Dictionary of Philosophy

http://www.ditext.com/runes/d.html
Depersonalization: A personality disorder in which the subject's own words and
action assume for him a character of strangeness or unreality; in its extreme
form, the subject is obsessed with the fear of complete dissolution of
personality. The English term is an appropriation of the French
depersonnalization. -- L.W.
Mon Sep 15 2008 18:50:04 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Amazon.com: Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self:
Daphne Simeon, Jeffrey Abugel: Books
http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Unreal-Depersonalization-Disorder-
Loss/dp/0195170229/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1221512691&sr=11-1
Depersonalization is the condition that seems very rarely to be talked about (esp.
in comparison to depression and anxiety). Finally a book about depersonalization
-- I am so glad. This book is concise, clear, and offers a spectrum of
interpretations of depersonalization -- from the clinical, medical, physical -- to
the spiritual. Probably most importantly of all there are 1st-person accounts from
people who experienced or are experiencing long-term depersonalization in their
lives. And this is the greatest gift, because now others can read that someone
else somewhere has felt as they have -- that they are unreal, that they don't
really exist, that everything looks strange/foreign to them, that they don't
recognize their own lives and feel like they live in a dream. It is hard to
explain to someone who doesn't know what this is like -- that it can be terrifying
or enlightening. How can you share this perspective with others who can't perceive
of what you mean when you say this? For whatever reason people experience
depersonalization -- I am glad this book finally shares information. Is it a curse
or a blessing, an insight or a disorder -- to see the world this way? I am glad
the discussion is open now. when i first experienced depersonalization I only
found small bits of information to understand what I was experiencing. I still
feel I live in a dream, but now the terror of it has changed to a different way of
being. Thank you for publishing this book -- there are people who have waited a
long time to know they are not alone in how they experience the world. This seems
to just be the beginning of a new understanding of depersonalization...and of life
itself.
Mon Sep 15 2008 17:18:56 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

This is remarkably erudite and well-written for a book by an American

psychiatrist. For some reason American psychiatrists have always been rather
uninterested in unreality. Reading it prompted me to re-read some work Guy Edwards
and Scott Angus did years ago at Bergen Pines Hospital, ("Depersonalization",
British Journal of Psychiatry February1972, pages 242-244) and I noted that every
reference there was British. The American lack of interest may be part of the
reason that victims of depersonalization so often complain that their therapists
do not understand them. In some cases the therapists are genuinely ignorant of the
disorder. However the fear of not being understood may be intrinsic to the
condition. Patients constantly use such phrases as "I don't know how to describe
it" and "you don't understand" and remain convinced that no-one else feels as they
do, so perhaps this book will help them in that respect. It is not very optimistic
about treatment and prognosis and might not be very encouraging as a self-help
manual. I think professionals in the field will find it interesting, It is highly
readable and the authors show a commendable knowledge of the earlier French and
German literature and treat the psychoanalytic writings and claims of
psychopharmacologists with a seasoned skepticism.

By Dreamer (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

I first experienced depersonalization and derealization around age 4 or 5. It
wasn't frightening then; it was simply a "game of existential thinking" I had
control of. But as the years progressed it became a debilitating altered state of
consciousness that took over my life. I have had both symptoms "DP" and "DR" -- 24
hours a day, 7 days a week, even in my dreams -- for over thirty years. This
altered state has stolen my goals and dreams; it has severely affected my social
and occupational pursuits.

I was certain I was in a tiny minority with this until I found a support forum on
the internet in 1999. No doctor bothered to mention this is a common symptom or
disorder. There are untold numbers like me who have done their own research, and
many more who know nothing of what's happening to them -- and they cannot get help
or even understanding from the medical community.

I have been infuriated by the lack of knowledge in the mental health profession
about the disabling severity of these symptoms be they primary or co morbid with
other mental and neurological illnesses. I have likewise been astounded by the
number of mental health professionals (even M.D. psychiatrists) who aren't even
aware of these symptoms or dismiss them as "not of much concern" even when they
are the reason an individual seeks help -- specifically for these odd feelings; I
am not alone in battling with doctors and therapists with no clue about
Depersonalization Disorder.

Thank you Dr. Simeon for your efforts to understand "DP" and for getting the word
out in this first English language book devoted exclusively to Depersonalization
Disorder (and none of the other dissociative disorders.)

This book is for laypersons and mental health workers alike. It offers comfort to
those with DP -- a greater understanding of the illness -- and will hopefully
reach the medical community which must be educated. Knowledge is power for the
sufferer and imperative for the therapist.
Mon Sep 15 2008 17:19:44 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Feeling Unreal: Trisha�s Experience : OUPblog

http://blog.oup.com/2007/12/depersonalization-2/
Feeling Unreal: Trisha�s Experience
medical-mondays.jpg

This morning we posted an original article by Jeffrey Abugel, co-author with

Daphne Simeon, MD, of Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of
the Self. This afternoon we have an excerpt from their book which will hopefully
help you better understand Depersonalization Disorder. Below is Trisha�s story,
just one of many varied experiences with Depersonalization Disorder.

Trisha was a 21-year-old college junior majoring in fine arts at a large state
university. She was bright, attractive, ambitious, and sociable. She describes her
upbringing as happy and uneventful. She was the second of four children raised in
a small Midwestern town, and her parents were still happily married. She got along
well with both of them and was particularly close to her sister Jane, who was 2
years younger. Trisha always did well in school, was athletic, and had many
friends. She had never felt particularly troubled, other than the ups and downs of
normal teenagers. Prior to a fateful day that was to come, she had tried marijuana
twice in her life. The first time she was in tenth grade, when she and her friends
were at a party one Saturday and she took a few �tokes� of a friend�s joint. She
did not feel much of anything, and her friend told her she had t try it a few
times to feel the effect. Trisha, however, was not particularly curious and did
not try marijuana again until her second year in college. She was at the time
dating a student who smoked pot regularly, and she tried it again one night at a
party with him. After inhaling deeply a few times and holding the smoke as she had
seen him do, she began to feel cloudy-headed, giggly, and quite hungry. Time
seemed to move slowly ad well. She didn�t feel particularly high nor enthralled
with what she did feel.

feeling-unreal.jpgA year passed and Trisha came on the occasion of smoking pot for
the third time in her life, amidst a small gathering of friends. It was just a way
of being sociable and joining the others. She smoked about a joint over the course
of the evening, and felt �very stoned,� oddly detached from her body and from
everything happening around her. �It wasn�t a pleasant sensation,� she recalls.
�My head felt too present, and hollow somehow.� I felt like my mind had somehow
disconnected from my body. I didn�t panic because I knew it was temporary. At
least I thought it was.�

Trisha remembers going to bed much later that evening thankful that she still had
Saturday and Sunday ahead of her to get straight and study some for her final
exams coming up the following week. However, when she woke up the next morning she
was feeling as strange and detached as the night before. Familiar objects around
the room seemed somehow different in the morning light. Books, the alarm clock, a
small trophy, a plant on the window sill-they had all been there each day, but now
looked less familiar, as if she were seeing them for the first time. She told her
boyfriend that she was still stoned, by now feeling frightened. The pot must have
been stronger than usual, he said, assuring her not to worry because it would
gradually dissipate over the curse of the day. He was back to his normal self,
however, which did reassure Trish at all. She tried to relax her mind by having
breakfast, listening to some music and studying for her first exam. She found this
terribly difficult to do, as it was very hard to focus on anything, and she
absorbed very little of what she was reading. As the day unfolded, she felt she
was in a dream, navigating through fog in slow motion, dazed and semi-aware of
what was going on around her; time seemed eternal. She decided to go for a long
walk, something that she often liked to do to relax whenever she felt stressed.
She thought that the cold, fresh air might clear her head and help her feel more
normal again, but it didn�t. By bedtime that evening, Trish was starting to panic
about her condition. She called several friends and her sister Jane and asked them
whether they had ever felt stoned and hung over for pot for so long. Although no
one wanted to give her too straight an answer, she sensed that no one had.

By the next morning, Trish woke up to find that nothing had changed, and she began
to despair. In what turned out to be the most stressful days of her life, she
somehow managed to stick it out, take her exams, and return home for winter break.
She then sobbingly confided to her parents what had happened to her. She now
feared that she had somehow caused herself irreparable brain damage and hated
herself for having smoked. Although her family tired to comfort her by reminding
her that she had done nothing different from many other good kids her age, she
could not stop worrying that she had permanently damaged her brain and had only
herself to blame. Within a couple days the family arranged for their doctor to see
Trisha. She tried to describe to him in detail exactly what she was feeling. He
suggested that she was probably stressed by the high demands of the semester that
had just ended. She did not say anything, but Trisha somehow knew this was not it.
Although it had been a hard semester, she had been copying well with it, and she
was not aware of feeling particuarly stressed. She that this �physical� sensation
had to be somehow different. She told the doctor that she was convinced that the
drug had somehow damaged her brain. To reassure her, he referred her to a
neurologist.

Trish saw the neurologist, who ordered a few tests to make sure she was undamaged
by her brief experiences with drugs. Both the MRI scan of her brain and he
electroencephalogram (EEG) test of her brain waves were normal. The neurologist
then also told her that she appeared particularly stressed and anxious. So he
referred her to psychiatrist. Meanwhile, there had been no change in the severity
of Trish�s symptoms over 2 weeks, and fairly soon she had to return to school. She
could not fathom going back and working hard with her head in a fog, a constant
feeling that she was tripping or going insane. A few days later, she saw a
psychiatrist who told her that her experiences had a name, depersonalization. She
had never heard of it and felt vastly relieved to find out that there was a name
for waht she was experiencing. The psychiatrist told her that the syndrome might
have been triggered by her drug use and acknowledged knowing little about how to
treat it. Given that the next week she as preparing to go back to school, he
referred her to the well-known psychiatry department of the university hospital of
her school. �

How common is it for marijuana use to trigger depersonalization?

It is not considered common, but it has now become well established that marijuana
can trigger depersonalization. Given the very high prevalence of marijuana use in
the general population, an outcome of chronic depersonalization is probably
infrequent. Still, it is clear that it does happen. The first report of a few
cases of chronic depersonalization induced by cannabis came out in the early
1980s. At present, prominent investigators that specialize in researching DPD have
found that about 10-15% of all cases appear to be triggered by marijuana use.
Furthermore, they have found that the form of the disorder associated with this
drug trigger is no different in its symptoms, severity, or course from the
disorder as it appears in others circumstances.
Mon Sep 15 2008 19:28:51 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

http://www.depersonalization.info/feelingunrealcover.jpg
http://www.depersonalization.info/overview.html

Strangers to Our Selves

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 there is one "Depersonalization
Disorder", and it's nothing new.

It may happen when you first wake up, or while flying on an airplane or driving in
your car. Suddenly, inexplicably, something changes. Common objects and familiar
situations seem strange, foreign. Like you've just arrived on the planet, but
don't know from where. It may pass quickly, or it may linger. You close your eyes
and turn inward, but the very thoughts running through your head seem different.
The act of thinking itself, the stream of invisible words running through the
hollow chamber of your mind, seems strange and unreal. 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. It may
settle over time, into a feeling of "nothingness", as if you were without
emotions, dead. Or the fear of it may blossom into a full-blown panic attack. 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.

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. In its chronic form, popular culture once saw it as part of a nervous
breakdown. Some have called it "Alice in Wonderland" disease. Jean Paul Sartre
called it "the filth" , William James dubbed it "the sick soul". It's been linked
philosophically to existentialism, even Buddhism. Yet to its victims, it's
anything but an enlightened state of mind. Welcome to the world of
Depersonalization Disorder.

The term itself has been around for a long time. A psychologist named Dugas coined
it as a unique medical condition back in 1898. 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. 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.

Depersonalization, as a symptom, is what the majority of us experience at some

time in our lives. It occurs briefly, and has no lasting effect. Depersonalization
Disorder, however, is a chronic illness that can take a dreadful and long-lasting
course.

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.

According to DSM-IV, Depersonalization Disorder, in part, constitutes the

following:

... a feeling of detachment or estrangement from one's self . The individual may
feel like an automaton or as if he or she is living in a dream or a movie. There
may be a sensation of being an outside observer of one's metal processes, one's
body, or parts of one's body.

... Various types of sensory anesthesia, lack of affective response, and a

sensation of lacking control of one's actions, including speech, are often
present. 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) . Depersonalization is a common experience, and this
diagnosis should be made only if the symptoms are sufficiently severe to cause
marked distress or impairment in functioning).

In addition to DSM-IV, another vital diagnostic tool, Merck's Manual, describes

depersonalization clearly:

Persistent or recurrent feelings of being detached from one's body or mental

processes and usually a feeling of being an outside observer of one's life.

Depersonalization is the third most common psychiatric symptom and frequently

occurs in life-threatening danger, such as accidents, assaults, and serious
illnesses and injuries; it can occur as a symptom in many other psychiatric
disorders and in seizure disorders. As a separate disorder, depersonalization has
not been studied widely, and its incidence and cause are unknown.2

The criteria for Depersonalization as a unique disorder has been clearly spelled
out says Los Angeles psychiatrist Oscar Janiger. Janiger, formerly an associate
clinical professor at the University of California, Irvine, has treated many
patients with Depersonalization Disorder (DP) during his 40-plus year practice,
and in fact has endured the condition himself.

But in addition to their common symptoms, DP sufferers have another shared

experience, Janiger adds. Most have a pattern of going to doctor after doctor with
little or no relief other than the standard trial and error treatments for
depression and anxiety.

One key phrase in the disorder's DSM-IV definition is: reality testing remains
intact, Janiger adds. While a degree of depersonalization may be present in other
illnesses, like schizophrenia, this is not a psychotic condition. The person knows
that something is terribly wrong, and grapples with trying to figure out what it
is. If anything, it's the opposite of insanity. It's like being too sane. You
become hypervigilant of your existence and things around you.

Indeed, chronic depersonalization often includes a sensation of overconsciousness

wherein each thought seems too apparent, or too loud, like the volume of a low-
playing radio suddenly turned up to its maximum according to one sufferer.

Signs of depersonalization can occur with many illnesses, however isn't clear why
the condition persists in some people. Chronically depersonalized persons (or D-
People as they're often called) are usually highly intelligent, and prone to
intellectual ruminating. Onset is most often seen at an early age, from around
puberty to the late twenties. There has been evidence of links in some cases to
early childhood trauma, Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, stress resulting from life
threatening situations, and Migraine. Evidence has also suggested that it afflicts
females to a greater degree than males.

In time, depersonalized people can make some accommodations to the condition,

Janiger says. They know it won't kill them or make them insane. It isn't a
progressive illness. It may constitute a subtle alteration of perception. It's
more like adjusting to a pair of glasses that makes everything appear upside down.
Eventually one may find ways of adapting.

Accordingly, people with DP disorder become masters at maintaining a front,

appearing quite normal to friends, family and co-workers. The sense of being an
automaton as described in DSM-IV is consistent with going through the familiar
routines of a lifetime. You do what you're expected to, and say what others expect
you too, all the while feeling as if you're acting out of habit, says John, a 32-
year-old filmmaker who has had the condition for six years. Your mind is always a
million miles away. All natural spontaneity and joy of living is gone. You know
something's wrong, and you're constantly battling with what it might be, and
evaluating how you feel.

While DSM-IV defines what clinicians consider to be pure cases, those not brought
about by the introduction of an outside agent like drugs, the condition seems to
be the same, no matter what precipitates its onset. Psychoactive drugs, however,
may be one of the primary causal agents among DP sufferers today.

Many people develop the condition through the use of marijuana, notes Janiger. And
ecstasy (MDMA), the drug of choice among the young rave crowd has been noted in
particular as a catalyst for DP. LSD can cause it as well, it seems, but to a
lesser degree than THC (Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol) the active ingredient in
pot.

This one young person's account is typical of the feelings of unreality laced with
intermittent panic that often besets sufferers in the earliest stages whether
drug-induced or not:

... three times after I've smoked pot I've had a disabling depersonalization from
it. Again, it's the same numbness, then far away, unable to control my body, time
feels like it's flashing like movie stills, cannot tell what is happening, even
what I am thinking, sound is far away, cannot speak. Think it is near death as one
could get. Also one time it happened to me after half a beer (didn't feel at all
intoxicated) and the ambulance came and got me. Some lady was sitting over me
saying something about Jesus, which only made the fear stronger.

The terror is inexplicable. In between attacks I experience feelings of unreality,

sometimes lasting days. I deal with agoraphobia and panic, dread of dying.
Sometimes just feel it is hard to move around. Like I will become disoriented and
fall over (which really happens during my serious attacks). I avoid people, since
they make me feel strange, especially if they are too close. Being in a store can
make me feel strange too.

Why Now?

All of this begs the question: Why delve into Depersonalization Disorder at length
when it has been clearly defined as an illness, or an offshoot of other illnesses
in medical literature? There are several answers. First, there is evidence that
more people are experiencing Depersonalization Disorder, and making it known, than
ever before. Many of these people suffered in silence until the basics of brain
chemistry, and words like neurotransmitter, panic disorder, and obsessive
compulsive disorder (OCD) worked their way into the mainstream consciousness. The
condition is widespread enough to have prompted the founding of the Britain-based
Depersonalization Discussion Board website on the internet. Since 1997, hundreds
of people with strikingly similar experiences and/or symptoms have congregated
regularly with a hunger for information through this new virtual venue.

Second, the prevalence of DP has also impressed several seats of medical learning
enough to establish clinics singly devoted to its study. These include the
Depersonalization Research Unit at the London Institute of Psychiatry, and the
Depersonalization and Dissociation Research Program at the Mt. Sinai School of
Medicine in New York. These clinics are devoted to studying Depersonalization
Disorder in depth and experimenting with new methods of treatment to offer relief
to those who find it an unbearable mental condition.

In addition, a book touching on the subject, though in the context of Dissociative

Disorders in general, was published late last year. The Stranger in the Mirror by
Marlene Steinberg. M.D. and Maxine Schnall, (Harper Collins, 2000), explores the
far-reaching extent of dissociation in today's society. The book concentrates on
the traditional sources of the condition, specifically child abuse, and makes
extensive use of the author's recognized scales for determining if one has the
condition. But little discussion is given to the purely physiological causes of
dissociative illnesses in general, or depersonalization syndrome specifically.

This is a review of the same, fairly well-known theories in a new package, Janiger
says.

The epidemic, it seems, is being experienced by many persons with no history of

abuse nor any of the traditional causes. In fact, young people using ecstasy often
complain of the symptoms of depersonalization whether they had any predisposition
to psychological problems or not.

Dr. Daphne Simeon is the primary investigator at Mt. Sinai's Research unit and
monitors the progress of volunteer patients who are screened by a questionnaire
which first determines that they can be diagnosed as truly depersonalized. To
date, a moderate degree of success has been achieved by many patients through the
use of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac, Zoloft and
Paxil, as well as cognitive and psychodynamic psychotherapy. It is believed that
there may be similarities between the brain chemistry of Depersonalization and
that of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (OCDs) against which some antidepressants
have been effective. But simply establishing Depersonalization Disorder as its own
unique and separate illness has not been easy within the medical community, Simeon
says.

For a long time, depersonalization has been thrown in with a group of other
dissociative disorders, like out-of-body experiences, and dissociative fugues, but
I've always been convinced that it's an entity unto itself, Simeon says. Even now,
the medical establishment doesn't always agree. Papers on DP alone are still being
rejected by medical journals.

The condition is often linked with depression and anxiety states, adds Janiger.
But there are many people who feel depersonalized but not depressed, and not
anxious, unless the DP causes them to be.

I never felt what I would consider to be clinically depressed, says Ron, who now
in his thirties, has suffered with Depersonalization Disorder for 15 years And the
anxiety isn't spontaneous for me. It's always as a result of my thinking in
circles over and over again about life, death, infinity, and what's wrong with me.

Like many reporting into interactive websites dealing with the subject, Ron traces
his DP's origins to a single marijuana cigarette. His stream of consciousness is
often marked by a pondering of things that are familiar to the rest of us, or the
nature of existence itself:

Its like I fall deep within myself. I look at my mind from within and feel both
trapped and puzzled about the strangeness of my existence. My thoughts swirl round
and round constantly probing the strangeness of selfhood - why do I exist? Why am
I me and not someone else? At these times, feelings of sweaty panic develop, as if
I am having a phobia about my own thoughts. At other times, I don't feel grounded'
- I look at this body and can't understand why I am within it. I hear myself
having conversations and wonder where the voice is coming from. I imagine myself
seeing life as if it were played like a film in a cinema. But in that case, where
am I? Who is watching the film? What is the cinema? The worst part is that this
seems as if it's the truth, and the periods of my life in which I did not feel
like this were the delusions.

Still, there are the pure cases, where DP comes about for no particular reason,
like it did for Karen, young Englishwoman in her twenties.

I came from a normal family and have never been abused.. I've just always been
this way. It has never been a choice for me. I have never been officially
diagnosed for depersonalization... But all the things match up. I've never really
known who I am. I wish I did. I envy others in their secure identities...

Things that are supposed to be "familiar" look bizarre and incomprehensible. There
is a big hole in my understanding of human relations and communication, nothing
makes much sense as a whole.

Often when someone calls my name I don't feel identified with it. Nothing seems
real.

A Lost Generation?

Like most DP sufferers, Ron and Karen have been involuntarily thrown into bona
fide existential angst a term that unfortunately today seems more relevant to a
Woody Allen movie than an individual in crisis. Their poignant observations run
deeper than simply thinking in circles about the nature of existence they feel the
black emptiness of existence that post World War II philosophers struggled to
portray. It's what the French have come to call Le Coup de Vide the blow of the
void.

Depersonalization is a very unpleasant feeling, despite the fact that is often

manifests itself by a seeming lack of feeling, says German psychologist Ursula
Oberst. Stories by depersonalized people have a true flavor of existentialism
about them. Philosophers wrote about it and theorized about it. But D-people feel
it, and the feeling can be too much to bear.

Apparently one who wrote about it and felt it was French philosopher Jean Paul
Sartre. While he reputedly scorned the term existentialism, his first novel Le
Nausee (Nausea), published in 1938, portrays true Depersonalization Disorder with
bone-chilling accuracy. Existentialist or not, Sartre clearly knew
depersonalization first hand.

I buy a newspaper along my way. Sensational news. Little Lucienne's body has been
found. Smell of ink, the paper crumples between my fingers. The criminal has fled.
The child was raped. They found her body, the fingers clawing at the mud. I roll
the paper into a ball, my fingers clutching at the paper; smell of ink; my God how
strongly things exist today. Little Lucienne was raped. Strangled. Her body still
exists, her flesh bleeding. SHE no longer exists. her hands. She no longer exists.
The houses. I walk between the houses, I am between the houses, on the pavement;
the pavement under my feet exists, the houses close around me, as the water closes
over me, on the paper the shape of a swan. I am. I am,. I exist, I think,
therefore I am; I am because I think, why do I think. I don't want to think any
more, I am because I think that I don't want to be, I think that
I....because....ugh! I flee.

Literary depictions of depersonalization, panic, depression, phobias, and other

disorders have threaded their way through most cultures throughout history.
Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground Camus' The Stranger, Borges' The Aleph and
others come to mind.

The word "panic" itself has its source in ancient lore which attributed a fearful
shift in consciousness, or panic, to anyone viewing the face of the Greek forest
god Pan. Doing so offered an overwhelming glimpse of the universe that the human
mind was not equipped to handle, resulting in insanity.

Cosmic knowledge, and the brain's inability to handle it, appears again and again
in popular culture from 50s science fiction stories and movies with mind-expanding
machines, to Aldous Huxley's Doors of Perception, which suggested that mescaline
could open the brain's channels to the higher knowledge sought by those very sci-
fi contraptions.

An exploration of all that depersonalization involves will take you down many
paths, says Janiger, who is currently adding to the DP literature by authoring a
comprehensive book on the subject.

Paths of self-exploration, or explorations of the lack of self, may ultimately

lead one towards the ancient teachings of Buddhism or other eastern philosophies,
or western mystic literature and contemporary Christian writers known as
contemplatives, Janiger points out.

Trancenet (www.trancenet org), a Delaware- based nonprofit group that monitors

cult activity and exploitative psychological techniques, sees many similarities
between depersonalization syndrome and psychological states found in
Transcendental Meditation, specifically as taught by the renowned Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi.

According to Trancenet, numerous quotes from the 1967 book Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
on the Bhagavad-Gita: A New Translation and Commentary directly parallel the
descriptions of depersonalization in DSM-IV.

One statement from the book, for example, could fall directly under the DSM-IV
subcategory of detachment, according to Trancenet:

In Nitya-Samadhi, or cosmic consciousness a man realizes that his Self is

different from the mind which is engaged in thoughts and desires. He experiences
the desires of the mind as lying outside himself,

Still, I'm not convinced that Depersonalization Disorder and Samadhi or bliss,
enlightenment, or what have you, are the same thing, Oscar Janiger explains. Many
people enjoy the states brought about through TM. But Depersonalization is an
illness, sent straight from hell. It's a psycho-physiological problem that
involves the integrity of the ego and body image.

Whether they're treating DP, or just social phobias, psychologists often spend
years trying to build up a patient's ego, with little result. There are many
people who are successful in their careers and who have received plenty of
laurels, awards food for the Ego. And it doesn't do a thing toward alleviating the
pain of losing one's self because of this strange and uncanny condition.

Finding Relief

As Drs. Janiger and Simeon can attest, the search for cures of more pressing
illnesses, like alcoholism, has kept funding for DP research on a back burner.
(Ironically, many D-People find that alcohol is the only thing that brings
temporary relief to the symptoms).

The existing clinics are a beginning. But it may be that treatment needs to take a
new direction, Janiger feels. While today's treatments utilize SSRIs, indications
are that greater success involves SSRIs in combination with other drugs, like
benzodiazapines such as Valium or Clonazepam.

Janiger has found about a 50 percent success ratio using one of the older anti-
depressants, a monoamineoxidase inhibitor (MAOI) called Marplan. The other MAOIs
haven't worked as well in my experience, but for some reason, Marplan features a
component that in some cases seems to be particularly effective against
depersonalization, he says. (While more recent research has not shown much success
with any of the MAOIs, they may in fact work best in cases of a known subgroup of
patients who suffer from the so-called anxiety-depersonalization syndrome.
Anxiety, panic and overconsciousness are frequent symptoms in these people; others
who still fall within the clinical definitions of DPD do not experience these at
all).

As more sufferers of the condition converge on the internet, more common symptoms
are also emerging with greater clarity. For instance, D-People seem to be
particularly susceptible to the condition when they spend time in fluorescent
lighting, like that found in most retail stores. In addition, for most persons, DP
seems be strongest in the mornings and progressively better as the day progresses.
If they take naps, it can re-emerge with a vengeance.
This tells us something about it's relationship to sleep, Janiger says. DP has
something to do with regulating sleep and wake patterns, but I haven't seen any
studies on this yet. It's odd how so many people refer to it as being in a dream
or a dreamlike state, but nobody seems to have looked at how it relates to REM
(Rapid Eye Movement) sleep.

If you visualize the brain's two distinct types of consciousness REM sleep and
wakefulness as being in their own separate airtight compartments,
depersonalization might represent some kind of intrusion from one into the other,
Janiger suggests. The respective compartments may not be as contained as they
should be.

But whether it's linked to the sleep/wakefulness cycle, a natural part of the
human condition, or part of an awakening to a heightened consciousness,
Depersonalization Disorder isn't going away; D-people will continue to seek
relief, and researchers will continue to try to provide it.

It's a remarkable condition, notes Janiger, with implications that are

fascinating. But it's like the ocean, wondrous and deep unless you're drowning in
it. Then all you want is a way out.

Update: Dr. Janiger passed away in 2001, and he is sorely missed. However, his
interest in depersonalization and new research being done by the clinics at Mount
Sinai and in the UK, spawned the beginnings of the comprehensive book about the
disorder. Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization and the Loss of the Self, by Daphne
Simeon MD, and Jeff Abugel, creator of this website, will be available in March
2006; it can be preordered now by clicking here-- ORDER NOW or through the
publisher, Oxford University Press http://www.oup.com

Copyright � 2004 - jeffrey abugel and Depersonalization.info

http://www.depersonalization.info/overview.html

Mon Sep 15 2008 20:04:51 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

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