Triggers, symptoms & cures

I'm nineteen years old, and I started experiencing the symptoms of Depersonalization/derealization last summer. I'm surprised at the amount of cases that have been associated with drug usage, and mine's another one. I took a really high dosage of magic mushrooms last summer. They took me completely out of this world, dissolved my sense of self and physical being, and was basically the scariest thing I have ever experienced. I honestly thought I was going to die.
Well, it all sounds terrible, but I actually have a love-hate relationship with my depersonalization. I consider it to be a gift in many ways, and I wouldn't swap it for the world. But I also wish it wouldn't get so overwhelming and scary.
So what do I experience? Well, for 90% of my day I'm totally fine. I keep busy, do my essays, go to my lectures... but occasionally things will trigger my dp/dr off and thats when things get really frightening for me.

---Things that often trigger it: ---
Being in big crowds of people
Being alone and thinking deeply about existance
When I'm sleepy or havent had enough sleep
When it gets dark
When I'm scared of something
When I feel isolated in a social situation
When I smoke weed/pot
When I'm stressed out, or daydreamy.

---What Happens: ---
Things around me don't feel 'real'. I wonder what reality is. It feels like I could slip through it any second. Reality feels like a veil, and I can almost see what's behind it but not quite.
I don't feel 'real' and I wonder if I exist or not
I get scared worrying about reality/existance
People in the street look alien-like, robotic. I think it's strange that they have 'arms' and 'legs', it seems so strange, like some kind of sci-fi fantasy.
My parents faces become unfamiliar and obscure. I know who they are but they don't look right. They feel alien to me.
I am amazed by normal objects - a mug, my phone - they seem incredibly complex in their existance.
The idea of 'life' or 'a world' seems unimaginable
I have no words to describe my feelings
I feel totally isolated - wondering if I'm the only person experiencing this 'reality'. I feel disjointed from my body - my mind seems as though it is seperate, like a ball of consciousness floating around.
I feel LOST in the world, and I ask questions like 'what's going on?' 'where am i?' and 'who am i?'.
I feel like I'm just living out 'what I'm supposed to do'. I carry out daily tasks but I recognise them as systematic, robotic, maintenance, and I feel dissassociated from them.
The simply creases in my duvet cover become unimaginable complicated and almost threatening in their complexity.
I feel isolated from my environment. I feel lost wherever I go. Wherever I am I will still ask myself 'Where am I?'
Communication and socialising becomes pointless because I'm not sure if these other people are real. They don't understand anyway.
Life, the world, everything seems obscure, like a dream.
I feel completely, helplessly alone. I don't trust that anything exists apart from myself, and I don't even know what that is.

---My ways of dealing with it: ---
Spend time with my best friend, chat, watch a movie, eat food, normal stuff.
Get busy, go shopping, but avoid big crowds, avoid being alone.
Look at colours, shapes. Indulge myself in my surroundings - allow things to feel sensual. I can touch and feel things, it feels good. Look at things, observe, find beauty in things.
Write about my feelings
Cry - let out my emotions, anger, FEAR, aloneness.
Read about dp/dr in books or online.

MOST IMPORTANTLY - (these are the two ways I really keep myself here):
1. I make a conscious CHOICE to live in this reality, whether or not I believe it to be real. I MAKE it real. I make the CHOICE to be me, whoever I am - and I accept the weirdness of existance.
2. Laugh. Just laugh - god, it's all f***ng strange/obscure/unreal - sometimes we can either laugh or cry, and laughing is a very good option. I have no idea what's going on, and I'm gonna laugh at the fact that I don't have a clue.

---Why I think dp/dr is a gift: ---

-When I'm experiencing dp/dr it feels more like the 'truth' than when I'm not experiencing it. dp feels REAL. It feels organic. I feel surprised that everyone in the world doesn't feel like this because the feelings seem so obvious to me...
-I have perspective on life all the time. It's like the feeling you get when you look at the stars. You can always see the bigger picture. Mundane problems are less likely to get you down because they seem so trivial compared to the big reality-question.
-I see how beautiful things really are. A falling leaf becomes so wonderous. How how how, and why? It's amazing.
-The world can seem extra sensuous if you let it. Dipping my fingers into water becomes an extraordinary experience. I don't understand any of it, but it's beautiful.

I hope some of this has helped.

Julia xx