# My way out of DP/DR



## Zee Deveel (Aug 3, 2009)

Hey guys, I don't come on this forum anymore, but someone sent me a PM asking about my DP/DR and I ended up typing a big ass reply so thought I'd post it here in case someone it might help someone.

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I'm not doing bad now but, my DR went downhill for sometime and I developed DP too because I sat around worrying that I'd messed my head up permanently by taking drugs. I spent too much time on the internet reading horror stories etc.

This forum is not a good place to dwell, you'll get a very slanted view on DP by being here. There are millions of people in the world who get DP/DR, don't fret about it, never come on the internet to research it and they just get better. You don't hear about these guys. The only people you find on here are people who are freaking out over it and not recovering because they're obsessed.

I am on the road to recovery now, but I've made it tough for myself, which you needn't do. DP/DR is perpetuated by fear, it's a state of mind that your body triggers to defend itself, hence it can be beaten. It's not anything to do with neurological damage, that's why it can appear suddenly out of nowhere. In fact some people only experience it when they are stressed and other times it'll be gone.

One of the problems is, stress does alter your brain's neurology over time. Our brains adapt like muscles to the world around them, if the world seems threatening then the limbic system which regulates your fear and emotional responses becomes hyperactive and you get "stuck" in a cycle of fear. So in the case of DR, the world looks weird, you find it scary, the limbic system grows stronger and the world becomes increasingly stressful. This is why people don't just snap out of DP/DR, because their brains need to be rewired again. You need to give yourself a break essentially, to get good sleep, to allow your brain and nervous system time to recover. (which it will, it's called neuroplasticity)

I spent too long researching how to beat DP/DR, which techniques to use etc and I got totally confused which ultimately made the situation worse and made me feel hopelessly lost. What worked for me is just saying "Fuck it!".

When you're obsessing about how you feel, you need to just look at the big picture. It's like you have a big spot/zit on your face and you're going "ARGH MUST KILL THE SPOT!" and picking at it daily, it grows worse and worse and worse. All you have to do to beat the spot is leave it alone. That's it. You know that given time, the spot will heal of it's own accord and DP is the same.

Just look at what's happening when you start reacting with fear to the way you feel and notice that you're adding fuel to the fire. You need to just say "Fuck it! It's ok to feel like this. Yes it's horrible, but it's not going to kill me and I'm not the only person who's ever felt this way. This is a known phenomenon and I'm just going to chill and let it be."

That's going to be hard to do at first but it gets easier to do. You don't need to be a Zen monk to achieve this, that's what I thought when I heard similar advice. What happens is you manage to be ok with it for a little while, maybe even just a few minutes and you start to think "Hey I can do this!", and you find yourself distracted by something else and then the periods you're not thinking about DR start to gradually lengthen. You find that the more you accept it, the easier you find it becomes to distract yourself, your life becomes a little more like normal again and then the DR bothers you less. It's a positive feedback loop!









Just remember that it takes tiny steps and you WILL have shitty days, even shitty weeks where you feel you're going backwards, but you have to remember the big picture. Don't let it knock you back, just keep ploughing on and it will get easier to deal with and start to improve.

You WILL do this, anyone can do it. It's so simple, it's just saying "Fuck it!" and getting on with life, don't get caught up in it, don't fret, don't think "Am I doing the right thing?", "Is this getting worse?", it's all irrelevant, you can't think your way out of this problem, you just need to say "Fuck it!". Having a super bad day? Feel hopeless? Thinking "These sensations are new, it's getting worse!"? Well guess what? "Fuck it!". Simple!


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## peanut butter (Nov 9, 2012)

Are you recovered?


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## AussiePheonix (Dec 5, 2012)

Thanks for your awesome reply!


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## Zee Deveel (Aug 3, 2009)

mmrrlla said:


> Are you recovered?


"Are you experienced?"

Not completely, but I will be sir! I will be!


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## AussiePheonix (Dec 5, 2012)

What's the bit left to go?


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