Never had panic attacks or agoraphobia

CK1 said:

Controversial comment..but i'll tell you how i see it. My 2 cent.

When I was younger I had on off DP sometimes, had no name for it, didn't let it bother me and it wasn't constant, so it wasn't a problem, over some period of time my light anxiety that wasn't constant must have gone anyway enough to not experience it again for 10+ years. Never thought about it again. A major stress triggered Chronic (for now) DP and it was totally different, so different the similarities are small. This sounds like what you have, passing anxiety.

People forget that DP is normal, everyone has DP moments, especially in times of anxiety/stressful periods etc.
At least everyone i've ever explained it to goes 'oh yeah i had that when...' it's part of fight or flight, the best one if you want to explain a mild version is driving say a long distance, you get out of the car and you don't remember driving there, you were focused, but bored and dissociated, or sometimes a hangover use to do it to me, again at that stage didn't have a name for it and felt totally different.

Most people are here because it isn't in a passing moment or mild, for now it is stuck on the 'on' position, like a constant thing and comes with feeling totally emotionally numb and blocked off, trust me, you'd know this. What is calm for me now is just a blank slate of emptiness.

My advice if you don't have panic attacks, constant anxiety, no emotions, no thoughts/racing thoughts and you don't have DP 24/7, then literally do nothing, forget about it, it will fade as your anxiety does. The reason people and rightly so get so wound up with this advice from someone who had the disorder for 2 months and comes back with this advice is because they are explaining what I had 10 years ago.. which sounds like you, slightly anxious but not stuck in DP. The two are completely different worlds, Chalk and Cheese, but most will never experience both, so I just bite my tongue, it's never 'bad' advice, just chronic DP is not mild, doesn't mean it's not curable, but you'd sure know the difference for reasons listed above. I hope this reassures you

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CK1 said:

Least it's fading, none of this changes over night for anyone.

I'm not saying you aren't experiencing some DP/DR symptoms, i think you are, but your anxiety seems to be lowering, you aren't completely numb and just a few symptoms that many of my friends who never had chronic DP have had for periods of their lives, one felt like that for six months after a break up for instance and he doesn't relate to the disorder really it was just high anxiety, like what i had the first time. As i said above, this time i'm totally blank/numb like 100% talking about DP doesn't make me anxious as it's really not on my mind, this is like checking in on Facebook, the anxiety of the situation has long past.

I'd try this http://www.dpselfhelp.com/forum/index.php?/topic/20892-the-holy-grail-of-curing-dpdr/ before i'd get medication, but it depends on how you feel,
do you notice good periods with less anxiety = less DP?
how long have you had / felt off?

I can relate to insomnia adrenaline can keep you up for days, the time perception thing is scary, but again if your adrenaline is high time isn't gonna be linear, I actually have some type of other disorder (CNS) or the like causing 'hyper arousal', not sleeping for days, but again you'd know all about it if you had that, it's like an extreme version of 'wired' where you never feel tired.

I guess if you really want you could use the Cambridge Scale. This is the scale I use below, it's the Cambridge scale with a question took out that I never had, so i just changed it slightly..

I've kept my score in.

• 40% - Cut of from the world
• 0% - Things look flat
• 0% - Feel like body doesn't belong to me
• 35% - Observer of myself
• 0% - Body feels light
• 90% - No Emotions
• 20% - Voice sounds remote (sometimes 0)
• 100% - No thoughts
• 0% - Hands look larger or smaller than they did
• 0% - Surroundings feel detached
• 80% - Time perception (sometimes 30)
• 50% - Detached from memories
• 50% - Feelings of affection friends and family
• 0% - Objects look further or closer than before
• 0% - Pencil feels like not mine when holding it
• 100% - Can't picture things in my mind
• 0% - Doesn't feel like my own arm when pinch it
• 20% Feeling outside body
• 0% - Things happen automatically
• 0% - Thoughts have a life of their own
• 0% - I have to touch myself to know I am real

585/2100 (then x10)
515/2100 (better day)

= 28%
= 24%

For my DP i've gone from a 90% on the scale to average around 25% and most are Major Depressive Disorder symptoms, although still feel in constant DP but i think that's as much feeling no emotions. About to start an AD (Effexor) hopefully will knock that out of the park. Sorry i keep answering your questions with my experience, it's kinda the easiest way, i've talked to many on this forum and read a lot but you only truly know what you experience. Hopefully you can use some of the information to figure where you stand.

EDIT: found it the scale for you, it has 22 questions, so just use the way i've filled it in, get the score divide it by 2200 x 10 https://www.docdroid.net/zIAJlG7/cds-state.pdf#page=3

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