Depersonalization

hello everyone! I’ve now been one month without recurrent pain! Which is a huge success. However, I am dealing with depersonalization/dissociation. I’m assuming it’s either a “replacement” for the pain or hurting so much has left me with some trauma. Wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or success in recovering from depersonalization. I, against my better judgement, looked to google and only found horror stories.

Thanks in advance for your support and help!

 

Yes, many of us have been there; I believe reading through this entire thread may be helpful and positive for you: http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/how-i-beat-severe-vertigo-dizziness-and-depersonalization.19963/ (How I beat severe vertigo, dizziness and depersonalization)

You’ll be just fine. It’s nothing more than a symptom of anxiety/an overactive sympathetic nervous system. It’s not permanent, and it WILL go away. Depersonalization is a sign that you’re in fight-or-fight mode, and your human nature is focused on fleeing from danger, which makes you feel “disconnected” from your surroundings and reality. This is normal and something our bodies are naturally wired to do.

Also, the shifting symptoms are definitely characteristic of mind-body symptoms/TMS. It’s referred to as the “symptom imperative,” which is extremely common: https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/The_symptom_imperative (The symptom imperative)

The depersonalization may also be stemming from any emotional work one has been doing, especially if processing pain has been a key component of that work. These feelings will pass.

Stay off the health forums, as they are often filled with horror stories that only lead to heightened anxiety. The mind-body/TMS approach - which people on those health forums often overlook - is the way to go. This means accepting that you are OK, not fearing or obsessing over symptoms like depersonalization, and getting back to fully living life again.

The reason people on those depersonalization forums often don’t get better is because they’re typically very fearful of and/or obsessed with their symptoms, keeping the sympathetic nervous system in overdrive mode. They believe they need to achieve the perfect diet, vitamin and supplement schedule, workout regimin, etc. to heal, when all that’s actually required is some relaxation and a belief that all is well. This also applies to depersonalization from antidepressant withdrawal, cannabis use, etc.

Always remember that the horror stories are not your story. Your story will be one of success!

 

I’m not the OP, but my depersonalization after Cymbalta withdrawal became totally psychosomatic after a certain point and went away when I wasn’t afraid of it anymore. Admittedly, I wasn’t 100% ready at the time, so I’m sure it just morphed into another symptom back then. @Lowenkraft, how are you feeling?

 

Hi! I don't really experience depersonalization anymore. It comes up time to time when I'm feeling sleepy or as a side effect of some medicine. But it's not scary and don't struggle with it.

What helped me a lot is that my therapist at the time told me to track where I feel depersonalization in my body - because turns out, most things show up there too. So often it felt like a heaviness in my forehead and a weakness in my chest, etc etc. And it was a lot easier to sit with sensations than this scary big word of "depersonalization."

 

Turns out that Lowenkraft was a spammer!

Here are the signs: a rather bland and generic post (which only said "Giving the fact that almost 2 years have passed since your initial post on this thread, I would like to know how are you?"

And then a follow up post supposedly related to depersonalization and trauma, with a link that is clearly for CBD products.

 

Good call, Jan! I’ll be on the lookout for this going forward!

 

jokes on them bc CBD makes me feel MORE DEPERSONALIZED. lol. Thanks for catching that.