Depersonalization and derealization

Hi! Anyone else experience this? I think this is mostly due to anxiety?
What's happening is, I feel like inside a bubble. I see human as not... human and can't describe it. I feel like I'm not alive, but I know I'm.
I want to stop thinking about this by trying to focus in the present moment and avoid thinking of symptoms, but I get derailed to the symptoms. :/
It's weird.

Something I'm reading which seems to be a good source of knowing about this is,
https://anxietynomore.co.uk/depersonalisation_and_derealisation/ (Help with Depersonalisation and Derealisation | Anxietynomore)

btw, is there a way to delete threads?

 

Ayooo thanks so much Jan! Yeah I went through a lot of therapy and I'm doing WAY better, but I still got some ahead of me. I got this. I hope you and everyone are doing fantastic!!! Glad I stumbled upon you guys. I will be working on getting connected.

 

You reminded me of a brief moment when I went through depersonalization and derealization when I was 17. It was so frightening and I didn’t want to tell my mom out of fear of her not being able to help me and not soothe me properly. For me it came on quickly because something scared me. Luckily I was able to Google my symptoms. The advice given was to simply move forward, accept that maybe I’ll be stuck feeling like this forever, and discontinue checking if I felt normal again upon waking in the morning. Once I was able to accept it, the feeling dissipated.

At the time, of course, I didn’t know anything about TMS. I had no idea I was applying the same tools mentioned on this forum, like acceptance.

But it was all anxiety and fear. Once my body calmed down, it all went away, and it will go away for you too.

 

Hi! I'm glad that it went away for you! I'm working in getting better for sure! Hope you and everyone are doing well!

 

Hi, yes I have had this all throughout my life on and off, but I never knew it was a symptom of anxiety until this past year when I read Hope and Help for Your Nerves, by Claire Weekes. This is an amazingly helpful and comforting book that describes anxiety (nervous illness); how you get it and how you can make it go away. I can’t recommend this book enough! Even now, I still have moments when I feel this—and it’s always because something new has triggered me or scared me. I just recognize it for what it is, now—just a big fat wave of anxiety, and I let time pass. It usually goes away within days, or less. Learn all you can about anxiety (this article you attached is great!). The more you know, the more you can help yourself heal. Try to find what’s scaring you right get now. It can even be a scary thought you are repeating to yourself.

 

Hi!! I'm thinking of re reading it again. I read it. Good book. What do you do when you find out what you're scared off tho?

 

I personally had severe DP/DR in 2019, the symptoms are so scary its very hard to not get obsessed about them. Every human has the ~DP/DR mechanism in their brains, its a defense mechanism. A healthy person will have these symptoms on extreme situations like accidents, or extreme danger situations.I think the most important thing to overcoming this is realizing and believing its a harmless condition, and when the symptoms subside you will have no residual damage or "scar". For me accepting this was the thing that helped me the most, as 90% of my anxiety was symptom related. I'm totaly dp free for 6 years now.

I think this is very relatable to TMS. Prior to getting DPDR, I was semi-disabled for 8 months with crippling eye pain when reading anything (TMS), I went to 999 doctors made 999 exams and didnt find any structural damage, after I got the DpDr attack the eye pain symptoms subsided, and shortly after I recovered from DPDR I got RSI (TMS) in both arms that I have for 5 years now. This experience makes me wonder if dpdr isnt part of TMS.


Btw im working on Sarno method for 4 days and feeling 70% better already. (typing all of this with keyboard, 6 days ago I was using voice recog and just bought headmouse because the pain was too much)

I don't know exactly if DPDR fits into TMS, but with my experience with the the mechanism of this "disorder", is extremely similar. The fear of the symptoms make the disorder to perpetuate, if i were back into DP day one, I think with the Sarno's book together with the psychotherapy my symptoms would have subsided way quicker.