[Guest]

Does this happen with dp?

My thoughts feel unreal and confused. I keep wondering how thoughts happen and how they are processed.
Mine feel as though they are coming from somewhere else. Its so hard to explain and difficult to stop obsessing about.
When this happens it makes me panic and I cant stop trying to work out why it feels like this.

I have managed to stop fearing the unreality outside of myself and the detached feelings, but the thought thing is still scaing me.

How can I tell myself not to be afraid when my thoughts dont feel like they are mine or happening normally.

Does this make sense to anyone.
Im so scared I will disappear inside my own though cycle and never come out again.

Can anyone give me any reassurance.....please

 

[whiterabbit]

Jude, this is absolutely part of the dp experience - and it is really completely and utterly wierd and obsessing and distressing and I have been having this for the last couple of months. As you will find elsewhere on this board, one of the best tips is to keep going with all normal activity despite this horrible fractured inner experience - keep seeing people, keep doing things, do more rather than less, do not isolate, try not to obsess or at least distract as much as possible. Do not withdraw further into the spiral in your head that will only make it worse and prolong it, just keep connecting outwards as much as is possible and ESPECIALLY when your mind tells you it won't do you any good.

Sending you all my strongest wishes for your courage and strength - it will pass, it will.

Sarah x

 

[M A R S]

Jude, i have also been just like this for the past 2 months. I'm now getting to the point that i just want to give up and go crazy.

Its amazing how your own mind can do this. I feel like I'm in space or a dream almost all the time.

Ill send white lite to you and i hope this passes for all of us.

 

[maria]

yeah, isn't it the stupidest thing to obsess about? Who even cares how speech/thought are created, except some boring linguists. Still I keep wondering "wow, did I just say that, did that sound normal, normal, what is normal anyway, why don't I think about that for a while"...exhausting.

 

[blackwinded]

hi
jude, i think i can really relate to this. I have so many problems with my thoughts. i constantly feel like i don't know what is real and what isn't . Lately, i've been getting these weird feelings that maybe doing such things, like cutting through a picture of someone with a pair of scissors, is murdering them.

And then, theres the feelings kind;ve like you describe, that my thoughts don't belong to me. I have started to hear my own thoughts inside my head more crisply and loudly than usual. And then of coarse, there are the voices i hear in my head (i have schizophrenia) it's like i am telepathic. (actually, i believe i am) Like other people are putting their thoughts into my head and i have no control over them. I Constantly hear all these voices in the backround conversing with each other, saying things that make no sense, and it sometimes makes me feel physically sick. It makes it so hard for me to think straigtht.

anyway, i dont know if this is typical with dp. I dont have true dp. I just have it as part of schizophrenia, and i know that the feelings of having thoughts incerted into your head, thoughts coming from somewhere else, having voices in your head that are not your own inner voice, is pretty typical of schizophrenia, and it almost sounds like that is what you are describing: "thought incertion" and such.
But i could be totally misinterpreting what you are saying, and i don't mean to scare you or anything.
this stuff really is so hard to describe. For me, it's like other people are thinking inside my head; i have no control over their voices. They say random things that make no sense, or laugh or scream, or mumble, or comment on me. Is this anything like what you experience?

-becka

 

[Milan]

Yes! I understand what your saying. When I first got DP/DR this was the main thing that bugged me. I couldn't understand where thoughts came from and what the hec where thoughts anyway? Caused a lot of intense anxiety. I even started getting phobic about my thoughts. I still get it these days but not as intense meaning I don't get panic attacks (rush of fear, racing heart, racing thoughts, confusion etc).

The only thing that helps is to IMMEDIATELY distract myself when I start focusing on thoughts. It's the only thing that helps.

 

[livinginhell333]

yea i know right. when i was normal i didn't think about this shit i thought about shit normal people did. but yea a lot of the times i don't feel like my thoughts are mine. i changed my name to freddie cuz my real name is marco and he's not here. i wonder how the hell i am typing this right now cuz it feels like someone else is doing it. i try not to think about it, but its hard when it feels like someone else is in control of everything you do, say, think. it sucks. there's like no way i can stop it. a lot of times i'd rather be alone then with people, cuz if i'm with people i'll keep questioning things. like how come i am not like them or i'll question things they say and be like i used to talk about things like that.

also when my bro's gf is over i always get like kinda upset cuz i can't have a gf there all on each other enjoying each other and the feeling of life and love, and live and love is nowhere close to me and a lot of the times i feel like i will never come back to reality. its so horrible.

 

[Sojourner]

Have you tried to do any guided meditation?

Close-your-eyes-and-imagine-you're-lying-on-a-beach type thing? Hear the sounds, feel the warmth of the sun, and so forth?

Or maybe it's a mountain top you prefer -- close your eyes and go there in your mind.

Relax..........................................

Have you tried this? I mean, seriously tried it?

It works on the exact same principle that causes your tension and anxiety -- the power of your mind. You still have the power of your mind. You can refuse to try guided meditation and relaxation. You can say, "Oh, I've done that."

Of course, I will sit here and snicker, "Oh, no you didn't!" And I will do so because you have the power to refuse to try something new and if you don't try it, you are using the very considerable power of your mind.

So all this talk is just hogwash -- in a sense. Do you get my drift? I mean no offense, but I dare you to try to relax by the method I've outlined here and report back on how it goes.

Now, you have to really try, okay? You have to do it and expect that I am not lying to you, right?

Okay. Please try.

 

[Guest]

I have a meditation cd here that takes you to a garden with a stream and flowers etc.

\i tried it once and scared myself because I was imagining being there and worried in case I wouldnt come back and would get stuck inside my imagination.
Thats the problem you see. If I have a dream at night, when I wake I feel like I am still in the dream and that Im not really awake properly and it scares the hell out of me.
Imagining Im in a different place feels the same.
So Iv been too afraid to try again.
I know that I need to find a method of relaxation that will work because I am so full of anxiety.
I cannot stop and relax because I panic when I think.
I go around like a manic fool trying to find something to do to take my mind off dp. But this is just running away from the problem and causing more anxiety.
Its a viscious circle.
Any ideas please?

Judex

 

[Sojourner]

Are you seeing a doctor and a therapist? Are you on medication?

If none of the above, I would do so.

Most of what you report is just a heightened sense of what everyone in the world experiences from time to time, and sometimes even frequently. The nature of thought is very odd, indeed, and you don't have to be suffering from anxiety to appreciate that fact.

What may be part of why you're scared is the idea that the thoughts themselves are abnormal. They are not. I think thoughts like that all the time. The difference is that you are fixated on them.

Try telling yourself that existence is marvelous and uncanny and that normal people dip into what you are experiencing frequently, but don't get sucked in for good.

You and many others may just never have experienced this "underside" of reality. It's there and it's always been there, and much great drama, music, and literature comes from the uncanny and inexpressible feelings of awe and confounding we experience there.

But we are not meant to LIVE there. What you need to discover is why you choose to TAKE REFUGE in such a place. You may feel at the mercy of those thoughts, but I think you are choosing them. You can just let them go -- yes, literally, let them float by you and don't pay attention to them.

Get involved in doing something active with your mind.

Remember that old saying, "Idle hands are the devil's playground."?

Well, now you know what the old sayings are: truth.

The human mind can fully focus on only ONE thing at a time. If you have nothing to fill your consciousness with, you are not helping yourself get better. Don't sit around doing nothing. Don't sit around listening to rock music, most of all. If you want to listen to music, listen to classical music and concentrate on the music. Classical music does beneficial things for the brain and rock music (though I love some of it) doesn't do anything beneficial to the mind.