what the fuck just happened.

[jkrs]

ok well today i just found out about derealization. i read a website with all the symptoms and it seemed preaty similar to what i am mildly experiencing in addition to hppd. well anyways i was driving and i felt like i could not controll my body what so ever. i got the scarriest feeling in the pit of my stomach, and it felt almost as if i were having a flashback of some sort. I am 100% convinced that it was triggered because i read about it today. so i want to know if anyone that has seeked treatment for hppd has had their derealization dissapear.

[415_stylee]

DR will probably disappear or at least decrease, it just takes time. DR is fueled by anxiety, and the anxiety is mostly (when one has HPPD) fueled by difficulty for ones mind to adjust to the new state of being (HPPD). For me, it took a few years before I truly accepted living with HPPD. Under that time, the more I adjusted, the more the anxiety decreased, the more DR decreased. I still get some DR episodes sometimes, but they're manageable. DR usually made me think that I was losing all touch with reality and becoming completely psychotic, but in the end I learned that those strange sensations and dissociation were nothing but nasty, but harmless, DR. I would convince myself in my mind when the DR episodes came; "You're not going psychotic, it's just DR, you've had it many times before and you know exactly how it feels", which would take the edge of the DR.

Regarding medicine, I've not taken any benzos so I can't speak for them, but some substances can actually trigger DR. High doses of caffeine should be avoided. Antihistamines can really make the brain foggy, which isn't really good for DR.

You'll probably feel better in time. Remember that DR + anxiety = more DR with longer duration. When you get scared don't run away from the fear. Face it, and take control over it. It'll dissipate the anxiety, and with that the DR. Time will do the rest. The " scarriest feeling in the pit of my stomach" is a typical sign of anxiety. Remember that flashback are quick, intense and short (like 15 seconds). DR is more vague and goes on for a longer time (hours and days) with a few spikes.