# 98% Recovered



## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

Hey everyone. It's been a couple of months since I posted on here. My previous user name was Valleygirl/ustabetinyfairypeople/tinyfairypeople. I changed it too much. Anyways, I wanted to post because I have had dp for 1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks and I have gotten to the point where I am about 98% recovered. My depersonalization symptoms have been completely gone for about 2 months and I would say that I have very mild dr. It's not really even that I feel that the world is unreal, because I don't, it's just that things don't feel back to normal yet. It's like there is still a thin film on reality that I haven't moved past yet. I do have a few residual dp issues like flat vision, feeling detached from my past, and some days my symptoms are stronger than others, but overall I feel recovered to the point that I honestly would be completely fine if it never went completely away. Don't get me wrong, it just wouldn't be the same as total recovery but I have rich enough experiences that I feel that I honestly wouldn't miss out if I never got better. I honestly never think about dp anymore. I only ever notice it in the car or if I am having a bad day but even then it's a fleeting thought that is brushed away. It isn't my biggest concern and I pay it absolutely no attention.

I wanted to just post here because people in the middle of it need hope for the future. I know people get discouraged at how slow recovery is. I have been recovering since about 4 months into getting dp. So my recovery has been 1 year and 4 months long and it's still not over. Recovery moves at a glacial pace and it seems like you are never going to get there but you will. It's totally normal for you to only have a good day here and there at the beginning. Before you know it, you will have mostly good days. I have a bad dp day about once a month. Recover is not linear. You don't get better and better each day. It's 2 steps forward, one step back for a while. I honestly have to back up everything that every other recovery post says in that the only way to overcome dp is to not make it your life's focus. Don't think and talk about it 24 hours a day. Don't sit and obsess about how you feel. Turn your focus outward. Yes, at the beginning it is the single hardest thing in the world to do. I remember when I wasn't able to do anything other than lay in a dark room. But laying in a dark room or constantly thinking about it and obsessing about it only perpetuates the cycle.

I really do highly recommend that everyone read Overcoming Depersonalization Disorder by Fugen Neziroglu and live the behavior therapies inside that book. 3 months ago I was unable to get out of bed because my dp was so bad. Today it's honestly not even on my radar and it was because of the ACT therapies in that book. I cannot recommend it enough.


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## Jayden (Feb 9, 2011)

Thats so awesome to hear!

What supplements are you taking??


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## foghat (Jan 1, 2011)

thank you for posting that. I'm in revovery mode and I can completely relate to everything you mentioned. Especially the fact that recovery is not linear and that often times it's two forward one back. Thanks for the book reference, I'll pick it up.

A thought just popped into my mind.....did you post one time about your dr lifting on a slightly rainy day? I may be way out in left field on that. Anyway, my dr lifts on occasion during a slight drizzle. I'm the Rain Man. If so, any chance you could shoot me a PM..

thanks
FowgyRain reigns


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

That's great!


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

Jayd said:


> Thats so awesome to hear!
> 
> What supplements are you taking??


I'm currently only taking Vitamin D. I take 2000iu a day. I was taking Liquid Sub B Complex but I started not tolerating it. I have a weird body and am extremely sensitive to medications so just because I don't tolerate it, doesn't mean other people will have issues. At one point I was on Fish Oil as well.


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

foghat said:


> thank you for posting that. I'm in revovery mode and I can completely relate to everything you mentioned. Especially the fact that recovery is not linear and that often times it's two forward one back. Thanks for the book reference, I'll pick it up.
> 
> A thought just popped into my mind.....did you post one time about your dr lifting on a slightly rainy day? I may be way out in left field on that. Anyway, my dr lifts on occasion during a slight drizzle. I'm the Rain Man. If so, any chance you could shoot me a PM..
> 
> ...


Nope, that wasn't me. I don't plan on signing into this site often at all so pm's will kind of be pointless. I have found that being on here does make my dp worse. It's a trigger for me for some reason so I avoid it all together. Probably just too much focusing on dp and negativity.


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

surfingisfun001 said:


> That's great!


Thanks Kenny! I hope you're next!


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## theartistblurgh (May 9, 2011)

Thank you


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## frusion (Aug 1, 2010)

ValleyGirl83 said:


> Hey everyone. It's been a couple of months since I posted on here. My previous user name was Valleygirl/ustabetinyfairypeople/tinyfairypeople. I changed it too much. Anyways, I wanted to post because I have had dp for 1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks and I have gotten to the point where I am about 98% recovered. My depersonalization symptoms have been completely gone for about 2 months and I would say that I have very mild dr. It's not really even that I feel that the world is unreal, because I don't, it's just that things don't feel back to normal yet. It's like there is still a thin film on reality that I haven't moved past yet. I do have a few residual dp issues like flat vision, feeling detached from my past, and some days my symptoms are stronger than others, but overall I feel recovered to the point that I honestly would be completely fine if it never went completely away. Don't get me wrong, it just wouldn't be the same as total recovery but I have rich enough experiences that I feel that I honestly wouldn't miss out if I never got better. I honestly never think about dp anymore. I only ever notice it in the car or if I am having a bad day but even then it's a fleeting thought that is brushed away. It isn't my biggest concern and I pay it absolutely no attention.
> 
> I wanted to just post here because people in the middle of it need hope for the future. I know people get discouraged at how slow recovery is. I have been recovering since about 4 months into getting dp. So my recovery has been 1 year and 4 months long and it's still not over. Recovery moves at a glacial pace and it seems like you are never going to get there but you will. It's totally normal for you to only have a good day here and there at the beginning. Before you know it, you will have mostly good days. I have a bad dp day about once a month. Recover is not linear. You don't get better and better each day. It's 2 steps forward, one step back for a while. I honestly have to back up everything that every other recovery post says in that the only way to overcome dp is to not make it your life's focus. Don't think and talk about it 24 hours a day. Don't sit and obsess about how you feel. Turn your focus outward. Yes, at the beginning it is the single hardest thing in the world to do. I remember when I wasn't able to do anything other than lay in a dark room. But laying in a dark room or constantly thinking about it and obsessing about it only perpetuates the cycle.
> 
> I really do highly recommend that everyone read Overcoming Depersonalization Disorder by Fugen Neziroglu and live the behavior therapies inside that book. 3 months ago I was unable to get out of bed because my dp was so bad. Today it's honestly not even on my radar and it was because of the ACT therapies in that book. I cannot recommend it enough.


 What ACT therapies from the book in particular helped you the most?


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## Daniel01 (May 19, 2011)

Just remember that you are never back to square one, you have made all this progress and if you have felt as if you have fallen you just need to sit down and believe that you can climb back to that 98% hood luck and can you tell me some tips that helped you recover?


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

frusion said:


> What ACT therapies from the book in particular helped you the most?


The entire chapter on it lol. Just basically the idea that you have to accept that suffering is just a part of dp and that you will have a decidedly empty and crappy life if you allow it to keep you trapped in your bedroom in the dark. We all complain that we feel that dp has stolen our lives and our life experiences but we never leave our rooms and actually go and continue to live. The therapy basically says that you have to be willing to accept that you feel weird and are going to feel weird but want to live despite it and not let the feeling control you. So that's what I did. I pushed myself to get the heck out of bed and go live, even if it sucked at first. I also asked my room mate, that if he saw me isolating when my dp was bad to force me to get out of bed and go do something. And he does it and it actually helps me a lot. On the bad days, my dp usually gets better if I get up and do something. The key is focusing outwardly and not thinking about how you feel. I honestly don't think about the dp anymore besides a passing thought. I don't obsess over it or how I feel. I just live.


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

Daniel01 said:


> Just remember that you are never back to square one, you have made all this progress and if you have felt as if you have fallen you just need to sit down and believe that you can climb back to that 98% hood luck and can you tell me some tips that helped you recover?


First read Overcoming Depersonalization Disorder and LIVE the therapies in that book. Every single day make yourself get out of bed and live your life as normally as you possibly can. Accept that you have dp and nothing that you are going to do is going to change it. Dp is a protective mechanism of the brain against stress and trauma, not an illness and not a life sentence. The dp will fade away when your brain no longer feel threatened and you can guarantee that if you sit alone in your bedroom obsessing over your symptoms, panicing about how you feel and constantly thinking about it, you are just going to keep the threat signal going and keep you mind locked in terror. In short, you will never recover because you are not allowing yourself to feel happy and safe. So get out of bed, get off the internet, and go live. Every time you notice how you feel stop yourself and focus on something outside of yourself. You have to stop yourself every single time and, at first, that's like every 30 seconds. But before you know it, it will only be a few times a day, and then you will get like me, where I don't really ever think about it at all. 
Don't take medications and especially not benzos. The neurobiology of dp is incredibly complicated and unique. Doctors and Therapists don't understand dp. THey think that it's caused by anxiety and depression and unless you have cyclic dp/dr, it's absolutely not. Dp is a stand alone disorder and cannot be treated like anxiety and depression. Taking an SSRI or other antidepressants will only cause to flood your brain with one specific chemical and 99.9% of the time it makes people feel much worse than better. I tried 12 different medications from SSRIS to antipsychotics to anticonvulsants and every single one of them made my dp worse and most of them added new issues that I didn't orginally have. I have found relief from the anxiety and depression taking 2000iu a day of vitamin D and liquid sublingual vitamin b complex. Your brain naturally produces these chemicals and gets them out of the food you eat and so your body will use and adjust to them much better than flooding your nervous system with synthetic chemicals. 
Other than that, don't drink, smoke or do drugs, avoid all caffeine as it causes anxiety and panic, get enough sleep, drink lots of water, eat as healthy as possible, and go out and do everything that you have always liked doing. At first you will feel dead and numb to it but keep it up. Every day you have to make yourself just keep going. You really only have 2 choices: Fear dp, isolate yourself, obsess about how you feel, think you're never going to get better or enjoy life again, hate dp, fight the sensations, be absolutely sick and miserable OR accept that you feel like crap, don't fight the dp, don't think or obsess about it, know that it is temporary and will leave when you stop feeding your brain fear, take care of your body, and try to indulge in the life that you so desperately want to be a part of. To me, there really seems like no choice there. It's really about life or living like you're dead. I decided to choose life.


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## PhoenixDown (Mar 3, 2011)

Valleygirl! You're my fucking hero! I am the person in the middle of this that needs inspiration. Know that regardless of how you may feel, your bravery has influenced my life. I hope to continue the [email protected]!


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## dpsince2002 (Oct 26, 2008)

Congratulations! I'm so glad you're getting better. Thanks for recommending Neziroglu's ACT therapies, too; I've been reading his book with some skepticism (expose yourself to really unpleasant smells to treat your dp?!), but also probably with some fear that it might actually help me and I'll be closer to or in a reality I've now spent almost a quarter of my life outside of.


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