Depersonalisation/Derealization and sertaline

[Getreal2000]

Hi I'm new to the site and looking for some support.
I have been suffering with derealization for the past month and a bit due to a severe panic attack and anxiety on a holiday.
I have been put on sertaline 25mg since Saturday (5 days ago).
However today I feel calm yet my mind it still convincing me I'm dead, or in a dream. Yet I feel aware of reality and know it's real but I'm getting myself in a state because I feel really odd and spaced out and feel like any moment I'm going to drop dead or wake up from a coma or something. I'm not panicking I just feel distant and it's really odd; I'm scared to sleep incase I don't wake up.
Any help or kind words would be appreciated

[Jenijar]

Hello, just wanted to let you know that I can relate to how you're feeling, my mind also tries to convince me that I'm dead and none of this is real, I feel odd and distant too. I also don't feel panicky nor particularly anxious. I have read somewhere that when you are recovering from DP/DR and anxiety, the anxiety is normally the first to settle down and then the DP/DR fades after that, so it could be that the sertraline is helping and the anxiety is the first part to settle down then the DP/DR will fade.
When I first got DP/DR years ago, I took sertraline and was better within 6 weeks. I've had episodes of DP/DR since which have lasted longer. I was on sertraline for 18 years, but this latest DP/DR episode started a year ago and the dr took me of sertraline and has tried me on various other tablets since, I did try going back on sertraline a couple of months ago but it really made my anxiety sky rocket and I felt like I was losing my mind, which is weird because when I was put on it age 15 I didn't have any start up anxiety at all. I couldn't take the anxiety this time around (I stuck it out for 3.5 weeks) and so came off it and went back on escitalopram. Please don't worry that you will get bad anxiety though because like I said I took it before and it really helped me, also my friend has recently been put on it for anxiety and depression and it's really helping her.
My last episode of DP/DR (before this one) also started with a panic attack on holiday.
Do you have people close to you that you can discuss it with. I find it so hard to explain to people that I worry that I'm dead and that things aren't real, they just don't understand X

[rchippex]

Hi,

DP/DR can be an incredibly frightening experience. I know this myself. I suffered with it for 10 months straight before having a reprieve from it last week for the first time and after a heavy night over the weekend I now have it back after suffering 2 days of heavy anxiety. It can and will leave but it relies on you to no longer focus on it and fear it. Easier said than done I know, when your mind is throwing all kinds of weird thoughts at you in order to try and explain what is going on. I assure you though that it can and will go once the anxiety itself is under control and once you stop obsessing over it and ignore the weird thoughts that spring up as a result of it.

Being so dizzy and spaced out is not an easy thing to allow but if you start to let yourself truly believe that it is all just anxiety fed then it will get easier. I had days where I felt like I was on a rocking ship and questioned EVERYTHING. I am starting to recover from it all now and it feels so good once you reach the other side.