[Guest]

Can anyone reassure me that this is a symptom of dp/dr.

I feel as though my mind is empty or has an empty space somewhere.

Its as though Im not thinking the same way as everyone else. As if part of my mind is missing

Anyone else get this??

 

[mcsiegs]

Jude - I definitely get this at times. It is my opinion that it is another defense mechanism of the brain against fear.

Hang in there!!

 

[halcyon]

with dp, i find that my mind is literally "blank" at all times -- i feel like a vegetable and cant articulate anything.

 

[Ben]

Hey Jude,

First off, don't make it bad; take a sad song and make it ..... ah crap, it just wasn't funny.

Yes, this is very natural and simply what defines the disorder as depersonalizing. There's nothing seriously out of whack in your mind (or more out of whack than everyone else you see in your average day).

 

[nemesis]

Your mind isn't empty, in fact a SPECT scan would probably show that it certain parts of your brain are more active than what they should be under normal circumstances.

I suffered from the same blank / foggy brain symptoms. In fact I was so worried about the functioning of my mind, that I felt compelled to take a SPECT test (maps the blood flow of the brain) in an attempt to determine what was working correctly, and what wasn't.

The SPECT results were nothing short of astonishing. After suffering with DP and its fog for seven years, I had developed a fear that either drug use, medication or previous concussions had resulted in an organic brain injury responsible for my woes. The SPECT results disproved all of my fears by revealing that I was suffering from an overactive anterior cingulate gyrus and an over active deep limbic system. My mind felt blank as yours does, yet it was actually hugely active in a non-focused ?noisy? kind of way.

These two systems are commonly associated with anxiety disorders. The elevated activity in these two areas of the brain symbolized an acute anxiety response. A response that was shutting down the executive centers of my brain and making it hard to think, concentrate and access my memory.

The theory goes that an anxiety state will stimulate the early reptilian brain (limbic system), and the limbic system will then shut down the executive seat. The limbic system is far faster at processing stimuli which apparently comes in handy in the case were you find yourself being attacked by a lion. You need to react immediately - not have to think about your options of fight or flight. The same system used to save you from an imminent attack by a deadly creature can also activate itself in every day life, even one devoid of such immediate dangers.

My problem with mental function and even DP disappeared immediately once I'd understood the relationship between the limbic system, anxiety states and the way it was affecting my brain function. It seems that worrying about the DP/brain fog/etc are enough to keep the mind in a permanent state of over activation, and hence a perpetual state of DP/Anxiousness.

Paradoxically, the only way I overcame DP was to stop worrying about it.

 

[Isobel]

this is very interesting. Do you think what isnt going on in our concious minds is actually going on in our unconcious?

dont know if its of any relevance, just the other night i was coming awake from a dream, and it was like i could feel all this complex stuff going on in my unconcious, i was half asleep, like you would be sort of under hypnosis,
where as like now, im fully awake, it feels like my mind has been wiped out
~ kinda of hard to explain, but strange :?

 

[Guest]

I agree it is strange. I think its a mix of feeling unreal and spaced out both at the same time. Makes you feel as if your mind has a great deep gorge where thoughts should be.

Very odd. This illness plays some odd tricks on you

 

[nemesis]

Do you think what isn't going on in our conscious minds is actually going on in our unconscious?

It is documented that that your mind processes and consolidates the day's memories during REM and slow wave sleep cycles. I guess it is possible that you may have caught the tail end of some of the processing (dreaming?) as you were returning from an REM state and awoken suddenly.

The reasoning behind the elevated neural activity results in my resting scan versus my concentration scan may be a little more complex. What I do know is that my mind wanders and can shift into an anxious, ruminative DP state when my attention isn't focused. I am only capable of thinking in 'snippets' of disorganized thought while in this state, and certainly not capable of producing any meaningful work until the shift is noted and attention is refocused on whatever task is at hand.

The spects have shown that here is a great deal of activity in my resting scan, but for the most part it was not unfocused and I'm making an assumption, was therefore not for the most-part, within my conscious realm. I'm guessing that the elevated level of unfocused activity in the resting scan could be seen as a kind of anxiety-invoked 'white noise'. Distracting in the least, and a serve impedance to structured focused thought at worst.

So yes I do believe that processing takes place in both the subconscious and conscious realms. The blankness, fog, or gorges in thought as you call it may well be caused by the impedance of thoughts in the conscious realm making it through the neuronal circuits which have already been congested by thoughts residing in the unconscious realm (DP's effect of continual reality checking?) or a possible mental white-noise phenomenon.

These are my personal views and are not backed up by any strong scientific evidence.