r/dpdr

Has anyone become so bedridden u thought u were genuinely completely out of reality, feeling extreme desoriented with where you was and who you are and u feel like any second ur gonna die? please i can't do this anymore and crisis team no one helps me!!!

I am strongly considering using rTMS to treat my chronic Depersonalisation. In fact I have started reaching out to providers. I would be interested to hear any thoughts, experiences, relevant information etc.

Love and strength to you all x

I wanted to make this post because I genuinely care and want to help people, not just people I personally work with. I’m not here to promote anything or sell anything. I know how brutal DPDR, anxiety, panic, and chronic fight or flight can be, and I think giving away free advice and perspective matters too. I suffered for nearly half a decade and promised myself if I ever made it out I would come back to the forums.

I’ve worked with a good number of people dealing with anxiety, chronic stress, dissociation, panic, DPDR, and nervous system dysregulation, and after hearing many stories and seeing recurring patterns over time, there are a few observations I’ve noticed.

First, I want to say this:

I understand this is a very complex condition and everyone’s experience is different. I’m not claiming there’s one explanation for everyone, and I’m not a doctor. This is not medical advice, just observations and perspective based on lived experience and patterns I’ve personally seen.

One of the biggest patterns I’ve noticed is that many people struggling with depersonalization/derealization also seem to be stuck in a prolonged state of overwhelm, hypervigilance, fear, trauma, panic, chronic stress, or survival mode.

A perspective that helped me personally was beginning to see symptoms less as “I’m permanently broken” and more as a nervous system that may be overwhelmed, overprotective, and dysregulated.

In a lot of cases, the nervous system seems to be operating from a place of protection rather than safety.

Something that became really interesting to me was the role of the vagus nerve and the nervous system’s “safe/restored” state. In my own experience and in patterns I’ve seen, many people seem to improve when the body gradually begins shifting out of chronic survival mode and starts feeling safer again over time.

One thing I wish someone told me earlier:

Recovery often isn’t linear.

You may have setbacks, symptom spikes, weird days, emotional waves, or moments where you feel discouraged. That does not automatically mean you’re back at square one.

And even if it feels impossible right now, improvement and recovery do happen for a lot of people.

Curious if anyone else has noticed similar patterns or perspectives that helped them. I do want to make clear I understand people have gotten out of DPDR numerous ways but just wanted to shared what has worked for myself and people I have helped.

I recovered and I want help people recover now. I got mine from weed it was freaking brutal man. 5 years later here I am recovered.

Can we make an effort to get this bitch ass coaches pages taken down. Here are some that I cant fucking stand.
@dpdrfounder
@nickdpdr
@dpdrfreedom
These losers charge 4 figures for a mentorship with no type of certification or true credentials . Just claiming they have changed lives. Profiting off this condition is fucking wrong and these people do not deserve any platform. That being said here are things that have brought me relief and giving me hope that recovery is possible:
-running
-socializing
-staying busy
-music
-not fixating on the issue
-STAYING OFF THIS SUBREDDIT(a bit hypocritical but i just redownloaded this app to call these pieces of shit out)
-CBT (preferably from a therapist that has dealt with dpdr)
-body scans and affirmation meditations

That being said I wish everyone luck in their recovery. Talk to the ones you love, dont isolate and dont stop living normally I beg you. This will be my last post until I recover. We will recover!

34yrs old female, I’m currently dealing with an anxiety/dpdr flare up. The past 7 months have been hell for me and it’s truly wild how my life has become a hot mess. I have dealt with:

- Severe teeth pain everyday for three months and had multiple dental procedures done
- Started a new job in last August (2025), by October (two months later) I started having panic attacks at work as my boss is chaotic, non-communicative, has horrible time management skills, and promised me a lot of things concerning my role like becoming full time and she ultimately lied. I later find out she has ADHD and refuses to take meds for it and get help
- By December my family tells me they are struggling financially and don’t want to celebrate any holidays. I end up giving half my money that I make to them to help out
- On Christmas Day my car brakes down completely. I am too poor to fix it. The next two months I have to use rental cars and Lyfts to make it to work.
- February (2026) my family is able to get a new car. I also start to have extreme family issues
- Also in February my mother injures her hip and can’t walk for two months. I take on everything for her and do all of her errands, make her meals, help her to doctor appointments, etc.
- In March my boss tells me she has to lay me off. Days later she tells me never mind I want to keep you so I’ll just reduce your hours. I tried to get partial unemployment but the office said I still make too much. I barely make anything to survive. I only have a roof over my head because I live with my mother
- my father and I’s relationship starts to get worse and his moods/mental health is not the best.
- Due to my reduced hours I am not able to pay my credit cards and now I’m in debt. I also am not able to go on EBT due to not working 20 hours a week. Next month I will be using food banks.
- in April the studio I work at closed down as my boss can’t afford it anymore, she says we’ll work in her home office and that she’ll raise my hours starting in May. Desperate for any money I say ok. I had been looking for a new job for months and havent found one yet.
- Now it’s May, I have not been called into work at her house. I was able to do some remote work but that’s all done now. I have messaged her multiple times and she would say she still needs time to get her studio ready for me. Last week she tells me her dishwasher and water heater broke so her floors are flooded and she’ll be in a hotel while they have ppl work on it. I am crushed as I have been with no work, therefore not getting paid, and I still don’t have any concrete timeline on when I would be called back
- My father and I’s relationship is horrible now, we use to be very close, but now we don’t talk and avoid each other after few horrible arguments.

As of now (we’re still in May lol) the only things that have gotten better is my family and I have a car and my mother’s hip is doing tons better, she is getting stronger and is able to walk and do her own errands and she continues to help me financially.

But my anxiety has risen and the DPDR symptoms have been coming back. I am able to push it down eventually, but it’s stressful and uncomfortable to be dealing with this again, especially since I put in so much work in my past to be able to get over it and not have it affect me. I have been forcing myself to go outside everyday since that’s when it’s at its worse and I am working hard for it not to get worse.

I just feel like a failure. I am so stressed, disappointed, and anxious. I can’t believe at 34 I am still dealing with family problems and job/financial issues, and now heightened anxiety. I am too embarrassed as all of my friends have husbands/boyfriends, good jobs, money, their own place, and anxiety doesnt seem to affect them.

I am currently in therapy and I have been in ocd therapy for the past two years for my severe OCD and I have been doing well managing it to the point it’s not my number issue any more. I suffered for 13 years and rarely do compulsions and get upset over intrusive thoughts, and I did that without any medication. I thought I would be able to enjoy life now being more mentally healthier, but my life has gotten worse. The funny thing is I haven’t dealt with any OCD flare ups through all this stress.

Any advice would be great appreciated!

I get like a weird feeling and vibe every time I wake up to the moment I go to sleep it’s constant like a doom feeling but also like a weird vibe that I can’t see the beauty in anything like I did before the world is now scary to me anyone else have this ??

I had a big panic attack about 2 months ago and ever since I’ve been stuck in dpdr and I’ve just been so sensitive. I have developed a new fear of feeling trapped. I panicked yesterday because I was in traffic for a few minutes, even panicking when someone won’t stop asking me questions because I feel like I’m trapped. I always have the urge to run away but I don’t know what from.

Not a full blown panic attack, but a mild dizziness strange pressure, unsettling sensation that something isn't right and it lasts all day. Does anyone understand?

For context, about 46 hours ago I had a really bad trip off of a 1 mg cart. This wasn’t normal because I had been smoking for half a year and had even taken 20 mg edibles in the past with no problem. I have no pre-existing mental illness. So I have this trip and for the past 46 hours I’ve been experiencing symptoms of derealization. I just feel like I can’t process emotions. I keep reading horror stories online of people stuck like this for years. Should I be worried? It has got significantly better over the past 2 days but there is still that feeling that everything isn’t ok. How long should I expect this to last?

i think i recovered from dpdr because ive been feeling normal for the past 3 days but im also feeling too normal and im missing the dpdr feeling why am i missing it and feeling too normal?

i've struggled with this severe chronic fatigue for so long. years, even. not as long as i've had dpdr, but it's been a problem for a while. i am so fucking exhausted ALL THE TIME. i feel like i can't ever get enough sleep, i feel so out of it all the time, i feel like i am never truly rested. it is so bad that i cannot even shower regularly. depending on how bad it is, i've gone weeks without a shower. i felt disgusting and awful and i wanted to shower so bad but i just felt such a heavy weight on me. i'm beginning to wonder if this is caused by dpdr. i was diagnosed with sleep apnea months ago but i've been consistent on treatment and i'm still just as fatigued as before. i assume it's not all dpdr, i have a plethora of mental health issues (bpd, adhd, etc.) but man am i just exhausted. i want to start taking care of myself right, to get better, get healthier. it's just so difficult and disheartening as someone actively in recovery (bpd).

I wish I could understand WHY i’m experiencing it. I just want to see it, to be able to hold it with my hands, and know what it takes to cure it. But no, it’s invisible, like a ghost in your head. Something you have no control of whatsoever.

Had chronic DPDR for 7 years. Five months ago I started accepting parts of myself I had been suppressing without realizing it. Since then the DPDR has been slowly dissolving. I feel alive again. I inhabit space and time again. After 7 years behind the glass.

I think now chronic DPDR is very often caused by hidden suppression. Not always classic trauma in the obvious sense... often it's parts of yourself you've hidden away as "not me," without knowing you did it. A truth about yourself that wasn't allowed to exist in your environment, Sexuality, identity, whatever. Then the system dims everything to keep that one part out of view. And you pay with 100% of your presence.

Dig. Look at what you won't let yourself be. Accept it, even when it's inconvenient. It worked for me. It's not a guarantee and the timeline is different for everyone but ig it's a direction that could work for more people than the standard "grounding techniques"

Peace.

Over the past few weeks I've been having this weird feeling in my body, especially my arms. They feel very weird to control, like I have to kind of think about it. I'll think something like: I need to move my arm. Then when I do it'll be an awkward movement. The feeling is constant. It happens throughout my entire body/limbs, but mainly my arms.

I've also been feeling slightly less balanced.

I've been smoking daily for the fast 5 months, but this is recent. I've also started taking atarax, but this occurred after the first time taking atarax.

I think it might be the weed because it almost feels like my body is slightly high, but not my mind.

There are no mental side effects unless I think about it really hard.

Another way I can describe is hesitation. It feels like I'm hesitating to do something.

I also started having a few jerks/twitches. My body will occasionally twitch for no reason.

I believe this is a result of stress. I don't want it to go further..

I hate being alone when i have this plus Anxiety combined, going to sleep= intense heartbeat harder falling asleep, when im alone Its that im bored and everything idk Its just weird for me now even though i loved being alone before

Does anyone hate being alone too?