I’m 100% free of depersonalization, and I didn’t take any pharmaceuticals.
Can you cure depersonalization naturally through acceptance and patience? During my DPDR recovery, I gathered experiences with over 15 different natural healing approaches. One of the major keys to my DPDR recovery was acceptance and patients. Acceptance and patients let you focus on living a meaningful life, which can speed up your DPDR recovery.
Acceptance and patients were two important pillars in my DPDR recovery. You are interested in hearing what I’ve learned? Then keep on reading =).
How Can Acceptance and Patients Help You Get Out of DPDR?
Acceptance and patience are mentioned by tons of people across the internet, as well as me and in scientific work. I want to start by simply quoting DPDR recovers who have given insights into their experiences on different social media platforms.
I found the following comment on how to recover from DPDR beneath a Depersonalization/Derealization (DPDR) YouTube video:
1. Accept
2. LIVE (force yourself to do things to signal to your nervous system that there isn’t anything wrong)
3. Embrace and LOVE DPDR. DPDR is a coping mechanism that is there to help you because your brain thinks that you are in danger. Therefore, if you embrace and LOVE the feelings, you are once again sending signals to your subconscious that there is NO danger.
4. Visualisation. If you visualise that having DPDR is harmless and that you love the feeling, it is once again sending more signals to your amygdala that you are no threat or danger.
5. Keep your mind occupied.
6. TIME. It takes TIME.
In the Facebook group “depersonalization” – 8331 Members I found the following three posts:
The biggest step in my experience was accepting, and surrendering and telling myself if I die I die lol… now I’m free of DPDR
Time. You will get through this we are here for you
Time. You will get through this we are here for you
Just don’t think about it. Continue doing everything like normal, and it will go away.
On Reddit I found the subreddit r/dpdr with 12.4k subscribers and the following post from someone who had full blown DDD and now is almost fully recovered:
My DPDR was a result of chronic, severe, anxiety. When I took away the drugs, I was left with zero coping skills to deal with the massive chunk of anxiety I’d accrued over the years.
To deal with my DPDR, I needed first to accept it. Then embrace it. And not run from it or be scared of it.
I also found the following book on DDD:
“Overcoming Depersonalization Disorder – a mindfulness & acceptance guide to conquering feelings of numbness & unreality”
Fugen Neziroglu; PH.D. and Katharinne Donnelly, MA
I’ve quoted all these people to give you hope and show you that you’re not alone. All over social media platforms, there are groups with DDD sufferers and survivors. I encourage you to engage in these forums but don’t obsessively search for the magic cure, remember you have to be patient, accept DDD and focus on other things.
And do keep in mind, people who get out of DPDR most likely want to forget about it as fast as possible and won’t be lingering around in the forums any longer. So according to the active members in these fb-groups, Youtube comment sections or reddit forums it will seem like most people that have DPDR don’t get cured, which is false. These forums are merely a bubble, don’t get discouraged.
What Have I Experienced During My DPDR Recovery Concerning Acceptance and Patience?
During my DPDR recovery, one of the hardest things was not giving up. But how can you keep on moving forward, if your depersonalization and derealization is not improving? I didn’t lose faith, because I knew I hadn’t explored all the options that might help me get back to “normal.”
As long as I knew, there was one more treatment or remedy out there; I hadn’t tried yet, I didn’t feel like I had the right to give up.
This thought kept me going, and I’m blessed it did, for today I am 100% cured. Nevertheless, it did take 4,5 months until I got out, and this required a tremendous amount of patience and will power.
I asked a very capable therapist how to get rid of DPDR, and he said:
“Start focusing on other things.”
This answer bares so much truth and is surprisingly good advice from someone who never has had DPDR and thus has no clue how it affects you. Focusing on other things was a major factor in my DPDR recovery. Here are four things that helped me control my focus and not let DPDR take over my mind and body:
- Meditation
- Green tea, green tea extract, and binge-watching friends:
- Going outside
- Motivation Videos by Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.
The following quote really got me thinking about my state of mind and depersonalization.
If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.
Lao Tzu
Even though it’s a bit cheesy, I find truth in it. I had such a hard time looking into the future, a future with DPDR. This felt unbearable. So how could I accept it? Meditation helped me focus on the present and decrease my anxiety.
Green tea, green tea extract, and binge-watching friends: Green tea had a very soothing effect. I just downed it when my DPDR got bad and binge-watched friends on Netflix. This took my focus of my DPDR and really was a lifesaver in my darkest DPDR days. There also is something that is called green tea extract. It’s basically a cup of green tea in a pill, comes in handy when you’re outside.
Going outside was one of the hardest things to do, and acceptance played a crucial role. I had to accept my DDD and say “fuck it” I’m leaving the house, no matter how 2D the world out there looks and feels.
A huge turning point for me was the day I managed to take a trip to the neighbouring city. Even though my condition didn’t change at all. I had proven I could accept my DPDR and go out and do “normal” things. (If you have DPDR you know why I keep putting “normal” in quotation marks)
Motivation Videos by Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.: I kid you not; I believe the YouTube algorithm played a part in my recovery as well. Here’s why:
To keep my mind busy and to boost my physical health I worked out every day, which as everyone knows is cost a lot of willpower and motivation. For this reason, I searched for motivation speeches on YouTube and found speeches of sports coaches and Arnold Schwarzenegger, which both worked amazingly well.
Then YouTube suggested Jim Rohn, Les Brown, Eric Thomas and eventually Tony Robbins.
Besides family and friends, Tony Robbins is the person who has had the biggest impact on my life. He introduced me to the world of personal development.
All these people helped me move forward and have patients. I seriously don’t know if I would be writing this today without them.
Here’s the Arnold Schwarzenegger Video I kept watching and listing to in a loop:
This sentence burned itself into my head and has stuck with me since:
“When you’re out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hard. Someone is getting smarter, and someone is winning. Just remember that.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Lastly another Reddit quote from a recovery who emphasises how vital focus is:
“The only thing that’s consistently worked for me is to focus on getting things done. “
Related Questions
What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy? ACT is a form of psychotherapy that originates from cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and traditional behavioural therapy. ACT follows the belief that people tend to live unhappy lives because they let their negative emotions rule their behaviour, ‘I don’t feel like it, so I won’t do it.’ ACT addresses exactly these feelings and teaches the patient how to keep moving forward using ACT principles. If you want to learn more about the positive effects of ACT make sure to check out this post: “Does Therapy Cure Depersonalization? Here Are The 4 Best Therapies”
How to Find a Therapist for Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder?
- Understand which therapies can be useful for depersonalization: Psychodynamic-, Cognitive-behavioural-, Acceptance- or Integrative manual therapy
- Self-analyse the potential cause of your depersonalization: Trauma, toxicity, thoughts or feelings
- Choose a therapy type using steps 1 & 2
- Choose a therapist via psychologytoday.com
You can find an entire article I wrote on this topic here: “How to Find a Therapist for Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder?”
Where Can You Find DPDR Communities? There are three large reddit threads discussing DPDR topics, a handful of facebook groups and tons of youtube videos in which you can engage in the comments and talk, connect and reach out to fellow DPDR sufferers and recoveries.