Derealization thoughts and Normalcy

[edgyboy]

let me start by first explaining what Derealization is. it is a condition, or period either preceeding or following a panic attack. it can be described as feeling detached from your environment. Your surrounding appear to be foreign or alien to you. This conditions is said to be very scary but not harmfull to you in anyway. Derealization and depersonalization are different sides of the same coin.

Depersonalization is described as being detached from ones self. Feeling like you are living outside your body. This too isnt harmfull but very scary.

There are many anxiety sufferers that experience either one or both of these conditions while in the anxiety mode. I personally experienced DP once and DR everytime I have anxiety. The DR/DP experience might be worse than the panic attack that caused it.

The DP/DR, along with the panic, begin the negative thought cycle. I can honestly say that my DR lingers around because I keep it around. The thought process that I engage in keeps the DR cycle going long enough until I am probably sick of it.

Being an older and wiser anxiety guy, I have started to experiment with different approaches to the world of panic, anxiety and DP/DR. I have felt myself make the conditions worse and have felt a confindent control over all 3 states. I must admit that there are times I lose my self confidence in dealing with these conditions and just shy away from dealing with them. i am entitled though.

My purpose in this post is to confidently say that normalcy is very possible for all of us with anxiety. I did it last night. i laid in bed thinking that I was watching my thoughts, be they scary or positive. i stood outside of my thoughts watching them with no significance. I thought of the scarist I could bring up and just pushed it aside in my infinite mind. I actually felt relaxed and part of my normal self.

during this time I said to myself "no panic attacks tonight". i just didnt want them to arouse my sleep. guess what, i had a pretty good night of sleep. Is this real or was this just a night off for anxiety? Don't know but I have to say that experimenting like this has brought some positive thoughts and feelings to me during some rough days. This is very unusual in the anxiety mode. Anxiety episodes for me are doom and gloom on the inside. Thoughs are nothing more than negative. With this being said, I see progress from my little experiments.

[tweet240]

Please forgive the misspellings in my last post.  Sorry

[Cntbreal]

I know all to well how you feel I feel the sameway all the time. I love my friends and family but just wish they would leave me be I don't cares bout how they feel what they want what they doing. And ut hurts me to feel this way and yes like you I try not to show it and be mean.

This times are hard to let pass I don't know why.
wish I could just figure out how to move o on from them..

[trstbrown]

This caught my attention because I regulary do both. I don't know if it's anxiety related or triggered, maybe I should learn more about anxiety but these states are unbearable. I'll have a good day only to crash at the end. I check out, can't think straight, become quieter, barely there. Everything gets numb from the inside and I'm not there, like I'm on autopilot. I'm doing things and smiling but it's not ME smiling. I zone out and it's hard as hell to come back. I don't know why it happens, usually whenever I get emotional, I come across something that triggers a reaction and slowly everything shuts down. Like my mind and body have switched off and I can do nothing to make it turn on, to come back to me. I used to turn to self injury, the pain and the blood did, I was back but at a terrible price. Now that I'm married and am trying to quit the injury, I have no lifeline. My husband is one but when he's done, so is that. I don't know how to deal with this, I loathe these states and they way it makes me, I can't connect to people, my friends I love and care for talk about their days and issues but I don't care. I want them to go away. I can't feel anything but ice. But I can't let them know in a bad way, I don't have the heart for it. When I read about dissociation and depersonalization and derealization, it talks about it being briefly. Mine last anywhere from hours to days at worst, a week. How do I deal with this? How do I fight it?

[edgyboy]

I was glad to post it. i hope it gave you some peace of mind. I would think going off any medication would be stressfull to your system. This could create some DP/DR.

if you would send me a PM, I can send you some valuable information on DP/DR. I will need your email address to send it electronically.

[kka264]

thanks for posting this-i reaallyy appreciate it.  Qstn...can DR/DP also come from withdrawal from benzos?  I was on lorazepam for 2 months straight---tapered off and now I just take Zoloft once a day...i felt awful yesterday...but today it is much better.  I have a bit of DP/DR..yesterday was horrible--but today i kept telling myself those are results of the withdrawal....hence why i feel better--also--i find exercise really helps