You’re in your 20’s, more or less the same age as my first episode and your experience sounds similar to mine. Now I’m in my mid 40’s. I had a second episode some years ago which wasn’t exactly the same but I also fully recovered from it.
You’re still so young. You’re feeling at the bottom of a deep hole and it feels like you’ll never get out of it but you will. Celebrate your birthday. Go through the motions, smile at your friends. Try to get on with your life and do the type of things that you used to do and enjoy. I promise, very slowly you’ll get better. It won’t be obvious and one of the features of DP is that you’re always checking whether you feel better than the previous day (and usually you feel the same or worse) but after some weeks or months you’ll have to admit that you are feeling better. You’ll still fear having setbacks (and you’ll have them) but keep going!
The best part is that one day, after a couple of years, you’ll look back and your DP will be just one of many formative experiences that you will have lived in your early adulthood. I once checked a diary that I kept from those years and I was surprised that my recovery had taken so many months. I had nice memories of things that I had done during those years and it shocked me to realise that I was still preoccupied with DP at the time. My brain had shrunk my DP experience to a vague bleak memory while keeping all the rest . So that’s why I encourage to get on with your life and keep doing the things that you’d do without DP, even if they make you feel joyless and empty.
If you’ve lucky to have good friends and family, just tell them going through a rough patch and that you may need an occasional hug or cheer up. No need to explain to them the details (in my experience this doesn’t help, although maybe it will in yours).
I promise you’ll get better. And you’ll become a more resilient person. My second DP crisis helped me learn ways to better handle anxiety which was priceless during the pandemic.
So hang in there!
You’re still so young. You’re feeling at the bottom of a deep hole and it feels like you’ll never get out of it but you will. Celebrate your birthday. Go through the motions, smile at your friends. Try to get on with your life and do the type of things that you used to do and enjoy. I promise, very slowly you’ll get better. It won’t be obvious and one of the features of DP is that you’re always checking whether you feel better than the previous day (and usually you feel the same or worse) but after some weeks or months you’ll have to admit that you are feeling better. You’ll still fear having setbacks (and you’ll have them) but keep going!
The best part is that one day, after a couple of years, you’ll look back and your DP will be just one of many formative experiences that you will have lived in your early adulthood. I once checked a diary that I kept from those years and I was surprised that my recovery had taken so many months. I had nice memories of things that I had done during those years and it shocked me to realise that I was still preoccupied with DP at the time. My brain had shrunk my DP experience to a vague bleak memory while keeping all the rest . So that’s why I encourage to get on with your life and keep doing the things that you’d do without DP, even if they make you feel joyless and empty.
If you’ve lucky to have good friends and family, just tell them going through a rough patch and that you may need an occasional hug or cheer up. No need to explain to them the details (in my experience this doesn’t help, although maybe it will in yours).
I promise you’ll get better. And you’ll become a more resilient person. My second DP crisis helped me learn ways to better handle anxiety which was priceless during the pandemic.
So hang in there!
