Hi guys I want to share my experience for a few reasons. 1 because when I was stuck in dpdr all I read were horror stories that scared the life out of me.
I developed dpdr due to the death of my younger sister and man that shit was hard enough in itself. Then I smoked weed and all of a sudden had a huge panic attack. Dpdr is a trauma coping mechanism (happens when we feel too overwhelmed to cope). Believe me i had it chronically for 3 years it was hell. You have to change your state.
Now I know better. The answer is we have to restore to calm to our bodies (homeostatis). Trauma is stored in the body. I had accepted that this was just me now and I could never go back to normal (again extremely common). However it truly isn't the case. What I stumbled across on youtube was the anxiety ninja https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAnxietyNinja and he uses a body approached based off dr Peter a levines research and its all about using your body to overcome depersonalisation because trying to think your way out of these symptoms is impossible.
As you are stuck in the freeze response (which is dpdr) you are subconsciously constricting your muscles all of the time. This is keeping you in the elevated state. He teaches self regulation which is relaxing your muscles frequently throughout your day and living life as normal (an examplr would be relaxing your pelvic floor muscles or taking a big breath and letting your whole body go limp) - when i first read this info I thought nah I'm not tensing my muscles - I absolutely was snd it was constant! So please become aware of this. He has so many different techniques such as progressive muscle relaxtion but basically you need to become in tune with your body again - a personal favourite is
please try this relaxation video and you'll be amazed at the difference afterwards. You'll probably be surprised just how much tension you are carrying.
He also does a course which enables you to learn on a scientific basis what dpdr is (instead of all of these crazy conspircies which scare the hell out of you) and gives you a routine to quickly leave dpdr https://donewithdpd.thinkific.com/courses/the-depersonalization-recovery-course-video-mp3?ref=a423b5 - if you have the money I highly recommend buying it because it was a defining factor for me to actually have a structured program! However with that being said his youtube channel is extremely informative so u will do well with that also! Once I discovered the course it took me about a year to fully recover (everyone is different) but only days to start calming down. I realise now my life was so anxiety driven in the first place that no wonder I develoepd dpdr. Seriously guys check all this out and start to leave this shit behind and get normality back. With the course it explains everything in so much detail that no stone is left unturned and I truly believe in it.
Some other things that help are:
Cold showers (amazing for grounding)
Progressive muscle relaxation
Self regulation
Sun glasses
Exercise
Deep breathing.
Yoga (yoga with adriene on youtube is amazing)
Continuing to live life as normal instead of feeling trapped in the house and in ur own mind(this is easier once you get good at self regulation)
Keep going. I wish you all the best in your recovery. If I can recover so can you no matter how hopeless or how different you think your dpdr feels than others. Ultimately you need to get in tune with your body. Please look at the info i have provided and start to get your life back ???? Remember state focused not symptom focused!
I developed dpdr due to the death of my younger sister and man that shit was hard enough in itself. Then I smoked weed and all of a sudden had a huge panic attack. Dpdr is a trauma coping mechanism (happens when we feel too overwhelmed to cope). Believe me i had it chronically for 3 years it was hell. You have to change your state.
Now I know better. The answer is we have to restore to calm to our bodies (homeostatis). Trauma is stored in the body. I had accepted that this was just me now and I could never go back to normal (again extremely common). However it truly isn't the case. What I stumbled across on youtube was the anxiety ninja https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAnxietyNinja and he uses a body approached based off dr Peter a levines research and its all about using your body to overcome depersonalisation because trying to think your way out of these symptoms is impossible.
As you are stuck in the freeze response (which is dpdr) you are subconsciously constricting your muscles all of the time. This is keeping you in the elevated state. He teaches self regulation which is relaxing your muscles frequently throughout your day and living life as normal (an examplr would be relaxing your pelvic floor muscles or taking a big breath and letting your whole body go limp) - when i first read this info I thought nah I'm not tensing my muscles - I absolutely was snd it was constant! So please become aware of this. He has so many different techniques such as progressive muscle relaxtion but basically you need to become in tune with your body again - a personal favourite is
He also does a course which enables you to learn on a scientific basis what dpdr is (instead of all of these crazy conspircies which scare the hell out of you) and gives you a routine to quickly leave dpdr https://donewithdpd.thinkific.com/courses/the-depersonalization-recovery-course-video-mp3?ref=a423b5 - if you have the money I highly recommend buying it because it was a defining factor for me to actually have a structured program! However with that being said his youtube channel is extremely informative so u will do well with that also! Once I discovered the course it took me about a year to fully recover (everyone is different) but only days to start calming down. I realise now my life was so anxiety driven in the first place that no wonder I develoepd dpdr. Seriously guys check all this out and start to leave this shit behind and get normality back. With the course it explains everything in so much detail that no stone is left unturned and I truly believe in it.
Some other things that help are:
Cold showers (amazing for grounding)
Progressive muscle relaxation
Self regulation
Sun glasses
Exercise
Deep breathing.
Yoga (yoga with adriene on youtube is amazing)
Continuing to live life as normal instead of feeling trapped in the house and in ur own mind(this is easier once you get good at self regulation)
Keep going. I wish you all the best in your recovery. If I can recover so can you no matter how hopeless or how different you think your dpdr feels than others. Ultimately you need to get in tune with your body. Please look at the info i have provided and start to get your life back ???? Remember state focused not symptom focused!
