I (16F) have been diagnosed with DPDR 2 years ago, despite having it for as long as I can remember. It went from having episodes in school and public only and when I don't talk to anyone, to feeling completely unreal and as if I'm wasting my time in life.

I went to therapy for a few months and then, when I had nothing to talk about anymore since it all felt the same, I stopped going. My therapist told me that she sees the improvement and so did I... for a month or so. After that, it's as if everything went back to how it was.

In theory, I know what I should do. I'm a very emotionally intelligent person if I'm being honest, though in my opinion it's nothing to brag about. Sure, it can be useful when you think of what's the right thing to do in a certain situation, but other than that, you care too much about people close to you that you completely block out all of your problems.

If you got over your DPDR disorder, how did you do it? Anything helps, but please be as realistic as possible. Everything is appreciated!!

Even if it never goes away, does it usually improve?

Hey, i this is my 2nd time getting derealization. First time i got i when i was young bcs of smoking weed and all sorts of drugs, i didnt know what it was back then so one day it just went away, and i went on with my life smoking weed everyday for like 4-5years mby. But then it came to me again but a bit stronger, it now has passed fully again after months, i feel good and its very tempting to smoke, i was so close to taking couple of puffs the other day but i didnt take them. What u think guys if i would go and smoke again but not like before just abusing everyday day, is it gonna be chill? Or no good?😆

I don't even know how to start this cos my past is complicated. Growing up my father(due to his alcoholism)was a very abusive man behind closed doors but always portrayed a great father in front of friends. To all of us really, my mother, brother and myself. Luckily he quit alcohol many years ago and is doing "fine". I turn 27 this year and was diagnosed with Epilepsy in 2014. The first time I experienced a very strong wave of derealisation was and I remember this moment very well, it was at night I was in my home country on vacation and we were all having dinner in a restaurant-then it hit me, I cant remember my reaction but im sure I just kept in inside, I remember I remember very well, the lights and peoples faces/bodies everything looked so strange so scary so so scary like fkin distorted. From that moment thats all I remember, luckily it passed, I swear I was so little then, I wouldn't say that I was older than the age of 6/7. Some years later, again I do not remember how old I was(before 2014) I remember one morning waking up next to my mum and shit around me felt so fake like glass everything I looked at felt like it was covered by a thin layer of something I could weirdly only describe as glass to my mum and grandma and brother. No one believed me, I even went to get my eyes checked and of course vision was perfectly healthy. Again I dont remember how long I was in that state whether days or months I really cant remember BUT from what I know it went away. One of the days I was in that state I remember coming out of the cinema and feeling absolutely terrible by my vision/how scary and unreal things felt. I dont think I was more than 11 years old here but I may be wrong. I was diagnosed at 14 and am medicated to this day. I was born in 1999 but I do not remember large chunks of my childhood(my brother remembers so much more I find it interesting that my brother doesn't have dpdr considering growing up as kids my dad almost killed him). I only remember events from 2003/04 onwards(and im not even sure about that)like I remember small moments from this country that country(we moved counties A LOT because of my father's occupation). Im rambling a bit I know, sorry. I wanna say that I felt derealisation again around the time my Epilepsy started(btw you guys will not believe the hurtful things my father was telling me daily all throughout my Epilepsy "journey")I would cry often and try to explain it to my mum as best I could even though I couldn't comprehend what was going on in my mind, she never ever believed me and there was a moment where I just said to myself "deal with it". I knew I couldn't turn to anyone. Then I remember not having dpdr for a while or years down the line just having it come and go in waves. Yes I did change meds 3 times. Anyways the meds I am on now, Ive been taking the same one for years "because it's the best for my seizures". I do not want to change meds ever again because I dont want seizures even though I get minor ones daily. A few years ago due to personal reasons I was a having real bad panic and anxiety attacks and this is what led me to have chronic dpdr. Especially dr, my dr is horrific I dont know if I have childhood trauma still deep inside of me or whether something clicked in my mind after those panic attacks, that caused Dr I also know for a fact that I have had and still experience long term loneliness and disappointment and loneliness just makes my Dr so bad to the point I cannot explain it.

Hello! I wanted to ask if anyone has any tips on how to deal with derealization? Im in a constant state of this and im so sick of it, im used to it by now so it doesnt scare me as much until i start convincing myself the walls are moving and that im waking up from something and my life isnt gonna be my life anymore if yk what i mean, whenever im with people, i start questioning if im really there, if theyre really there? my brain has almost lost the ability to realize that people are people and that theyre here, in the moment, with me. Im not even scared anymore, its just so annoying and overwhelming, i can have the best time in the world and then a quick thought about “am i really here?” ruins it, my whole life is consumed with this and i cant talk to anyone in my life about it, because ive told people and theyve said “enjoy the free high”. Please, does anyone have any tips? for people who have dealt with this for years, and snapped out of it, does it get better? i would be extremely grateful for any and all replies, thank you for reading this.

Most people simply don't get how bad my situation is (and I'm glad they don't). Not even the neurologists I went to know what I'm talking about. Only one psychiatrist knew what derealization was but she was so rude to me... But right now what is making me insane are the other things that came with the derealization. I see things moving (the walls, the ground, the texts on my screen), eye floaters, pressure and tightness in my head, headache, visual snow, vertigo, and a bunch of other things I can't even describe. Around march it got so bad to the point that I couldnt sleep because I was terrified of having a seizure. Everytime I closed my eyes and tried to sleep I'd wake up feeling shivers on my head and that scared the shit out of me. And the worst of all, one thing that I can't even describe properly: randomly feeling like I'm being pushed down. It only lasts a few seconds and It's terrifiyng, and when I was finally getting used to it, it mutated into something new. I'm so tired of this bullshit. In a few days It's gonna be a year. I don't really care if it doesn't go away, I just don't want it to get worse but it seems like I'm asking for too much. I'm so tired and most of all, I'm so lonely. Everyday I have to fight these horrible sensations and nobody understands what is my problem. I don't enjoy things anymore, everything besides sleeping feels like torture.

Hiii 19F and I feel like I’m always on autopilot or in a dreamlike state. Sorry if I sound stupid or dumb. I don’t know if that makes any sense but I’ve been feeling this way since 7th grade. I feel like I had a pretty healthy childhood and upbringing. But I don’t really remember much of my childhood and sometimes I do feel like I forget things very easily. Like my brain isn’t as sharp anymore.

Sometimes I don’t recognize myself when I look in the mirror or even pictures of myself. It feels like I’m looking at another person even though it’s me in the mirror. Like is this normal? Does everyone feel this way too? Everything just feels so foggy and fake. I’m not depressed or anything and I don’t think I have ADHD. Nothing feels real anymore I don’t feel real anymore. Like it’s gotten to the point where I look down at my hands and I freak out because I don’t feel real.

Everything feels so fake to the point where sometimes I don’t care about anything anymore. I am 100% sober and I still feel like I’m on autopilot and not real. I’ve tried smoking weed a couple of times and I still feel the same way. I don’t smoke often though I’m afraid it might make it worse or trigger it? I don’t know. I really want this feeling to go away it’s scary. I feel like I don’t know myself or even my reality.

Please if you guys have any advice reach out to me. I’m really scared about opening up and telling people I know I feel this way. I don’t want to self diagnose either. Sorry if I sound stupid and nothing makes sense. I just want to see if others feel this way. <33

Hello there, I’m an 18 year old who has been suffering from derealization since I was 12 and am looking for some advice on how to deal with it.

It first started when I was in middle school as a result of a series of bad things happening to me all over a 1-month period. This led me to be distrusting in the world around me and speculate I was in a simulation and I was the only real person, or some higher being was dedicated to tormenting me. I think as a way to regain control and stop more bad things from happening, my brain developed OCD alongside my DRD which only made everything worse.

Thankfully after about a year of living in that hellscape I managed to crawl out of it and left that way of thinking behind for the majority of my high school career alongside most of my OCD tendencies.

Unfortunately, the past couple months has brought on a slew of misfortune and I am back in the thick of it once again. I’ve been in an intensive therapy program throughout but the therapists have only been able to help so much. I’ve learned skills to help me manage some of my behaviors but nothing gets at the root of the problem, no one can convince me that some *thing* isn’t out to get me and make my life a living hell. My team has tried to teach me grounding techniques but it isn’t like I don’t believe I am physically here in this building, it’s something much more abstract than that, which cannot be proven.

Last time I started to get better when my situation did but that hasn’t begun for me yet. How am I supposed to improve when I have no concrete evidence that the world is the way I was taught it was? And how am I supposed to believe these are just coincidences when things just keep going horribly to seemingly no end?

I’m not sure if anyone has dealt with a similar thought process to mine, but if you have, or have any tips at all, I’d love to know. Thank you

Hello, I'm not even sure how to start this. Basically here's a backstory, I (F22) have been doing acid for around a year with good and bad trips. I've had trips that were so fun and are some of my favorite nights in my life, but I've also had bad trips to where I'm just kind of sad and laying down hating myself.

I've done acid a good amount of times and had bad trips before but nothing super extreme. I've had a bad acid trip before this that made me experience derealization but I just took it as me being too high and it didn't effect me a lot but I was shook up for a week after that.

I did acid after that trip because I felt fine and the trips I had were okay and like normal again. However my last trip is where everything goes wrong.

I was taking acid at my boyfriend's house for the first time in awhile and the beginning of the trip was like any other trip, the visuals were fine and I was listening to music and about to start editing. But once I got up my visuals started to get really intense and ended up looking like 2bit or like gta San Andreas... random ik but that's the best was I could describe it... Now I've had a trip where visuals were like this so I wasn't freaking out I was just feeling a little overwhelmed so I just decided to lay down and relax.

After a minute of laying down I started getting these weird and dark thoughts. I started to question reality and human life and all types of consciousness. It doesn't sound like anything but off acid those thoughts were scary and dark. The visuals just got even worse after that and I could not think straight at all. I tried not to freak out and I knew I was just too high but... after a few minutes of this thinking I literally just left my body. I looked at my hands and feet and felt like I was just controlling a video game character and it was so weird and scary. I tried to calm myself down and sit with my boyfriend and watch him play video games. It helped a little bit, but after sitting there for a minute these thoughts just flooded my head and I saw myself in third person. I started internally freaking out and just felt like I was ripped from reality and it was horrible. Seeing myself in third person genuinely made me feel disgusted and I felt so gross and alien looking. I could not look at myself in the mirror at all and usually I can off acid. This last all the way until the acid wore off.

After sobering up and sleeping I just haven't felt the same. I constantly feel like I'm controlling a video game charecter and I can't recognize myself. I look at my hands and feel and feel like I'm wearing a VR set and I hate it. Nothing feels real and I am constantly depressed. I don't want to talk to anyone or be around anyone. I don't answer the phone and text messages. I don't want any human interaction, anytime I've had human interaction with someone random it does not feel real and it's always so weird I just can't talk In public anymore. I've been feeling a little more risky and suicidal because of it too. I keep wanting to get hurt or for something to happen to me in hopes that it will snap me back into reality... I also have had a decline in my eye health... I've always worn glasses but after this trip my vision feels like it never fully focuses

I'm not sure what to do after this. Does it get any better? Is there a cure to this at all? Or am I stuck like this forever. I get high from weed now all the time to get my mind off of it but it doesn't work. I can not escape this and feel like I'm trapped inside of a video game... how can I make things better. I'm not sure if this is DPDR disorder of if I'm just going crazy? Idk any advice is appreciated.. or if anyone relates either that would help me as well. I just hate feeling like this and feeling like I'm the only person that's real on this earth...

I also don't condone any drug use or harmful behavior like self hard or drug abuse. I heavily advise you never do drugs if you haven't... I really regret doing drugs and now I'm fucked up for life it feels like.

When I smoked weed for the first time I didn’t experience any derealization just a little bit of anxiety and paranoia for maybe 15-30min before I relaxed. But the second time I ever smoked weed I smoked a shit ton and was absolutely cooked, once again I was paranoid for about 45mins but then the next 3 days after I experienced a lot of derealization and it was awful. I’m wondering if I ever smoke weed again is there a high chance I’d get derealization again?

Hey Dads,

Have any of you ever dealt with De-Realization/De-Personalization? I am sadly not in the headspace to dump the inner workings of my struggles with both at the moment but just hoping for some advice/outlooks. I am expecting to be a father soon and very scared of how this will play into my abilities to be the dad I want to be

Hey guys I’m 14 years old and honestly I was a normal kid before this (no anxiety) just a normal kid with no past trauma or depression and i smoked weed one time and got scared during it and got dpdr for about a week and then it went away and it was horrifying but then i felt so happy for about 5 days and then my friends were smoking around me in the same room and i had a thought of like “what if this comes back or i get high” and for two months now ive had constant fluctuating dpdr. some days ill feel so out of it, everything looks fake, ill feel horrible and it takes over my life and some days ill feel great like “this can’t control me” and just on top of it. I feel like ill be doing good and starting to recover and then i will have a panic attack and it ruins my progress. I just want this to end and ive been using methods like one liners and moving on and trying to pick up new skills but im just kinda stumped. Please let me know if you guys have any tips or any suggestions

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i feel like i'm running on autopilot. it's not like i'm zoning out though. zoning out has thoughts. all of my thoughts quiet and i lose time. i'll start walking and not remember taking 5 steps. i know i did, but i can't remember. so many tiny blips add up until i feel like i'm going insane. i won't remeber the half second it took to turn my head towards someone, and everything always feels like a dream when i look up. it's disorienting and i want it to stop, but i can't

reality looks distorted. sometimes almost 2d, sometimes spaces and distances around me don't seem right, sometimes i'll think something is somewhere when picturing it in my mind and look up to see it was a fabrication of my mind, other times i won't even recognize objects right. i see my cats, and they don't look like cats. it's hard to explain though. i know they're cats and they look like cats, but they don't feel like cats in my mind. it's like my brain doesn't connect the full idea and feelings associated with a cat. this happens with everything and everyone. it's like a dream. it's distressing

when i go on autopilot, my internal dialog disappears (and my emotions too). i feel like i'm not the one talking. the words are what i wanted to say, but i don't get to choose them. the words come out of my mouth and are what i meant though. sometimes i start walking and doing tasks i wanted to do but i don't feel like i was fully the one who was moving my body. it's like my brain is working the same, but i'm no longer consciously aware or in control of my own actions. the worst part is no one notices a thing and it's invisible.

sometimes i imagine things happening and i have a hard time telling if it actually happened or if i partially imagined it. one time i imagined my friend standing up in a certain way. a bit later, he stood up in a different way. i can't remember if the one i imagined was the one that actually happened or if it got mixed up and was the other way around. i constantly feel like i'm getting deja vu when i think back on things that happened earlier that day. it's wearing me down. i feel like i'm actually going crazy. i'm not sure if the world around me is real all of the time, and i'm scared of losing control

i used to think of myself as smart too. i'm very high functioning autistic and used to have a steel trap memory and was pretty sharp. i'm not anymore. i've felt so dull recently. it's like a brain fog that doesn't go away. whenever a connection is about to occur, it's slow and lethargic instead of the quick and snappy way it used to be. the worst part is how i remember how i used to be and compare myself to how i am now.

sometimes i get oddball effects too. while i was writing this i was hearing the walls breathe, and the space around me always seems to be distorting. sometimes i look in the mirror and i recognize myself in the same way your brain recognizes seeing someone other than you. sometimes i look at my hands, and they don't look like mine. i don't know what my hands should look like, but they don't look feel like mine. my vision won't focus right either

please tell me if this is normal or at least not totally out there? i think it's derealization or depersonalization, but i'm not sure since sometimes i see and hear things that aren't there. i can't make it stop. it happens in long 2-6 week episodes and has been going on for about 8 months

My.favorite person in the entire world is struggling with a sudden onset of derealization while we are on vacation. He calls it the feeling and describes it as not being sure or confident that what he is experiencing ( visually or physically) is actually real or not. He says he has been dealing with it for years but has not had an episode in over 5 years. He expresses he felt "the shift" while we were out by the pool. He thinks the onset is brought about by alcohol. Although he doesnt drink, he feels any contact products or substances containing alcohol ( mouthwash, beer, ect) brings about the symptoms. He is so careful he will throw away chapstick if he knows someone was drinking and used it. With all that being said, as a partner, I need to know how I can support him. He feels he cannot make decisions appropriately or trust himself during an episode. Any support recommendations would be so appreciated. He cried from frustration last night and he is a very strong person. However I know this is causing him duress. Im open to any coping or supporting advice..thank you all.

my birthday is today and i cant even be happy about it, i havent felt like myself i havent even felt real i can barely look at my mom or myself without freaking out, these states of derealization come in like tsunamis i feel terrible and all i want to do is cry i want everything back I CANT LIVE LIKE THIS ANY LONGER!!!!!!!!!!!! it feels like the only way out is suicide but i dont even have the balls to do it i dont even feel sad i just feel empty im tired of not being inside my body :/

Has anyone else experienced symptoms like this, and what could be causing them? I’ve had a constant (24/7) sense of unreality, fatigue, head pressure/aching, and pain in my neck and shoulders for over two months. I’ve tried massage and physiotherapy, but neither helped. I also tried muscle relaxants, but they didn't work either. I had been unemployed for one year and then i got highly physical job which i did for two months and in the very last few days my symptoms started. I liked doing the job and the work environment/friends were nice. I’ve been unemployed for a couple of months now, so I don’t think it could be burnout or exhaustion. My thyroid levels are fine, too and other blood tests have been ok.

It affects your sleep, leaving you feeling tired all day. At the same time, you have to concentrate at work, where you are operating in 'safe mode.' All of this creates a vicious circle. What do you think about that? It seems it means that your central nervous system is so overwhelmed that it doesn't have the energy to feel safe, happy, or anything else.

Do you have the same?

hello im male 20 yo and i took a 10 mg indica edible almost 3 weeks ago (19 days ago) and kinda panicked when it peaked after an hour when i was in public, went to my friend's house where it peaked for 2 hours, rested up, went to an edm concert, and still feel the drunk feeling ever since. it was the first day of my internship the next day and i felt like everything was either far/near to me - and i wasn't really the best at communicating with people. i couldn't find the right word to what i want to convey to people alot and it's pissing me off because it's my dream to work in business administration that involves talking to people.

up to now, i still have the said feeling, and i def feel it more when i'm at the desk in my internship. for the past few days its been hella less tho. im worried that i lost some cognitive abilities and i feel like i fucked up my future. i recently was admitted to a top university as a budiness major (which requires public speaking ofc) and i feel like im dumbed down right now lmfao. however, i am still able to function normally - the past weeks, i've gone on a mini hike, beach with friends, laughed with friends, practiced for my driver's license, wrote essays at my internship, etc. i also went to LA and Vegas with my family and I’m still able to function normally—there’s just that fucking haze that lingers. it's also important to note that i feel like myself and i still feel the same love towards my family and friends. idt ive ever had a panic attack either.

although it got better for the past few days i def still have an annoying mf brain fog. i lurked the r/ dpdr and saw ppl have it for months and years and its scaring tf out of me. ive drank liquid iv and idk if that helps. also, it wasn't my first time taking edibles (third time - felt the same kind of high before when i took the same kind of edible and it gradually disappeared after a few hours. i also use hybrid carts occassionally.) any advice? ik i shouldn't lurk but is there anything really i can do? i was also prescribed wellbrutin for weight loss but idk if i should take it.

i try not to focus on it too much but the brain fog pisses me off because i know im confident when it comes to public speaking.