deprealisation tips

[venusbluejeans]

My brain is really struggling now I have Dp/Dr 24/7 it never disappears and is really scaring me so that makes me panic more and then I get dp/dr worse leading to more panic, It is so getting me down.

I know from reading cbt4panic that the best way to do that is to make it non scary and face it to prove that it isn't scary.

I am really finding it difficult to face it as the feeling is so overwhelming..... I just want this to stop happening, but it isn't going to when I find it so scary.

any tips on facing it? I am trying the gradual exposure but today I can't even make it to the car :/

[robinhall]

Hi
Can you give some more information on exactly what your symptoms entail - what are your exact physical symptoms and how do they play out - and what exact thoughts go through your mind before during and after?

[venusbluejeans]

Hiya Robin just seen this sorry..

my symptoms are derealisation and depersonalisation which seems 24/7 at the minute, My heart goes faster and my brain feels totally not there... things that were so familiar before are no really distant and they feel really odd to me.

When suffering with the dp/dr... my brain is scared of that feeling it makes me feel not safe and that things will never get better.

I think I am now getting more depressed because of how I am feeling anxiety wise spent the day crying.

a normal day at the minute for me is waking up and automatically feeling dp/dr...... this makes me anxious, sometimes i try to sleep again if it is early but that doesn't work normally, so I lay in bed listening to one of your audios

when I eventually get up my symptoms normally depend on the weather, if it is dull and grey my dp/dr is worse than if the weather is bright.


I normally feel sick with my anx/nerves and am physically sick.... so therefore somedays I don't eat much due to this, if I eat then I feel sick so panic which makes the dp worse.

everytime I try to relax and sit on the settee I kind of feel the dp/dr the worst... it is like my mind can't concentrate on anything else, even if i try to distract myself it is there.... it is like nothing exists apart from me and the room I am in.

at the minute there really isn't a before ad after it is constant..... just less and more .

Dusk is the worst time for me, the change of light makes me panic and my dp/dr. sods law that is when I work so not been able to do that.

my main feeling I think is that I am not safe, but I don't really know.... it is a more that I am just petrified of the feeling I have because it feels so odd.

Thanks

[Mindprison]

Sorry to hear you're struggling with this too Venus

I wish I had an answer to this, i've been having problems with it a fair bit myself the past year and while I go through patches where it leaves me alone, i've been suffering what I can only describe as an existential crisis for 6 months.

I know exactly what you mean when you say that the only thing you feel existing is yourself and the room you're in. It gets bad enough where i'm actually wondering if i'm dreaming or not because I can't be sure if the thing i'm looking at is even real. Then that spirals into wondering if i'm real, if anything is real and if i'm the only one who realizes that it's not real. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like dreaming, it feels like my whole existence just collapsed on itself and left me in the middle of it.

The worst feeling is when you're looking at something and in your head it feels like it's miles away, no matter how close you are to it. My therapist advised me to go into mindfulness when I start to feel this come on but like you I find it near impossible to focus on anything else when I get DP/DR.

I try to keep busy, do things that I enjoy, but it doesn't always work out so well because i'm so freaked out in my own head that I can't think of anything else.

The only way i've been able to cope is by consciously telling myself that this is just because of my anxiety, i'm not in any danger and I definitely exist in some way just like everybody else.

Sorry, I wish there was an easy answer to all this, really hoping you get some relief from it soon or someone can give you some good things to try because it's borderline mental anguish. I just wanted to let you know that you're not alone, which hopefully provides some comfort with the whole not existing thing.