Depersonalization Home

Depersonalization Home

Welcome

This is Depersonalization Home. My name is Clay, and the purpose of this site is to provide a safe, warm environment for those of us dealing with depersonalization-derealization. This site has been created for both you, and me.

I am a long-time DP sufferer, and hope that by providing this place we can create a community where we are able to come together and discuss what it’s like to go through life like this—and help each other through. Please visit the forums and introduce yourself. The site is new yet (May 2005) and you can be one of the early members. If you have suggestions on how this site can be made better, please tell me. As I said, I have been DP for a long time but this is my first attempt at a webpage.

I just want this to be a small, close-knit group of folks, a place where we can come and feel safe “talking” about this with others who understand. I hope the information and experience put together here can be used by others in a positive way. Also, this is not a commercial website. You will find no ads, no pleas to donate. I offer this place as a gift. And finally, this is a site being run by someone who knows what DP/DR is—me. Again, welcome.

So, what is depersonalization/derealization? This can be a very difficult question to answer. Aside from the simple fact words have yet to be invented that do justice to the sensations involved, there also seems to be variations in experience amongst individuals. It is somewhat unique to each of us. Even so, there are some common features that can be listed. For me, and most other DP/DR types I know, it involves a change in awareness, such that we feel detached from our experience. The self, the body, the mind or our surroundings seem alien to us somehow. Different than before. It is an altered state of consciousness. Typically there is a large element of fear associated with this change. Also, there seems to be significant differences between depersonalization and derealization. DP is more where a person’s sense of self is affected, whereas DR seems to involve changes perception of the environment around that person. It is my opinion that the causes are the same for each, but for purpose of discussion I have separated them into different categories:

Depersonalization: a change in an individual’s self-awareness, such that they feel detached from their own experience. Terms I have seen used to describe DP include: unreal, disembodied, divorced from oneself, apart from everything, unattached, alone, strange, weird, foreign, unfamiliar, dead, puppet-like, acting a part, lack of “self”, made of cotton wool, having mechanical actions, remote, automated, a spectator of one’s own life, witnessing one’s own actions as if in a film, not doing one’s own thinking, being trapped in a dream, observing the flow of thoughts in the mind as being independent.

Derealization: a change in a person’s experience of the environment, where the world around him/her feels unreal or unfamiliar. Terms commonly used to describe DR include: spaciness, like looking through a grey veil, a sensory fog, spaced-out, being trapped in a glass jar, feeling cut off or distant from the immediate surroundings, objects appear diminished in size (or larger in size), cartoon-like, flat artificial, object appear to be un-solid, etc.

Whichever you have (and you may have both), it is just plain strange. It may happen only some of the time, or you may feel you are DP/DR constantly. Regardless, it is a different, typically frightening way of perceiving either yourself or your surroundings.

As I said earlier, this is still a new website. I am happy to make changes if the members agree. I will be adding a chatroom, and have just created a Forum section for depersonalizacion Espanol, as well as a forum in French. Further updates will come as we think of them.

For now, just click on the “Forums” button and you will be magically transported to the bulletin board portion of the site, where you can post and respond to messages.

Again, welcome to DP Home.

DP Home

DP Home