Sick of existential thoughts! Need reassurance

[Rhys1879SAFC]

I'm sure I've probably mentioned this before but it just seems to be getting worse and worse!

I've had these thoughts since I started suffering with depersonalization, and I assumed that once I recovered from dp the thoughts would leave me aswell!

This hasn't been the case, the dp seems to have largely subsided since Friday/Saturday after months of suffering with it but the thoughts are still there: "what if I'm not real?" or "what if I'm imagining everything?" Its just so frustrating!

I don't want to go through the rest of my life thinking like this, tell me I will get back to normal. :weep:

[blueangel]

Difficult one, this. I've had existential thoughts for years - I think I first started getting them when I was a child, so I don't know whether this is unusual or not. In some ways, I've got used to them and they don't bother me anywhere near as much as they used to, as I can sort of play with them like a philosphical problem (I'm into science fiction, which probably helps).

One of the things I learnt from CBT was the "what's the worst that can happen?" scenario - so:

* If you weren't real, then nobody else would be either, so actually that wouldn't matter

* if you're imagining everything, then the same thing would apply.

I actually believe that we have our own reality, and of course, everyone;'s reality is just slightly different to everyone else's, so you might see green grass in a slightly different shade of green to me. But that's OK, as we're allowed to have our own reality.

Does that help at all? :)

[phil06]

All I can say is I can relate to these feelings. I had them earlier in my stage of depersonalization but you have to stop the worry, more you worry or pay attention to it the higher and more awful it will feel. DP is a very complicated thing because it can come across different and scary to everybody.

Stop searching for answers to what it is, stop talking about the symptom, and go out as much as possible. That's my advice.