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Do you reckon this could be the reason for my DP?

838 Views 11 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Stibby
(Trigger warning, maybe. Just know I'm talking about having no sense of self.)

Before I got DP, I wasn't confident. Not in the slightest. I was always jealous of other people's success.
I was not happy, was depressed, had anxiety, had absolutely no sense of self and I can honestly say I had no personality.
After I got a night with no sleep, I got a panic attack. While in the hospital, I felt this feeling of not feeling real, but I brushed it off, because I had felt it before, and all of those times I felt it before it went away, and I just went home and slept, for 21 hours. No joke.
Anyway, that triggered my DP to stay, and until now it never left.

Do you reckon that that lack of sense of self and that lack of confidence is the reason behind my DP and that lack of sleep just triggered it?
I mean, having no identity might have triggered the feeling of "I don't exist, I don't even have a personality". Plus, even now, even saying my name doesn't sound like me, and that isn't the DP, because even before I had DP, my name didn't sound like it belonged to me.
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I'm not sure if the lack of sense of self/confidence caused it, but it is common for people to experience DP/DR after a panic attack.
Wow this sounds so much like how I am! So I'm curious about this too.
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I believe we all have a duality within us. When this duality is at a constant tug of war, we tend to stretch out our psyche, causing the 'self' to step out of this turf war.

For example, from the moment we are born we learn about choices, contrast and oppositions. Truly, in life we ultimately only have choices but when our choices clash with our true personality, it causes destabilization.

Society can be a culprit, it has even been argued that individualistic societies can bring out depersonalization in some more frequently than collective societies.

U.S is a BIG individual society, and to a lesser degree other countries in Europe and U.K.

We are constantly divided between family and individualism. Commercials, ads, jobs, schools...all have a similar doctrine of the "I'. We say we have 'teamwork' but few ever do things in a team. Self-interest is also a big hit.

I'm not saying self-interest will cause DP. But I tend to agree that individualism 'disconnects' us from a collective group/network which we are all part of -- the human species.

Im getting too philosophical here but that's my two cents.
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(Trigger warning, maybe. Just know I'm talking about having no sense of self.)

Before I got DP, I wasn't confident. Not in the slightest. I was always jealous of other people's success.
I was not happy, was depressed, had anxiety, had absolutely no sense of self and I can honestly say I had no personality.
After I got a night with no sleep, I got a panic attack. While in the hospital, I felt this feeling of not feeling real, but I brushed it off, because I had felt it before, and all of those times I felt it before it went away, and I just went home and slept, for 21 hours. No joke.
Anyway, that triggered my DP to stay, and until now it never left.

Do you reckon that that lack of sense of self and that lack of confidence is the reason behind my DP and that lack of sleep just triggered it?
I mean, having no identity might have triggered the feeling of "I don't exist, I don't even have a personality". Plus, even now, even saying my name doesn't sound like me, and that isn't the DP, because even before I had DP, my name didn't sound like it belonged to me.
I definitely think there is something to this. The subconscious can be far more direct than we realize in the lessons it learns and the steps it takes. I think many people with symptoms of DP have been made to feel like they didn't matter, so the sense of having no self might be taken straight from being made to feel like nothing at some significant time. A lot of the proactive things people do in recovery might help just because of the resulting increase in self-esteem. I know I've had good results from working on my basic sense of self - learning that how i was treated does not reflect on my essential value as a person.
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I don't reckon you had absolutely "no personality", but I think I know what you mean. Like you've got no spontaneity? I think with shy and socially anxious people we tend to shut ourselves down around other people and feel like we have nothing to say. I know that feeling. I'm pretty sure my dad knows that feeling. But yea you're right, there's definitely a certain type of person that is prone to DP/DR - people without a stable sense of self.
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I'm not sure if the lack of sense of self/confidence caused it, but it is common for people to experience DP/DR after a panic attack.
I don't know man...that's the only thing that makes sense and I think that that's the only explanation.
Wow this sounds so much like how I am! So I'm curious about this too.
Yeah, I'm very curious about this too!
I believe we all have a duality within us. When this duality is at a constant tug of war, we tend to stretch out our psyche, causing the 'self' to step out of this turf war.

For example, from the moment we are born we learn about choices, contrast and oppositions. Truly, in life we ultimately only have choices but when our choices clash with our true personality, it causes destabilization.

Society can be a culprit, it has even been argued that individualistic societies can bring out depersonalization in some more frequently than collective societies.

U.S is a BIG individual society, and to a lesser degree other countries in Europe and U.K.

We are constantly divided between family and individualism. Commercials, ads, jobs, schools...all have a similar doctrine of the "I'. We say we have 'teamwork' but few ever do things in a team. Self-interest is also a big hit.

I'm not saying self-interest will cause DP. But I tend to agree that individualism 'disconnects' us from a collective group/network which we are all part of -- the human species.

Im getting too philosophical here but that's my two cents.
I agree with you completely!
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I definitely think there is something to this. The subconscious can be far more direct than we realize in the lessons it learns and the steps it takes. I think many people with symptoms of DP have been made to feel like they didn't matter, so the sense of having no self might be taken straight from being made to feel like nothing at some significant time. A lot of the proactive things people do in recovery might help just because of the resulting increase in self-esteem. I know I've had good results from working on my basic sense of self - learning that how i was treated does not reflect on my essential value as a person.
Yeah, I agree. Lately, I have been writing down "self discovery" questions and answering them - basic stuff like what's my favorite color, and I've noticed small changes here and there. I'm definitely getting better, thank god, and getting to know myself helps a lot.
I don't reckon you had absolutely "no personality", but I think I know what you mean. Like you've got no spontaneity? I think with shy and socially anxious people we tend to shut ourselves down around other people and feel like we have nothing to say. I know that feeling. I'm pretty sure my dad knows that feeling. But yea you're right, there's definitely a certain type of person that is prone to DP/DR - people without a stable sense of self.
Yeah! I tend to discover that most people with DP are creative, shy, anxious and very intelligent. There's, for me, definitely a link with no sense of self to DP.
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Yeah! I tend to discover that most people with DP are creative, shy, anxious and very intelligent. There's, for me, definitely a link with no sense of self to DP.
Yea it seems like most of the people on this site fit that criteria. It's weird though, some people who suffer from anxiety have found a lot of help from weed. The two times I've tried weed were the two worst experiences of my life and led me to this page. Just goes to show that people have completely different experiences and one person's anxiety may be completely different to another's.
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