[Imagine]

Other than the basic derealment and detachment; are these feelings common with depersonalization & derealization:

Slowly but strongly forgetting who you are, your past & present. (this one is really getting me, extreme feelings of this.)

Losing understanding of life.

Things look very strange and alienated, as if you are not familiar with the shape of the human body for example, it looks odd.

Forgetting how you got from A to B.

Forgetting what you done the day before or earlier that day.

Severe confusion.

Forgetting what you are doing when doing the activity.

Brain Pauses.... (I call it this because I have no idea what it is, sometimes I just stop and everything goes blank.)

Well thats as close as I can describe which has been vastly getting worse for me in the past few months. It never leaves me.

At one point my dp/dr was bearable, I could live through it and enjoy life, ok it was still bad... but I could handle it....BUT NOW....its just UNBEARABLE.

I deeply apologize to anyone who find my posts a pain is the ass.

 

[flowingly]

Ding Ding Ding! All of the above :!:

I like your wording of "brain pause." Maybe my psych will understand that better than my first attempt.

Did your DP go away and now has come back, or has it always been there since it started but is now just more overwhelming?

You're not alone.

 

[Imagine]

Well at the age of 12 when I first started to experience dp/dr I went through 3 years of hell... and although it never left me... I did slip into a state where I could handle it... now at 17 its grown even stronger, back with a vengeance.

 

[Da'Burgh]

Very good ways to describe the phenomena they call depersonalization and derealization.

 

[Imagine]

The simplified storyline:

From the age of 7 I have suffered Panic Attacks & G.A.D.

Then at 11 I fell into a deep depression.

At 12 I experienced my first attack of Depersonalization.

This slowly developed and I also started to experience derealization.

After 3 years of torment I was put on meds, Citalopram 20mg> 40mg> current: 60mg.

Although this did not help right away... I found myself slowly slipping into a level of DP/DR that I could handle.

For about a year and a half... I was getting on with things, still suffering.

At the end of 2004.... DP/DR became overwhelming... and continues to do so now.

 

[Imagine]

Oh a symptom a missed out:

Just feeling completly 100% GONE.

 

[flowingly]

I wish I there was a magic pill, but there isn't.

What do you enjoy doing? Try to distract yourself. Easier said than done, I know. But sometimes losing yourself in hobbies, movies, and things you enjoy help to make it temporarily tolerable.

 

[Imagine]

Well today I went fishing with my Dad and it was complete disaster, I couldn't function at all.

My only escape at the moment is sleeping, I'm hoping for it at this extremity to pass but the way I'm feeling I seriously doubt it.

 

[flowingly]

I've noticed myself sleeping more and more, as well. I know it's just running away from my problems, but it's the only way to escape sometimes.

 

[Imagine]

:shock: :?

 

[university girl]

imagine, i would describe all of the symptoms in your initial post with your psych. this could be more than just dp/dr.

 

[flowingly]

imagine, i would describe all of the symptoms in your initial post with your psych. this could be more than just dp/dr.

I know the post was for Imagine, but I experience those symptoms as well. What "more" / else could they be? If you know, that is.

 

[Imagine]

imagine, i would describe all of the symptoms in your initial post with your psych. this could be more than just dp/dr.

Yeah I think I'll have to as I think it may be something more also.

 

[[rula]]

I know the post was for Imagine, but I experience those symptoms as well. What "more" / else could they be? If you know, that is.

From my limited knowledge, symptoms like:

Forgetting how you got from A to B.
Forgetting what you done the day before or earlier that day.
Severe confusion.

can be an extreme form of dissociation, closer to multiple personality disorder. but treatment as far as I know is the same as for milder dp/dr.

-rula

 

[Imagine]

I have no hope, no escape.

 

[[rula]]

I have no hope, no escape.

Oops, sorry, didn't mean to make it sound bad. I know someone who used to not remember how he got places, and would get confused about where he is all the time. but he's 100% dp free now (6 years total.) it's all dissociation, just different degrees of it (mine is not that severe.) All the symptoms you describe are included in the dissociation scale questionnaire that Mt. Sinai and other dp/dr research places use. I don't personally think you have anything else going on, but I'm not an expert.

 

[Imagine]

No, I didn't post that because of your reply... it's just how I feel really.

Well... not how I feel but what I presume.

 

[MrMortgage]

It's scary how all of us have this disorder. What you described in the first post is how I feel a lot of the times.

What really is cool, is that people do feel better... It's just a matter of time... I could be next month for you or it could be 15 years from now. We all just have to hang in there...