Needing major reasurence please...

[Jenijar]

Hi Carrie, thank you for your reply, I really appreciate it. I find it really hard to distract myself because I just don't feel like doing anything as everything feels strange and unreal. Did you force yourself to do things? I've read that socialising helps but I find it hard to leave the house even for a walk.
When you had it did it feel like you would never get better? And did you wake up one day and it was gone or did it gradually get better over time?
I can't believe just how strange everything feels, it's awful x

[Sugarplum001]

I'm having a real problem when sleeping...I keep waking up every hour feeling
Like live not been here before, checking if I still know who I am, my hearts pounding and I just want to cry and I don't even feel like I can get up to distract myself. I will then fall back
To sleep for another hour and the same thing happens again. How can I tackle this? Thank
You x

[Carrie8484]

Jenijar anf Sugarplum

It took me months to start feeling better, and years to fully recover, and even now, I have blips every now and then. But I did turn a corner, after maybe 4 months, it didn't happen overnight, but very slowly. I think what happened was that I was so exhausted by it all, that I started to not care. I was still frightened, but it consumed so much of my life and took so much out of me that eventually I thought 'fine, you keep making me feel like this, i expect to keep feeling like this, but I'm going to do small things that I would normally have done before I got ill'.
So even though seeing friends and relatives felt weird and surreal, I would still do it, in very small doses, and expect to feel unreal and weird, but i would do it, because my alternative was to lie in bed all day, which believe me was normally preferable, but I know I had to do *something*.

i honestly NEVER thought I would get better. As soon as started to feel better, and then had another blip, I would be scared out of my mind. I'd have to go to bed and screw my eyes shut because I was so frighten that the DP/DR was coming back. So no, it certainly wasn't an overnight change. It required a lot of time and patience and almost an 'acceptance' that this was how i felt,

One huge thing that helped me get through it? I actually met my ex boyfriend when I was around 3 months into suffering with DP/DR. He didn't know anything about my illness, I never even told him, he just knew i sometimes needed to spend time at home with my family. I'd been introduced by a uni friend and believe me, I was not looking to meet anyone let alone a boyfriend, but this guy really really distracted me from my illness. Maybe it was having something new in my life that helped? I don't know, but it really made a difference to my life having *something* new and positive happening.

At my worst, I couldn't look in the mirror - I didn't recognise myself. I couldn't speak - my voice didn't feel real. There were so many frightening things that were happening to me. But honestly, and I know this 100%, it is anxiety. It is your stupidly clever and busy brain playing very nasty tricks on you. It CAN be overcome. Do do need to force yourself to do those small everyday things, another thing that helped me was my pets. I could speak to them, cuddle them, pet them, without them thinking i was going crazy.
Small steps, try and distract yourselves (i KNOW its hard) exercise a little to be tired before bedtime. Create a relaxing environment in your bedroom - I like candles, classical music etc when I'm anxious. You can do it xx

[fishman65]

Hi guys, hope you don't mind me jumping in here but I've been going through something similar this last month to six weeks. My 'favourite' anxiety symptom has been muscle tension/shaking for many years and in many ways this has made symptoms at least predictable, a case of better the devil you know.

Now this kind of obsession with my own body has come to the fore which leads to a dreamlike state much as others have described so well here. So right in the middle of this state I took a trip to the local co-op. I managed to buy what I needed but it was tough,like I was walking on a trampoline and my arms felt all heavy. However I have tended to find that if panic takes over, the unreality symptoms seem to vanish but by then I've been triggered Hope everyone here comes through this, thinking of you

[Sugarplum001]

Thank you for your messages of reassurance. I haven't been able
To calm myself down today and completely freaking out. My brain feels detached from my body and i keep proper freaking that this is me and I'm a person in this body. I feel like my brain now isn't attached and just not right. I know I should distract myself but I'm that overwhelmed that this isn't normal to feel that I can't stop myself.
Xx

[Carrie8484]

What you are experiencing is exactly what I went through.
Breathe.
Google 'grounding' exercises to *try* and bring your body and mind to connect to being in the 'here and now'. I know exactly how difficult it is. There is no magic cure but you WILL get through this.

[Sugarplum001]

Thank you...I'm sorry to keep repeating myself it's just so scary and feels
Like it's never going to end. I will do that now. Thank you x

[fishman65]

Hang in there Sugarplum - thinking of you

[Sugarplum001]

Thank you very much xx
I keep nodding off but when I wake an hour later I feel like I'm doing it all again like I don't know who I am again (like I've changed again). Everything just feels wrong and I can't relate to anything. X

[Jenijar]

Hello Carrie, thank you for your reply it's much appreciated. When you was at your worst did you spend a lot of the time not doing anything? All I do is lay in bed or lay/sit on the sofa, I really don't feel up to doing anything else. I have a shower each day but it always feels so strange and abnormal that I freak out. Also, I feel like I really don't know if life is real, I think a lot of people experience unreality but still believe life is real, but I really don't know. Did you always know life was real even when you felt unreal or did you doubt it too? Xx