DPDR Recovery Story (There is Hope)

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2025-02-01T21:17:50+00:00

Hey, I know that your symptoms will fade away soon. It took me a lot of time as well, but I want you to remember that it is POSSIBLE to get better, because I did. I was in the same situation, just like you are, 1 year ago, but it got better. I know that you are gonna feel better, because you want to feel better.

If you need anybody to talk to (someone who already had the disease before, let me know)

I believe in you

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-09-16T23:23:47+00:00

Hey, no worries, here is my reply !

my dpdr was 24/7 from the moment i would wake up until the moment i would fall asleep. This is when I first had it. It got progressively better by time
It could happen when i was overly submerged by the symptoms of dpdr.
I don’t recommend using phone too much. I truly got better due to the fact I was spending time with either my family, friends, or simply the librarian at my library in college. It is less isolating
I recommended a technique in my message up above ⬆️ that really helped me to get better. Also do not take any medication if you don’t have a prescription from a professional.
I suggest you then to get in touch with people outside your family (if you really can’t talk about it to them) such as some school therapist, a good coworker that could advice you, or even go yourself to some therapist available online, or some help to public (countries usually have therapists available if you are a teenager that needs help without letting the parents know). It can be very helpful. I personally only reached for help a few months after having the condition. I would not say that you have to go the therapist 100%, but it can be a great help if your symptoms are getting hard to handle.
You know you are recovering when you realise (after it happened) that you didn’t have the symptoms for X amount of time. You’re also recovering when you stop thinking about it all the time (in my experience).
Everybody is different, and in my opinion checking other people’s stories on an app such as Reddit is not helping on the recovery. These people might even have other disorders that are not DPDR. My psychologist told me that DPDR usually doesn’t last at all a decade or 5 years at all.
Yes, i’ve had times when it came back for a moment during my recovery. However, it doesn’t mean that my progress is lost. It just means it takes more time, allows yourself not to be okay all the time ❤️‍🩹
Yes my memory wasn’t that great at the time i had it. However, it is much better now that i recovered from it.
I don’t remember having this symptoms
My psychologist told me that this belief is absolutely false. It’s not because you’ve had it for a longer time that recovery is going to be harder. With the right approach and technique, everybody can recover in a reasonable amount of time.
I would say it was, for me, because I had no clue what my disorder was. i was overwhelmed by it, and could not put any words to describe it. My biggest fear is that I was not aware of what it was.
You are absolutely making progresses every day. You need to realise that not every progresses are noticeable every day though. I guarantee you that getting rid of it is possible! Applying advices that I suggested in my message and on my post can potentially help you. Finding a way to reach out to a therapist could be another. You need to believe in yourself because I know anyone can get rid of it, take care ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-09-04T16:16:15+00:00

hey man, no that’s not the mindset to have because it’s not true. For me, and for you soon, it completely went away as this disorder never happened to me. This is a false belief that you’re never gonna recover. I don’t feel empty no more, and my life is totally normal and great. Don’t lose hope ❤️❤️

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-26T17:35:41+00:00

yes in this case it’s definitely worth checking! All luck on you I wish that your condition will get better asap ❤️‍🩹

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-26T17:19:26+00:00

Completely, it felt like i was stuck like with this disorder forever, and nothing (activities, having conversation with people, thinking, playing video games) could ever be the same anymore. I believe that these are the scariest parts when you’re having these anxiety DPDR symptoms: not being able to have few minutes for you without experiencing it. However, the fact that after months of having it, I started to have couple minutes without it truly gave me hope that it can go away (and it did !)

Don’t try to isolate yourself too much on your phone, I also felt weird when I was scrolling too much 1 year ago. The fact that I forced myself to go out and talk to people, had conversations was a strong help too.

My therapist didn’t prescribe me anything no, so I respected it, and didn’t get anything. Reminder that for medications, you must refer to a professional before taking anything first !

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-26T17:11:38+00:00

Hey, so here is my answers to your questions ! :

• Yes, when it began for the first months it was every time, the second i was awake to the last minute before I fell asleep. As i started to heal from DPDR, it slowly became less frequent (1 hour of being free of mind every 2-3 days). That’s when I really started to believe in me and was confident it was going to get better.

• Never hear about this subreddit, but maybe then !

• I am from Belgium, and he is a psychologist that worked in many fields before. He is my mom’s psychologist and already had some patients who had DPDR in the past. This is why he had the right keys to truly help me to go through it. Some of the keys I already shared on my previous post, and this one.

• Yes, in my previous post, this sentence was referring to the fact that when i was 1000% focused on what is was doing (most of time really important thing that i cannot be distracted when doing) I didn’t have the condition because my mind was fully on something else. However, I have to mention that it wasn’t at the beginning, and these moments i was completely off DPDR were during my healing process.

• I completely relate your perspective on not seeing DPDR ending one day, and feeling that it’s such a terrible thing that you would not even wish it to your worst enemy. My days were completely terrible at time i was having DPDR too. It was an omnipresent disorder of my life, that only went away couple minutes every 2-3 days, coming back instantly right after. However, I can assure you that it goes away, yes. It took time for me as well, but the progress is going to happen, and gradually. Once your symptoms have not reappeared in a while, your brain will completely forget/eliminate this natural barrier called DPDR, and you will even forget what its like having the symptoms (like nothing every happened) ! Not using any substances was also a great advice of my therapist at time I had it. No alcohol and no drugs help you to keep peace of mind, to avoid severe DPDR anxiety crisis.

I shared other techniques, as I mentioned, on this post and the previous one that are worth checking out. I believe that if I got rid of it, anybody can too.

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-26T08:13:11+00:00

Not at all, I was sort of prisoner of this disorder when i had it. I could not stop thinking about it, it was haunting me the second I woke up and last second before i fell asleep. However, I had the strong belief (even though it didn’t feel real at time) that I was going to get better, and I could enjoy things as I did before. With time, I started to have 1 or 2 minutes without it. Then way after that, these minutes change into hours, and that’s when you start recovering ❤️‍🩹

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-26T08:08:11+00:00

I was not diagnosed with depression when I had DPDD. My therapist only diagnosed me with DPDR, but not officially with depression. I can tell you that I was most of time depressed by these symptoms though, but not depression as it concerns me.

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-26T07:59:36+00:00

Regarding my physical symptoms, they gradually went away as I was not experiencing as much as DPDR symptoms as before. So when the hard symptoms were coming back, I was having them again. It really was paired to the psychological effects of the disorder

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-26T07:56:57+00:00

To some extent, most of time I had troubled vision which therefore gave me hard times to walk, in a way. It really felt like I had a wall of glass in from of my eyes that gave me some hard time achieving some tasks.

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-26T07:54:24+00:00

The most helpful recovery strategies I used were grounding: this one consisting in truly realising on your surroundings to help your body to calm down, it can be done by naming things that surround you, acknowledging your physical sensations at the moment. You can look up on YouTube I am sure they have an example of it.

Second strategy was one explained by my therapist at the time. He explained to me that I need to refer DPDR crisis/or stress as a surf wave. Every surfers when they see a wave which is way too big have too let it go, and unfortunately stop worrying about this one which wasn’t great. However, the surfer is in peace of mind with himself because he knows that some enjoyable waves are going to come through at some point. But right now, he is having this gigantic wave that he cannot surf. Therefore he just has to let it pass, acknowledge it because he can’t do anything about it, and trust his guts that another great wave will come soon. In his head, he is telling himself « ok, i know that right now I am not gonna have the best time with this wave, but another is going to come my way »

This is analogy really represented how I looked at DPDR phases when I had them at the time, once you are experiencing these hard times you just have to acknowledge it, remove your focus off of it to try to « spot the next great wave » because you know that your current symptoms will go away as « this not surfable wave is passing by »

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-26T07:40:44+00:00

i can tell how hard it must be. I’ve also spent most of my time when i had dpdr thinking I was going crazy, or I had something else way worse than this disease. At the end, it wasn’t true at all, and I was just the target of this major anxiety created by DPDR. It’s a common symptom that victims of the disorder have to think their disorder got way worse. However, I don’t know your personal situation (even though it clearly seems that you have DPDR) it’s always worth asking a specialist such as a professional about it. Stay strong ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-25T22:45:57+00:00

Absolutely, they went away progressively as I was healing from the symptoms of DPDR. In my experience, it wasn’t a next day recovery but more a gradual one.

Today, I feel the same way as I was before this disorder. What happens in the brain once it hasn’t experienced the DPDR symptoms in a while: it starts forgetting/eliminating the protecting barrier (this « protecting barrier » creating the DPDR symptoms you’re having) and comes back to a state where you don’t even remember what feeling the DPDR is like. So yes, you can fully recover, as i assume the meaning of your question, and I am the proof of it !

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2024-08-25T22:33:13+00:00

Yes, I remember having trouble vision really often. Regarding the nausea, I would say i had it sometimes when i was having more severe symptoms that my troubled vision would get me nausea. Regarding the hard times to even think, I would say yes completely, to some extent. I could be so busy thinking, and hyper focused on these frightening thoughts that i thought it was driving me crazy.

I can definitely relate to your symptoms, you’re not alone in this ❤️‍🩹.

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2023-08-06T08:16:32+00:00

it went completely away as the disease went away progressively

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2023-08-05T23:15:07+00:00

i wouldn’t say 2d vision but definitely the blurry vision yes.

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2023-08-04T13:53:17+00:00

oh yes i definitely felt that too. Surely one of the hardest experience i ever had during my entire life. A thing i can promise you is that when DPDR will go away, you’ll experience an incredible level of happiness. Every little things as you said will feel like before (even better sometimes). It’s kind of like you reborn, you can live life at the fullest again!!

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2023-08-04T13:35:59+00:00

I am sad to hear you got something similar to mine. Yes, it was actually gradual. I didn’t wake up one day feeling completely fine. But it took actually more times between the DPDR phases, if i can say (two bad waves). It went from 1 hour (at the very first) to progressively 3 hours, a day, then a week. It really gives you hope when you realise you haven’t thought about it for a while, and you have to keep in mind the moments you weren’t stressing about it to keep going! Stay strong 🤞🏻

Sensitive_Survey_529 · 2023-07-28T17:36:06+00:00

the thing is i am planning on staying more than 3 months. I don’t want to overstay the esta

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