[Shadow Cat]

I've heard some people say that when you have DP episodes that you should just let it pass and not fight it, but to me that seems/feels like giving up. Do I really just have to leave it alone for it to go away? It seems like I should fight it to get rid of it, you know?

 

[Sojourner]

It depends on whether your neurotransmitters are the cause or whether the cause is psychological.

If the problem is the neurotransmitters, letting go might help a bit, but you will have time for nothing else and it ultimately will not work.

You need to find out which it is: neurotransmitters or psychology.

Have you been seen by a physician trained in this area?

 

[Guest]

I've heard some people say that when you have DP episodes that you should just let it pass and not fight it, but to me that seems/feels like giving up. Do I really just have to leave it alone for it to go away? It seems like I should fight it to get rid of it, you know?

letting it pass is NOT dealing with it.
you should face it head on and try to MAKE it as bad as you can get it.
that way, you aren't scared of it anymore!

 

[rainboteers]

I cannot face it and make it as bad as it can get. There is no way this feeling will ever stop scaring the hell out of me. If that is the cure, I am doomed

 

[Monkeydust]

I don't see the dichotomy between the two.

I've always felt that being able to "let is pass" was fighting it, because my immediate urge is to focus more inward and more in on the symptoms.

You fight it by trying not to pay attention to the symptoms. Fighting it and letting it pass are in many respects one and the same thing.

 

[Brainsilence02]

With respect to nataskaos' reply, I agee with MonkeyDust. I recommend focusing outwards. You must do the things that bring the "beast" in pain. Focusing makes the "beast" stronger.

 

[Guest]

I cannot face it and make it as bad as it can get. There is no way this feeling will ever stop scaring the hell out of me. If that is the cure, I am doomed

I guess I didn't explain myself fully, and I apologize.

by "making it as bad as you can", I mean TRY.
THERE IS NO WAY that you can make it that bad.
You can try and try and try...but it just ends up going away.
Why?
because you aren't afraid of it anymore.
and all an anxiety attack is the fear of the fear.

try this:
try tickeling yourself.
it can't be done.
it's not funny, and it doesn't make you laugh, because you are in control of it, and all of the sensation is taken out of it.

same with anxiety.
if you TRY to make it as bad as possible, it starts to go away almost ASAP.

you can do it.
I promise.
just give it a shot.

Heh..if I can do it, anyone can!

 

[Shadow Cat]

It depends on whether your neurotransmitters are the cause or whether the cause is psychological.

If the problem is the neurotransmitters, letting go might help a bit, but you will have time for nothing else and it ultimately will not work.

You need to find out which it is: neurotransmitters or psychology.

Have you been seen by a physician trained in this area?

I'm pretty sure that it is psychological, but I wasn't actually tested, I don't think there is a way to actually test that. My psychologist and I are almost completely sure that it is psychological though.

 

[Shadow Cat]

I cannot face it and make it as bad as it can get. There is no way this feeling will ever stop scaring the hell out of me. If that is the cure, I am doomed

I feel the exact same way. Also, if I'm not scared of it anymore, that would be O.K., but the whole feeling also makes me depressed as well as scared.

 

[Universal]

i don't think "making it as bad as you can" is necesserily the answer. most likely you will just scare yourself more and go even more into your thoughts and feelings. my advice is to cope and deal with it as much as possible, but i know for me , if i had to face all of it at once it'd be like having a nightmare. it's not the fear , it's the fear or the trigger of the fear that gets you.

like this diagram: TRIGGER->fear->further dp'd
if you bypass the trigger, the fear doesn't come up, no further dp.
however if you keep pushing TRIGGER TRIGGER TRIGGER eventually you'll get so tired and get wiped out. is that what you consider a remedy?

 

[rainboteers]

Shadow cat,
I feel for you because I am depressed as well. It doesn't make it any easier that is for sure.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Just out of curiosity rainboteers, are you taking any medications?

 

[rainboteers]

yeah, 40mg of celexa and xanax when I need. Dr. doesn't think medication will help me though. She thinks it is PTSD, but she is just a GP. I have been on it for about 3-4 weeks, praying it will start helping more in time.

 

[Sojourner]

Shadowcat wrote:

"My psychologist and I are almost completely sure that it is psychological though."

Psychologists are not competent to make a diagnosis; they do not have medical degrees and their knowledge is limited. You need a psychopharmacologist to assess you. A psychiatrist like mine who has lots of experience and knowledge and also does therapy, though he's not my therapist.

 

[Guest]

i don't think "making it as bad as you can" is necesserily the answer. most likely you will just scare yourself more and go even more into your thoughts and feelings

I have to respectfully disagree with you here.
you can't be scared by something you are willfully doing to yourself.

I suggest reading anything by Doctor Claire Weeks. here treatment of anxiety is amazing, and honestly the only thing that EVER helped me at all.
"Floating" on by and just "living with" the anxiety didn't ever make it go away, it just lessened it.

 

[Sojourner]

I don't mean the person has to do both medicine and therapy -- sorry about that. My doctor is the ideal, though, even though I don't use him for therapy. He does CBT, while I'm in a sort of analysis.

By the way, today I had zero panic attacks. Zero. That means I have probably achieved the correct dosage. And once again, my doctor's predictions were right on the money. He said he thought I needed about 200 mg of Zoloft back a few weeks ago when I was on 75.

I feel pretty much like my old self. No fear; no TRACE of fear.

I didn't really think I was going to make it....but thanks be to God, for some reason He wants me to continue to be here.

I have a new sense of the fragility of sanity, now. I hope I don't lose the memory of the surreal world I entered, because it is key to understanding so many human miseries and understanding why people flip out.

It's also made me realize that I need to pay more attention to what Christ is calling me to be as a person. I understand now that this life is quite serious (not all serious), but what we DO does matter. And I've been coasting, as it were.

Anyway, I feel as if I have been reborn.

In a way, I'm not sure why I'm even here tonight, but there were some things I wanted to respond to from earlier.

Getting back to the other thing -- let a physician tell you its psychological. If you want to know the truth, it's almost better for you if it is physical, because it's a lot easier to remove the symptoms than it is if it's psychological.

But to get a diagnosis you HAVE to go to a professionally competent person. Read up on all this on the Internet. There's loads of information.

You cannot continue to diagnose yourself or go to unqualified people and hope to get better.

Please! Go to a psychiatrist who has experience with these disorders. Please! I beg you!!!!!

 

[Guest]

I know everyone is unique, etc. etc....but just my own two cents here (as someone who is recovered). I did try a FEW times to make it worse, to push INTO the fear, etc...and I am telling you, people, I can still remember the damn days of the week and the weather and what I wore when I did it, lol....it was HORRIBLE each time.

People can say "oh, you can't make it worse..." well, they haven't met ME, lol.....I do realize, of course, that you cannot REALLY make "it" worse in the sense that you cannot drive yourself insane or do any permanent damage to your brain, etc....but you sure as hell can make yourself freak out a thousand times worse.

IF others have success with this method, God bless you, but I almost thought I was going to run to a hospital after one try of that (and this was under a psychiatrist's suggestion by the way). It was a nightmare for me, and hey, I'm no idiot. I'll apparently only do something 3 times before realizing it's torture.

Peace,
Janine

 

[Shadow Cat]

Shadowcat wrote:

"My psychologist and I are almost completely sure that it is psychological though."

Psychologists are not competent to make a diagnosis; they do not have medical degrees and their knowledge is limited. You need a psychopharmacologist to assess you. A psychiatrist like mine who has lots of experience and knowledge and also does therapy, though he's not my therapist.

Would going to a psychopharmacologist be expensive and take more than one visit? How would they test you? Also, before I started therapy, I got a "check-up" by a normal doctor. That wouldn't make a difference though would it?

 

[Dreamland]

shadow Cat- You should not fight it everytime beacuse you're feeding into it that way; that's how you'll develop that chain reaction thought pattern. Again, realize that your reaction to depersonalization accounts for 75% of these horrible feelings. It's like a panic attack, less intense but will last longer. If you said your issues were more psychological in nature then deal with those asap and your depersonalization will susbside. Are you stuck in a situation that you feel you can't get out off(relationship, work)? Did you feel insecure about yourself prior to your depersonalization predicament? There are many things that can cause depersonalization. And most people don't have the disorder but they have it as a symptom of depression, anxiety, trauma, abuse. Draw a visual timeline of your life on a piece of paper and see if you can deduct a pattern-perhaps cyclical, relationships, fight with parents etc -that has been the catalyst for your depersonalization.