DP/DR Just A Symptom?

Martinelv said:

Usually, a big yes. DR/DP is usually your brains reaction to severe stress/anxiety/panic - a primitive self-defence mechanism. It can, however, and quite rarely I think, exist as a syndrome in itself. Whether there is a difference between chronic long term DR/DP and true DR/DP Syndrome, I don't know.

Click to expand...

I agree with this completely. Also my doctors over the years have given me a Dx of "Depersonalization Disorder" though I find that is probably incorrect.

I have so much other crap going on -- anxiety, mood dysregulaton, depressive episodes -- I feel this must be secondary to those "umbrella diagnoses".

I have been given the diagnosis of Depersonalization DISORDER as it is my primary complaint, and always has been. It is chronic, it is disabling, it is persistent.

DP/DR in and of themselves as defined by the DSM-IV are very specific SYMPTOMS. They are a perceptual shift in the proper processing of "Sense of Self" (DP) or in interpreting input from the outside world. (DR)

As Mauricio Sierra has found, true Depersonalization Disorder, a SYNDROME in and of itself is RARE. I know one person personally who I would say has Primary DP/DR. He does NOT experience anxiety over it. He calls himself a "meat robot". He interacts through "an interface" with the world. He feels (he'd have to describe it more clearly as I find it hard to understand fully), as if he were dead or unable to truly experience feelings. He also doesn't obsess over it. He "walks through life" doing what he can. It seems he has more cognitive problems -- concentration, feeling overwhelmed from input, etc.

To the best of my understanding and belief, Martin's description is spot on. It is a glitch in the fight/flight response which when working assists in survival in both humans and animals.... and we are animals.

I believe that drug induced DP/DR is the result of the drug itself, as "harmless" drugs, Rx drugs such as antibiotics can sometimes bring on DP/DR which will subsequently fade, then reappear when a drug is introduced. This has happend to me with alcohol. See the post at the top re: drugs which cause DP/DR and when stopped the individual (usually) returns to normal after a time.

Other forms here are the result of anxiety that is in turn the result of umbrella diagnoses such as Panic Disorder, OCD, all of the Anxiety Disorders, but also comes with other mental illnesses.

If the PRIMARY condition is successfully treated the DP can fade. No guarantee with that either, but that would seem to be the case.

Those of us on the Board here are perhaps a skewed sample. Our DP has not passed, we are consumed by it, or it has so debilitated us we can't function in social/occupational settings, etc.

Again: Primary Depersonalization Disorder is rare as best as I understand, and would be chronic, or seems to be.

Depersonalization/Derealization SYMPTOMS that are secondary to any number of other psychiatric disorders can be episodic or chronic.

I'd say my chronic DP/DR is not due to a diagnosis of Depersonalization Disorder. It is secondary to chronic stress for years, no positive intervention/coping skills, etc.

Best,
D

Damn the PS

DP/DR in my POV at this time (always open to change) is:

EITHER:

Anxiety gone haywire -- Fight/Flight response unhinged
or
Actual lack of communication between neurons, brain areas re: sense of BODY/SELF, or interpretation of incoming stimuli. A glitch... not necessarily permanent. And in some the result of tumor/epilepsy, etc.

And I don't know the answer to the chronicity question either. A mystery, though it makes sense that those with lesions in the brain would have chronic DP/DR -- those with physical damage -- and that isn't us here!