Okay so I got DP from months and months of panic attacks, worried I had a brain tumor. Ive always had OCD. In the past when I thought I was dying from some sort of cancer I always got the "symptoms". One night a year ago, I was in a really bad place... suffering from PTSD from panic attacks and thought "what if I'm actually dead and this is hell" and ever since then I've suffered from DP... How does someone get DP by obsessing their way into it?? It just doesn't seem possible... Maybe that is why my DP has been so "progressive" regarding symptoms... I don't know. I read on other people getting DP and mine just never seemed to happen that way. It's almost as if I literally talked myself into DP... Which doesn't seem possible and makes me worried I in fact don't have DP and some thing is really wrong here.

[elevatedsoul]

i can be very obsessive about certain things... usually has to do with figuring things out...
and need to know things...
so i dont know if it plays a role... but i can see how maybe if you are so focused and concentrated on one thing for so long, so intensely, such as the existence and philosophical views of what i am and we are experiences.... might could lead to a deal of dp...

if you use any substances during these states then i think it can enhance the sensations... but this is just my experience you know... and i m just saying because i can be obsessive in certain ways, about specific things... since you mentioned obsession...
and that i have felt these kind of things my entire life.. even without and before i knew what substances was... so maybe an obsession on a specific thought can lead to a sense of depersonalization...

i have read that panic attacks can accompany with depersonalization as well, so maybe anxiety and dp can go together and doesnt make too big of a thing you know what i means...

i know that i have had severe attacks where conversion type symptoms come into play... and i end up with other severe symptoms for days or months afterwards like waiting for the tidal wave to recede...

how are you coping.,..? this is the important things... since these feelings can make you feel really crazy and bad... but they are really just feelings like when you feel funny about a string being crooked against the straight strings... wont kill you... but make you maybe feel dead...

if you come obsessive over the thought of hey im dead and im in hell and this is what i get for this and this, i totally can see it you knowS?

i know i live in a limbo type state... but its something i have been stuck in my entire life sense i never learned how to exit and feel normal, just have to try to look around and see things... notice things are solid... notice things are here... notice you are here... pull yourself down and try to pull into the body and feel that you are one with the body even if not feel like you are in the body...

clearly im not a professional so im just sayin.... i dont know how to control it but i think that if you can catch it before it gets way way far gone you can try to stay connected... like, notice that you are not there but notice you are not there at the same time and no that you ARE because you have to be to notice you are not... i dunno... i hate this stuff...

in another sense, in my understanding, depersonalization is when you seperate from the the body, not so much the mind... you are aware and conscious, but you feel that the body is outside of you, and that you are outside of the body, like something is wrong and it doesnt belong.... but i guess everyone can feels thes things at times... thats the part that drives me crazy... because im like... its not a problem... nothing is wrong... i am here... stop being weird... and things...

but what can you do... just talk to others i guess, if you seeing a therapist talk to thems... if you are not seeing a therapists then maybe consider seeing one because these things can really mess with your head atleast in my experience... especially when you start looking around and totaly dont feel in control at all and just seeing things in a strange cartoon way...

Yeah I started thinking I was dead... and started obsessing about that a whole lot and coming onto forums and reading other peoples symptoms. Then slowly I started getting the symptoms

[elevatedsoul]

hmm.. well, you know... in my personal opinon i think we can bring upon ourselves many many things.. like, say you say that your arm is broken, repeatedly... not just saying that your arm is broken, but you are believing it more and more each time you say it, repeatedly... then you know next thing you know your arm really seems broken, cant move it, cant touch it, its very much painful... the mind has the ability to manipulate the bodie, the mind can create disease, and it can heal disease... its a powerful thing the mind is really really

i am not sure again... but i think things like depersonalization and derealization can be brought on just by thinking, like if you start thinking about it... if you read about it especially and start feeling a pull or obsessive type feeling towrads it like its maybe what you feel is wrong, even if it is what you are feeling, since you feelt like you were feeling dead... can really exacerbate the sensations...

i dont know too much right now because my brain is not working so well.. which really makes me not want to say things... but i do like talking to others and stuff... so i hope that i dont annoy you or anyone else...
its just that my brain is tired i guess and its making me not able to use full capacity...

but for example... the past 5 or 6 years i was going to the clinic to try to get help, they diagnosed me with bipolar... right off the bat i was like, wait i know what bipolar is i am for sure not bipolar guys you have to reconsider! and of course they dont listen to a crazy manic bipolar... which im really not bipolar... but they didnt know... but about a 2 years into treatment they started convincing me that it was bipolar... that what was happening was because of a fluctuations of moods from depressions and manias... which it wasnt clearly now that i am away from their ... repeated... influence....

but what i mean is that we can begin to believe pretty much anything... givin enough time and persuasion... what is important is how its efefcting us... and it seems like you are being concerned with it so it wouldnt be a bad idea to see someone about it, just take some notes about what you feel and talk to them...
its not a bad thing... even if its not depersonalization you could hear them say that is severe anxiety or something and have a name for it and get help for it you know?

ocd sucks... its enough to drive anyone mad... so if you are dealing with something like depersonalization, i dunno if it is involved in ocd because im kind of stupid right now... but even if its not doesnt mean that you are not experiencing it... and the only/best thing we can do is talk about it, talk it out... learn grounding techniques... the therapists can be super helpful and caring

but please, dont take everything i say to exact truth because im strugling pretty rough... and its hard for me to know whats happening from moment to moment... and even i dont know if its dp/dr or dissociation... the therapist said that it is invovling dissociation so ... i dunno.. just hard to believe these things i guess because it plays many tricks on your mind...

just try to tell yourself that you are not dead, but if you are dead, you are here talking to me and that means im dead too, so we are all dead together, which really means we are like being alive together, so whats better than being dead together and not have to worry about dieing? hehe
know what i mean?

[amandalouise]

maybe this will help in understanding how a person with anxiety\ptsd can get depersonalization....

here in the USA depersonalization \ derealization problems are ...feelings....

feeling spaced out,
feeling numb
feeling like you are moving in slow motion
feeling like you are moving too fast
feeling like everyone and everything around you is either moving too slow or too fast.
feeling like you or the world around you is not real

sometimes when people have panic attacks their panic attack makes them feel spaced out, foggy, numb, and all those things I listed.

heres an example. I have a fear of high places. I climb a ladder and I start having a panic attack (worry that Im going to fall, trouble breathing, heart pounding) I close my eyes and notice I feel numb like, i cant feel my body, I know my body is there I just cant feel my fingers holding on, nor my legs holding me up. my brain has stopped thinking just holding on for dear life until i can find a way down.

once I am down off the ladder I start feeling again, start thinking again, and notice my legs feel shakey.

thats how a person can have a panic attack and have depersonalization at the same time.

because people can have depersonalization\derealization problems with their PTSD this problem is now one of the diagnostic criteria for having PTSD. people can now have PTSD alone and they can have ptsd with depersonalization\derealization symptoms. the diagnosing treatment provider "specifies" whether or not a person is having depersonalization \derealizaiton problems with their PTSD or not.

my suggestion is talk with your treatment providers, they will explain to you how you can have these problems all together. and what symptoms you had got you diagnosed with them.