depersonalization/derealization

Hi Folks
For those who have depersonalization/derealization, I really feel for you. This by far is my worst symptom that I have faced and I remember the second I felt the oncoming of this symptom. It truly is the worst thing that has happened to me in my life. I have had it 24/7 for the past 1.5 years. It is pure torture. From not knowing you exist, to not having any emotional attachment to the world, this symptom is evil. For those who have had it, does it get better with treatment? Has anyone successfully gotten rid of this symptom? I was diagnosed with lyme/bart and im pretty sure bart is the main culprit. I feel that I have been depersonalized for so long, I will never know what normal is again. Im 20 years old, I really hope I don't have to live with this symptom for the rest of my life. Any suggestions will help.

I'm so sorry that you are dealing with this. I have heard of many tick-borne disease sufferers having depersonalization, but it's common with any type of trauma, and chronic illness definitely can qualify as trauma. (I'm not saying that infections can't play a role directly, just saying depersonalization can happen without infections, so it's possible there's a combination of factors in play.)

For most people, this symptom does resolve with treatment, from what I can tell. Are you still experiencing lots of other symptoms? Which sorts of treatments are you using?

Some types of therapy people use for trauma can help with this. "Regular" mental health therapy can help, as long as the practitioner has experience with chronic illness trauma. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) is one type of trauma-specific therapy that involves comparatively few treatments and little to no analytical conversation, just reflecting verbally on the traumatic phenomenon while watching lights move on a screen or listening to sounds via headphones; this re-maps where trauma is stored in your brain so it can stop impacting you negatively. People tend to see results relatively quickly. (My experience with this comes from years of working at a rape crisis center, where depersonalization and derealization were common reactions to trauma.)

I have not experienced this symptom personally since I used DNRS, so perhaps limbic system retraining programs could be worth looking into, too.

Wishing you the best!

bro123 said...
Hi Folks
For those who have depersonalization/derealization, I really feel for you. This by far is my worst symptom that I have faced and I remember the second I felt the oncoming of this symptom. It truly is the worst thing that has happened to me in my life. I have had it 24/7 for the past 1.5 years. It is pure torture. From not knowing you exist, to not having any emotional attachment to the world, this symptom is evil. For those who have had it, does it get better with treatment? Has anyone successfully gotten rid of this symptom? I was diagnosed with lyme/bart and im pretty sure bart is the main culprit. I feel that I have been depersonalized for so long, I will never know what normal is again. Im 20 years old, I really hope I don't have to live with this symptom for the rest of my life. Any suggestions will help.

I had the same problem for years and I have the same question like does it ever go away? It'll go away for a day or 2 sometimes for me then comes bk it's so odd

I have many other symptoms mainly neurological such as neuropathy, anxiety, tinnitus and others symptoms like pots. I am on Mino and rifampin and serrapeptase and going to add in tinidazole next week. I am hoping that with treatment and time that depersonalization goes away along with my other symptoms.

That’s so great to hear that the LDN helped you Orbitingaround. My theory is depersonalize comes from brain swelling so anything that helps limit inflammation may help. I do believe LDN is great for inflammation, prior to using LDN I had terrible HSV2 outbreaks and pain about twice a month, one going on LDN they completely stopped! I should mention it took over a month for the LDN to kick in but once it did it was a god sent. I was on 4.5mg. Good luck everyone.

I wonder if a stellate block would help that. Resets autonomics, one block often enough to put PTSD into remission

Bro W all those neurological symptoms I would try to get IVIG.

I restarted 3m ago. about 3 weeks ago it started to kick in hard core and my nerve pain improved dramatically. Vibrations stopped. Unfortunately I developed serum sickness last weekend again. Apparently I’m making an antibody to the the stuff. Very rare. Feel extremely unlucky like I was struck by lighting, twice. First this disease, then I make an antibody to the one treatment that helps me. Having trouble accepting it I literally destroyed my home office in a fit of rage, if it’s not one thing it’s another. To feel good for a few weeks and have it snatched away like this is just more than I can take right now