Can someone please describe derealization and depersonalization to me in your own words? My psychiatrist said I struggle with them, and I need to learn how to explain them to my family. I don’t need definitions, I can read them online. Thank you!
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When you see things from a distance like movie or dream
Living in a world that doesn’t seem real almost like u asleep and watching it through a movie.
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Thank you @Om_Sadasiva and @anon97118089. This will help me describe them to my family!
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If one hasn’t experienced it, they can’t understand it fully
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Absolute hell /worse than hell / worse than schizophrenia. I had it really bad 24/7 for 5-6 years. Mainly had the derealization part. I sometimes doubt I have schizophrenia.
It’s hard to describe even now. Most of my doctors overlooked it / ignore it.
I got mine from marijuana, apparently. But I also heard it can be from trauma too.
Basically, I couldn’t tell what was real. I couldn’t feel anything. I suffered from jamais vu, and solipsism.
I felt like external reality wasn’t real that it was all an illusion. The houses across the street looked fake. Everything was a product of my consciousness / a hallucination.
I was stuck in my head. It was like there was a person inside my head with a film projector inside.
Everything was 2 dimensional and flat. I couldn’t tell if things were moving or if it was an optical illusion.
On top of that, I thought I was in a shitty, pixelated reality, video game created by God.
When I had DP, I could see my self in 3rd person like a video game character. I had a lot of panic attacks. I could barely go to the store without having panic attacks.
Thank God it is mostly gone.
Also things like visual snow too.
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@insidemind
How is it going away?
Supplements, self-care, TIME, medications (MAYBE), and exposure therapy (My own kind and definition).
I had a bad experience with drugs (abilify, shrooms, alcohol, coffee) in that order in one night. It really messed me up in 2014. I believe it made me depersonalized. It was the worst thing I thought that ever happened to me. Worse than sz!!! I felt so bad it was my fault and my life abseloutly sucked my mind did not work and I was out of my body and life was weird. Then when I started my other meds it’s been a miracle. Somehow it’s all gone away very fast. I feel better from this. Thought I was messed up for good. For ever.
I know it’s different then your experience but I felt I’d share.
Oh ok thanks
Glad you are healing
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But the med that helped me the most was this
They say APs make DP/DR worse but certain SSRIs, lamotrogine, and other meds can help.
Never tried it. I wanted to just for my DP/DR. I heard it helps a lot.
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You describe enlightenment according to some schools of thought. Constant derealization and solipsism, feeling everything is a dream
I’ve thought I had enlightenment before, but it came at a cost…I rather not have enlightenment. Since the DP/DR went away, I seem to have more paranoia and delusions. I guess my DP/DR morphed into schizophrenia.
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I have a female friend who has derealization constantly 24/7. She went to a psychiatrist who prescribed abilify and an antidepressant. The side effects were too severe and she quit them, but they didn’t stop derealization
I used to be very philosophical, a deep thinker, and had obsessive thinking. The obsessive thinking contributes/worsens DP/DR.
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Me too. Now I have stopped reading and studying but due to suffering I have become deeper. Having found my own voice and way of thinking rather than copying someone else’s opinions
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I’m stilll fairly introspective but I used to definitely be more cerebral. Now I’m more balanced cerebral with rough around the edges. That came with less worrying too from when I had dr/dp
Thanks! I’ll look it up!
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