Depersonalization Support Forum banner
1 - 18 of 18 Posts

· Registered
Joined
·
298 Posts
Discussion Starter · #1 ·
A couple questions, if I may. How many of you....

1) Find yourself usually very anxious? Were you anxious before your DP problems (were you an overly anxious child, did you worry a lot?)

2) Find yourself overly sensitive? Were you always sensitive to the feelings of others or the world about you? Are you easily disturbed by the world and its various problems?

3) Have attention issues? Do you find your mind wandering a lot? Would you have been categorized as "attention deficient" in school?

I'm not probing for anything in particular, but I'm just jumbling about various theories on what is happening to us....
 

· Registered
Joined
·
669 Posts
1) Anxiety and sometimes mild depression is the main cause of my DP but I'm not DPed 24/7. I was somewhat anxious as a child but never really had panic attacks until the last 2 years.

2) I'm not really overly sensitive. I'm sort of either completely disinterested or really wired/depressed. The problems of the world do bother me but it really is more of an interaction with my worried/pessimistic state.

3) I can focus sometimes, but most of the time my mind wanders. I also have memory trouble and if my very rigid schedule is not kept to I can also have problems with telling what time it is.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
205 Posts
Yes to all three. Especially #2. I'm unsure what was first-anxiety/dp. I think i had both.Your question for me is like asking what comes first, the chicken or the egg. I have had anxiety without the dp and the dp without the anxiety. I had anxiety as a very young child but it was an appropriate response to my then situation. I remember being very sensitive as a child.#3 not so much. Hope that helps your jumbling!
 

· Registered
Joined
·
2,710 Posts
I do not have DR or DP anymore. I rarely have even panic attacks anymore...I feel burnt out by them..I doubt that I am capable. But I am constantly anxious. All-the-bastard-time. Even when I should be relaxed. My mind is constantly humming...I can't rest....I've constantly got a sweat on, even on a cold day. Bah ! :(

As to the other two questions, no and not really.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,237 Posts
yes, yes and no. Though being very DP can make it damn hard to concentrate on study etc, so I guess probably the third too.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
835 Posts
i never had anxiety or concentration problems as a child. anxiety landed in one major panic attack out of the blue leaving dp/dr. i've always been overly sensitive
 

· Registered
Joined
·
694 Posts
I was always anxious and a worrier from the time I was young. I also had the sensitivity and concentration problems. I guess it all makes sense because these are all common symptoms of depression/anxiety. For me, it just took some very bad stress(drugs and withdrawal) to bring the worst of it out of me. I remember sitting in class when I was very young and worrying when a nuclear bomb was going to hit my school. I used to wonder how everybody else could be so calm with all the scary things that could happen. I never felt a sense of well-being ever. It makes me realize Ive had untreated depression/anxiety for a long, long time. Im now convinced that dp/dr is product of depression that has gone untreated for too long. Ive even read that someplace.
 
G

·
1) Find yourself usually very anxious? Were you anxious before your DP problems (were you an overly anxious child, did you worry a lot?)
Yes, mostly.

2) Find yourself overly sensitive? Were you always sensitive to the feelings of others or the world about you? Are you easily disturbed by the world and its various problems?
Very much so, whether that's down to low self esteem I don't know.

3) Have attention issues? Do you find your mind wandering a lot? Would you have been categorized as "attention deficient" in school?
I do now.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
298 Posts
Discussion Starter · #13 ·
Well, I am by no means a psychiatrist or any specialist in the field of the workings of the mind - I don't really know what I'm talking about or how accurate anything is that I'm thinking!

However, given the responses here, I would say that a higher majority do experience the three conditions I spoke about; at least, more do than don't. Would you all agree?

I was pondering this last night as I wrote this out - but it's very important for me to be somewhat in the mindest of wanting to prove or disprove my thoughts - because it's easy to fool yourself when you're thinking about these things, ya know?

My thoughts are that humans are environmentally defined by the input of their senses and of the thoughts that occur surrounding those senses. I say "environmentally" (which is probably a poor use of the word) because we define (or more accurately center - yes, I like the word "center" more) ourselves, I believe, closely with our environment - we have two sides, fundamentally, I guess, the outside and the inside - and the inside takes queue of its processing (sensory or otherwise) from the outside. So, humans define themselves as much with their environment as with their insides - which is why "home feels good"; I guess. Imagine uprooting a human to a totally foreign environment - their anxieties are likely to be higher; especially if they are prone to such things.

It's my guess that those who suffer from ADHD - as I do - are less likely to form deeply rooted ties to their environment, or at least as deep as those who do not. The inability to focus also means the inability to draw deep associations with your environment; you don't live as much in the environment as others do because your mind is, I can only assume, flittering about in other worlds too. A classroom, to some, is the same classroom as the day before - but someone with ADHD, or some other form of attention problems - doesn't live in the classroom inasmuch as they do their mind, and so the ability for the classroom to take on a different environmental tone is high. It's fuzzily stated - but can you see what I'm getting at?

Attach to this an anxiety issue, where someone is highly prone to be anxious, and you might have the makings of someone who has a hard time coping with environmental changes or stressors and feeling "grounded" or "together" with their world and themselves. Someone who never had the abilities to ground themselves mentally due to their fast-moving, highly-sensory-triggered mind won't have the long-term, consistent view on the world to secure them in the event of stresses or significant life changes. Morals, opinions, choices, mindsets will be more likely to change and a person might feel themselves more "awash" with the world about them.

The anxiety serves as a magnifying glass - where you can hyper-focus on particular issues that stress you out (and someone in this situation might become highly stressed about their environment and their place in it). Suddenly - boom - someone hyper focuses on existential (sp?) things that relate to their anxieties - become more anxious because they do not have the steady foothold on their surroundings as they, otherwise, would have had they not had attention problems. The wild imaginations and, typically, intelligent minds continue to push the feeling.

So, lack of attention results in lack of real-world foothold and consistent intra-/extra-personal attachment. Highly sensitive means quickly and easily picks up inconsistencies, world changes, and stressors (also typically means highly intelligent - which is more prone to thinking). Anxiety pushes magnifying glass on the problem, decenters us because of the panic "fight or flight" condition, and you're off - totally depersonalized, uncentered and the world is unreal.

This was a complete brain dump - and these thoughts are still jumbling about, making weird connections and stuff. I hope we can mature them together, I guess.....
 

· Registered
Joined
·
669 Posts
Very good post. Timely as well because I just experienced this a moment ago, albeit not very intensely.

My basic problem is that growing up as a child I was never able to form the early relationships that I needed to form to become a "social being". The less I could relate to people in school as a child the more evidence I had that I was different in some way. At some point I gave up and retreated into a fantasy world. My imagination may not be as vivid as others but I occupied myself with my own thoughts, or with video games or movies or books. The more I withdrew from social relationships the more my connection to my environment became tenuous. And the more that happened the more I began to live in my mind. This constant state of introspection meant that I was no longer focused, or as focused, on the external world. I had trouble paying attention in class or completing assignments (or any other complicated task).

I sort of just coasted by. Whenever I got too anxious I would consciously bring on a sort of mild dissassociation (I didn't realize what I was doing at the time). It was either dissassociate or fall back on a myriad of distractions to occupy myself.

Fast forward to the present and here I am sitting in a room. For a brief moment the idea occurs to me that I don't know who I am, or what my purpose is, or why I am alive. I sit down and try to understand that I should be studying for finals. This is my reality. But at moments I reject that reality and feel confused or scared. I basically say to myself that this cant really be happening, this can't be my life. This apartment that I've been living in for the past year seems completely strange to me.

This is all precisely because I can't form connections to my environment, and more specifically, to the situations that occur within that environment. When you can't form these connections questions about the validity of the environment or situation itself often surface. You realize that you're connected to every thing by a slender thread and fear what could happen if that connection is broken.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
298 Posts
Discussion Starter · #15 ·
And, then, you become depersonalized. Yeah, you've got the point exactly.

I kind of liken it to being on very thin ice personally, or on a fairly see-saw'ish connection with the world. Those who are heavily depersonalized have swayed too far in one particular direction. Our stabilizers are out of wack, so to speak.

Now, my point behind this isn't to simply ruminate, but to actively think of tricks, techniques, medications, etc. that might benefit us and connect that to this kind of thing. And so the thoughts continue, I guess.

This shows a potential link between finding something stable in our lives and feeling better - we probably _desire_ stability more than the next person due to this flimsy outer world connection. This might be why schizophrenia and other disorders whose side-effect is severe detachment scare us - it's kind of in the exact direction as our fears.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
669 Posts
I'm not depersonalized, its more a symptom of my anxiety. In that way I'm better than most; my fear is becoming depersonalized 24/7 like alot of people on this board are. Furthermore, I fear schizophrenia or a total loss of control. My problem is that it doesn't take much of a jolt to break me out of any sense of stability I have. The only reason I maintain stability is because I form a rigid schedule, therefore getting rid of some of the fear of the unknown inherent in these conditions.

My adaptations are unhealthy. My main method of coping is avoidance of perceived threats and then distracting myself from my problems rather than solving them. I think in my case what I would need is to establish a more "normal" life. I would have completely through away my habits and go the opposite direction. Sort of like just ignoring my thoughts and taking the risks I would need to get better. Otherwise, I remain relatively ok but am still prone to bouts of anxiety/depression/DP.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
788 Posts
1) Find yourself usually very anxious? Were you anxious before your DP problems (were you an overly anxious child, did you worry a lot?) a resounding YES.

2) Find yourself overly sensitive? Were you always sensitive to the feelings of others or the world about you? Are you easily disturbed by the world and its various problems? Yes, yes, yes. My mom and best friend used to say they didn't know how I was gonna make it through life being so sensitive. Obviously I didn't make it too well.

3) Have attention issues? Do you find your mind wandering a lot? Would you have been categorized as "attention deficient" in school? Not really, but I did used to get in trouble a lot in school for "daydreaming". Teachers are morons.
 
1 - 18 of 18 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top