dp/dr a form of psychosis? (just my thoughts)

3116 Views 16 Replies 7 Participants Last post by Sojourner, Aug 25, 2005

blackwinded

Discussion Starter · Aug 23, 2005

I've been thinking about this for a while. , they say that depersonalization is not psychosis. Psychosis is when you loose touch with reality--through delusions and/or hallucinations. But to me, it seems as if dp is "loosing touch with reality". It's like a tactile hallucination; feeling something that is not real. When i feel like i am outside my body, or like my body parts are distored and mixed up, or like i feel other people inside my body ,i am feelings something that is not real, right? And then, if i go on to believe that these things i'm feeling ARE real , then that is concidered a 'delusion', which is a form of psychosis.
with derealization, when i feel like i'm in a dream, or when i see things moving around: like they are flowing and pulsing and swaying back and fourth, i am seeing something that is not real. whether this is an hallucination or a very intense illusion, it is something that is not real. those things are not really moving. so, that right there seems to be a form of losing touch with reality. And, if i start to believe that things really are moving, and that i really am in a dream, then there's another delusion.

well...i just wanted to share that thought, because it's been going on inside my head for a while now. To me, it just doesn't make sense that dp and dr isn't also concidered a form of loosing touch with reality.

-becka

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Martinelv

· #2 · Aug 23, 2005

No. Depersonalisation is NOT losing contact with reality. Its simply that reality seems weird. You still know that a table is a table, despite it's strangeness.

If you are thinking that you might have a delusion, then you aren't having a delusion. Of course, DR/DP can be a symptom of Schizoprenia, but they two different kettles of fish. The most stable, non-psychotic person can experience DR/DP.

Also, in the mind-blowing majority of cases, DR/DP does not lead to psychosis. People must remember this, despite their OCD's appeals otherwise.

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Martinelv

· #5 · Aug 23, 2005

Blackwinded - I'm interested. When you are not in a psychotic phase, do you still have delusions? Or rather, do you recognise that your thoughts are delusional?

People with DR/DP may have 'strange' thought, because they are, naturally, trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with them, as some of the conclusions may be bizzarre. But they are still in contact with reality, they, usually, know that what they are thinking is crazy (no offence intended). That's why there is a different between neurotics (who's reality testing is intact - despite feelings of DR/DP/Anxiety) and Psychotics (whos' reality testing and insight is not, during an acute psychotic phase)

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Martinelv

· #7 · Aug 24, 2005

Hiya, thanks for your reply. Sorry - it was a bit of a stupid question on my part. I can't beging to understand what you are going through.

This interested me though:

i still believe that the government has cameras intalled along the highways, that spies constantly follow me and sent me signals through lights, that people put their thoughts into my head, and read my mind

I remember when my mother was working in a psychiatric hopstial that she said you should never deny the beliefs of someone who is psychotic. It isn't helpful. But, this really beguiles me. You don't seem actively psychotic, you are lucid, well written and you seem to have insight into your illness. So, and I'm going to tread very carefully here, does your insight allow you to recognise that the chances that the government are spying on you is just part of your disorder. And if you know this, does it change the fact that you still believe it?

Don't reply if you don't want to. I know it can be a sensitive issue.

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Martinelv

· #9 · Aug 24, 2005

I know that these things are not what they appear,

Then you are not psychotic. However, while it's very unusual for people to actually see 'things' that are not there in a DR/DP state, it is normal for extremely anxious people (and indeed, people who have clinical depression often hallucinate) to misinterperate normal everday things as something they are not. Everyone 'see's' things when they are, for example, tired, or daydreaming. It's the same sort of thing. I sometimes get a flutter in my stomach, thinking - oh god, I'm seeing things, when from the corner of my eye I mistake the pattern on the clouds for an evil scowling face, or the branches of a tree resembling something nasty. Shadows on the wall, everything. It happens to everyone, but people who are not anxious just dismiss it as a trick of the mind. If you concentrate hard enough, you can get something familiar such as a Coke can to mutate into a spider, or something that your fevered mind interperates as one.

I doubt that you are psychotic, although it's (unlikely) but possible that you are suffering from some strange neurotic disorder that incorporates hypnogotic hallucinations.

People who are actively psychotic lose insight. That is the big difference. With the lessening of your anxiety, I'm sure that these troubling experiences will fade.

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