The first way to overcome it is to accept that it is quite simply only your mind. I took St Johns Wort because i thought it was depression, i can not say for definite whether it actually helped for depersonalisation and you would have to research that. However, i must say this if it is a cure you want then you already have it. Your mind created this your mind can remove it.
Everything around you is normal.
You are no different from anyone else.
Accept that it is temporary.
Do everything that you normally would even with that fear in your stomach.
Write a list of things to look forward too, look at this everyday.
Keep yourself busy but assure yourself you will have to learn to be relaxed.
Most importantly as hard as it seems you must ignore that voice in your head, every time you hear it remember that you are that voice and you are in control. Everything it is saying is false and soon you will be back to your normal self.
This is not a disease its a resting period , its not serious.
As soon as you accept that it is not a permanent illness, everyday you can wake up lighter and refreshed.
I found talking about it helped me so much, as soon as i spoke to someone else about it i calmed down i realised it for what it was and to watch their reaction meant that yes the thoughts were odd, and unbelievable but that helped because i could see how this reflected the fact that it was all anxiety related.
The best tip i found was from the article i found that you can read here
that was that you should not be impressed by the sensations you are feeling don't give it too much thought.
Get out of the cycle get out of the worry!.
Friday, 7 March 2008
An article i found that cleared it all up.
Sufferers of Depersonalisation or Derealisation feel divorced from both the world and from their own body. Often people who experience depersonalisation claim that life "feels like a dream", things seem unreal, or hazy; some say they feel detached from their own body. Another symptom of this condition can be the constant worrying or strange thoughts that people find hard to switch off.
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People often say that no matter how hard they try, they don't feel like they can interact with the world around them. They feel a sense of detachment from their surroundings, finding it hard to talk and connect with others. Also they feel no love for the people closest to them and even question if they did a certain task or had a particular conversation. The most upsetting thing is they lose a sense of who they are and can't seem to perceive themselves as being normal.
Depersonalisation is a common and understandable offshoot of the anxiety condition. Before going further into depersonalisation, let me clear up one thing, which is something I get asked often. “No, you are not going mad.” This feeling comes from being constantly worried about your own problems, but it is not serious or harmful in any way and has a totally logical explanation. It is temporary and, with patience and understanding, eventually passes like any other symptom.
Depersonalisation occurs with anxiety because you are so used to watching yourself, questioning your illness, day in, day out, that you start to feel detached from the outside world. Your mind has become tired and less resilient through watching yourself and worrying about your symptoms. It has been bombarded with worrying thoughts and becomes fatigued. When our limbs tire, they ache. When our mind tires, we feel these strange feelings of detachment from the world around us, experiencing an almost dreamlike state, convincing ourselves that we are going mad or losing it. You are not; your mind is just so very tired and just craves a rest from all this introspection of oneself.
When people are caught up in the worry cycle, they begin to think deeply and constantly. They study themselves from deep within, checking in and focusing on their symptoms. They may even wake in the morning only to continue this habit, “How do I feel this morning? “I wonder if I will be able to get through today”. What’s this new sensation I feel?” This may go on all day, exhausting their already tired mind further. This constant checking in and constant assessing of their symptoms then becomes a habit, but like all other habits this one can also be changed.
All this worry is bound to make your mind feel dull and unresponsive, You are so concerned about how you feel, that you are letting nothing else into your day, is it any wonder you have come to feel so distanced and detached from your surroundings? Is it any wonder you find it so hard to concentrate? Some people, when studying for exams for hours on end, get to the point where they can no longer take information in, so they take a break and carry on the day after. For you, there are no breaks and no time outs.
What a lot of people don’t know is that depersonalisation can occur in people without anxiety or panic issues. This can occur when someone has lost a loved one, been involved in an accident or maybe a recent shock. It is the body’s way of protecting you from all the worry or hurt you maybe feeling. This is normally temporary and when say the person grieving overcomes some of the hurt, the depersonalisation will fade. The trouble with anxiety is that people suffering have a tendency to worry and the depersonalisation comes along to protect you from all this stress and daily worry. People can then feel detached, empty or emotionless. What happens then though is people begin to then worry and obsess over this new feeling, thinking its something serious or they are going mad. They may even forget their anxiety and focus solely on this new feeling, this can lead to these feelings increasing. The unreality grows as we enter a cycle of worry and fear and so your body protects you with these feelings of unreality even more, making you feel more distanced and detached. It is the very worry and fear over this feeling that keeps you in the cycle.
The way to move forward out of depersonalisation is not to worry and obsess about it, but to work with it there, to give it as much space as it needs and not be too impressed by it. To see it as your body protecting you and not a sign that something terrible is happening or that you are going mad. This symptom is like any other and the more you worry or obsess about it, the bigger the problem can become and the longer you stay in the cycle.
I took some convincing that this was just an off-shoot of anxiety at the time when I was suffering, I thought this must be more serious. Now I know that it was caused by nothing more than a tired mind because I am living proof. I felt so detached that I could not read a book or follow a conversation. It was like taking part in some sort of movie, having to act my way through the day. I just could not connect with people or anything outside of my own little world. I now know that I was just in the habit of watching myself all day and was so concerned about how I felt and how I could get better, I had no interest in the outside world; my illness consumed me. I was living my life while at the same time watching myself and doing neither very well.
This symptom, like many others relies on your fear of it to keep it alive and this is the symptom I have been asked more than any other over the years. I do go in to far more detail in my book and explain how I was able to recover from this harmless yet disturbing symptom. This condition can really throw people into thinking it is something far worse than it really is. I myself found this feeling of detachment very hard to accept and understand, but when it was explained to me in full, in time I was able to rid myself of this symptom of anxiety.
.
People often say that no matter how hard they try, they don't feel like they can interact with the world around them. They feel a sense of detachment from their surroundings, finding it hard to talk and connect with others. Also they feel no love for the people closest to them and even question if they did a certain task or had a particular conversation. The most upsetting thing is they lose a sense of who they are and can't seem to perceive themselves as being normal.
Depersonalisation is a common and understandable offshoot of the anxiety condition. Before going further into depersonalisation, let me clear up one thing, which is something I get asked often. “No, you are not going mad.” This feeling comes from being constantly worried about your own problems, but it is not serious or harmful in any way and has a totally logical explanation. It is temporary and, with patience and understanding, eventually passes like any other symptom.
Depersonalisation occurs with anxiety because you are so used to watching yourself, questioning your illness, day in, day out, that you start to feel detached from the outside world. Your mind has become tired and less resilient through watching yourself and worrying about your symptoms. It has been bombarded with worrying thoughts and becomes fatigued. When our limbs tire, they ache. When our mind tires, we feel these strange feelings of detachment from the world around us, experiencing an almost dreamlike state, convincing ourselves that we are going mad or losing it. You are not; your mind is just so very tired and just craves a rest from all this introspection of oneself.
When people are caught up in the worry cycle, they begin to think deeply and constantly. They study themselves from deep within, checking in and focusing on their symptoms. They may even wake in the morning only to continue this habit, “How do I feel this morning? “I wonder if I will be able to get through today”. What’s this new sensation I feel?” This may go on all day, exhausting their already tired mind further. This constant checking in and constant assessing of their symptoms then becomes a habit, but like all other habits this one can also be changed.
All this worry is bound to make your mind feel dull and unresponsive, You are so concerned about how you feel, that you are letting nothing else into your day, is it any wonder you have come to feel so distanced and detached from your surroundings? Is it any wonder you find it so hard to concentrate? Some people, when studying for exams for hours on end, get to the point where they can no longer take information in, so they take a break and carry on the day after. For you, there are no breaks and no time outs.
What a lot of people don’t know is that depersonalisation can occur in people without anxiety or panic issues. This can occur when someone has lost a loved one, been involved in an accident or maybe a recent shock. It is the body’s way of protecting you from all the worry or hurt you maybe feeling. This is normally temporary and when say the person grieving overcomes some of the hurt, the depersonalisation will fade. The trouble with anxiety is that people suffering have a tendency to worry and the depersonalisation comes along to protect you from all this stress and daily worry. People can then feel detached, empty or emotionless. What happens then though is people begin to then worry and obsess over this new feeling, thinking its something serious or they are going mad. They may even forget their anxiety and focus solely on this new feeling, this can lead to these feelings increasing. The unreality grows as we enter a cycle of worry and fear and so your body protects you with these feelings of unreality even more, making you feel more distanced and detached. It is the very worry and fear over this feeling that keeps you in the cycle.
The way to move forward out of depersonalisation is not to worry and obsess about it, but to work with it there, to give it as much space as it needs and not be too impressed by it. To see it as your body protecting you and not a sign that something terrible is happening or that you are going mad. This symptom is like any other and the more you worry or obsess about it, the bigger the problem can become and the longer you stay in the cycle.
I took some convincing that this was just an off-shoot of anxiety at the time when I was suffering, I thought this must be more serious. Now I know that it was caused by nothing more than a tired mind because I am living proof. I felt so detached that I could not read a book or follow a conversation. It was like taking part in some sort of movie, having to act my way through the day. I just could not connect with people or anything outside of my own little world. I now know that I was just in the habit of watching myself all day and was so concerned about how I felt and how I could get better, I had no interest in the outside world; my illness consumed me. I was living my life while at the same time watching myself and doing neither very well.
This symptom, like many others relies on your fear of it to keep it alive and this is the symptom I have been asked more than any other over the years. I do go in to far more detail in my book and explain how I was able to recover from this harmless yet disturbing symptom. This condition can really throw people into thinking it is something far worse than it really is. I myself found this feeling of detachment very hard to accept and understand, but when it was explained to me in full, in time I was able to rid myself of this symptom of anxiety.
Weed and depersonalization.
I love weed and i was a heavy smoker I’d say but prior to being a heavy smoker I had panic attacks anyway. I started having more panic attacks recently and smoked my way through them, now iv stopped smoking it because i got depersonalisation I’m recovering from that and let me tell you recovering from it is simple. Don’t blame weed for it or any other factors .Depersonalisation comes from one thing Anxiety. And if you could smoke weed and not be anxious before then you can do it again. Right now I’m not touching weed quite simply because no matter how strong my mind is I am not fully recovered to be strong enough to control all my thoughts. So whilst I may think that if I smoke weed now I’ll be depersonalised again, i know really its not the weed but my anxious association I have with weed that will make me think that. I don't know if that makes sense but I hope it helps also, anyone who thinks they are feeling depersonalised and out of sorts go to
http://www.anxietynomore.co.uk/depersonalisation_and_derealisation.html
it will help you loads it explains depersonalisation comes from being to concerned about your own problems and is a defence mechanism made by your brain in order to rest your tired mind.
My boyfriends a big smoker and me and him always preach the goodness of it. He understands why I don’t smoke it at the moment and helps me through what I’m dealing with. But he knows more than most that the majority of things people go through is a head fuck created by the constant cycle of worry that you allow yourself to have. As I write all this I feel better but does that mean then that typing is a cure for anxiety and depersonalisation ? No it means my head is becoming clear and all the symptoms I think are unfixable become irrelevant as I work out why I feel the way I do. I suggest anyone feeling completely stuck does things that make them feel familiar and what ever you do DO NOT STOP YOUR LIFE! That is the worst thing you can do. Go out switch off and get together with your mates tell them how you feel and why you feel it. Have a laugh about it. I do. I tell my mates “Its like being constantly pissed”
My anxieties came because I got mild pains in my chest and my head allowed me to believe I was dying I would spend all day thinking about dying and then go smoke weed which is what I thought was giving me the chest pains so these mild chest pains would become extreme when I smoked but the reality is they were no different nothing was. then the depersonalisation arrived. Remember. Your fine! I take St johns Wort because what i thought i had was depression they work for me but again it may all just be because I’m sorting my head out. For a time I couldn't’t look in the mirror because I didn’t know who I was anymore I couldn't get out of the dream. I'm all for weed, and my gap from it is not down to the fact its harmful but down to the fact that my mind is weak at the moment and until my strength is back anything that can trigger my own anxieties.
I went to a job interview feeling depersonalised and managed to get a job and keep it didn’t even register that i was employed because nothing was real. But I know its all an emotional thing because you can feel fine during the day and feel back to normal and that why i never blame weed when you place blame on something you allow mind to create a source for the anxiety. And then you are waiting for it, but the reality is, weed does what weed has always done. How can all of a sudden the affects of weed change? It hasn’t changed you have. Get a stronger mind and live life again. No matter how out of sorts you feel, YOU’RE YOU. And you've always been you and you always will be remember that.
How my depersonalisation began.
Depersonalisation is as scary as the name of it suggests. To not be ones self anymore is worse than any illness, you could imagine, or at least that is the feeling it gives at the time. My depersonalisation occurred after i convinced myself i was dying. I began getting mild pains in my chest made worse by the fact i would go to the gym and work my ass off with this pain that started under my left armpit, now i realise i had pulled a muscle. I was reluctant to go to the doctors because i believed they would tell me i had some life threatening illness or heart disease because i never went to the doctors i was convinced all these problems had built up. I would lie at night clutching my chest believing i might not wake in the morning, and with this stress i slowly began to break down. I panicked constantly until i burst out crying and had to tell my boyfriend as soon as i said the words to him i knew that my anxiety had got the better of me and that i wasn't dying. I said " My chest hurts and i can't stop feeling anxious" he hugged me and i cried. What didn't help was the fact that I was unemployed at the time living in limbo between my own house and my boyfriends with no real sence of location i would wake in the morning only to go back home and do nothing but worry about my chest problems. Finally i spoke to my Friend as i really couldn't take it anymore and i thought i need to get to a doctors soon before i die, she took me to a walk in centre where i broke down in front of the nurse, and she asked me "why are you crying?" some what ridiculously i replied "because i think i am going to die" I then laughed and said "sounds silly doesn't it ". She asked me a few questions and then said "well let me tell you now your not going to die" she checked over my chest said it was likely a trapped nerve and take ibuprofen. I left but i was shocked to see that the feeling of relief i had expected was not there. My Friend asked me how it was and i said she said there is nothing wrong with me, of course my dominant mind told me she must be wrong , i didn't explain my self right she didn't hear all the symptoms. And no relief was given, i just felt slightly better.
However, a new sensation began to doom my days, I now woke every day feeling fear full only to scamper on through the day feeling worse, looking up my illness , but i felt odd, like i was in a haze everything i was doing i wasn't really doing, now i felt like i was sitting behind my own eyes watching someone else do things. I looked at my friends and felt nothing, i was scared to do anything and i didn't know why. I wouldn't play the keyboard because thinking about it made me worry. I was looking about but not seeing i was hearing but not listening i was becoming forgetful confused and thinking to deeply about being human. I thought i was depressed. All the things i once looked forward to were gone because i believed everything was pointless and everything was odd. I could get on the bus I'd got on a million times before but it didn't register, i sat there and thought where am I ? I know I'm here but none of it is registering. I woke up one morning with such dread, i couldn't do anything but fidget and try and work out why i felt the way i did. I turned to my boyfriend and said " can you rub my back I just feel so anxious" only It wasn't anxiety now it was something else i thought i was going mad, i was so forgetful and out of it, and i couldn't do anything to ease it.
I said to him i just felt numb no sense of happiness or excitement or interest. He as he always does stayed calm and explained to me what he thought it was, i said to him " I just want to be my old self again." and cried.Even around my whole family who i love i felt nothing i was looking at them all trying to get some sort of response of emotion but it wasn't there, I could over ride it temporarily but the thoughts wouldn't go away it was the thoughts that got me. So intrusive and frightening i was overwhelmed by it all. Everything was weird my arm felt like it was mine, my hands were over sized i was walking and feeling like i wasn't in control of my legs. I was so detached from the world.
I finally looked up how i was feeling but wasn't sure what to look it up as. So i typed feeling outside yourself into Google and i found it, everything i felt was there it was called depersonalisation.
However, a new sensation began to doom my days, I now woke every day feeling fear full only to scamper on through the day feeling worse, looking up my illness , but i felt odd, like i was in a haze everything i was doing i wasn't really doing, now i felt like i was sitting behind my own eyes watching someone else do things. I looked at my friends and felt nothing, i was scared to do anything and i didn't know why. I wouldn't play the keyboard because thinking about it made me worry. I was looking about but not seeing i was hearing but not listening i was becoming forgetful confused and thinking to deeply about being human. I thought i was depressed. All the things i once looked forward to were gone because i believed everything was pointless and everything was odd. I could get on the bus I'd got on a million times before but it didn't register, i sat there and thought where am I ? I know I'm here but none of it is registering. I woke up one morning with such dread, i couldn't do anything but fidget and try and work out why i felt the way i did. I turned to my boyfriend and said " can you rub my back I just feel so anxious" only It wasn't anxiety now it was something else i thought i was going mad, i was so forgetful and out of it, and i couldn't do anything to ease it.
I said to him i just felt numb no sense of happiness or excitement or interest. He as he always does stayed calm and explained to me what he thought it was, i said to him " I just want to be my old self again." and cried.Even around my whole family who i love i felt nothing i was looking at them all trying to get some sort of response of emotion but it wasn't there, I could over ride it temporarily but the thoughts wouldn't go away it was the thoughts that got me. So intrusive and frightening i was overwhelmed by it all. Everything was weird my arm felt like it was mine, my hands were over sized i was walking and feeling like i wasn't in control of my legs. I was so detached from the world.
I finally looked up how i was feeling but wasn't sure what to look it up as. So i typed feeling outside yourself into Google and i found it, everything i felt was there it was called depersonalisation.
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