# I'm sure I've found the cure



## Vargas (Apr 26, 2006)

I wanted to start off by saying that I've been feeling DP symptoms for about two months following a DXM and cannabis trip. That aside, I just wanted to say that last weekend is when I truly felt that I started to feel significantly better. I have my highs and lows, but I truly felt that I "broke a fever" of sorts and am starting down the road to recovery; and therein lies a paradox. Perhaps the trick isn't so much believing you're feeling better as it is to KNOW that you're perfectly fine. I recently got my anxiety under control and am ruminating less about my situation, simply because I'm tired of feeling bad and worried. Sometimes I worried that when I was feeling better that it was all just in my head...buy hey, if feeling better is all in one's head, then why the hell can't feeling bad? I'm going to list some reasons as to why I'm sure that DP, at least in my case, and probably a vast number of people, is purely psychosomatic.

1. After the DXM trip, there were 2 DAYS (10 days later) where I felt perfectly fine. And you know what? As soon as I made the decision that I was better, I WAS better. A while after that I smoked out and the symptoms returned, but all is not lost...and those 2 days still remain as a testament that this is not some kind of brain damage from the DXM, which I was constantly worried that it was.

2. The times that I was the most nervous were often the times that I felt the most depersonalized. I remember that someone close to me, who also felt DP symptoms, had a talk with me and told me it was something very real and that I might live with it. As soon as I made the conscious decision that I had it, I felt it stronger that I ever had. Likewise, after I met with my counselor one day, and he convinced me that I hadn't damaged my brain at all, I went home feeling not only back to normal but very good. Noticing a pattern here? Look at it this way. 
Anxiety = DP. Ruminating about DP = DP. If you could create a device that could take away my knowledge of DP and the fact that I did DXM and cannabis, I would be completely cured.

3. When I get lost in a book, game, or movie, I feel perfectly fine while doing it. As soon as I'm done, the first thing I do when I get "back" to reality is to see if it's ok. Major mistake. If I could feel perfectly fine DURING the movie, there is no reason I can't feel perfectly fine during my everyday life. Hell, I had a perfectly fine moment of about 10 minutes while writing this. Seeing a pattern here?

I'm not trying to downplay the suffering you all have gone through or the severity of DP; I'm just saying that anxiety and obsessions are a major contributing factor to it, if not the reason. I did a powerful psychoative drug and went on quite the trip...my friends did it more often and in greater amounts, and they're fine. I have the anxiety under control through my own force of will. I initially had derealization too, but haven't felt that in weeks, and it is completely over, which is definately progress. I'll leave you all by saying this... the human mind is extrordinarily powerful. If through the power of suggestion, during hypnotism, a person can form droplets of blood on their foreheads, mimicking the effects of stygmata, then trust me, we can not only convince ourselves that something is wrong with us, but also that we are perfectly fine.

God bless you all, and keep faith in your own strength.


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## CB123 (Feb 7, 2006)

Yes! You have found the cure. If the disease is psychosomatic, the cure must be also.

Try working out, it helps a lot. What is actually does is gets your mind off of things, thus elminating the dp.

Have you smoked again to overcome these irrational fears?


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## Vargas (Apr 26, 2006)

No, but deciding whether or not to smoke is another paradox for me. If I do, I risk increasing the effects of the DP, because I feel it's what started it off in the first place. But if I don't, then I'm already admitting that this thing exists, and I would be feeding a fear of mine. But I never really smoked to begin with, it was more like a once-in-a-very-long-time time.

Thanks for the advice CB123, think it'll work?


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## CB123 (Feb 7, 2006)

I know exactly what your saying. If you choose to smoke again, make sure that you are 100% confident in your decision. If not, consider your decision's basis as a simple "marijuana is not for me, I freak out."

Whatever you do, don't go back smoking with the slightest idea that weed will 'change' you. This is what can make the condition worse.


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## the-hedgehog (Apr 28, 2006)

I've got DR, not from smoking anything but from anxiety I think, do these tips apply to me ?


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## Jack30 (Apr 27, 2006)

Hedgehog:

These tips apply to you...absolutely. I get DR/DP with panic attacks and anxiety. While it is difficult to think yourself out of a rut, that thinking is part of how you got in the rut

And Vargas...Don't smoke. It will, more than likely, increase your awareness of everything...especially anxiety. Basically, you will start worrying about DP/DR returning. After the high is gone, the anxiety will remain, as will the DR/DP.

I say this only because it used to be me


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## Vargas (Apr 26, 2006)

You're right, Jack. It's not for me, at this point my mental health and loved ones are more important to me than any high.


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