The DPDR-ometer
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How to use:
You can measure your own dpdr symptoms on a scale from -10 to +10.
This should help you manage your symptoms and give you a sense of control. Whenever you are aware of your symptoms, you can say to yourself, for example, ', everything looks behind glass, and anxious about it, I'm at about -4 - now -3, -5...(changing)' or, 'that's not me in the mirror, I'm at about -8.'
Below I have suggested some values for different symptoms, but these will unique to each person and can change in intensity, so you may want to adapt them to you. The scale should really represent the intensity of your own symptoms, so if for you numbness is intense, then have that in the negative scores.
10 Feel strongly alive, real, integrated, connected, complete.
5 Feel very positive about self in the world, good sense of reality and one's place in it.
2 General feeling of well-being and stability.
0 Neutral. Not thinking about sense of reality/self. No particular concerns one way or other. No issue. Involved in other things.
-1 eyes seem not quite settled, out of line
-2 some minor 'buzzy' sense of unreality around the edges, small colour/detail enhancements to vision. Annoyance/some anxiety but can't put finger on it.
-5 world as real/unreal feel equally likely. Some visuals surreal, behind a glass screen. Unpleasant, disorientated, can't help but question 'reality'. Feel sense of loss of orientation in the world.
-8 eg, 'floating eyeballs', arms don't feel your own, don't recognise you as yourself in mirror. Not really here, but somewhere else seeing here.
-10 complete sense of unreality, no link with the world or place in it, extremely distressed.
The main advantage of using a scale like this is it doesn't look for a '100%' perfection state of mind (which is impossible!).
Also, a lot of time, you won't be thinking about dp/dr: with this scale you can put that on the scale at 0.
Try using it for a few days and see what difference it makes to your ability to manage your dp/dr.
Any questions or comments, please say.
View media item 335
(click for larger image)
How to use:
You can measure your own dpdr symptoms on a scale from -10 to +10.
This should help you manage your symptoms and give you a sense of control. Whenever you are aware of your symptoms, you can say to yourself, for example, ', everything looks behind glass, and anxious about it, I'm at about -4 - now -3, -5...(changing)' or, 'that's not me in the mirror, I'm at about -8.'
Below I have suggested some values for different symptoms, but these will unique to each person and can change in intensity, so you may want to adapt them to you. The scale should really represent the intensity of your own symptoms, so if for you numbness is intense, then have that in the negative scores.
10 Feel strongly alive, real, integrated, connected, complete.
5 Feel very positive about self in the world, good sense of reality and one's place in it.
2 General feeling of well-being and stability.
0 Neutral. Not thinking about sense of reality/self. No particular concerns one way or other. No issue. Involved in other things.
-1 eyes seem not quite settled, out of line
-2 some minor 'buzzy' sense of unreality around the edges, small colour/detail enhancements to vision. Annoyance/some anxiety but can't put finger on it.
-5 world as real/unreal feel equally likely. Some visuals surreal, behind a glass screen. Unpleasant, disorientated, can't help but question 'reality'. Feel sense of loss of orientation in the world.
-8 eg, 'floating eyeballs', arms don't feel your own, don't recognise you as yourself in mirror. Not really here, but somewhere else seeing here.
-10 complete sense of unreality, no link with the world or place in it, extremely distressed.
The main advantage of using a scale like this is it doesn't look for a '100%' perfection state of mind (which is impossible!).
Also, a lot of time, you won't be thinking about dp/dr: with this scale you can put that on the scale at 0.
Try using it for a few days and see what difference it makes to your ability to manage your dp/dr.
Any questions or comments, please say.
