# Recovering



## ZachT (Sep 8, 2008)

To those who are recovering and/or those who are recovered. I have a question.
I have been having those moments when i could almost touch reality and then a couple hours later my dp will come back, but even worse. Is this normal for recovery???
I really want this to be a good sign.

-Zach


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## Sarasi3 (Mar 4, 2010)

Theone2 said:


> To those who are recovering and/or those who are recovered. I have a question.
> I have been having those moments when i could almost touch reality and then a couple hours later my dp will come back, but even worse. Is this normal for recovery???
> I really want this to be a good sign.
> 
> -Zach


Dear Zach,

I am not recovered yet, but I think I know what you mean. Very occasionally I feel like I can touch reality, it is only for a few seconds or so. It feels amazing, but I freak out and fall back into DP and I wont feel that good again for months and months. I am not sure if the DP feeling worse for you afterwards is normal?? But I still do see what you are experiencing as a good sign! I think if you are feeling moments of clarity on a fairly regular basis, then you must be doing something right







So keep doing what you are doing.

I have spoken to Xerei, and I remember something that he said: he said that when he recovered the first feeling he felt was intense depression. I guess this is because your true emotions come back to you. And then, he releapsed back into DP because he freaked out about what was happening. Later, he felt like he was recovering again, so he tried not to freak out about it, he relaxed and he recovered again! And this time, he did not relapse. I think the key is to 'go with the flow' and try to stay calm if you feel like you can touch reality. It is only natural to freak out about reality because we are all so desperate to feel it, but try to stay positive and relax.

How often have you been feeling these moments? And are they a recent experience in the last few weeks/months etc?


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## ChrisPA (Dec 22, 2009)

Zach,

I don't consider myself "recovered" necessarily but as I have mentioned before I am largely rid of DP/DR symptoms. I occasionally will get trapped in the self-observation habit and that is because it is just, that a habit. But, from my experience it definitely will come back strong at moments when you are first getting past DP/DR. It seriously sometimes only takes the memory of DP alone or a thought of a bad DP episode to start one up again. The key is to just recognize this as a habit and part of the recovery process. It's the whole take two steps forward one step back thing. If you have moments of reality and clarity even if for 5 minutes a day it's progress and you'll eventually have longer and longer moments each day. If you have DP episodes along the way so what. You are still making strides to recovery and that's important. It's all about changing a bad thought process with a new positive one. I am sure you have heard people say this too, but it took longer than a day to start having DP so why would you expect yourself to recover at such a rapid pace. You have to give your body, mind, and nerves times to heal and get back into a positive productive routine. Just go with the DP episodes when they come and pay them as little attention as possible and they will gradually happen less and less. Just see them as part of the recovery process.

-Chris


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## ZachT (Sep 8, 2008)

Thanks guys. Makes a lot of sense now.
I am going to take it day by day.


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## Guest013 (Apr 26, 2010)

Yes, this is a good sign. The problem is when you have a moment of clarity (or close to clarity), you feel 10 times worse when the DP returns back to its normal level. I had about a month of going in and out of DP before my symptoms finally went away.


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## ZachT (Sep 8, 2008)

Guest013 said:


> Yes, this is a good sign. The problem is when you have a moment of clarity (or close to clarity), you feel 10 times worse when the DP returns back to its normal level. I had about a month of going in and out of DP before my symptoms finally went away.


Thats exactly how i feel.


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## dpsince2002 (Oct 26, 2008)

Zach, thanks, I know what you mean. I only have fleeting feelings of reality returning, and they seem like they never happened after they're gone, which I think is the dp kicking up a notch. One of my therapists told me about homeostasis, the brain's tendency to correct so that it stays how it was before; that's a helpful way for me to think about feeling worse after feeling better, so that I don't beat myself up about it.


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## hoot (Jun 17, 2010)

Yes. Yesterday was probably one of the worst DR days I've had, but before it I touched clarity, and today I did it aswell, only for 10 minutes but it's progress. I'm talking 100% pure clarity.

So keep on doing what you're doing, it's working! In fact, do more of it, and experiment with other stuff aswell. Unless it's meds, then you could overdose if you take more of them! lol


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