I have a friend who is an actual adult but has never needed to adult before and is in a situation where he very much needs to be the adult and not a man child.
Any suggestions for books?
I am curious about potential diagnosis/treatment and how to go about diagnosis.
I have a diagnosis of (complex) PTSD with a history of extensive child abuse and adult domestic violence. I have multiple neurological disorders (including CRPS) with a new diagnosis of FND that’s been pretty hellish. My neurologist referred back to talk therapy.
I have brought up in therapy that I think depersonalization is a big aspect of what I am dealing with neurologically. I have not had treatment for my CRPS (a 42 out of 50 on the McGill pain scale) for about 15 years and have been told I am simply not a candidate for treatment. My primary coping strategy for pain management has simply been not being in my body - I quite literally walked on a broken tibia until it healed wrong back in 2013. I have burned and cut myself without knowing it and I cannot reliably tell a medical provider what is going on in my body - I rely heavily on external markers. When I was hospitalized at the end of 2025, with serious complications, I was unable to report any symptoms even with a weeklong hospital stay.
The world is real. I am engaged in the world around me. My body is real, I just cannot be a part of my body without being in excruciating pain. Not being in my body is effectively the same experience I had when the docs gave me opiates and benzos to handle my medical issues 25 years ago, but without the issues of addiction and dependency. I actually took myself off the drugs because I didn’t like them and figured this out as an active coping strategy.
I just think that maybe this is fucking me up now. But I don’t know if it’s real depersonalization since I chose it. (I was also dealing with homelessness and being kicked out of my family for being queer when I did this.) I certainly don’t know how to get a diagnosis. I really don’t know how integration would work when I am very aware I do not have access to pain management or treatment.