i believe saschasascha. there are a lot of recovered people (duration of 20+ years) ive talked with and all of them said things that could be correlated with that affect-theory. most of the people who recover do connect to their affect intuitively i think.
Even if we assume that this was correct for people who recovered, how do you know that it also applies to people who never recover? After all, even if affect phobia was correct for some people with depersonalization disorder, this does not necessarily imply that it works for
all patients, since depersonalization is likely a set of heterogeneous disorders sharing similar symptoms.
There is also another serious flaw about putting affect into a center of depersonalization theories: Not all people with depersonalization disorder also have emotional numbness. Most do, but not all of them.
most of you wont know, but there used to be a german dp-forum. the admin of that group was a woman who suffered more than 20 years from complete blank mind (she claimed to not have been able to recall the abc) and she made a perfect degree in law after that with an age more than 50.
Really? I'm not aware that Annolf had a degree in law. It's also difficult to believe for me, because in Germany getting good marks in the state exam is very difficult. I think a perfect score of 18 points is almost non-existent and even the highest mark of "sehr gut" is only achieved by about 0.1%. Law requires logical thinking and that's something, where she has always been very bad. She even had a hard time to correctly use the forum software. Moreover when the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) arrived she immediately shut the forum down for months, although this was totally unnecessary. In the end she bought a new forum software on the grounds that it was GDPR-compilant, but in reality the only notable difference was a link to a webpage with a generic privacy policy, which she could just have copied from somewhere else. Overall this doesn't look like something to me, someone with a decent understanding of german law would do. In fact I did not see any other forum react to the GDPR in such a way. Her emotions short circuited whatever tiny part of her brain is capable of logical reasoning. Do you really think someone who reacts to such a minor annoyance like that would be able to go thorugh the enormous stress of the law state exam?
Moreover, before she finally closed the forum, she boasted about her top marks in her psychology degree, which would not be special after all, because there is a grade inflation in psychology. Most people in Germany end their Master in psychology with a 1,x mark. Generally I would not take her as a role model to follow, because when I consider her conduct throughout the years, especially when she closed the forum, I consider her as seriously deranged and have doubts about her credibility.
for me, to say that this just is spontaneous recovery or „luck“ is the biggest disrespect someone can do.
Which leads to the question why people, who recovered, should be respected, especially when in almost all cases there is no real evidence that the recovery was from their own doing. I took a closer look into many people who recovered, especially recovery nazis. The way most of them behave really does not give me any reason to respect them, but in fact the opposite. Just look at how Tres behaves for example...
Furthermore recovery nazis do not respect the interests of people suffering from depersonalization disorder. They portray depersonalization disorder as universally recoverable, victim-blame people for not recovering, disinform people, are often arrogant, lack empathy and in their own groups ban people for the tiniest bit of criticism. Of course they are only a subset of all people who recover, but even in many recovery stories on this site, these traits are often visible, with recovered people acting as if they figured depersonalization disorder out and could lead patients into the promised land.
My exposure to these people taught me that respect is in many cases the last thing they should get.
We should stop having ego battles. Sacha and Peter have already said everything they have after their first comments and proceed to bicker like hens.
Says the right person.
Unfortunately naltrexone and lamotrigine are perhaps even more bunk in terms of treating depersonalization than psychoanalysis but hey you and your treatment providers are welcome to try. I'd never stop someone from trialing these medicines considering the nescient and neglected, almost nonexistent state of depersonalization treatment.
There are at least some clinical trials, while for psychoanalysis there are almost none.
Sacha, it's very possible to heal in the presence of woo woo and sugar pills. Healthy people have a way of sorting their problems and healing themselves provided they have social support and aren't dealing with some fatal illness. Sometimes psychotherapies are a combination of woo woo and real, like how EMDR is a combination of hypnosis and reexperiencing therapy.
As far as I know, the criticial component of EMDR is the exposition, everything else is either preparation or doesn't contribute anything. In particular EMDR is not really hypnosis.
Interestingly, hypnosis has been proven to work via suggestion, so it's like woo woo that can work.
There are studies showing significant effect for various conditions, but not sure if we can already regard this as a "proof". Hypnosis has been around for at least the 18th century, but still it never really gained grounds as the treatment of choice of any condition, although initally it used to be quite popular until the beginning of the 20th century.
