So I haven't been on here in a while, which is mostly because drifting away from this forum and any DP/DR thoughts and just living my life is the biggest, quickest fix for me... without a doubt. I do still have thoughts, I do still feel unreal at times, but its getting less and less by the day. The trick was (to do pretty much what everyone on here says) to accept it and stop fearing it. It took a lot of time, but the way I did it was by coming on here when I really needed it to read a select few favorite posts that reminded me that all the symptoms I'm having are all part of DP/DR, and how they literally just vanish when DP/DR goes away (which I know as well because I've recovered from it before).
I'd say I'm about 85% there. Last week, about 75%... and about two weeks ago 65-70%. It's getting better more quickly towards the end since I'm more easily able to distract myself.
I went to a holistic doctor on Tuesday of this week. I've always had some issues with blood sugar that just recently got quite severe (pretty suddenly) about 2-3 years ago. He's diagnosed me with hypersensitivity to insulin. Basically, this means that if I handled insulin normally, if I ate things with refined sugar (that usually cause a very fast spike in blood sugar) an appropriate amount of insulin would be secreted to regulate the high spike and bring it back down to a normal level. Instead, my body pushes out TOO much insulin, so I crash extremely hard (panic attacks, depression, cold/hot sweats, shaking, nausea... the works).
For the past 2-3 years, I've handled this by just avoiding the foods that give me really bad crashes... mainly anything sweet. But, I kept eating things like pizza and spaghetti sauce, and different restaurant foods (I figured, they only have maybe up to 10g of sugar, and I appeared to be handling those just fine.....or so I thought). Well, when I went to the doctor, I made sure to explain every issue I've been having. Emotional instability, depression, anxiety, brain fog/unreal feelings, different GI tract issues, among MANY other things... and he's certain that it has to do with the insulin hypersensitivity.
So, today I'm on day 3 of eating a diet full of protein, healthy fat, and complex carbs (including fructose). I have not had one thing that has "sugar" in the ingredients (I did pick up one loaf of whole grain flax seed bread that has ORGANIC sugar in it, but only about 2 grams)... which means I've gone from an all-together total of probably 30g of refined sugar a day to 0g. I'm also taking an iron-free multivitamin, chelated magnesium (which I'm ALWAYS low on for some reason...which causes anxiety), and Pantethine (what your body creates from Pantothentic acid. Pantethine has been a HUGE source of calm for me).
So from the distracting and moving along with my life, I've been waking up most mornings without any thoughts of DP/DR. My appetite is back and I'm gaining back the weight I lost. I'm more excited about things and less depressed. Occasionally I slip up and bring it to my attention, or I start asking more what-if's or try answering more unanswerable questions... but I just push them away and don't let them make me feel anxious. I just remind myself that eventually it will go away again.
How's everyone else doing?
