yourself of the mechanism in the picture.

Anyway I hope this helps someone, that's why I popped back really. Good luck all, you can do it!

http://postimage.org/image/bcqac1yap/


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## DP boy (Mar 20, 2012)

Niceeee so your dp free?


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## staples (Apr 1, 2009)

That's great, this should help a lot of people out and maybe even ease their fear a little.


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## katiej (Jan 21, 2012)

hey there... i had pretty much recovred from al that tired brain and cut off feeling by doing wat u said... took me a long time.. at this time it dont bother me at all./.. now its an overall fear of life and existing... like i feel here... but i dunno why i am here r who i am... i feel like i am seeing it all for the first time... existential questions to the max... its seems so crazy that my surroundings are actually there and that life is the way it is.... i had a break from this horrible thoughts for about two months but it seems i am having a set bak at the moment... where i wake up and go straight into panic and tears because i dunno who r wat i am. (logically i know) jsut seems so foreign and meaningless.. and i get a trapped in this world n body sorta feeling... guess i jsut wanted to know if u went thru any sorta existential crisis ... and was it an up and down process of recovery ?


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## woodenspoon (Apr 26, 2012)

Yes Katie I had all that. The key is not to look at individual symptoms and not worry about if other people have them, trust me, they do, just kind of put them all in the dp/anxiety hat and try not to worry about them on their own.

And absolutely it's an up and down process to recovery, over a long time period. You've probably been worrying and tiring your brain etc for years so its going to take a while to heal that.

Another thing people should take heart on is that there is hardly anyone on here that was on the forum when I was - which I can only take to mean they are getting on with their lives and have hopefully all recovered!

Also I would like to recommend Paul David's book/website which really helped me in beginning to understand the process/cycle - understanding takes the fear away to some degree which is a big step to breaking the worry/fear cycle







http://www.anxietynomore.co.uk/depersonalisation_and_derealisation.html


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## katiej (Jan 21, 2012)

Thanks for your positivity .... I know that it's all to be put under the umbrella of dp and anxiety but these thoughts n feelings really
Trick ur mind ..... I guess wat I am sayin is . Is if possible to have recovered from all the spaced out symptoms etc and visual stuff . But still feel like u don't belong on reality ? Like all the things I have said above . I feel like nothing makes sense anymore and don't feel safe in my skin or my surroundings . I have become too self aware and life aware .... It feels like a game I have to play ... I guess wat I am askin is does ur sense of self return and do all the existential stuff fade ??? I find this the most upsetting of all ... All my feelings have returned so I am dealing with my underlining issues but I'm crying all the time and it feels completely out of context .


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## Samaral (Mar 26, 2012)

Thank you woodenspoon, i recommend that book too, one of the best. Thanks for giving us all hope!!!!


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## woodenspoon (Apr 26, 2012)

Yes Katie, it all goes, it just means you aren't fully recovered yet but it sounds like you're well on the way! SOme symptoms will linger for a lot longer than others.

I am not going to answer every question about 'did you have this' 'did you get that' because that is the wrong approach - just assume the answer is 'yes', worrying about your individual symptoms is one of the things that keeps people ill - I know it is very difficult but you do have to kind of train yourself to not think that way and just let them carry on in the background (although I know it can feel very much like the foreground!)


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## Samaral (Mar 26, 2012)

Ahhhh, this is the second time it happened, I tried to LIke your reply. Woodenspoonandit hit dislike amd thumbs down. It wont let me correct it








( I loved your reply, thank you.


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## insaticiable (Feb 23, 2010)

Samaral said:


> Ahhhh, this is the second time it happened, I tried to LIke your reply. Woodenspoonandit hit dislike amd thumbs down. It wont let me correct it
> 
> 
> 
> ...


No worries Samaral, I just +1 him.


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## woodenspoon (Apr 26, 2012)

*her


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