[Guest]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to say this board is awesome and I truly believe we will ALL overcome this terrible problem. I had a question... Who here on the board has taken NO meds for their DP/DR? I am talking about not EVER taking anything for this and dealing with it. Is there anyone on the board who is med free? Even if you are taking drugs for it respond to this I would be interested to hear about your experiences. Also if you are med free how does your DP/DR feel? I have had DP/DR for about 11 months now and I haven't taken any drugs. My DP/DR was brought upon me due to smoking weed. The only drug I have tried is Paxil but I was only on it for 2 weeks because I quit it COLD turkey! I couldn't stand the side effects. I haven't been on any meds for about 10 months. I am trying to defeat this without taking meds and wanted to know if anyone has heard of someone defeating this without meds. Thanks in advance for all your responses!

 

[Beth]

Yeah, me too. Brought on by weed & meditation. For a while would've done anything to make it stop, but was scared to go to a doctor coz i thought I was psychotic. Now can handle it a lot better, now that I know what it is (well, that other people have it, at any rate). I'm giving myself a year to deal with it without drugs, since it seems to me like my brain got me into to this, I want to try to get out of it the same way, for me this was largely induced by deliberate meditation, and if I can think my way into this then I'm sure that should be reversible. But then when it's really bad I can't understand how I could ever want to just sit through it. I tend to self-medicate a bit coz I find a short strong drink helps a lot with bad patches (only three/ four drinks a week, I'm not letting this lead into alcohol dependence), so I don't know if it actually counts as completely without drugs.

So do you have a plan, or want to ride it out or what?

 

[shadowness]

i took meds for my anxiety disorders but they actually caused my dp and dr so i have never taken anything for dr and dp themselves...

i am trying natural/holistic/alternative stuff at the moment...

i did read that dp and dr can just disappear without meds...but that does depend on how you got dp/dr in the first place...and it can take a lot longer to go too...

i hope you find something that helps you out

 

[Guest]

Beth wrote:

for me this was largely induced by deliberate meditation

How is that possible?
Please tell me.

As for the subject of this thread, I am on meds, but not for the dr.
I don't think meds help for dp/dr, and if, they work for it indirectly, like meds are alleviating another symptom that is linked to dp/dr, and if this other symptom or symptoms go(es), dp/dr is affected too.
My two cents, people.

 

[shadowness]

i find that meditation detaches me from myself and everything else even more...some people find meditation relaxing...i find it scary! :shock:

 

[Beth]

Quote:
for me this was largely induced by deliberate meditation

How is that possible?

I got panic attacks after eating cannabis cookies and having a really bad time on those. I started meditating quite often to control them, and found I could get to all kinds of weird mental states just by concentrating, as if some switch had been flipped in my head. Most of those states are feelings that you all probably know, but I wasn't scared because I thought I was in control of them, although after meditating intensely I felt floaty and saw bugs for a few hours or days. It was like taking drugs without the risks, I could even get pretty visual hallucinations. I thought it was all really interesting, even if sometimes it felt a bit scary, then I started getting occasional bad episodes of dp/dr, and ended up really scared and unable to stop my head from going wherever it liked all by itself. I think if I hadn't meditated then the few panicky episodes would have just faded away, although of course I can't know that for certain. I think that's reasonable, not just some kind of delusion, because I think that a lot of the feelings associated with dp/dr are described very well by buddhist meditators, and there's a lot of stuff on the internet about people screwing themselves over by meditating too hard.

So when I say meditation nowadays, the sort I want to do to get back, I don't mean anything very intense or complicated, just relaxation really, with a bit of positive thought over the top.

 

[Guest]

I got DP/DR from smoking weed as well. It was about 2 and a half months ago. Although I still have really really bad days (such as yesterday when I was scared of my own "paranoid" thoughts), I feel that I am slowly beginning to understand what Janine and others on this board are advising the sufferers to do.

I never took any medication for it. I pretty much knew from the first minute of getting panic attacks, DP & DR what was happening so the problem has been dealing with it. I went to a psychologist once who said that it's anxiety, that I should trust myself (which is what Janine is saying and what G-Funk advised me to do.. thanks to both of them by the way)... and that I should treat it like I did my "India experience". I'm in grad school for anthropology and did fieldword in India this past summer and had to encounter some pretty unpleasant and dangerous situations but decided to just accept, let the fear of them go and face them... the psychologist said I should try to do the same with DP/DR and that I should not try medication because it will numb the symptoms but not get rid of them permanently. He also said that it's more important for me to deal with my repression of true self etc. because that's the path to recovery.

I don't know whether or not his advice would be good for anyone suffering from DP/DR but I think he was right in my case. The problem is that I'm resistant to just letting it go... to accepting it and to being myself.... but I'm slowly coming around thanks to this board.

 

[Guest]

WOW! Thanks so much everyone for all you responses! Beth: Yeah I know what you mean with mediatation. I tried to meditate once and it made my DP/DR worse. It makes sense what you say about your brain getting you into this it should be able to get you out of it. My plan for this is just to ride it out. I really think that drugs can sometimes intensify this problem. They offer some sort of relief and then makes your body dependent on it. After awhile your body gets use to the doses then you have to up the dose, then the drug doesn't effect you anymore and BAM you switch to another drug and the cycle continues. I find that my DP/DR isn't bad if I get 8 hours of sleep and when it does get bad I just deal with it and then I will get a patch of relief and the severe DP/DR goes away. Shadowness: Thanks for the post. If you don't mind me asking how are you dealing with it naturally? Also you said you heard of DP/DR going away but it depends on how you got it. I am interested to hear more about that. Like I said I got mine from smoking weed and I knew right away what I had. I: I agree with you I think that the meds only help with depression and anxiety not the DP/DR. Tidal: WOW! Sounds like you have a smart doctor. He didn't try to put you on meds he actually told you it might be better to just ride it out. My doctor said kind of the same thing but offered meds as well as a quick fix formula. Reading everyone's replys it sounds like everyone got DP/DR from smoking weed. I think it is pretty darn cool to meet others who are trying to do this without meds. lol! I never knew that weed could do something like this... I wish I knew about DP/DR before I started smoking weed. You live and learn and an experience like this can only make you stronger. When we finally beat this thing I am sure we will ALL be more grateful for life and realize the importance of health. I would like some input on what you can take that is natural to help this. Again thanks for all your help!