Interesting. Though I'm fully DP/DR, I have an uncomfortable experience of my arms and hands "not being mine" and it is particularly bothersome when typing, and of course one uses one's arms and hands all the time -- a constant reminder.
I find this connection goes to my theory that the DP experience can certainly be seen as a lack of proper "communication/interpretation" in the brain of external (DR) and internal (DP) stimuli. The internal stimulus would be those proceses that communicate body awareness as in the phantom limb experience.
I've found the only thing that helps me with the limb experience is as always to try to "ignore it", try to keep going along in spite of it.
It's interesting that this is less troublesome for some/not all. That makes sense. Disruption of the feeling of a limb for some people would certainly be less distressing than full body DP, etc.
I hope this makes sense.
This puts DP in the Capgras/Cotard's syndrome category, as well as my feeling this has to do with a glitch in our fight/flight response. They could be two separate versions of DP/DR... or part of MANY different causes that all lead to the disruption of "Sense of Self."
I'd say cases that involve body parts ONLY, and I've heard others say it's only "their hands feel like dough and look as if they aren't theirs", etc. They also have less anxiety about it. This could indeed be one of those "different" forms of the DP experience. I do believe that the same pathways, parts of the brain are affected though.
I keep recommending this book, "Phantoms in the Brain" by Ramachandran. DP/DR is also mentioned in his "A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness" in the context of this "body mapping failure" ... lack of communication going on in the brain for some reasons -- neurons, chemical pathways, who knows.
Google, V.S. Ramachandran, Capgras Syndrome, Phantom Limbs, etc. You can get his books anywhere - library, bookstore, amazon, etc.
These are my theories of DP/DR and they may be hogwash. But I have been really researching this stuff the past few years and it makes a helluva lot of sense. I REALLY recommend "Phantoms in the Brain" -- not difficult to read and fascinating.
One striking example. Some individuals born without one or more limbs still "feel" the limb is there. The brain has a "map of the body" and the limb is perceived by the map in the brain even though it isn't there.
I'm not explaining this well, and again it is a theory. No one here is the same though we understand each other to one degree or another.
Fascinating. Troubling. Miserable. But fascinating nonetheless.
Best,
D
