>testing for physical symptoms
you idiot, you simply hate yourself so much you want to get out of your own skin

About me:

>23 years old, otherwise healthy
>In excellent shape, training 5–6 times a week, and competing in my sport
>A student
>No known significant trauma, though during middle and high school, I was quite insecure and partially left out of groups due to shyness. No history of bullying.
>I cook my own meals and eat a varied and healthy diet.
>Have always been fairly lonely, but I meet friends weekly through sports or once or twice a month at bars/student parties.
>Alcohol consumption is about 1–2 times a month (I drink to get tipsy but not excessively, around 6–10 drinks per night). Being drunk makes the symptoms go away or at least weakens them
>I’ve averaged slightly over 7 hours of sleep per night for the past 10 years.

Regarding my diet, I’ve tried eating at maintenance, above maintenance, and below maintenance levels of calories but haven’t noticed any effect. Protein, carbs, and fat are at normal levels in my diet, and I don’t follow any specific plans. I just eat regular home-cooked food. Sleep is the only area I haven’t tried anything with yet, as I assumed that 7–7.5 hours per night was enough for a young adult. Now I’m aiming for 8–9 hours, but it’s too early to say if it’s making a difference since I’ve only been doing this for a few days. If the symptoms are due to sleep deprivation, it could take weeks or even months to recover.

>>32625276
>shy
Shy people are shy because they are ashamed of themselves. This is your answer. Work on that by achieving things that make you feel proud of being you and maybe also work on your perfectionism.

>>32625275
I don't totally, I am very pleased with myself today, sometimes to the level that I have to try to not come across as narcissistic. When I was 10-18 I was pretty insecure tho. But having trained myself into great condition, doing well in my studies and job, starting to pay attention to dress nicely and have a good haircut, my self esteem has gone up massively and random people both men and women compliment my appearance from time to time.

But yeah high school was a nightmare at times I even skipped prom which is a big thing in my country (europe), because I had too low self esteem to ask any girl to be my pair. I was extremely anxious about that for a year at least thinking about the shame every day. I have for long been over it tho, except if someone brings up the topic of prom I still get small goosebumps and try to talk about something else.

>>32625280
well I am just introverted by my nature. If I have something to say I can say it nowadays with no problem. When I was a teen it was a different case tho

>>32625281
Guess you already have the doing things to make yourself proud part down but it did not get to the core of the issue. That means you have to work on your perfectionism and sense of never being enough. Do you by any chance come from a lower class family? Any other reasons that could make you feel inherently inferior to those around you? Like being black in an all white area or so?

>>32625280
>work on your perfectionism.
What do you mean by this, something above that makes you think I'm too much of a perfectionist which might cause my symptoms?

>>32625287
Do you inherently feel like there might be something to the idea that you want to get out of your own skin and that perfectionism might be part of why you never feel like actually being grounded in your own existence? Or does that feel like it does not apply to you at all?
If I knew how to work on being a perfectionist, I‘d tell you but I struggle with it myself and have not found an effective solution yet. Other than striving for perfection- which is also unsustainable.

>>32625286
I am white in a basically all white country, middle class family background. Only thing I can think of is my lack of social media status, which was a big thing during teenage years but shouldn't be much of a deal in 20s anymore. So I don't use instagram and the idea of average guys and especially girls my age having like 500+ followers sometimes makes me feel like shit in comparison, although I know social media feed is all fake and does not represent the reality. Does not really bother me much anymore, but definitely made me feel like a loser and B class kid during my teenage years, having no social media presence. Although I quitted instagram for a reason when I was young, because it made me extremely anxious and I probably would have lost my mind had I continued it through my whole teenage years. But part of it was also being a little chubby and me and my parents not caring about how I dress and how my hair looks, which made me insecure about my appearance and thus not wanting to be on instagram.

Sounds retarded but I'm sure many people my age who didn't have social media presence as teens can relate

>>32625286
oh and ofcourse my lack of experience with women is something that makes me feel inferior, having had no gf nor sex yet. Although I am working on it now and optimistic I'll experience these things soon. But I am only now starting to experience things most guys experienced at 16 or something. But being smart and looking good compensates my feeling of inferiority a little bit.

>>32625289
I don't hate myself nor want to get out of my skin. I don't want to be anybody other than myself. So I can't answer

>>32625292
That makes a lot of sense, yeah. That you would feel behind because in your formative years you felt like you could not belong the way others did. Things like this are easy to dismiss and reject as unimportant or superficial but they are not. Belonging is a core human need. If you feel like you can‘t belong for whatever reason to the extend you wish you could then it will leave scars.
Do you sometimes feel like an imposter now even though you feel like you achieved lots of the things that made you feel behind with your peers like physically attractiveness for example?

>>32625296
Thats good.
Honestly, why not give therapy a try? What do you have to lose? Why not see for yourself wether it can do any good for you instead of trusting random strangers online that you know nothing about the circumstances for their statement?

>>32625297
Well, I was never a loner tho except a little bit during my high school years (from 16 to 19). Before that I always had many friends both in school and in my competitive sport hobby. But I felt like I could never become one of the cool guys of the school or even befriend them because I had no social media clout. And I felt like I can't talk to girls because I have no social media clout, which in hindsight was probably total bullshit and only the most popular girls of the school would have been bothered by that. But yeah I was injured and forced out of sports from 16 to 19 which made me quite fat and unappealing and thus made me more insecure. Before that I was also pretty insecure but at least I was in a good condition. So starting from 16 I became fat and also lost a part of my identity and social groups as I could no longer play my sport (tennis) at all and did not see my tennis friends

>>32625304
well "many friends" sound better than it was, but let's say I always had some friend group of maybe 5 guys which I belonged to and with whom I spent time during school, rarely on my freetime tho because my hobbies took all the time before I got the injury. Being introverted I am not really the type of guy to have massive social circles and be an everybody's friend. Forming one decent friend group and clinging on to it is more akin to me and has always made me happy.

>>32625304
Yeah that sounds brutal. I feel like it might be good to not dismiss how that impacted you without getting too stuck in it.
Why do you think the DP is a physical issue?

>>32625270
>I’ve undergone tests ranging from blood work to brain MRIs, and nothing has been found. I’m now waiting for the results of an EEG, but apparently, it’s unlikely to show anything since the MRI was clear.

Dp/Dr isn’t going to be helped this way. It’s not exactly a physiological issue, it’s psychological. I went my entire life living with severe dissociation, as well as having a psychotic break that hit me with derealisation for a couple years.

I also was able to overcome it too, which was something I thought would be impossible for me, long before I knew what dissociation was. I experienced reality in a mental fog since forever and I thought this was how normal people experienced reality, was all I’d known lol.

Living like I was piloting a meat puppet body, a ghost in my own head, viewing life through the peephole of my mind. Even getting to the point where I thought everything around me was unreal, fake. Life felt like reality was replaced by a fake identical one or something. Hard to explain.

Anyway, Dp/Dr is your brain’s response to stress. Notice how it goes away when you lift, comes back when you are idle. Its because you are crawling back into your own mind, in daydreams, in lalaland, in thought.

Maybe you also did what i did, and established an ‘identity’, a self identity made up inside your own head and you genuinely think (you) live in your head. Thats the illusion that needs broken in order for dp/dr to go away. Takes time.

>>32625297
>Do you sometimes feel like an imposter now even though you feel like you achieved lots of the things that made you feel behind with your peers like physically attractiveness for example?
Interesting, never thought about it that way. Perhaps a little in the sense that I now have the status appearance wise that I feel like I can't match socially. So people who look as good as me usually have these big social media accounts with like a 1000 followers and large social circles. But also I accept who I am and find great pleasure in doing things my own way, being a little mystical. I've heard some girls like it if a guy doesn't use social media but looks good. Basically my only worry about social media nowadays is how girls will find it, if it's a problem to them or not. I don't really care anymore to compare myself to my peers, in addition most guys my age have pretty dead accounts from what I've been stalking.

>Honestly, why not give therapy a try?
Never thought about it, I still feel like this is more probably a physical thing that gives me the symptoms. But I should have gone to therapy when I was younger tho. I am not sure how they could help me because I have thought myself a lot about these things and have come to peace mostly.

>>32625319
It‘s extremely rare that DP is not psychological, as the other anon said. And you already had lots of tests done to rule out any of those niche possibilities. Something is causing you lots of chronic stress. I would not know what, but there must be something. Can you think of a possible source? Idk, maybe shame about your own sexuality? The porn you watch?

>>32625307
I think it has something to do with mental fatigue, because it started last year when I was under a lot of pressure and having tight schedules, sleeping less than normally. I try to see if sleeping without alarm as much as I can for a couple of weeks could help me fight it. I was never a big sleeper and would stay up pretty late in the night since when I was like 10 years old

>>32625309
Sounds really relatable, everything you said makes sense to me. How do I get started? I am now trying to sleep without alarm clock as often as I can, really to prioritize sleep which I have neglected for over a decade to be honest. Should I go and see a therapist or a psychiatrist?

>>32625333
>How do I get started?
You could see a therapist, a psychiatrist, you name it. Personally all I needed was a couple of sessions with a therapist who was (thankfully) also mentally ill. Those are the best therapists because they been through similar shit and know what they’re talking about.

Then I read some good books on the topics. “At last a life” by Paul David, and “Complex PTSD - from surviving to thriving” by Pete Walker. I devoured these, as well as getting into Socratic thinking exercises. That was the act of writing down questions for myself, and then answers them myself. Then asking deeper questions for myself, about my present, my past, where ive been, how i feel, how i think etc etc.

Then something just snapped, like a ‘breakthrough’ they call it. Was finally able to get out of my own mind. Which was terrifying and painful, I ended up dissociated again quickly after. But I kept doing that process over and over until my brain finally got the message that I am not my own thoughts, never was, and dissociation stopped. Because I no longer conflated my daydreams with reality.

Thats what dp/dr is in my opinion. Its where reality and daydream blend and blur together after a prolonged time of excessive rumination and daydreaming that you had used as a coping mechanism to shut out reality, for whatever reason. Mine was trauma in childhood. Can happen to anyone of any age for any reason if the stressors are persistent.

>>32625321
Well, I am also not sure if DP is what I have, but I'd say that quite clearly my description of symptoms fits quite well with DP or at least dissociation in general. Would you agree?
>Something is causing you lots of chronic stress
Could it just be from my old insecurities which I already mentioned, that I have not processed and that have just compounded through the years? Other than that studying at university from time to time is a pretty stressful world, as I want to keep my GPA high. Also early spring with job searching adds a lot of pressure into it. That coupled with sleeping 7 hours maybe could give me fatigue. Usually at the end of the academic year am fatigued to the level I can really feel having no energy left for intense studying and thanking god it's summer. However, I also had these symptoms last summer when I didn't have much to stress about. I am totally straight so no shame on sexuality, except for my lack of sexual experience with women.

>>32625352
>continued

Forgot to mention the obvious thing. DP/DR is not a diagnosis, OP. It is a symptom. A symptom of what? Most likely post-traumatic stress related disorders is what. Dp/Dr is the flagship symptom for something like cPTSD. Though I think other disorders can produce the symptom of dp/dr.

And you’d be surprised how common this can happen in humans. I think estimation of 1 in 11 people. So you’re not crazy or anything Op. Just really really really fuckin stressed presumably lol. Thats why the mind goes to dissociation daydream world. It numbs the emotional pain from stress and grief. Its the brains defense measure for your sanity.

It can go into remission and things return to normal, so dont be too concerned

>>32625397
thank you anon.
>Thats what dp/dr is in my opinion. Its where reality and daydream blend and blur together after a prolonged time of excessive rumination and daydreaming
This resonates with me, I have always been a daydreamer, not only to escape reality but also because I like it and I like to analyze things in my mind, I am very analytical.

If it really is just stress related, I am pretty optimistic just sleeping 2 hours more everyday alone could help me fix it. I'll do that for a couple of weeks and see the results, also try to take it very easy and not stress about small things like getting a little worse grade from a course than before. After that I'll probably consult psychiatrist, I'm a little hesitant on therapy as I don't have any trauma or problem that I am aware of, although surely the therapist could help me first find what is stressing my sub concious and then help me alleviate it.

>>32625459
Sounds good. Once identified, if anything is identified, all it takes is either a bit of exposure therapy to whatever crossed your wires, or, if its something like still being around stressors, 3 months away from the source of stress helps a ton too.
After moving away from my bickering and dysfunctional family, within a few months I made massive clarity gains.

Good luck brotha

what the fuck is dpdr

>>32625852
Depersonalization-derealization disorder.

Basically imagine the feeling you get when you play a first-person video game. How you have meta awareness that you are viewing a game world in first person. Now imagine that same feeling, but for real life. You become a disembodied and detached observer of your own life, constantly.