Is DP/DR dangerous????

Untreated, it can indirectly KILL YOU.

http://www.nih.gov/news/WordonHealth/oc ... tory01.htm

Excerpt:

Stress and the Immune System
This complete communications cycle from the immune system to the brain and back again allows the immune system to talk to the brain, and the brain to then talk back and shut down the immune response when it?s no longer needed.

?When you think about this cross-talk, this two-way street,? Dr. Sternberg explains, ?you can begin to understand the kinds of illnesses that might result if there is either too much or too little communication in either direction.?

According to Dr. Sternberg, if you?re chronically stressed, the part of the brain that controls the stress response is going to be constantly pumping out a lot of stress hormones. The immune cells are being bathed in molecules which are essentially telling them to stop fighting. And so in situations of chronic stress your immune cells are less able to respond to an invader like a bacteria or a virus.

This theory holds up in studies looking at high-levels of shorter term stress or chronic stress: in caregivers like those taking care of relatives with Alzheimer?s, medical students undergoing exam stress, Army Rangers undergoing extremely grueling physical stress, and couples with marital stress. People in these situations, Dr. Sternberg says, show a prolonged healing time, a decreased ability of their immune systems to respond to vaccination, and an increased susceptibility to viral infections like the common cold.