- One of the most common misconceptions
about depersonalization
is that it's some strange, rare condition.
It's not, in fact,
it's extremely common and pretty well understood.
But if that's the case, why don't more people know about it
and why do so many people have experiences
where their doctor doesn't recognize the symptoms of DP?
Hey everyone, I'm Shaun O Connor,
author of "The Depersonalization Manual."
I suffered with chronic depersonalization for two years
before I recovered completely.
And in the more than 10 years since, my book,
"The Depersonalization Manual"
has helped thousands of people
around the world to recover from depersonalization.
And today, we're gonna find out the reasons
why DP isn't more well known and recognized,
and why that's finally starting to change.
We'll also debunk the common myth
that depersonalization disorder
is some sort of bizarre mystery condition
and explain why you can and will recover completely.
Let's get started.
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When you have depersonalization,
there can often be a worry that it's some sort of bizarre,
unknown, rare condition.
And this isn't helped if you go to your doctor
and find that they don't recognize the symptoms either,
or that they tell you it's just anxiety.
I had a similar experience back in the day with my doctor.
He told me that it sounded like
what I was experiencing was just anxiety.
Now, that didn't really make sense to me.
I mean, I'd felt anxiety before, I knew what that was like,
but this was different.
This was a feeling of physical and mental disconnection
from the world around me.
And like so many others,
I felt a strong sense of frustration
with that initial diagnosis.
In fact, that experience can be so frustrating
that people can often find themselves
wishing that they had something more serious
or even life threatening.
Because at least then they'd have a simple diagnosis
and a clear plan of action.
But what I wish I'd known then is that thankfully,
there's a very simple explanation
as to why DP isn't more well known.
And I'm about to break it down for you in five simple steps.
Number five, the causes are less specific.
Depersonalization is a common anxiety-based condition.
But let's take another common anxiety-based condition,
like say claustrophobia.
So if somebody with claustrophobia is in say,
a crowded subway carriage,
they might start to feel very uncomfortable and panicky.
They might feel like the walls are closing in.
They might feel like they need to get out
as soon as possible.
And the same might apply when they're in an elevator,
a plane, even a toilet cubicle.
But what's important is that the symptoms and triggers
are very clear and even specific.
With depersonalization,
the symptoms can seem a lot more vague
but just as frightening.
You might feel a sense of unease
with literally everything around you.
You might feel like your vision or your memory feels off,
or that you're experiencing déjà vu all the time,
but there's nothing specific that's triggering them,
nothing that you can point to and say,
that's causing the feelings.
This simple fact can make DP more difficult to diagnose
than other anxiety-based conditions.
Number four, the symptoms are harder to describe.
Continuing with the example of claustrophobia,
if you were to experience it for the first time,
it would still feel really inexplicable and scary.
You would've no idea why this was happening.
But when you explain the feelings to a doctor
or a psychologist
and say that you feel scared and panicky in enclosed spaces,
well, those are pretty clear symptoms of claustrophobia.
And the likelihood is that you would get diagnosed
and start your treatment very quickly.
But with DP, the symptoms themselves are different.
For example, one of the main symptoms
is a feeling of being cut off from the world around you.
Now, this is a perfectly natural and common response
to stress and panic,
but if you're experiencing a sudden and overwhelming
sense of disconnection from yourself
and your surroundings for the first time,
with no frame of reference for what it is,
well, that can be a very tough thing to describe.
So you often have people struggling to describe it,
and saying things like, I feel like I'm not here.
I feel like I'm stuck in a dream.
I feel like I'm behind a pane of glass,
et cetera, et cetera, which brings us to our next point.
Number three, the symptoms are frightening to describe.
There's also the fact that just saying things like
I feel like I'm not here can seem very frightening.
I remember walking into my doctor's office back in 2005
and trying to describe what I was experiencing.
I was saying things like, I feel like I'm not real.
And part of me was absolutely convinced
that that was not something a sane person would say.
I was genuinely scared that I would be put away
in a mental hospital for the rest of my life.
Of course I wasn't.
But even just the fear of describing your symptoms
honestly can prevent people
from even seeing a doctor in the first place.
Number two, DP tends to be diagnosed as just anxiety.
Because the symptoms can often have a lot of crossover
with more well known symptoms of anxiety
like racing thoughts, catastrophizing, et cetera,
and because the patient will typically be
in a visibly anxious state,
they tend to often be just diagnosed as having anxiety.
Now, the thing is that this isn't entirely incorrect.
DP is an anxiety-based condition,
but the problem is that that description
really doesn't feel like it covers
what you're going through.
I remember thinking to myself, hang on,
I felt anxiety before, and this is a lot worse than that.
Now anxiety-based conditions are at very different levels
from day to day anxiety, like having an exam coming up,
or giving a presentation at work.
But it is important to remember
that even if a diagnosis of anxiety seems simplistic,
it's still technically correct.
And number one, fewer diagnoses
because of all the reasons I've just outlined,
historically, DP has been harder to research
and there tends to be a lot fewer diagnoses of DP
compared to say agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder,
et cetera, et cetera.
Fewer diagnoses means that it's more difficult to research
because the numbers aren't as great
as those other conditions.
Less research means less awareness of the condition,
which means less diagnoses, and so the circle continues,
or at least it has done for decades.
It can be frustrating, but please do bear in mind
that this has more to do with the nature of the condition
and just how difficult it can be to describe
than any sort lack of interest or negligence
in the medical community.
Also, it's important to remember that this is changing.
When I developed DP back in 2005,
there was almost no information about the condition
available online, aside from one or two small chat forums.
Now there are a wealth of different resources
and that's being reflected in the medical community.
These days, I'm speaking to more and more people
whose doctors have recognized the symptoms
and diagnosed the condition.
It's also worth noting that the legalization of cannabis
is inevitably leading to more and more cases
of weed induced DP, which in and of itself,
is leading to awareness of the condition.
And with more awareness of the condition,
the quicker that a diagnosis is likely to happen.
And the sooner that you realize
that this isn't some sort of bizarre, mysterious disease,
it's a common, harmless, temporary, anxiety-based condition.
Sure, it may have some symptoms that aren't as clear cut
as say the fear of being in an enclosed space,
but you know what, that's okay.
It's still just a common, harmless,
temporary anxiety-based condition.
And in fact, one of the scariest things about it
is just that initial phase of not knowing what it is
or what you can do to recover.
But as the awareness of it grows,
that initial phase becomes shorter and shorter.
And hopefully we'll get to a place someday soon
where depersonalization will be just as well known
and just as well recognized as conditions
like agoraphobia and claustrophobia,
and just as quickly diagnosed.
If you want tons more information
on depersonalization recovery,
check out my website at dpmanual.com,
where you'll find everything that you need to know
including my complete guide to recovery,
"The Depersonalization Manual."
If you have any comments or questions
leave them in the common section below,
and I'll make sure to end and help you out.
Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
And if you found this video helpful,
please do like and share.
Thanks for watching.
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