[jft]

Hi. New here, but not new to this struggle. My question is that I see many of you here had dp/dr triggered by pot, acid, pcp or whatever. I understand that dp/dr can be triggered by many things other than drugs. I also understand the predisposing factors that lie in wait for a triggering event to occur.
What I do not understand is that for me and many others on another website complain that this all just "feels like I am stoned again". What many of us feel is what we felt like while we were stoned. The closest we can come to in diagnosis is what you all call dp/dr. Given it could be that we were all jsut experiencing dp/dr while stoned and that is why it is so faimilair to us now. But upon reading the stories on this baord and symptoms lists it seems that there seems something "more" to a drug induced dp/dr. Cam anybody realte here? Any thoughts?
I do know that a study done in London two years ago with only 40 participants concluded that there was little difference between symtpoms and causes (drug versus nondrug). I just for the life of me will always describe this as feeling stoned and cannot totally relate to true dp descriptions but yes it is very familiar. But also derealization...the visual part espescially (lighting problems..glare...reading diifficulties etc) seem more intense than dp.
Thought I would venture and ask. Do yu folks think that drug induced dp/dr is no different than other induce dp/dr? Thank you.
jft

 

[stickdude]

mine was drug induced. i'm thinking it's the same as non-induced from how people describe it on the boards.

by the way, what sort of reading problems do you have? i just noticed yesterday it feels like an "acid" trip or something when i read. maybe i just stay on this computer too much.

 

[jft]

Hey then. The reading problem has to do maybe with the light intensity. When I am under artificial lighting I get "symptomatic"...spacey. The text seems to blur, as if there is too much white light on the page. My mind at this point does not seem to be able to connect with what I am reading. I can read a paragraph over three times and not get the jist. I.e. it is like I am trying to read something while I am stoned.
jft

 

[Guest]

I'm not sure how my drug-induced visual problems could be as similar to the non-drug-induced. I spent a long period of time where i would watch walls melt, people and objects morph, and have intense patterns form before my eyes and I doubt the visual problems of a natural progression into derealization could compare to these.

 

[sleepingbeauty]

im tripping frying rolling baking and drunk off my ass but the only substances in my body is cheep kimchee, tea and a tic tac.

go figure. :roll:

 

[JasonFar]

Sleeping,

I had kimchee and brown rice about 4 hours ago... It was good. Always had a thing for kimchee, since my Asian friends' mothers used to always cook it for us when I was younger. I also masturbated to those same women. At any rate, it's good stuff, though a bit plain. I added those terribly awful, delicious shrimp chips I got at the market too with the meal. It was more pleasurable that way. Did I mention the kimchi sparked associations of my 10 year old sexual fantasies with paternal asian women? Awesome, indeed.

Oh yeah, as if this doesn't imply it, I'm not eating fully raw anymore. :?

 

[g-funk]

What's kimchee? How can a woman be paternal? Very interesting mix of food and sex in that post Jason...

As for the drug induced vs non drug induced. My experience is as follows, although if I've learnt anything on this website, its that not one of us experiences this in the same way.

I felt dp stuff way before trying drugs. Smoking weed could bring on dp/dr and sometimes not. I always felt as though being stoned, I was hanging onto the edge, trying not to fall into that altered state of consciousness. Like dp was that one step too far. I think it is basically altered states of consciousness, for some, being stoned maybe how dp feels. All I know, is that I stopped anything like that years ago, despite having no clue what all these feelings were, and kind of glad, because it was making me worse.

As for actual tripping, I would agree with Ziggo, that dp does not usually involve that kind of visual/auditory stuff that he experiences. Another level entirely of mind states that drugs can induce. Only really had that once, as a reaction to a sleeping pill and wine (clever!), tried acid once, nothing happened. THANK GOD. But then that part of your symptoms is HPPD not dp is not Ziggo?

 

[Guest]

^ I'm pretty much only on this board for DR, although i have many dp-esque moments although it doesn't seem to get quite as bad. Yes, I have hppd, but it isn't nearly as bad anymore and is nearly identical to derealization symptoms.

 

[nemesis]

I love those avatars that youve been coming up with lately Sleeping Beauty. Ive got to admit there are times when I've hit the board for nothing more than to view the next level of your defiling that poor [edit]'orangutan'

Anyway back to the issue. I've been '3-beers' stoned 24 hours a day for the last 10 years. I've also developed a well known reputation on this board for having concentration, reading and cognition problems to the extent that it has worried me enough to warrant having CT, EEG and MRI scans. All tests have come back negative, but there's still that seed of doubt that my suffering could simply be a part of this disorder. A construct of thought, poor behavioral conditioning? The symptoms feel far too severe to be anything but organic in nature. Arghh stupid ruminations. They ruin your life, they ruin your posts

I know what youre going through bud. Confidence in my own abilities has been destroyed and the future is looking very bleak right now. Its a horrible disorder, whatever it might be.

 

[g-funk]

But nemesis, your posts aren't indicative of any cognition problems etc. You seem really with it to me!

By the way, I would edit your post to say 'ape' rather than 'monkey' asap - or expect Sleeping Beauty to be knocking down your door anytime soon... :wink:

 

[university girl]

I used to question this as well, as i have drug-induced whatever you want to call it... I also came across that study and spoke to daphne simeon about it. Both agree that drug and non-drug induced DP/DR do not significantly differ. With regards to the study you mentioned, perhaps the individuals involved in the study had similar symptoms to begin with because of the criteria used to find those individuals. Just a thought. Oh, and one more thing... I don't think any two individuals on this site would describe all of their symptoms as being identical, whether it be a comparison between two drug-induced DPers or two non-drug-induced DPers.

 

[David]

I think DP and being really stoned/on acid are pretty similar actually. Having done both at university, one of the scariest things at the onset of my DP in my final year at uni was that I had brought it on myself and permanently fucked myself up. I DON'T think it did - it was related to anxiety I was going through at the time. However the links between cannabis in particular and mental illness does seem to be becoming established over time

David

 

[lone wolf]

I've had DP/DR - if I wanna analyse it, I may feel more DR than DP - 24/7 since I was fourteen, and nowadays I'm 29. I started experimenting with psychedelics and MDMA while I was 23 years, and I still haven't said no to those drugs, though I smoke weed or take Ecstasy/LSD/mushrooms very seldom nowadays.

The reason why I haven't said no to these drugs is that they bring me moments (or more correct, a couple of hours) of clarity, which I couldn't get otherwise. That's why for me feeling DP/DR is an altogether different thing than tripping on LSD or MDMA, or being stoned. Indeed being stoned in nature can feel much more real and less DP'ed than without cannabis for me! I never take psychedelics/MDMA in dance parties or other crowded places, but rather I like tripping in solitude in nature.

Being high on psychedelics or MDMA is some kind of healing experience to me - you could compare it to the religious use of psychedelics in some indigenous cultures. Thus I'm not going to stop experimenting with psychedelics/Ecstasy, but I only keep in mind I won't take MDMA more than once/perhaps twice a year (LSD or mushrooms much more seldom) and cannabis maybe once in three months or usually even more rarely.

Disclaimer: Oh no, it looks like I was trying to recommend drug use here - no I don't. I just wanted to add my viewpoint/experience toward this thingy: does DP feel like being stoned/high. Please keep in mind all those people, whose DP/DR is drug-induced, before considering any rec drug use yourself.

 

[[rula]]

When I went to see my first GP about DP, my exact description was "I feel like I'm high all the time on cocaine" Silly me thought he would say something like "well, chemical A is released in the body when you're high on cocaine, so let's see why you have too much of chemical A still lingering". no such luck of course. it was only by my own research that i found out that:
a. cocaine causes the release of epinephrine (adrenaline)
b. pot also causes the release of adrenaline.
c. my neurotrasmitter lab tests show that i have too much adrenaline in my brain. well no wonder i feel high all the time.

adrenaline can be released in the body for other reasons, that have nothing to do with our drugs-of-choice. fear/worry/stress/anxious thought/too much exercise/etc...so drug-induced or not, i think DP feels the same cuz the chemicals involved are the same. IMHO. -rula

 

[Guest]

I started experimenting with hallucinogens at around 16 and from then until about 20 I had done:

K - 5 times
MDMA - 5 times
Acid - 2 Times
Mushrooms - 10 times
DXM - 10 times
PCP - Once
Weed - Billions

It was not until my last acid trip did I get dpdr/hppd and up until that point i'd say it was pretty fun. I've spent many a great night in the park and nothing compares to hiking on mushrooms. Despite this, I will NEVER touch any of these drugs again. I've also been sober from alcohol for 3 weeks and caffeine for 3 months.

 

[Guest]

^ and those are just the hallucinogens/dissociatives 8)