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Mental Health Author: Jeffrey Abugel Last Updated: Sep 7, 2017 - 10:06:33 PM



Depersonalization Disorder - a Hidden Mental Health Epidemic

By Jeffrey Abugel
Feb 25, 2011 - 3:34:43 PM



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(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Petersburg, VA — Did you ever feel unreal and disconnected from your emotions and other people? These are symptoms of a rarely discussed psychiatric condition called Depersonalization Disorder (DPD)—the third most common mental health condition, after depression and anxiety.

According to Jeffrey Abugel, medical journalist, DPD survivor, and patient advocate, up to 70 percent of college students have had symptoms at one time or another (recreational drug use is a common trigger). And many creative people, such as Poe, Sartre, and Deuce Bigelow director Harris Goldberg, have suffered from DPD. For some people, DPD comes and goes. For others it just stays—with troubling consequences for their health, happiness, and success in life.

Abugel explains that human neurology is designed with a protective mechanism that enables us to "leave our bodies" during moments of extreme trauma, such as a car crash or a brutal rape. Our emotions deaden, time stands still, and we feel as if we're in a dream. "DPD sufferers, however, don't just 'snap out of it' after the initial trigger," he says. Instead, they continue to feel as if they are outside of their body and alienated from life.

DPD has long been recognized by psychiatrists and included in the diagnosing bible, the DSM-IV. "Yet many sufferers don't receive the right diagnosis, are told it's all in their head, or are given medications to treat symptoms such as depression—but don't get needed help for the underlying condition," says Abugel.

Why? Because until fairly recently, DPD was considered to be extremely rare. But in the last few decades, due to an increase in the abuse of substances such as marijuana, LSD, Ecstasy, Ketamine, and Salvia—which are known triggers—the number of cases has exploded.

The good news is that there are growing support networks, more information clearinghouses for patients, and hopeful new treatment options as doctors learn more about the condition.

Abugel shares the following 8 symptoms a person with DPD may experience:

A feeling of panic. When DPD first gets triggered, one may feel as if he or she is going mad. Many patients report feeling panic stricken, trapped inside a new world they can't escape.

Loss of emotion. People with DPD describe feeling inhuman, like a robot or a rock. They experience a loss of spirit, no emotions, and no mood changes.

Detachment. DPD patients feel dissociated from others and themselves. Many describe the feeling of watching themselves, as if from above. Once-familiar objects now seem strange.

Obsession. With DPD, sufferers obsessively check and recheck their sanity. They sometimes fixate on the strangeness or foreignness of a single thought or object.

Abstract ruminating. DPD sufferers often dwell on the idea of eternity and infinity. They may become trapped in thoughts of the void, the nature of existence, and the dark mysteries of life.

Lifestyle changes. DPD patients are sometimes afraid to leave their houses or engage in any type of activity that might trigger a panic attack. They stop traveling, watching TV, talking to others, even going to doctors.

Feeling possessed. People with DPD often report feeling as if an evil entity has taken up residence inside their head, watching them and making negative comments.

Acting "as if." DPD causes sufferers to feel as though they are acting. They imitate people's moods and expressions, and try to act "normal" around others. But they continue to feel like outsiders who aren't part of ordinary life.

Jeffrey Abugel runs a nonprofit online community for DPD sufferers at www.depersonalization.com. His previous book, written with Daphne Simeon MD, called Feeling Unreal, is regarded as a seminal work on Depersonalization Disorder. A medical journalist who has written hundreds of articles, Abugel is author of a new book, Stranger to My Self: Inside Depersonalization, the Hidden Epidemic, synthesizing the latest DPD research with data gathered while hosting a depersonalization website for nearly a decade.

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