Has anyone ever gotten better from drug induced DP?

I have freaked out on acid, at age 16.

I smoked a LOT of pot at age 16, and I had a high amount of OCD and anxiety unrelated to the pot.

I did cocaine.

I took Ritalin, it made me paranoid because of the somewhat large dose for my system and because of the chemical makeup.

I smoked cigarettes, which gave me more anxiety than all the above drugs combined.

I drank.

I did not have a breakdown and DP until age 19.

My first ever slight fleeting of DP was at age 15, before any remarkable amount of drugs entered my system.

Anyway, back to age 19. I smoked pot during the days I was actually breaking down.

AFter the breakdown:
I smoked pot, took ecstacy every week for a couple months straight, did cocaine every week for a month or two, did nitrous oxide, even COMBNED IT WITH COCAINE (and yes, that is a BAD BAD idea for anxiety), and DXM (twice, it's dextromethorphan, a dissociative), taken hydrocodne, oxycodone, methadone, and demerol, taken adderall, xanax, valium, klonopin, ativan, benadryl, antipsychotics, SSRIs, venflaxine, alcohol of all kinds.

And I still smoke, take adderall, trazodone, Lexapro, and the occasional Xanax as needed.

Did drugs cause my dp?

I would say not.

I have had time periods in my life where these drugs had NO detrimental effect on me, and times when the drugs made me feel somewhat panicky, and times that the drugs had a really good effect. But none of it 'caused' the dp.

It FELT like, it felt like this for two years almost, that the effexor I had taken at age 19 caused the dp, and I tried to focus all my attention on reversing the effects on that.

But later I realized it was a cover up.

I had this coming for a long time. The effexor just helped cause enough of a shift to tip me over the edge. But I was already out of my mind for two weeks prior. Looking back on it now, it almost seems integrated into the rest of my past (whereas it previously didn't), it seems like, oh yeah, I did that, I ran for miles to try to wear the adrenaline down, yeah I was 99 pounds and could see my ribs, yeah yeah. Weird.

But yeah.

Drugs can cause enough of a shift for people with rigid personalities to crack under. But those rigid personalities were not made to withstand life anyway. Now there are CERTAIN drugs (PCP and Ketamine) that I believe NO one in their right MIND should EVER touch. Especially dissociative types. And LSD is a big no no too. But none of it on its own is a cause for DP. If that were the case, NO ONE would be smoking pot. OR doing acid or X. NO one would do that stuff if it landed them here as a direct result.

But its not. We have other stuff going on. We have other things that make the smallest dose of cocaine freak us out while all of our friends can eat books worth of acid. and be on their merry way the next day.

It's part of the obsession. As if it was a cancer or a drug or something separate that you got as a result of doing the drug. No, it's you and how you responded and how you think.

That means that there is total hope for all you who think you hvae drug-induced DP.

But it means that you absolutely must stop blaming the drug.

If you can't stop it forever, at least tell yourself today: "Today I will NOT think about the drug I took that supposedly gave me DP. If, tomorrow, I feel the need to find an answer about or obsess about it, then I will do that tomorrow. But not today"

Usually this is a good way to dissipate obesession, as by tomorrow you will be obsessing about something else anyway.

The problem here is obsessive traits, NOT drugs, not other things. The obessession is tricking you into believing that is the cause.

Because your mind wants to, at all costs, keep you from figuring out it might be something about YOU that needs to change.

Interesting post Person3. I think there is some truth in that.

I was (and still am to a certain extent) 100% sure that my excessive intake of drugs (weed, pills, coke, ketamine, mushrooms, booze, ****) was entirely to blame for my DR/DP episode. While I'm still absolutely convinced that this was the trigger for my meltdown, I'm sure that my underlying neurosis was already there waiting. Still, I think that avoids the real issue. I'm sure I could have gone through my life as a 'highly functioning' neurotic, if I had never taken drugs, and, let's be truthfull, most people are neurotic to some extent. There are a lot of people who have never had any conscious problems until they have taken drugs. That doesn't mean that didn't have any 'hidden' problems, but hey - they are hidden for a reason. Let them stay hidden I say. If we were all confronting our hidden demons, then the world would be in chaos.

My 'inner demons' can go fuck themselves. I'm not going to spend a lifetime in therapy waiting for a cure that probably won't arrive. I've haven't got the time. I live with my 'problems', and to hell with anxiety/depression. The less I worry about them, the less of a problem they are. They are buried, and they can goddam stay buried.

All I know is that if I had never done drugs I probably would never had gone into dr/dp land. I say this becasue I have three siblings with obvious similiar psycho/social backgrounds, genetics, Freudian stuff and predispoitions galore. They all have major anxiety disorders, but they have lived very functional "neurotic lives" as Martiniv mentioned. I have dp/dr, they do not. The variable I can shoot at first is drug use.

Does this mean drugs soley caused my dp/dr? No. (Can some drugs casue dp/dr without predispostions? I think so.) My predispositons were there and were the foundation. But without drugs I feel I would have lived a "very functional neurotic life". In this sense I blame drugs. He is the one I would hang first if I was the judge, and I would give the rest probation. He had the gun.

I am still sorting out the difference between drug induced and non drug incuded dr/dp. Actually I am hoping the researchers take some closer looks into it. As I sit here I jsut feel stoned ya know. But what comes closest (as far as I can find) to my journey in relating to others is what ya all decsribe as plain old dr/dp, and that is what I go by in terms of treatment. I do not think I am
brain damaged (that is a very relative term anyway and not easily defined). I know I do not have any drug traces in my system etc. I have obsessed about all these things myself and it is pure gobbletygook. I do not obsess any more becasue the data is not there to support it.

We do need, as someone else stated above, to not think of this in terms of past drug use. Treatment options and aveneues are all the same anyway, drug use or not. Until told otherwise I will continue to think and act on it as anyone else would, drug use or not. Still makes me wonder though why I just feel stoned. I would love to sit in a room and do Vulcan mind locks with you all to see if our pee pees compare. Were we jsut experiencing "normal" dr/dp while stoned, the exact same type that non druggies feel now, and that is why it seems like we are stoned now when in fact it is only "normal: dr/dp? At least my inquiring mind still wants to know.
jft