The individual with Depersonalization Disorder maintains intact reality testing (e.g., awareness that it is only a feeling and that he or she is not really an automaton). … Various types of sensory anesthesia, lack of affective response, and a sensation of lacking control of one’s actions, including speech, are often present. There may be a sensation of being an outside observer of one’s metal processes, one’s body, or parts of one’s body. The individual may feel like an automaton or as if he or she is living in a dream or a movie. a feeling of detachment or estrangement from one’s self. #Depersonalization ocd manual#Unlike relatively new disease phenomenon such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, Depersonalization Disorder has been clearly defined for years, (though somewhat buried under the Dissociative Disorders heading) in the Psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the bible of psychiatric diagnoses.Īccording to DSM-IV, Depersonalization Disorder, in part, constitutes the following: Depersonalization Disorder, however, is a chronic illness that can take a dreadful and long-lasting course. It occurs briefly, and has no lasting effect. The individual’s perceptions of the self and the self’s place in the world somehow shifts into a mindset that is altered from the norm, becoming hellish for most.ĭepersonalization, as a symptom, is what the majority of us experience at some time in our lives. While the word “depersonalization” is often linked to “dehumanizing” situations such as prison life or brainwashing, chronic depersonalization is an insidious mental condition that can begin on its own. A psychologist named Dugas coined it as a unique medical condition back in 1898. The term itself has been around for a long time. Welcome to the world of Depersonalization Disorder. Yet to its victims, it’s anything but an enlightened state of mind. It’s been linked philosophically to existentialism, even Buddhism. Jean Paul Sartre called it “the filth”, William James dubbed it “the sick soul”. Some have called it “Alice in Wonderland” disease. In its chronic form, popular culture once saw it as part of a nervous breakdown. What you don’t know at the moment is that this troubling experience is distinctly human, experienced briefly at some time or another by as much as 70 percent of the population. But when it hits for the first time, you’re convinced that you’re going insane, and wait in a cold sweat to see when and if you finally do go over the edge. Or the fear of it may blossom into a full-blown panic attack. It may settle over time, into a feeling of “nothingness”, as if you were without emotions, dead. It’s as if you have no self, no ego, no remnant of that inner strength which quietly and automatically enabled you to deal with the world around you, and the world inside you. The act of thinking itself, the stream of invisible words running through the hollow chamber of your mind, seems strange and unreal. You close your eyes and turn inward, but the very thoughts running through your head seem different. Like you’ve just arrived on the planet, but don’t know from where. Common objects and familiar situations seem strange, foreign. Suddenly, inexplicably, something changes. It may happen when you first wake up, or while flying on an airplane or driving in your car. But there is one “Depersonalization Disorder”, and it’s nothing new. When your world seems strange and you’ve lost your sense of self, you’ll be hard pressed finding a name for your affliction. But it remains a solid introduction to a condition that still warrants serious investigation Note: Much has been learned since this piece first appeared.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |