# New Book: "Overcoming Depersonalization..." by Ant



## revdoc (Jan 2, 2005)

"*Overcoming Depersonalization and Feelings of Unreality*" by Anthony S David

From AmazonUK - http://tinyurl.com/yos9q6

This book is the product of the Depersonalisation Research Group at the Institute of Psychiatry in London -
http://tinyurl.com/334gx4 and as such it sounds like something a lot of people here will want to read.
Apparently it came out about three weeks ago - I had it on pre-order but AmazonUK didn't bother to send it. You can order it from the US Amazon site as well but it'll probably take a couple of weeks to get to you.

I should receive it by Thursday and I'll try to give an idea of what it's like when I see it.


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## revdoc (Jan 2, 2005)

I got this book today, so here are my first impressions.

Basically, this is a manual for CBT (cognitive-behavioural treatment) of DP/DR, so the idea is to recognise, challenge and change negative or unhelpful patterns of thoughts and/or behaviours. Bydoing so you can change how you feel emotionallyand physicallly, and how you interact with your environment.
The book sets out a programmme for keeping diaries, logs and records of feelings associated with DP (like ' it feels like I'm seeing the world through a pane of glass' or 'numbness - I don't feel any emotions at all', and noting how you respond to these feelings in your thoughts and behaviour. The book suggests that we the way you respond to the initial sensations often make them worse - for example, you focus your attention on them or you avoid doing certain things (like going out) because of them, and this sets up a vicious circle in which the feelings are reinforced. The rest of the book suggests ways of challenging these thoughts and behaviours.

From what I've seen, I agree with what Dreamer says on her website that this kind of treatment could be very useful for people in the early stages of DP, when it's associated with panic attacks, fear that you're going mad, a depressive episode and such. I find it difficult to see much that would help with chronic depersonalisation that's already well established. A lot of the CBT here seems very similar to CBT for problems like depression and anxiety.

There is a short section on on 'attention training' - a method of focusing your attention out on the world rather than on your thoughts - which I found quite helpful when I did CBT.

If your DP only started quite recently, I would say this book looks definitely worth trying. For other people whose DP seems more embedded, there may well be bits and pieces they could find useful - e.g. the attention training.

As I say, these are just first impressions.


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2007)

Thanks for your efforts mate. And thanks to JC for making me/us aware of this book... but I beleive Dreamer was the first to make us aware of it a while back?

Cheers guys.


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## jc (Aug 10, 2004)

yep all credit due to dreamer,i started this book last night and it seems that most can learn to cope with the feelings but they kind of make a point that the dp may never go away .... ho hum


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