[Johnson]

Hi, I'm new here.

I went looking for a DP/DR community and landed here. I thought sharing about my DP/DR journey might help someone since I fully understand how incapacitating this condition can be.

I have suffered from reccuring DP/DR since I was 12. I'm now 30 yo. My triggers are stress and anxiety. I am currently recovering from the latest bout that was triggered by extreme stress that followed a bitter breakup with my girlfriend on the 1st of January. I am positive I will be fully recovered in 2-3 days.

My treatment plan is simple: I take AL (arthemeter + lumefantrine) (a drug used to treat malaria) in low doses (usually half) until I recover. I just buy lots of them and start taking them with little concern about any side effect or long term effects of the drug (anything is better than DP/DR). And it works for me. It usually takes between 3 and 6 weeks for me to fully recover.

I started using the drug to treat DP/DR in 2005 when I got malaria which triggered DP/DR (I am from Sub-Saharan Africa and malaria is very common here). All the DP/DR symptoms disappeared when I recovered from that bout of malaria.

I don't know if this will work for anyone else but I felt I should put it out here just in case.

 

[Dark12345]

Reply back when you get fully better

 

[Johnson]

I can now say I'm fully recovered. My DP/DR wasn't as severe as it usually is. I could recognize myself in the mirror but my mind was foggy and thoughts distorted, my eyes were extremely sensitive to light (I stayed indoors for two straight weeks with all the curtains drawn), and I had a distorted sense of time. I couldn't go to work (I lecture at a university so I just cancelled classes)

My mind is now 95% clear, the light sensitivity is gone, and my sense of time is back. I now feel ready to start my year.

 

[Johnson]

No. I use malaria drugs to treat DP/DR and it works for me

 

[Johnson]

Yes and I didn't have malaria at the time. That is actually when I tried using AL to treat DP and I was okay in about 4 weeks. I have been using AL to treat DP for the last 15 years and i have never had any side effects from using the drug.

 

[Johnson]

I don't. In fact i don't live in a malaria prone zone at the moment so the risk is very low (I've only had malaria once in my life). I'm sure stress was what triggered the DP.

 

[Dark12345]

What's the ratio of this drug, and how much MG?

 

[Johnson]

I have never talked to any doctor about this treatment plan because I'm sure they wouldn't approve it. It was just an experiment that worked.

The most common brand of AL is Coartem and it is only used to treat malaria.

Each tablet is 140 mg and the prescribed dosage for an adult is 4 tablets taken twice daily for 3 days. In severe DP cases, I take the full dosage then reduce to half a dose when I begin to get better. After 3 days, I wait one to two days then start taking the drug again. This goes on until I'm fully recovered.

If you would like to try it, make an effort to familiarize yourself with the drug first and understand the risks involved.

If anyone decides to try it, I would be interested to know if it helped.

 

[Trith]

Forgive my asking, but have you ever tried to do nothing to check if you don't recover all the same without treatment? Or, what was the longest period of time where you had DP without using this malaria treatment?

 

[Johnson]

I was young so I cant seem to remember clearly. I think between 4 and 8 months

 

[106473]

odd, can't find anything but that it reacts with St.Johns Wart, which suggests to me it may rise Serotonin, but can find nothing on that, nor it mentioning anything but how it kills red blood cells?

very interesting one, would love to get an opinion on what it actually does, but in the UK I doubt any of my specialists have researched it and definitely would be far too out there to prescribe, i just wonder its mechanism...

 

[Dark12345]

How are you now?

 

[Johnson]

I'm now fully recovered

 

[Dark12345]

How reality looks like?

 

[Johnson]

As real as it has ever been. How long have you had it?

 

[Dark12345]

6 months, though it's losing its power, this is my first time, how is your memory?

 

[Johnson]

My memory is clear. All the fogginess is now gone. My thoughts are no longer disjointed. My perception of time is as good as it has ever been. The only symptom that could maybe be better is light sensitivity but it is going away slowly.

 

[Dark12345]

Like after 100% recovery if you think about detachment, where am I, do you feel abit detached like you know it's a weirdo question to ask but you can understand

 

[Johnson]

I do understand. After 100% recovery, there is zero detachment. It is almost like I was never depersonalized/derealized. It feels great to be 'alive' again and I have a new appreciation for life.

The first time is scary because it is almost impossible to imagine that you will ever be yourself again. The fact that I have had it multiple times and successfully recovered helps me not to panic because I know it's only a matter of time.

 

[Dark12345]

Wow, this sounds cool.