Depersonalization can be a very frightening condition.
But it's not nearly as scary
once you know what it really is.
Hey everyone, I'm Shaun O'Connor,
author of The Depersonalization Manual.
I suffered from depersonalization disorder for two years
before I recovered completely.
And in the more than 10 years since,
I've helped thousands of people around the world
to recover with my book, The Depersonalization Manual.
And today, I'm going to tell you the three things
that you need to know about Depersonalization recovery.
Let's get started!
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Number one, DP is caused by anxiety.
So much of the fear about Depersonalization
being a permanent condition can be put to bed
by understanding one simple fact.
DP is an anxiety-based condition.
The feelings of detachment, the strange fears,
the racing thoughts.
All of them are caused by anxiety.
You see, Depersonalization is actually
your brain's natural response to stress and trauma.
That may be from violence, a car crash,
a burning building, et cetera.
Your brain sees that it's in danger
and your Fight or Flight response kicks in.
This causes a number of physical effects.
Increased heart rate, tense muscles, dilated pupils.
And one of the mental effects it can also cause
is that it puts up mental barrier
between you and the danger.
This makes you feel disconnected from reality
and even from your own body.
But it also means that you're not overwhelmed by fear
and you can safely remove yourself from the situation.
That's why people sometimes report
calmly walking out of a car accident or a burning house,
sometimes with no memory of doing so.
Depersonalization is part of your body's
Fight or Flight response.
And it's actually a very useful tool!
But it's only supposed to last a few minutes
while you get yourself out of physical danger.
The problem occurs when DP is caused
by something less obvious like a panic attack,
a bad experience from smoking weed
or just intense stress.
Your brain thinks it's in danger
but there's no danger around.
You might have just been sitting in your living room,
watching TV, and suddenly you feel
cut off from your own body, disconnected from reality.
So how do you explain it?
Well, you think 'I must be going crazy'
or 'I'm still high and I can't come down'.
You focus on the feelings of DP
which makes the anxiety worse,
which in turn makes the DP worse,
and the cycle continues.
That's how Depersonalization,
which is only supposed to last a few minutes at a time
can turn into an ongoing condition.
But here's the important thing:
Even when it lasts longer than it should,
Depersonalization is still only ever caused by anxiety.
And we know that we can manage, control,
and recover from anxiety.
So we can manage, control
and recover from Depersonalization!
Number 2: The condition makes itself worse.
Depersonalization, like all anxiety-based conditions,
is self-perpetuating.
What does that mean?
It means that obsessing over the condition
makes the condition worse.
Here's a great phrase to remember:
Anxiety is caused by the fear of anxiety.
You see, Depersonalization is nothing to be afraid of.
It's an extremely common feeling.
It's a perfectly natural response to trauma and stress.
Almost half of all US adults
will have at least one depersonalization episode
at some point in their lives.
And for the majority of those people,
it lasts just a few seconds or minutes
and then it fades away naturally.
It's only when you focus on it, worry about,
think of it as something you should be scared of,
that's when it starts to become a problem.
The only reason that Depersonalization
can last longer than it should
is because it's not allowed to naturally fade away,
which is what it's designed to do.
And if like I did, you spend days and weeks
thinking about DP, researching it,
looking at chat rooms and forums,
you're just obsessing about the condition
and making it worse.
Just like anxiety, Depersonalization is caused
by the fear of Depersonalization.
Remove that fear and the feelings of DP will fade away
just like they're supposed to do.
Number 3: It's a very simple condition.
One of the toughest things about Depersonalization
is just how overwhelming it can be.
The constant anxiety and mental stress,
physical symptoms like headaches, fatigue and muscle pain,
and of course the intrusive thoughts
that the world isn't real
or that you're living in a dream.
When I had DP, I had these thoughts 24/7.
From the moment I woke up until I fell asleep at night,
if I manage to fall asleep.
At one point, I was actually having dreams
about Depersonalization.
It was horrible.
And I know that dealing with all of these symptoms,
fears and thoughts individually
can seem like an impossible task.
But here's the thing:
You don't have to!
Because in reality, you're not dealing
with a thousand different thoughts,
fears, and symptoms that you need to fix one by one.
You're dealing with one thing:
the anxiety that's causing the DP.
All you need to do is address that
and the other symptoms, even the most awful,
horrifying thoughts and fears will fade away
as if they'd never been there.
DP is nothing to be afraid of.
It's your brain's natural reaction to stress and trauma.
As annoying as it is,
it's actually trying to help you escape
from what it thinks is an ongoing dangerous
or traumatic situation.
Think of it like this:
Your brain is like an office building
and your thoughts are the employees.
Suddenly, the anxiety fire alarm goes off.
The employees are panicked and running around
and pushing each other out of the way.
That's Depersonalization.
It's perfectly understandable
that they would react like that
even though there's no actual fire
and they'll keep doing it
as long as the fire alarm stays on.
Now, how do you deal with this?
Do you try to calm down each one
of your employees one by one?
Of course not.
All you need to do is switch off the fire alarm!
This is so important.
You don't need to deal with every DP thought
and fear individually.
All you need to do is turn off the anxiety
that's causing them.
So to recap: Number 1:
DP is caused by anxiety.
It's an anxiety-based condition.
That's all.
Number 2: The condition makes itself worse.
Like all anxiety-based conditions,
obsessing over DP will only make it last longer.
Number 3: It's actually very simple.
You don't have to deal with a thousand different DP thoughts
and fears individually.
You only have to deal with the anxiety that's causing them.
That's all.
These three simple facts
are your first steps towards your total recovery
from Depersonalization.
Thanks for watching guys.
If you have any comments or questions,
please leave them in the comment section below
and I'll make sure to answer 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.
One last thing.
If you want tons more information
on Depersonalization recovery,
check out my website at DPManual.com
where you'll find everything you need to know
including my complete guide to recovery,
The Depersonalization Manual.
Thanks for watching guys.
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