[Kelson12]

What is the big difference? I just wondered. Nothing looks funny or different to me or anything like that. I just don't feel connected to the external world, nor do I feel connected to my voice or myself. But again, nothing looks weird or in 2D or anything.

I just wondered the difference. Does it sound like my symptoms are DP or DR?

Thanks.

Kelson

 

[dreamcatcher]

dr is the enviroment

dp is self

so it sounds like your over the first hurdle and just[not belittling it as its hell] contenting with the dp now.

hang in there you'll find yourself again one day

 

[Kelson12]

The environment never really looked weird to me. I just never feel connected to it.

But when I try to concentrate or look at something, I don't feel connected to it. Or when I think about myself, I don't feel connected to it.

Nothing ever appears strange or anything.

Its just all about the mental connectivity.

It's still very scary and bothersome.

Kelson

 

[BMF54123]

I'm the same way. Things don't really look "strange," I just feel like my consciousness is half-disconnected from all my senses, like I'm not really awake. It feels as though I can't see, even though I really can...blah. It's always so hard to explain this stuff, especially to people who don't experience it themselves.

 

[university girl]

Good question! I've been waiting for someone to post that again.

From the scientific papers I've read, it appears that derealization (DR) is a symptom of depersonalization (DP). DP is the entire disorder (which encompasses DR and many other symptoms). According to the DSM on mental disorders, you have to meet certain specific criteria to be diagnosed with DP.

 

[Guest]

to be honest, i just feel strange lol

 

[sebastian]

I've wondered about this as well. You'd think we'd know this stuff inside/out by this point. I always wondered how literal people were being when describing derealization as seeing things two-dimensionally, flat, etc. I mean, i feel that way metaphorically, but i don't literally see paper thin people walking around, etc.

I feel totally disconnected and sometimes look down at my hands while driving the car and think, "Who the hell is this person driving?", but it's more a state of extremely high anxiety which produces this. I'm fairly positive that this entire condition is brought on by high anxiety, wherever that anxiety derived from...although who the hell knows.

s.

 

[Guest]

What dreambean said. At least that's my understanding of the difference. And, I guess like Bro - I mostly just feel strange. DP is simply the best label I've found to describe the sensations.

 

[Dreamer]

What dreambean said. At least that's my understanding of the difference. And, I guess like Bro - I mostly just feel strange. DP is simply the best label I've found to describe the sensations.

And Dreamer and "the dreambean" agree.

I have both, always have. And together they scare me witless. I will say some expressions, metaphors others here use don't always fit for me, but I generally understand.

The "feeling that my body isn't mine, that this isn't my own voice, that my arms are sort of phantom limbs" type stuff is DP, depersonalization.

Seeing things in 2D, smashed up against my face, dimmed like with a filter, the WORLD looking unreal = DR, drealization.

There are people here would definitely have one or both.

I think there is a difference when there is drug onset in some people. The description of DR sounds slightly different to me, or I can't connect with all of it.

I have no drug onset for either. Can't identify with a "trip" of any kind either.

I just know I used to feel normal a long time ago, and I've never forgotten.

Sebastian, if you really identify with one description and not the other, I'd say you only have the one you identify with. Sounds like DP.

DP AND DR .. both describe my experience exactly. They work in tandem, they both get worse, or less simultaneously, and hang around all the time. So it goes.

But, time, therapy, and meds have made things a lot better.
And I'm an anxiety/depression person. Dysfunctional family background.

Yup, good to clarify this every now and then.

 

[Guest]

wow from the descriptions of DP/DR given in this post, I don't know where I fit in.

i feel like a real oddball now

 

[Guest]

Bro - aside from elevated anxiety, my main symptom is a lack of sense of self. As if I have no "me". No center. The outside world looks fine. None of the 2-D stuff people talk about. Other people look normal. It's inside my head where things are off. I simply feel as if I am not.
It isn't amnesia, because that would indicate I was somebody at least (just not be able to remember who.) I have all my memories, it just seems like they belong to somebody else. When I look in a mirror I don't know who is looking back. And I don't know who it is that doesn't know who is looking back.
I feel very fucked up. Like a jigsaw puzzle missing about every other piece. The general picture is visible, but the details are missing.
Simplest way to say it for me - my sense of self is gone.

 

[Dreamer]

sc sounds like DP to me.
Sigh.

 

[Guest]

SC i can relate to that

no 2D vision for me, my body parts feel like mine, but when I do look in the mirror i often get the same feeling you do. I also still have visual disturbances ( probably drug related) I still have weird thinking at times, and often things just don't seem right, I don't seem right, the world doesn't seem right.

maybe im just slowly loosing my mind

 

[Kelson12]

I don't really think I have DR. Definitely DP though. And it sucks so bad.

I just don't feel like I am connected to the body that I am actually connected to and it just causes really severe depression and anxiety! And it runs my life. From the minute I wake up to the last second before I drift asleep, I am thinking about this. Yes, there have been alot of times where it doesn't bother me, but this has been a few months ago. Now I am just utterly scared. I just feel like I am slipping more and more into an unknown oblivion.

The thing that I wonder is...What has caused this? I had a great upbringing, no trauma to relate to (such as a car accident, death of a loved one or someone I was close too, no drug reaction or panic attack, etc.) What has caused this? I really just don't get it. I feel like maybe if I knew what caused it I would be able to do a better job of trying to get rid of it and change my thinking. But it almost feels like my thinking has taken over itself and I can't control it. No matter how hard I try to not think about it, I still end up thinking about it. And that's what scares me to death!

Kelson

 

[dreamcatcher]

kelson i am the same i wake up thinking about it .....i go to sleep thinking about it.....

the more i try not to think about it the more i do......we really need to learn how to distract ourselves from it......even though its always there

 

[maria]

......we really need to learn how to distract ourselves from it......even though its always there

I'd really like to learn how to distract myself from this. For me sleep is the only getaway, some don't even have that.Because of this numbness and fogginess I see world as dull and gray, and I can't change that merely by force (or can I, hmmm) and what differentiates dp from depression is that even though I'm not able to feel it, I know that life can be inspiring and colourful. This makes this whole thing even more daunting and ironic.

 

[Guest]

^ This is what gets me all the time. I know that I have a lot to feel great about, I just can't. We've sealed ourselves in with a big wall of shit and we need to find some fiberlaxative and bust our way back out.