Anxiety and Depersonalization / Derealization (Ep. 020)
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata
4.9 • 663 Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2023
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Depersonalization and Derealization - AKA "DP/DR"
This week Drew and Josh get into the nuts and bolts of this most common anxiety and stress response. This is the sense that you're not real, that you're detached from yourself, or that the world around you suddenly feels unreal or out of reach. As scary as this experience is, and as much as it is difficult to face, it is not permanent or dangerous and can't actually harm you. Adopting a more accepting and tolerant approach to DP/DR - allowing it to be there without fighting so hard or trying to figure it out - helps your brain learn that it's OK to leave it alone.
Over time this means you're not really frightened of the sensation any longer which makes it far less likely to hang around like it does now.
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Disclaimer: Disordered is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to Disordered does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the hosts of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I felt like I was in the room, but it didn't feel like it was in a room. |
| 0:08.0 | It looked like I was living in the room that I saw in the mirror. |
| 0:11.6 | Everyone looked weird. |
| 0:12.6 | And it interestingly, when I was 19 ahead of my first panic attack, it was the first |
| 0:15.6 | thing I felt. |
| 0:16.7 | And I interpreted that as this is what it feels like when you're sort of slipping out of your |
| 0:21.4 | body, I guess, at the moment of death. |
| 0:23.4 | Until you've experienced it, you don't know what to call it or how to describe it. |
| 0:28.3 | I think that makes it scarier for people because it's such an unusual, subjective experience. |
| 0:34.6 | De-realization, depersonalization is a self-perpetuating anxiety symptoms in the sense that the more you poke around at it and obsess about it and monitor it and try and get rid of it, the kind of longer it sticks around. |
| 0:47.5 | If you just leave it alone, it will pass. |
| 0:52.2 | Welcome to Disordered. This is episode 20 of the podcast where we're going to talk about depersonalization and derealization. |
| 0:58.9 | I'm Drew Linzalata, one of the co-hosts of Disordered. |
| 1:01.7 | I'm a graduate student in clinical mental health counseling on way to being a licensed therapist here in the U.S. |
| 1:06.8 | And I am in New York. |
| 1:09.0 | And I'm Joshua Fletcher, also known as anxiety, Josh, and I'm a psychotherapist who specializes |
| 1:14.6 | in anxiety disorders based in Manchester in the UK. |
| 1:17.9 | Welcome back, Josh. |
| 1:20.1 | Big topic today. |
| 1:21.7 | One of the ones that we get asked about a lot, and something that we're very experienced in. |
| 1:28.6 | Yeah, I'm going to put it in the top five, for in terms of like what people want to hear about. Yeah, really, yeah. Yeah, |
| 1:34.8 | I'd say that. Maybe even top three. It could be. So today we're going to talk about |
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