Can psychedelics be used to heal DPDR? Should those with DPDR avoid psychedelics?

[lmfao]

I've had fluctuating DPDR for a while now. Brain fog, finding life to feel dreamlike/unreal ( in a bad way). I've recently stopped my SSRI's and the DPDR has gotten worse, for now anyway. Maybe DPDR is like having one long bad trip.

I of course have no plans to take psychedelics anytime soon, not until I'm more stable, and it's not like I would have access to any for at least several months anyway.


Supposing I get things under better control and am stable. Are psychedelics capable of curing DPDR? Or at best, can they leave it untouched but heal other parts of me? Psychedelics are used to cure depression I've heard. I'm searching online about psychedelics and DPDR, all I'm hearing about is psychedelics giving people DPDR after a trip "gone wrong".

[lmfao]

2 minutes ago, dflores321 said:

Grounding is key, find some practices that put you more into your body. What you really want is feeling. 

I suspect you may just be too high up in the psychic level of stuff, or in other words you're overthinking/foggy. 

Itll be harder to "feel not-real" once you start feeling the energy within the body lighting up. 

Yeah, well right now I'm definitely not considering it. I'm having enough issue not losing my mind from altered states from meditation.  I sense that psychedelics aren't my path, at least not now. 

[Average Investor]

I would work on doing a lot of grounding practices and to a point where you are not bothered negatively by it. LSD for me will spike it up, but I notice that I am more grounded a few months after taking it. 

I feel like a good chunk of it the mind constructs. Just thinking about having that or saying I have that seems to "activate it" more. I would work on removing that thought from your mind more and more. Meditation helps a lot and releasing techniques help a lot too.

I would work on reducing any depression or anxiety as well. Cutting out stuff like caffeine helps a lot. Diet and exercise are a massive help. Also, quit smoking weed if you do. This will hinder your progress with it greatly. 

[Leo Gura]

It's a crap shoot. Psychedelics could make you even more ungrounded and depersonalized.

There's no simple formula here. It could make things worse or it could make things better, depending on how you trip and how you make sense of your trips.

I would not count on psychedelics being some magic cure.

[Hello from Russia]

Lol, they treat no-self state as some kind of disease

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization-derealization_disorder#:~:text=Depersonalization-derealization disorder (DPDR%2C,or detached from one's self.

[Joel3102]

Weed and psychedelics are some of the most common triggers for DP, so doubt it 

[UNZARI]

hey man i feel you i’ve been in the exact same situation for the past couple of months (on and off for years). i also have HPPD which compounds with the depersonalization making everything seem more dreamlike. i took shrooms in the midst of this and it was an amazing trip and helped me, however i ate a weed brownie a week later and it destroyed me and now it’s the worst it’s ever been. 

i would say just stay sober like you have been and try to focus on the things you love doing, meditation, and relationships. best of luck to you! i hope ppl like us can grow from this 

[UNZARI]

 

1 hour ago, Average Investor said:

I would work on doing a lot of grounding practices and to a point where you are not bothered negatively by it. LSD for me will spike it up, but I notice that I am more grounded a few months after taking it. 

I feel like a good chunk of it the mind constructs. Just thinking about having that or saying I have that seems to "activate it" more. I would work on removing that thought from your mind more and more. Meditation helps a lot and releasing techniques help a lot too.

I would work on reducing any depression or anxiety as well. Cutting out stuff like caffeine helps a lot. Diet and exercise are a massive help. Also, quit smoking weed if you do. This will hinder your progress with it greatly. 

i agree i had to cut out caffeine because it made it so bad i would have panic attacks, even though caffeine was my go to for years before i had depersonalization this bad. weed is what i think triggered this for me too i agree ?

[Joel3102]

@Hello from Russia DP is a real disorder, don’t confuse it with enlightenment. It’s a dissociative disorder caused by anxiety, don’t confuse the two 

[lmfao]

Thanks for the advice so far peeps. (Funnily enough , for today at least, my brain fog and depersonalisation was shot out of existence when I accidentally performed therapy on myself and have adrenaline coursing through my body as I open myself up to uncomfortable emotional truth)

If I ever do end up using, I don't plan on using psychedelics to enter borderline insanity zones of crazy spiritual insight ( but ofc I would have to be prepared and ready for whatever pops up in a trip), only using them for therapy and treatment of emotional/mental disorders and trauma resolution. 

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

It's a crap shoot. Psychedelics could make you even more ungrounded and depersonalized.

There's no simple formula here. It could make things worse or it could make things better, depending on how you trip and how you make sense of your trips.

I would not count on psychedelics being some magic cure.

@Leo Gura Interesting. Advice noted to not count on them as being magical cures to mental disorder. Have you ever used psychedelics to treat mental disorders? Just emotional healing and neurosis in general (which is obviously helpful to everyone) ? 
---
@Joel3102 Joel is very right that this is a formal disorder and isn't the same as enlightenment at all. And it needs to be treated as such. 
Now to just type my thoughts on the matter generally

On the other hand, one should realise that there is nuanced existence to this thing called depersonalisation/derealisation. It isn't so cut and dry, and many people who experience a "dark night of the soul" are having these dpdr symptoms, but medicine/psychology has a hard time understanding this all

"Dissociation" is to some extent like this abstract/general force in your psyche. Which is why it's important to think of it beyond just being a disorder (although obviously it's still be treated and addressed and not conflated with 'true enlightenment'. Being a result of anxiety and trauma). Meditators and people deeply into spiritual practices will encounter this force, in whatever way that happens.*

I don't understand it how it works, but I know it's more complicated than the impression one gets of labelling it as just 'anxiety and trauma' as a disorder, it has links to spirituality and psychology generally.

Perhaps we all dissociate to various degrees, have parts of our psyche that we hide, repress, disown/dissociate, and we would dissociate should we make those conscious and be unable to handle it 


*Dissociation seems almost inevitable as something someone spiritual will encounter, since you invest so much energy into dissolving your structures, perturbing the natural inertia and homeostasis. And there's of course that thing where you trying to get "distance" from your ego as all these teachers call it but you come across dissociation as well. 
This is really one of the most classic and fundamental paradoxes you'll have to navigate in trying to "transcend" your ego. 
--
Most important takeaway, I wont become a weed smoking hippie 

Edited December 18, 2020 by lmfao

[Delis]

I have had some heavy metal toxicity symptoms (pain in extremities, muscle cramps all over the body, tinnitus etc.) after administration of gadolinium MRI contrast agent early this year (I have IBD what might have contributed to inability to detox/withstand the gadolinium retained by the body).  At the same time, perhaps because of heavy metal symptoms or because of the shock that I got symptoms from what was supposed to be a routine examination, I started to have mental health problems including severe depression and anxiety and also depersonalization like-symptoms. I have done detoxing with NAC, Biosuperfood (algae recommended in GAD-toxicity support group) and various other supplements and adjusted my diet and that has already helped a lot (also time helps). I used to do weed every now and then, but after the MRI incident I was completely sober from all the substances for about 5 months.

When I first re-introduced weed, to my surprise, it didn't make my mental heath problems worse, on the contrary. I could regain some enthusiasm and orientation towards life and also have made great spiritual revelations under the influence though I have been on this journey for about 6 years. The crucial thing about the weed was the strain. Blue Dream, which is a popular strain among meditators, seems to be the only strain that I have tried that makes things better but I try not to use it too often, maybe once a week, to not get too hooked on weed though I have some symptoms of psychological dependency already. (By the way, Leo's Actualized.org Music Playlist sounds phenomenal on Blue Dream, have listened it a lot while contemplating .) 

So based on my experience I can say that first of all not all weed is the same (most of them cause me disorientation and confusion though confusion can sometimes be good for spiritual contemplation) and sometimes and some strains of weed might lessen your mental health problems. But can't say for sure. I guess it depends on your case and your brain chemistry.

Edited December 18, 2020 by Delis

[Bojan]

Honestly, I doubt psychedelics can heal anything anymore, especially traumas from the past. When you break a vase, it is very hard to put it back together.

Edited December 18, 2020 by Bojan

[Nahm]

15 hours ago, lmfao said:

Thanks for the advice so far peeps. (Funnily enough , for today at least, my brain fog and depersonalisation was shot out of existence when I accidentally performed therapy on myself and have adrenaline coursing through my body as I open myself up to uncomfortable emotional truth)

That is incredibly insightful...no?   (You ‘went into it’ / inspected / addressed it, and it disappeared...’shot out of existence’.) 

15 hours ago, lmfao said:

 Meditators and people deeply into spiritual practices will encounter this force, in whatever way that happens.*

Dissociation seems almost inevitable as something someone spiritual will encounter, since you invest so much energy into dissolving your structures, perturbing the natural inertia and homeostasis. And there's of course that thing where you trying to get "distance" from your ego as all these teachers call it but you come across dissociation as well. 
This is really one of the most classic and fundamental paradoxes you'll have to navigate in trying to "transcend" your ego. 

I do not mean this in any ‘your wrong’ argumentative sense at all...just testimony / information to consider because if might be helpful to you... I have talked to hundreds of seekers and woke folk in recent years and those impressions are not at all in accordance with what’s been seen & experienced. Not even remotely, like not even 1%. I would consider the opposite, not attributing / accrediting / associating this with spirituality, awakening or enlightenment at all. I also think there is some serious misunderstanding of some teachers in that they are suggesting you’re ‘perturbing the natural inertia and homeostasis’, or that you should be ‘trying to get distance from your ego’.   

[electroBeam]

I get DP a lot, and it is definitely intensified with very very high levels of concentration/contemplation. It also occurs a lot in psychedelic circles(directly from the use of them).

My take is, its not directly related to awakening work as a blanket statement. Rather i think some "brains" are hardwired to get DP a lot more then others, and for those brain types, awakening and DP are correlated. Awakening work will definitely affect it, and psychedelics more so.

The human population with this hard wired brain aspect is predicted to be less than 2%

From my personal experience alone, because its so rare, most people wont understand how your brain works, and so you wont be able to rely on us on figuring out how to alleviate it. You'll have to trial and error yourself. Which is a delicious irony, because DP makes you feel isolated and alone hahahahaha.

[lmfao]

@electroBeam

49 minutes ago, electroBeam said:

I get DP a lot, and it is definitely intensified with very very high levels of concentration/contemplation. It also occurs a lot in psychedelic circles(directly from the use of them).

My take is, its not directly related to awakening work as a blanket statement. Rather i think some "brains" are hardwired to get DP a lot more then others, and for those brain types, awakening and DP are correlated. Awakening work will definitely affect it, and psychedelics more so.

The human population with this hard wired brain aspect is predicted to be less than 2%

From my personal experience alone, because its so rare, most people wont understand how your brain works, and so you wont be able to rely on us on figuring out how to alleviate it. You'll have to trial and error yourself. Which is a delicious irony, because DP makes you feel isolated and alone hahahahaha.

What you said sounds about spot on.

[Carl-Richard]

I've heard one dude who cured it by doing super intense cardio workout (biking) everyday.

[lmfao]

4 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

I've heard one dude who cured it by doing super intense cardio workout (biking) everyday.

After intensely working out for a year to get pecks, I'll yell on camera about enlightenment and everyone will worship me as the next Frank Yang or Connor Murphy. 

Jokes aside, that sounds like the way for dpdr 

Edited December 19, 2020 by lmfao

[Lyubov]

You should be extremely careful. Personally I don't think you should. A conservative approach to Psychedelics is wise. There are plenty of things you can do to help yourself in the meantime. 

[sausagehead]

I already went this route in the past, don’t take psychedelics to try to cure dpdr. It basically just aggravates the disorder and makes it worse. 
 

Exercise regularly, eat relatively healthy, process emotions by feeling them whenever you can, and try to stay busy and engaged with life as much as possible. I personally have reached about 98% recovery and I contribute most of my recovery to exercise. Buy a stationary bike or ride an actual bike for at least an hour a day to help your mind/body release the right chemicals and you should start feeling more normal everyday. I had extreme dpdr for the last 14 months and have literally noticed very subtle improvements every single day from doing the things I mentioned above. 
 

ps: psychedelics I’ve tried using to cure dpdr. Acid, mushrooms, 2-CB, Bufo Alvarius, 5-meo, ayahuasca, and MDMA. Acid is probably the worst one you can do for this purpose and MDMA was the closest one to being helpful but just don’t take any drugs or medication and let your brain sort itself out naturally without introducing and taking away different chemicals. Exercise exercise exercise that’s all I gotta say. Don’t know why that would help? Doesn’t matter just do it and see for yourself lol. Also too much bread and sugar would temporarily spike my symptoms like crazy so you might want to cut back on those if you’re the same way

Edited December 23, 2020 by sausagehead

[Michal__]

25 minutes ago, sausagehead said:

I already went this route in the past, don’t take psychedelics to try to cure dpdr. It basically just aggravates the disorder and makes it worse. 
 

Exercise regularly, eat relatively healthy, process emotions by feeling them whenever you can, and try to stay busy and engaged with life as much as possible. I personally have reached about 98% recovery and I contribute most of my recovery to exercise. Buy a stationary bike or ride an actual bike for at least an hour a day to help your mind/body release the right chemicals and you should start feeling more normal everyday. I had extreme dpdr for the last 14 months and have literally noticed very subtle improvements every single day from doing the things I mentioned above. 
 

ps: psychedelics I’ve tried using to cure dpdr. Acid, mushrooms, 2-CB, Bufo Alvarius, 5-meo, ayahuasca, and MDMA. Acid is probably the worst one you can do for this purpose and MDMA was the closest one to being helpful but just don’t take any drugs or medication and let your brain sort itself out naturally without introducing and taking away different chemicals. Exercise exercise exercise that’s all I gotta say. Don’t know why that would help? Doesn’t matter just do it and see for yourself lol. Also too much bread and sugar would temporarily spike my symptoms like crazy so you might want to cut back on those if you’re the same way

Excersise helped with mine too.