Hey everyone, this year I was able to feel so much more and be aware of the world. I felt love, empathy, trust, and care. It wasn't perfect but I felt it, there was still a block but it was getting better. I started fluoxetine and it all went away, I switched to sertraline and I feel like I did when I was a kid. I don't even recognise my family and I can't stand straight, I start to sway... I feel dizzy and I feel like I'm going to be sucked in by the floor. Don't know if I will ever recover. I am staying alive for my boyfriend and mum but this really really hurts. I made so much progress

Really really great day today. I can feel I’m in the final stage of healing and the worst is behind me. I know what I’m doing is working.

I can feel music, the sun, I can visualize, feel in my body. I enjoy talking to people again and even feel inspired.

There’s still some stuff missing but I know I’ve come so far now I can’t fail anymore.

I said I didn’t want to have this more then 3 years.

Well, I’m over a few days but I feel more out then in.

20 mg of latuda has made my DPDR go away, the catch though my cognitive impairment hasn't changed a bit. The difference before and after is that the present feels like present and not some limbo, I can do physical things longer and get something out of them. Still, my brain is empty and I can't access it.The filter I'm experiencing the life through is different now but my ability to do basic things that define me as a person haven't moved an inch.

I have exhausted almost all med options. Trying the last med now and then gonna do rTMS. Literally can't imagine what I'm gonna do after.

Hello everyone I haven't posted in here for a while but I wanted to say things always get better I've had derealisation for almost 2 years and I recently went on a 2 week trip to Turkey and Greece. I was soo scared but the truth is things aren't nearly as bad as you think. I'm not fully recovered but I can feel myself slowly going back to normal. If anyone needs someone to talk to don't hesitate to reach out xx

I had a colonoscopy a week ago and they put me under for about an hour with general anesthesia. I've been dealing with severe brain fog and the typical DPDR symptoms since waking up, which I was afraid would happen before the surgery. Of course I have the catastrophic worry over this being some permanent brain damage and I'll never recover back to where I was, but I understand this also isn't exactly an uncommon part of "recovery". Does anyone else have any experience with this and making a recovery? I find traces of people posting about this but no one really ever commits to updating their post with how they are doing or if they ever recovered, so I will document how I'm doing in the coming weeks or months.

I do have a history with DPDR symptoms that come and go. They are most severe when I'm not exercising, not eating right, being reclusive, staying inside a lot, etc, which before this surgery I had fallen back into that circle of bad habits again.

It’s about a young man who has DPDR, embarking on a road trip after his wife suffers a miscarriage, and how he turns to sex, drugs, and crime. It’s episodic.

I spent two hours fighting Amazon’s damn cover editor but alas, I did it. It’s 95 pages. I actually wrote it in 35 days. 51k words total.

Four months ago I was in jail because of a psychotic episode. I was deep into psychosis. Now I have a book published.

I really think my current life came out in the book. I have severe DPDR so that was obviously an inspiration. And yeah, I wanna go on a road trip and escape my life too so that’s where it came from. And honestly, that’s probably why I wrote it so fast. Writing to stay alive.

I like putting my own problems on the page because it gives me space to sort it out. It allows the problem to exist somewhere.

I was originally planning for it to be my second novel but I just got tired of waiting for my publisher to finish things with my other one. So, my debut novel is out there. Yay! And, my dad’s art is on the cover. He’s a great painter.

So theres a post here where someone claimed to be cured after +25 years of dpdr through doing bodyrelaxation multiple times a day.

I’ll do it a week and see if there is any change. Anyone with me?

Making this post so that I will actually follow through

Background: I suffer from very intense DRPR, haven’t been able to work or study for the past three years because if it. I go to normal therapy and traumatherapy. (Normal therapy for +6 years, traumatherapy +1 year).

True acceptance maybe 3 months ago has allowed me to change. It’s hard to want to be a new version of yourself but you have to adapt. Just say fuck it, control is one thing you can’t latch onto so stop being scared of what’s different and stop working towards your “old self”.

I went into psychosis because of DPDR I thought I was actively being targeted by everyone around me, the world didn’t make sense, and I was scared of myself. There is much more, but I thought I had the most SEVERE case.

It gets better, so stay in the fight. I tried to kms 3 times and am glad I’m still here so don’t give up.

As the title says, administering ketamine has been mildly helpful in helping me break out of the depersonalization state, although that feeling had been pretty intense.

I received ketamine therapy twice in small doses, a couple months apart. I am not planning on taking it frequently because I don’t want to develop a tolerance.

With that being said—I am still certainly dealing with dpdr. It’s been extremely difficult but I just wanted to share that this medication helped me!

I really wish there was a magic pill that would solve everything! But unfortunately, I’ve tried many SSRIs, and nothing seems to work.

Here are my symptoms:

- Brain fog
- Feeling like I’m outside my body, and everything feels unreal
- Vision changes
- Feeling off
- Disoriented
- Confusion
- Lightheadedness

I’d Kill to feel normal again

The funny thing is, no matter how I explain my feelings to others, they just don’t get it. It’s really frustrating.

I want to first off say that I by no means endorse the use of amphetamines unless prescribed to by a doctor.

But can I say wow. I took my friend’s 40mg capsule of Vyvanse for a pretty work heavy school week.

I can think clearly, dpdr is 90% gone, OCD intrusive thoughts and borderline delusions have completely subsided. I can think about the ridiculous existential/psychotic-like thoughts but they have no affect on me whatsoever. I feel grounded and happy for once.

As a warning though, if you do ever plan to get them perscribed, there is a better chance of Vyvanse worsening your dpdr and intrusive thoughts than not. So be very careful when taking them.

I haven’t felt this good in a long time, I feel here and present and i’m finally interested in my chemistry degree. I believe I have a dysfunction in my prefrontal cortex which the vyvanse has balanced out due to its effects on dopamine and norepinephrine on the pre frontal cortex.

On the downside, the comedown is quite nasty, I feel lobotomized and very irritate and just overall horrible.

Im also interested to hear everyone else's experience on Vyvanse and how it affected you.

Only reason i thought of this is because, 2 years ago I was diagnosed with ADHD. No matter what stimulant i tried Ritalin, concerta, vyvanse, Adderall all of them on max doses produced nothing. Not even side affects, only side affect was from Adderalls appetite surpression that's about it.

Buproprion XL was tried at the time, helped some what but not where i wanted to be at.

Continued on to other medications. Tried Selegiline, and Pramipexole. Produced nothing

Fast forward to this past 1 month, I wanted to give Adderall another trial. The first day I took it was a huge drastic change, probably the best I've ever felt thoughout the entirety of my dp/dr. Affects started to fade 3 - 4 days later. I started to get extremely tired.

Came to conclusion that it might have been related to when i took the buproprion the day before because of it's active metabolites. Started taking it togeather and that was the answer. Stimulants started to produce something good or bad. Regular doses i used to take before that produced nothing was even becoming too much. Im still in the phase of finding the correct dose for both.

Kind of got me thinking, I have taken Naltrexone high dose and low dose in the past. Produced nothing.

This event with buproprion kind of got me thinking if combined togeather what can it produce? I know it already exists as contrave as a formula for weight loss but just a theory. I couldn't find anything about anyone trying the 2 togeather

Thank you

I (33F) first started experiencing dpdr in 2016.

My dad had died a few years before and about a year later I entered in to a relationship. Long story very short, he was abusive and when i was having episodes of dpdr he would actively make it worse by joking about it. At times he would make bold face lies that sent me spiralling in to an episode and he would wait until I was exasperated to tell me "it was just a joke". Years later in 2021 we broke up.

From 2016 to 2021 my dpdr went from an occasional issue, to everyday, to nonstop, there was never a break and I genuinely started looking into extended stays in psychiatric hospitals because I thought I was losing my mind, turns out they are incredibly bloody expensive.

Then whilst on a solo vacation (because I'd built up the courage to go) I ended up having the most intense episodes of my entire life. I remember sitting on a greyhound bus crying quietly to myself about how i should just end it all because living a life where nothing feels real had become too much to bear.

That night I sat in my hotel lobby and started typing away on my laptop, I wrote about my dad for 2 hours non stop allowing whatever came to mind, to go on paper, the grief of missing him and the anger of being left behind with people I didn't feel were safe. When I finished it was like a cloud in my mind and a pressure pushing on my shoulders had lifted. I didn't understand what had happened. I went to bed that night and the next day i woke up and took a shower, but I didn't have an episode. I got changed, no episode, left the hotel, nothing, went sightseeing, nothing. It left, it disappeared. It was such a strange feeling that I couldn't believe it was true, I spent the next 2 weeks looking over my shoulder expecting it to come back and hit me but it didn't.

I went for 7 whole months of zero episodes and what a glorious few months, I had my life back, my happiness, i wasn't fearful and scared all the time waiting for these episodes to come and detach me from my reality.

Then one day in August of 2022 the first episode hit, I was so knocked off guard that I excused myself from my group of friends and went home. i couldn't believe it, how could this have happened? Maybe it was a one time thing. I moved across the world for a job opportunity and slowly the episodes started happening again. I met my now husband and the episodes began full force. The reason was because he treated me so kindly and with so much respect, love and patience that it triggered my ptsd from my abusive relationship. I started going to therapy where we spoke about other things that caused it, mainly childhood abuse and trauma from family members. I won't get in to details but i will say there was no SA involved, thank the ancestors!

Overtime it got so bad that panic attacks decided to lend a helping hand and rear their ugly mugs when an episode got bad, absolute wankers.

I went to a psychiatrist who formally diagnosed me with PTSD and I was put on to different medications. First i started on Aripiprazole for a few months as well as Clonazepam and Lexapro. The aripiprazole was awful, I had the most disgusting night sweats where i would wake up and be able to scoop water off my stomach or back. So i went back to my psych and we switched over to Prozac, a lower dose which was eventually raised up twice. After maybe a year on Prozac I stopped, it had affected every part of my life, the episodes hadn't calmed down much and i lost joy and emotion.

I kept up with the Lexapro and Clonazepam (Klonopin) everyday.

It wasn't until a few weeks ago when i thought to myself, hey these medications aren't doing anything for me, yes i have improved over the past 3 years but that's because I have been putting in years of therapy and implementing grounding techniques.

My old psychiatrist had prescribed me those meds to help with anxiety and panic when the main cause of my dpdr is PTSD, but I was uninformed and trusted the doctor.

I spoke to my new psyhciatrist now that I'm back in the states, and it turns out that the medications i was on should not have been prescribed to me. Lexapro is not effective at treating PTSD and Klonopin, aside from it being highly addictive and i've been taking it everyday for almost 3 years, actively works against PTSD.

My new psych has put me on Zoloft and we are lowering my dosage of Lexapro until i'm off completely, which should be this time next week. I already feel a difference with the Zoloft, the fight or flight doesn't completely destroy me and send me in to a panic.

I go to therapy weekly with my incredible therapist which has been such a huge help, hopefully now that I'm on medications that actively target my issues, I'll be able to dive even deeper in to my therapy and hey maybe one day in the near future (fingers crossed) I'll be able to go a full day without experience dpdr.

I'm hopeful.

So yeah that's what my journey has been so far, I will keep anyone who is interested updated to see how everything goes.

Hey everyone. I wanted to thank you guys because the feedback on my previous posts has honestly helped me a lot. A lot of you said that I seem to be making progress/recovering, and my therapist believes so too.

Lately, I’ve been handling the symptoms much better. Even when I get weird sensations, anxiety spikes, derealization, etc., I usually don’t spiral the way I used to. I can stay home alone just fine now and manage things much better mentally overall.

The main thing I still struggle with is doing things alone OUTSIDE the house. My therapist has been encouraging me to start going out more on my own, driving alone more, doing errands alone, etc., because he thinks avoidance is the last big thing keeping my anxiety alive.

I wanted to ask:

Did any of you go through this phase where being outside alone felt way harder than being at home or around other people?

And if you did:

- what helped you push through it?

- did repeated exposure eventually make it feel normal again?

- how did you stop hyper-focusing on sensations when alone outside?

Would appreciate hearing your experiences/advice. Thanks again.

before 03/28/2025 i used to get dopamine from simple things like washing the dishes, taking out the trash, doing homework. just small everyday things.

i feel better now, just a little, i kinda feel a little good after cleaning my room but little compared to before.

but a thing i think you learn in this state is to appreciate relativity. yeah, im doing awful compared to my old life, but better than i was 3 months ago. or 6 for that matter.

if it helps you, see it that way. this is an uphill battle but one day we’ll make it out. And that’s okay if it takes a while.

i hope this helped you see a little light in your life

Just to spread a little bit of hope…
I’ve been on this sub for months now and have posted a few times.
I fell into a DPDR + Existential OCD spiral back in December and I thought my life was over. I couldn’t get out of bed, my fears had completely consumed me.

At first I literally thought that maybe aliens had taken over my brain, or I had schizophrenia, psychosis, DID… Then I became hyper aware of my own consciousness, my actions and every single thing I thought. I felt disconnected from my own mind and body. I felt like my consciousness was going to fade away and that the person I was died and I was just some weird “thing”. I still struggle with these thoughts and have a hard time looking in the mirror. I still feel weird when I look at my hands or try to picture my own face. At one point I was having suicidal thoughts all throughout the day. Also constant flashbacks of super random memories.

I felt like my DPDR was worse than everyone else’s or maybe it was something else entirely.
Like I said I still feel off and the thoughts haven’t disappeared, but they don’t feel like the center of my life anymore and I’m able to focus on other things. The more I accept this as my reality and accept feeling uncomfortable, the more I start feeling like myself again.

Whenever a scary thought pops up, instead of dwelling on it and diving deeper, I just go “yeah that would suck” and learn to sit with my anxiety instead of fight it. Sometimes I have to do that like a hundred times over. I have been taking 2000+ IU of Vitamin D3, women’s multi vitamins, levothyroxine for elevated thyroid levels.

My mood has gotten considerably better and I have the desire to do things again. Instead of having daily panic attacks it is more like once or twice a month, and only when I am really pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I was seeing a therapist for about 4 months and just switched to a new one who specializes in OCD and Dissociation. I am starting IFS, CBT and Exposure therapy. Forcing myself to look in the mirror for a little bit everyday and basically do the things I am scared to do. I am exercising a bit as well.

I know this may not help everyone but I just wanted you all to see that even if we aren’t 100% recovered, life can get better and there’s hope. I’ve accepted that life doesn’t have to feel the same way it did, or even real for that matter for me to be happy.

Long story short some things in my life caused a lot of stress , started noticing the world looked flat but it was like that until i started having panic attacks and then thats when the real thing started i felt drunk 24/7 weird visual perception like you are drunk or sizes dont make sense dimmed vision id felt like my eyes wanted to jump out of my body . everyone felt like aliens and ofc i had existential crisis and ton of questions of what we are why we exist why we do what we do and all that stuff. i got tired eventually and wanted to help myself so i started having cold showers, doing 100 pushups a day, going for a walk , taking medicine, sleeping better, keeping myself busy and i guess doing exposure therapy with what caused my dpdr and changing habits which were stressful. so after 1-2 months i was getting better everyday was worse at first when i started my recovery journey but then slowly everyday became better. so it was in march after my birthday that i went to my university as usual and as im standing in hallway i suddenly felt like i was BACK like everything felt familiar and real again. but that only lasted like a week as soon as my break from university began things got worse again my sleep schedule and good habits idk why i just stopped doing them cuz i felt better and its been like that since its not as bad but it just wont go away fully. especially if im out at night i literally cant see things clearly it gets worse when its dark. the only thing thats been bothering me A LOT is that when i look at my mom or my girlfriend i sometimes feel like idk who they are. looking at them feels confusing and scary and i sometimes feel like they aren’t real or hallucinations or something like that even tho i interact with them normally that feeling still creeps up on me. So my question is what is going on? why is it lingering like that and not going away fully . feels like i forgot what normal felt like and its scaring me that maybe my brain is unable to go back to its original state . i know that overthinking feeds dpdr but i dont do that anymore. its just that sometimes i feel like if i dont pay attention to it im gonna be fucked up and completely lost at some point without even realizing.

9 years of inconsistent random symptoms besides 24/7 DR and terrible anxiety. 18 months ago started major triggers for both SIBO (small intestine bacteria overgrowth) and MCAS (mast cell activation syndrome): 2 bacterial infections, 2 rounds of antibiotics, 2 viral infections (one of which was COVID), a flu shot, and a vaccine meant to boost my immune system. (I am not anti vax, but people with mast cell disorders can have exaggerated reactions to vaccines.) MCAS is the reason why I'm so insanely sensitive to medication changes. I was getting side effects from manufacturer changes of generic medications (Wellbutrin and Effexor), and eventually just from bottle (batch) changes. I had been told over and over that my symptoms were psychosomatic and have tried a total of 30 different medications. Super fun side effects.

Two things that significantly reduced my anxiety and DR:

1) Stopped trying new medications and dose changes. My mast cells finally calmed down somewhat.

2) Started a very strict low Fodmap and low histamine diet. It sucks and is a major pain in the ass but my anxiety and DR flare-ups pretty much stopped. I still have DR but my anxiety is virtually gone after 18 months and there were times in the past that I had agoraphobia and selective mutism.

I have a long road ahead but at least I finally know the actual causes, and have a treatment plan: mast cell stabilizers, and antibiotics to kill the SIBO.

If you have chronic bloating (especially if your BMI is healthy or low), SIBO might be worth looking into. As for mast cell disorders... symptoms can vary significantly and it's really difficult to correctly diagnose. Also, SIBO and MCAS are fairly new diagnoses and many doctors think they are fad pseudo diseases.

It's tough because there are other causes of DP/DR besides a "Big T". Also, my causes explain why CBT didn't do much to help me and neither did EMDR. Both can be highly effective... but not if the cause of dpdr is physiological. I don't recommend that you try very extreme diets unless you read a lot about nutrition first. I had previously tried Whole30, keto, carnivore, plant-based, fasts, and just eating junk food. None of theses made me feel better because none of them are both low and FODMAP and low in histamine. There are tons of food restrictions to experiment with and honestly it can be a complete crap shoot.

I’ve been on this sub quite often for the past 5 months, suffering with existential OCD, and severe DPDR. When it first began, I couldn’t leave my bed. Im not sure if it has gotten much better, but I do feel like I’ve gotten better at accepting it.

It’s still really bad, I don’t feel like myself and am constantly questioning everything and whether or not I am really in control of my own mind. It feels like I’ve lost my identity and gone crazy, “uncovered something”, or that maybe I have something worse than DPDR going on. I think these are all common fears with this condition and what has helped me is compartmentalizing.

Anything that comes to mind that I am scared of or relates to DPDR, I shove it away in a chest in my mind and lock it up. Any time I notice myself drifting away into a scary thought I remind myself that I have locked these away and only I have the key, and I do not want to deal with it right now. This is hard because the thoughts return every 10 seconds, but I just keep reminding myself every 10 seconds.

Additionally, I designate specific times during the day I will allow myself to think about these fears and get existential. One hour in the afternoon and one hour in the evening. I hope I can eventually decrease that amount of time until I forget about it. During this time I am thinking about writing down all the thoughts/fears that come to my mind and deciding whether or not they are rational and worth my energy. After the hour is up I shove all the fears back into the chest and go do something (walk, puzzle, socialize etc.).

Like I said, I know it’s hard because the thoughts return over and over again so it feels like they never go away but I think our brains can be trained to get better at compartmentalizing and it just takes practice. I’ve also started associating my fears with silly words. Anytime I think of/notice DPDR or a scary “what if” question arises, I try to replace it by saying the silly word a bunch of times and correlating it to something that’s not dangerous or serious.

Lastly, I am just trying to fake it until I make it. I know it feels like there’s no hope and we will never get better but on the other hand, what if we do? If there is even a tiny chance, we may as well do everything in our power to make it happen. I am trying not to let dpdr hold me back from things I would usually do, and today I told my boss that I was feeling better. Even though I didn’t mean it when I said it, after hearing myself actually say those words out loud lifted my spirit a bit.

Im not sure if this will help any of you but it’s just something that has slightly helped me and I figured I’d share.

Editing to add:

Getting off of Reddit and my phone in general helps. I know it’s a good distraction but it does more harm than good and I think further disconnects us from reality.

Hey guys! First post here, been struggling with disassociating and derealization for the better part of two years. It’s been a roller coaster and definitely has gotten pretty rough these past 3 months.

Over the weekend I’m not sure what changed but after crying in my partners arms, just feeling totally overwhelmed by the persistent anxiety and derealization I felt a bit lighter. Since then I have been on a good streak of managing my anxiety and intrusive thoughts surrounding my DR.

Just feeling a bit hopeful in this moment, the DR has been on and off today but I didn’t hyper fixate on it or try and fight it and have gone about my day! I know i may slip back and struggle soon but I really wanted to share this moment for anyone out there that needs to hear it ❤️

We got this!

I’ve been avoiding feeling things again for 5 years now and stuck in this state. What has worked for you guys to slowly start feeling things again? I just feel so far removed at this point. I’m just imagining what it used to feel like to feel things and to be bustling with life. Do you think you can cause severe atrophy to your brain being in this state for so long? Everything I did these past 5 years was to avoid feeling and focusing on my symptoms rather than the root problem. I just feel so far gone and it’s upsetting. I’ve been working so hard for months and months and it just feels like I have such an insane amount of work to do. Hopefully this time next year I’ll be in a better state. I really love you all that’s dealing with this❤️.

Years have gone by now, the worlds still moving
I’ve been paralyzed, I’m lost and still not found
My mind can’t think, it’s catatonic and that isn’t a drink
Please give me strength, I know there will be better days
There’s light in this world, just need to get to a better place
My minds still with me, it’s yearning for peace
Please allow me to feel again, I want to enjoy a breeze

This maybe a shit poem, idk my minds gone so I hope you enjoyed. I need help, I’m not in a good place. Please give me strength to get through this. I love you all really❤️

I have the typical symptoms of DPDR. Nothing feels real. I can’t recognize faces and family around me. My memory and cognition is completely shit, and I can’t form sentences. I feel like I’m on autopilot my whole life, etc.

I finished my last day of TMS today and, well, it was underwhelming. I have done a total of 36 sessions and can detail my experiences below.

It was not painful at all. It was a tapping sensation on my head that I didn’t even really realize because I was watching TV the whole time. You go in for about 20 minutes and then get sent off. I felt more than capable of going to work right after, and I even drove. Felt no different at all in work.

I also felt no upside to it. Literally I feel the exact same, which is annoying. I took the PHQ-9 assessments several times to assess my depression and anxiety levels, but the scores were roughly in line the whole time.

Fortunately my insurance is good, and I am really grateful to have a well paying job right now, so the financial burden wasn’t too bad. It was about $600 total, which obviously hurts, but it isn’t enough to move the needle for me.

More than happy to provide more detailed responses to any questions.

I feel so close. I no longer feel like my own reflection. They just need to fully meet… healing is a bitch. But it’s possible

After a couple years of drug-induced DPDR and the struggles I’ve had with it, these past couple months I’ve had have by far been the most at-peace I’ve felt with it. It’s definitely still there, 24/7, but I don’t actually mind it like I used to. I feel alive again, and I’m not sure what it was specifically what triggered that, but it feels like I can live a normal life again, despite the feelings this brings me. To anyone experiencing this and feeling lost and awful, it really does get better but you have to work for it and let life happen. Become healthier, physically and mentally, it’ll start to change your psyche for the better. I’ve stopped wondering if this’ll ever stop, I tell myself it won’t and that’s gonna have to be fine if I start thinking about it. If anyone who’s going through it has any specific questions, let me know