Posted by falconman on March 27, 2003, at 20:19:30
In reply to Re: How long does it take? » falconman, posted by edgefield on March 27, 2003, at 19:35:23
Hi,
they have a depersonalization (DP) research unit in London and one also somewhere in the States. For a minority of people Anafranil has put the disorder into remission, but for the majority including myself it doesn't help. They have found the most success with clonazepam/celexa. It seems this combo and especially the clonazepam helps nearly everyone with DP (thats why they regard it as the best treatment),however to highly varying degrees. The combo allows me to function much better, but it has not given me highly significant relief. Alot of people have found it works very well to control the problem though.
So I haven't been able to get rid of the spacey/unreal feeling, but tame it. However I've been diagnosed with primary DP disorder, where as most people experience it as a symptom of anxiety/depression. If the symptoms of DP are strong enough to disrupt your daily functioning and seem to persist independantly of mood, you might be suffering from the primary condition, but the high odds are that you are experiencing elements of it as a sympton of the anxiety. The fact that it started at the same time as the panick attacks may suggest its a symptom of an anxiety disorder. I got DP after smoking cannabis (often a cause)and its been with me 24/7 ever since. Very scary!!
At the research units they've also done trials with the anti-convulsants Lamictal and Trileptal. Again varied response some people find adding one of these to an SSRI helpful. So there are a few good treatment options.
If your interested in knowing more about it I'd look at Depersonalization.com, it gives a good explanation.
Hope this helps,take care
Mark
poster:falconman
thread:213525
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030325/msgs/213593.html