# Agoraphobia/anxiety healed - DP FEELS MUCH BETTER



## ed (Sep 27, 2007)

I don't know if I'm on the road to recovery from dp/dr, but it feels as if i may have started, and I'm feeling much better because my agoraphobia/social phobia is being overcome.

If agoraphobia is getting you down, I have the good news that I have found over the last few months that the agoraphobia and anxiety can be successfully treated by Cognitive Behaviour Therapy using the techniques of progressive and systematic desensitisation/graded exposure.

My DP had led to really bad agoraphobia for bridges, wide open spaces and open spaces generally. Over the last few months I have made great progress by following the techniques under the supervision of a psychologist. I still have the DP/DR, butI'm becoming free of the agoraphobia and at last have a handle on anxiety.

I thought I would have to get rid of the DP in order to conquer agoraphobia/social phobia, but this has not proved to be the case. The agoraphobia used to lead to very low self-esteem but I'm just happy I'm coming out of it after about five years.

Now that my anxiety levels have decreased, I also notice the DP/DR less. Don't think that you have to get rid of the DP/DR in order to get rid of agoraphobia. CBT may help you.


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## ed (Sep 27, 2007)

I have found that getting rid of agoraphobia/anxiety through CBT, makes the DP/DR - although it is still there - much less troubling/noticeable.

So far I haven't currently gone for anti-epileptics like lamotrigine, and am continuing to make progress mainly with CBT. I feel I am getting stronger; I'm maybe 60% better.

I think in many cases anxiety and depersonalisation/derealisation are two sides of the same coin both related to the temporal lobes and epilepsy.

The more anxious you are, the more troubling your DP will be and vice versa. Anxiety is amenable to treatment by CBT and if the anxiety is appropriately tackled the DP/DR will get less or at least be less troubling/anxiety-provoking. I didn't seek psychological help for my anxiety until seventeen years after I got DP/DR and that was because the anxiety had come to a head as agoraphobia five years ago. A few months after starting CBT, I'm feeling better than I have for seventeen years.


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