Cedric

First of all, welcome, you're not alone in your issues.

 

Then, it sounds like stupid advice now, but keep your life going.

Go out, do things you like (or used to like), and try to connect to life again.

 

Staying inside is making it worse.

I'm on 200 mg/day now, together with Clomipramine. Though it is sort of expensive (even in EU) research suggests Lamotrigine is a promising drug against obsessive thinking and intrusive thoughts, which is I think a primary reason DPDR (when it's secondary to anxiety/OCD that is) seems to be improved via this combination of meds.

 

Lamictal is supposed to work after about 6 weeks, my psychiatrist said, so it takes time.

Exactly, these questions are inherently meaningless and you can never be certain about them. They don't matter, at all.

 

Like Al_pk says, reconnect with life, lower your anxiety levels, and the questions will go by themselves. Don't obsess about finding answers, you won't and it only makes everything worse.

Starting to feel your real emotions again, it's an interesting question and I'm not sure how to answer.

 

It's not really an active process, they come back by themselves gradually when the anxiety and subsequently the DPDR subsides. Also, having found that singing helps is good, you can use it as a short term help.

Crying will help as well, at least for me it releases some of the negative feelings making space for positive emotions.

 

The more you worry and search for answers the more difficult the path to recovery is.

 

https://youmemindbod...h/derealisation is a post that helped me a lot in calming down and seeing acceptance as the cure, maybe you should also read it.

Antidepressants are not addictive, and they can really help, doctors don't prescribe them for no reason.

 

While I'm not a big fan of the pharmaceutical industry, holistic healing can include a lot of alternative medicine bullshit so I'd advise you to put the doctors and (especially) psychiatrists advice above all others with regards to medication.

Anybody ever feel freaked out to be alive like life’s hard to cope with? Every day I suffer anxiety and feel anxious and wonder when the anxiety will ever ease up?

 

Yeah, that's part of DPDR for me, and the hardest part.

It just doesn't make sense to be afraid of being alive, since that's kind of all everyone's doing and nobody else (those without DPDR and anxiety) is getting freaked out by it.

 

You have to remember you're still the same as ever and so are reality and the world. The symptoms will gradually go away when you stop caring/paying attention to them, which you should do since they're only thoughts and thoughts are not real.

Also, I'd like to point you to the recovery stories section. Many have completely overcome their DPDR with symptoms as bad as or even worse than yours. Myself I had moments where the only reason I didn't kill myself is that that itself seemed pointless as reality itself seemed ruined, but now I'm back to mostly functional and about 70% recovered and still getting better. It's all in your mind, you're still yourself and the world hasn't changed, let the thoughts go as just fake and you'll get better.

The video really shows what many think is the strong connection between long-term DPDR thoughts and OCD, really interesting, thanks for posting it

I understand the intention, a lot of people think they are schizophrenic and most aren't and it is just hurting them to obsess about it. So it is nice to want to help them not to think about it. But this should not be done at the cost of common sense. It is impossible to diagnose someone over the internet in a few posts. Even if none of what you observe in someone's posts indicates they could have schizophrenia, they could still be developing it "despite" what you know from them.

 

I see what you mean, and I was debating if I should post it.

 

Honestly, you're right, there's no way to be certain, I'll remove it.

Hey,

Don't worry, it sounds like your depersonalization is getting the best of you. These are all normal symptoms and will go away when your anxiety goes down, it takes time.

Don't worry, really, you'll be ok.

Hey,

 

I think that, at least in the cases I'm familiar with, DPDR is caused by very strong or persistent anxiety. This makes sense because biologically it's just a defense mechanism, to make you endure and get through dangerous situations well.

But I also think that in some cases of persistent DPDR the cause can be something physical, like low testosterone or epileptic attacks. This of course requires a different approach, but I think it's more rare.

 

For anxiety based DPDR the generally accepted solution is to lower the anxiety, either trough therapy and/or medication, though it also seems to be strongly influenced and maintained by obsessive thinking (which is something common in most people here)... which makes things complicated because even without acute stress the symptoms stay for a long time, either real or placebo, because of obsessions. For some reason.

 

Still, the solution is to lower and get rid of anxiety. If that doesn't solve it, it might be something other than an anxiety response.