# RECOVERY Recommendations - Stand up!!!



## Betke (Sep 16, 2015)

Hey guys, I just wanted to share my DP CURE experiences with you. It was my goal to make this article as practical as possible, which is why it includes app-recommendations and links to vidoes and further articles/ forum-posts, that I found helpfull. In the first section I will briefly sum up the pot-trip that triggered DP for me. The second part contains my advice for curing DP. Since I am no native speaker I am sorry for grammatical and orthographical mistakes.

*1. The trip*

I have never been a true pothead but only smoking/ taking space cakes occasionally, like 3-4 times before the DP-trip. The DP-trip itself happened when I was in the netherlands with some friends. Many of them never had done pot before and wanted to try. When we were in the coffeeshop one of the "newbies" ordered mild space cakes for the girls and a joint for us boys. When she was asked by the saleslady how strong the weed should be, she bought very strong stuff because she had a mindset of "when the guys can handle large amounts of alcohol, weed won´t be such a big deal for them eather". Man, was she wrong.

Back home we started with a mixed joint and one of us passed out immediately, puking heavily on the grass. Unfortunately me and another friend where too relaxed to stop and continued with a pure one. Out of sudden I felt an uncomfortable tingle in my neck and my mind began to race: Was this the beginning of a psychosis? How does a psychosis feel like? Keep calm, you are not going psychotic! But what if...?
I became very restless and I had a hard time to listen to people around me- I felt locked in my own mind. At some point I recognized DP feelings for the first time: I was moving my arms and asked myself, wether it was really me, moving my arm. Of course I only saw this as a further proof of my psychosis hypothesis and panicked even more, thus becoming more derealized and so on. I said to myself, that everything will be ok after a good nights sleep, but it didn´t. At this point I was fearing, that I would be stuck in this state forever and started to ruminate (and google) excessively, further increasing my fear and DP-feelings.

*2. The cure*

I will structure this part in form of do´s and don´s since the one thing I really wanted when I was in the beginning of my DP was a clear action plan. Let´s shoot!

*2.1. Do´s:*

*2.1.1. Exercise:*

I have always been into exercising, anyway it felt hard to go to gym in the beginning. Yet it really helped my mental and physical well being: I felt my body and despite me ruminating pretty often, and asking myself whether it was really me hitting the Iron, it kept me distracted for some time. Plus it provided a feeling of accomplishment, which is worth a lot when you are fearing to lose your sense of self.

I did both, strenght training and cardio, as I used before. If you have to choose for one, go for the cardio, since it improved my mental well beeing more than lifting weights.

*2.1.2 Meditation:*

When I read about meditation as a crucial part of overcoming DP, I decided to give it a try. The only problem was, that I had no clue how to get started. This is why I strongly recommend the apps „Headspace" and „Smiling Mind" which provide high quality guided meditations. Headspace´s „Take 10" course is perfect to learn the basics, but since further audios require a commercial membership, I continued with Smiling Mind after I finished „Take 10". Smiling Mind also has the nice feature of a pre- and post evaluation of your mood, that visually shows you, how ever-changing feelings can be.

*Headspace*
(Android) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.getsomeheadspace.android&hl=de
(iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/headspace-meditation-techniques/id493145008?mt=8

*Smiling Mind*
(Android) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smilingmind.app&hl=de
(iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/smiling-mind/id560442518?mt=8

*2.1.3 Focused research:*

Many people tell you not to research about DP at all. Personally I really had an strong urge to read every letter ever written and watch every video ever made about DP. What helped me a lot is to accept, that I am currently very concerned about this topic. Therefore I recommend to research, but to do so in a structured manner. Take half an hour or an hour a day to read texts about DP and watch videos about it. If you have the urge to do so outside of this timeframe, try to stay disciplined but don´t be too hard on yourself if you fail. I also recommend to write down the lessons you have learned from each session. At some point you will simply have the feeling to know everything about DP and your urge to research automatically diminishes.

Here are some videos, that gave me confidence, when I had a really hard time:

*Depersonalization - You Can Recover!*





*Depersonalization - How I got out.*





*The Only Depersonalization/Derealization Cure*





Additionally, here are some helpfull articels and homepages:

*The Holy Grail of Curing DP/DR*
http://www.dpselfhelp.com/forum/index.php?/topic/20892-the-holy-grail-of-curing-dpdr/

*I've recovered and I want to help you  Please read*
http://www.dpselfhelp.com/forum/index.php?/topic/49397-ive-recovered-and-i-want-to-help-you-please-read/

*Depersonalization Recovery (I did not buy the commercial content)*
http://depersonalizationrecovery.com/

*2.1.4 Paying attention to emotions*

One thing I have learned from DP is, that there is only one thing worse than bad emotions: No emotions at all. Still I felt something when I was listening songs to which I have always had a strong connection. This is why I recommend to choose some songs that used to lift you up pre-DP. If you don´t feel the same intense emotional response as you used to do, don´t freak out: Thats normal. Keep telling yourself instead, that you have just strenghtened your neuronal circuits responsible for emotional processing just a little more. Another nice way to regain your natural emotional response and strenghten empathy is reading fiction. Personally, I decided to read the Harry Potter novels again and found out, that they are full of helpfull wisdom (especially good old Mr. Dumbledore, of course). Fiction also gives you a good feeling of what is a normal thinking style: A tiny sentence like „Harry´s thoughts were racing" easily can show you, that racing thoughts are a quite normal phenomenon when you are stressed out and anxious. Regardless of whether you are afraid of Lord Voldemort or becoming psychotic.

*2.1.5 Healthy nutrition and supplementation:*

I think a healthy nutrition is very helpfull, but don´t get too obsessed about it: Your body and mind is strong enough to tolerate a cup of coffee and won´t break down immediately after you forgot to take an Omega 3 or Magnesium-Capsule or had a meal including large amounts of sugar. Anyway, if you ask for supplementations advice: I took Vitamin D3, Omega-3 Oil and Magnesium. I also highly recommend green tea, since it has a positive influence on your mind, mood and body and serves as a good coffee substitute.

*2.1.6 Understand your healing as a process and not as an on-off switch-situation:*

It is not very helpfull to expect that you will get out of DP in one second. I always felt that it was helpfull to think about dealing with DP like dealing with a break-up: You feel like shit in the beginning, then there will be minutes, hours and even days without DP only to find out, that you have it again. But it will get less and less and the most important thing is, that you slowly learn how to live with it, when you have it. Another helpfull thought is, that you have just started a journey: It doesn´t matter whether its a short journey or a long one. The only thing you can be 100% sure about is, that you are definetely one step closer to your hometown than you used to be yesterday. Time isn´t your enemy but a powerfull ally. If you find yourself forgetting this insight, print it out and re-read it, whenever you are loosing confidence.

*2.1.7 Deal with possibly traumatic experiences:*

There is a lot of talk about the strong relationship between trauma and DP. Whether you consider yourself traumatized or not, it is never a bad idea to reframe unhelpfull thoughts and question maladaptive behaviours, that you may have aquired in the past. Personally, I was fearfull of beeing ugly due to childhood-mobbing. Additionally, I had some minor problems with my mother and I found it helpfull to adress these issues.

*2.1.8 Write an article in this forum if you feel like you have gotten out of the worst:*

It does not only help people who are in the same shitty situation as you are right now, but also serves as a good opportunity to draw a line for yourself.

*2.2. Dont´s:*

*2.2.1. Unfocused research:*

Propably the biggest mistake I have made, was to search for illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other serious conditions. Do yourself a favor and don´t do it: Right now you are so insecure, that you would propably even buy into the idea of you turning into an unicorn and only experiencing early warning signs of this transformation.

*2.2.2. Buy into the idea of „weed brought me in, so it can get me out":*

This is pure bullshit and will only make things worse. Accept that weed is most certainly a drug that your mind can´t handle as well as you wish it could. Play it safe and say goodbye to good old Mr.Pot.

*2.2.2. Interpreting your symtoms in the worst way:*

In case you already know about the symptoms of serious conditions you are afraid of (most common: schizophrenia), try to *not* focus on the symptoms you have but on the symptoms you don´t have. Try to get back to the normal, optimistic belief that you are ok, instead. It really helps to question every fearfull thought deasease in terms of likelyhood. Very often chances are much greater, that you have anxious, hypochondric tendencies instead of serious disorders. Nevertheless this is a trait you can work on to improve your life for the better. In order to do so it is helpfull to search for strategies to combat anxiety and hypochondria. Here is a video, which I found helpfull:

*How Your Brain Can Turn Anxiety into Calmness*





*2.2.3. Freak out if you relapse*

Because you will do so 100.000.000 times. Thats pretty normal and a freak out is nothing else but a misconception about the true nature of DP-recovery. True recovery is not about never experiencing anxiety, nervousness or DP anymore (you have most certainly experienced them pre-DP as well), but to acquire strategies to handle these symptoms.

I hope that this article and the recommentations included are helpfull. Finally the english version of my favorite "Get up, keep on fighting"-song.
Interestingly even in my worst phase of numbness I felt trong goose bumps, listening to it.

*Die Toten Hosen - Stand up*


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## Apollo13 (May 5, 2016)

Great post man thanks


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