EXERCISE No13 - "The story of my life"

Today I propose a very useful exercise to fight against this monster called DEPERSONALIZATION.

EXERCISE nº13: - "The story of my life"

1. Take a sheet of paper, standard size A4 or better the larger A3 (it depends of the number of years you have been suffering DP/DR)
2. Place it horizontal, landscape (wider) and write from the upper left corner the previous year to the year you suffered the DP stroke. In my case, 1987.
3. Below, at 2 cm aprox, write the next year, the year of your disorder, in my case, 1988, and so on until reaching the current year (2014 now). You can turn the sheet if necessary to the other side.
   
    
   
   
4. At the upper side of the sheet and close to the right of the first year you will write place the labels corresponding to the twelve months, from JAN to DEC.
5. Draw parallel lines, horizontals to separate clearly each year and verticals to separate months or quarters if you prefer.
6. FILL THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE: Place in the calendar, approximately, when the most significant events of your life during those months, quarters, years: 
• When you started a new job or project and when you finished it.
• When you fell in love and when this relationship was over.
• When you suffered your disconnection DP/DR
• When and where you had your vacations (summer, winter, ...) 
• When you passed your driving licence exam. 
• When you finished your studies, university,... fill the courses. I mean, when you began 1º, 2º, 3º, etc...
• When you passed that exam so important for you  
• When you moved to a new house.
• When you or your relatives suffered an important accident or trauma, relevant for your life.
• When your kids be borned (if you have any), otherwise nephews.
• Wedding dates you attended, even yours, jeje
• Travels you made to especial places, and so on...

It would be better using colours and putting your age besides every year of the calendar. 

MAKE THIS EFFORT TO LOOK BACK ON YOUR PAST AND SOLVE THE PUZZLE!

WHEN

WHERE

WHAT WORRIED TO ME, SPECIALLY THE FIRST YEAR AND MONTHS BEFORE MY DP/DR STROKE

(c) santos.barrioscanseco@gmail.com

EXERCISE nº12 - "Comparing, comparing and comparing"

By now, we know that our DP / DR dissociation likely comes from a weak communication between two areas or brain functions, one related to our body, time and space and the other, related to words, our conciousness and abstract concepts.

Although both still perform their functions , our unpleasant feeling comes from the fact that our rational, logic mind does not have easy access to the other part and therefore can not control the space-time of our life time or adequately perceive the world around us. Even knowing that it doen't mean any sense, we distinguish two parts within us , we feel as spectators of our own body. That fact may cause a panic attack in some individuals.

For example: a normal mind without DP / DR, is able to stop their own logical thoughts for a moment and looking consciously in a special way (check nº7 exercise, active look) to any ordinary object controlling the following information "not logical" that comes from the "other side":

• What time can be according to the intensity and angle of light I can see out the window?
• How big is this room compared to the previous home?
• How long has passed since I've seen, eg, my brother?
• How long I have a glance to this book?
• What do I want to do now?
• What I'm doing is appropriate to ME, to MY  PERSONALITY?
• What did I do yesterday ?, and last week ?, What would I do differently this week?
• What am I planning to do tomorrow?
• How long that I do not wear these shoes?
• Do I want my wife or my husband, girlfriend / boyfriend ?, What will  I tell when I meet them?
• Where have I seen this before ?, floor tiles are similar to ...?
• etc ...

There are a few types of questions that can help us a lot to reconstruct the puzzle as answers NO LOGIC, NOT ABLE TO BE reasoned , the right answers are in the "other side". If we don't want to give a random answer, deny the question or avoid the situation, WE SHOULD ACCESS to that part of our brain we want to connect to.

Excellent exercise!

EXERCISE nº12 - Compare SPECIFIC objects!

Located in your living room, watch the main table . As it will not be the first table you've seen in your life, ask yourself the following questions:

• When was the first time you saw this table?, Did you buy it?, Before was there another ?, Which one do you prefer?
• How is it compared to the table in your room ?, Is it highest? made in wooden or metal ?, What color is one and the other ?, What is heavier ?, What is wider ? Stretch out your hands and feel its dimensions.
• And your work desk or table where you study in school , college or university?
• Stand in front of it and see how high is it compared to your legs?. Sit on each chair around the table and think where you'd be more comfortable to write with a pen?

Notice the layout of the room , where are the armchairs, where is it the TV?, where are the chairs , and the bookstores?

Do you like the current layout more than the old one? Where did you sit at this time?

COMPARE ALL YOU CAN SEE: places, objects, heights, widths, dimensions respect to LONG AGO WHEN YOU WERE RIGHT!

santos.barrioscanseco@gmail.com

EXERCISE No. 11 - "Improving while we are driving a car"

A person with DP / DR can get the driver's license and driving perfectly. I attest that, because I did, and many other complex tasks.

In our state, the natural tendency is to focus on the road , driving, look ahead continuously. How to improve our DP / DR is based on the following exercises:

1. Slow down, to one that is more comfortable to look at anything other than just the road. 90 km/h is fine. In addition we reduce stress and tension accumulated.
2. Think about where you are now. ¿ How far are you from where you lived when you were okay ?, Far ?, Which way, which way would you go to your old house ?, How would you do to get there if you had to walk ?, Where do you reach a known point by which spent many times when you were okay?
   
3. Have you ever been on other occasions on this place?, When ?, With who?
4. Pay attention to the bridges crossing the road. Are they too high ?, How high ?, What would happen if you crash with the pillar of one of them? ... phew. Watch the vegetation, the median, the buildings surrounding the road.
5. Notes other cars left and right of your lane, look at the color and model. Watch the occupant. Is it older than you ?, Could it be a classmate ?, Which could be his occupation ?, Do you like his/her car? IMAGINE IT IS A CAR or TRUCK TOY , seem which you played when you were a kid. Imagine you could hand it.
   
   
   
   
   

Of course, whenever you need to keep looking at the road to avoid an accident, but try YOUR EYES ACTIVELY FOCUS THE LANDSCAPES AND OTHER OBJECTS , both outside and inside the car.

HOW IS THE RECOVERY? - "What will I feel?"

In my case I have lived two types of recoveries:

• The first was by itself, spontaneously, waking up the next morning ok, with great sense of relief. (That is, It lasted a few hours, like a drunk without drinking). Probably a warning.
• The second time, recovery  NO occurred in the next morning, nor the other, or the beyond one.  The recovery occurred  very slowly , desperately slow , months, years, with the feeling that did not advance anything and I was going to stay like this forever, rare, dumb.

I imagine that many of you may be wondering the same thing!

What I noticed is that certain kinds of thoughts and actions made ​​me feel slightly something right . I had to keep trying by myself, by trial and error to determine what made ​​me well:

For example, getting up and walking around the room or across the room looking at my things, my old textbooks, .... Give a short walk every evening alone. Take a deck of cards, touch and remember the first time I played cards, remember the house in another town where I was in summer, remember what my mother or my brothers told me, etc ...

SOME SYMPTOMS THAT INDICATE WE ARE RECOVERING

• Mild "pinpricks" , a signal that something perceptible happens in our head , not painful, indicating that we are recovering the neural circuit that connects logical mind with our "body" mind.  It's hard to explain, but it's as if I were to use an abandoned route, for years in my case, that connects emotions, personality (our personal history) and sensory perception . The exercises I propose in this blog, gradually make something move in our brain for good

• Naturally, the colours i.e. of cars on the highway , they begin to have different distinct tones and greatest, they evoke us toys, objects of the past that had the same tone and even more BIG! ... whether we like it or not . We will be able to regain tastes really (not fake or reason that we like a tone or other)
• Our way of looking will be different. More active, paying attention to the details of things and our body. We will see in 3D and every place else remind us of the past. WE BE ABLE TO COMPARE WITH OUR PREVIOUS LIFE.  And remember to compare you need a reference, the reference we had lost.
• ...

IT IS WONDERFUL!

Come on, Don't give up!

EXERCISE NO. 10 - "Take your parents, brothers and sisters into account"

Did you know that one of the keys to get over our DP / DR is consider what others, especially close relatives, think of us ?

Everything we are, our personality, has been forged slowly through relationships with others , especially those most influential been able to provide: father, mother and brothers (I mean those who have educated us and the rest of the people have lived with us during our childhood and youth)



Our habits at home, the time when you eat, when they went to bed, which is done at home on Sundays, etc ... everything is governed by our relationship with them. In a house it is known naturally what is normal and what is not, what is right and what is wrong . There is a vital history and shared values ​​. Like it or not, they ARE OUR REFERENCE BASE.

Take them into account IS IMPORTANT!

 

 

EXERCISE #10: "Take people, specially your parents, brothers and sisters into account"

(This exercise can be done even if you are not in touch with your family. Just go back in time, rememberm and imagine you're still living there, at your parents')

Ask specific questions about the members of your family you grew up:

• Would you like the work that I have or what I am studying?
• Where is my brother now ?, When was the last time I saw him ?, And the last time I called him on the phone?
• If my mother were here in my room or in my current house ... What would be her opinion about what she could see ?, And my father and my brothers?
• What games did we play together?
• Where were going at holidays ?, What did we do?, Where were we going ?, What was my favorite game at that time ?, What about them?
• What music did you like?
• What was the hobby of each  member of my family?, What  did they like?
• How much money did they give you for spend a week ?, what did you spend for'... etc ...

This exercise primarily fights against depersonalization . If you notice something in your mind shudders when realizing these questions ... OK. EVERYTHING IS FINE! 

EXERCISE No.9 - "Visiting a shop"

One of the reasons that led us to the DP / DR was being so concerned about an issue , so focused on something or so traumatized by an experience that our mind decided to protect and insulate us from the reality around our body.

Somehow, the logical mind is unplugged from those negative emotions motivated to do something, somehow, against our will.

Example: In my case, everyone will have his, my obsession was to study as much as possible to pass exams of my college career. Everywhere I went in my leisure time, vacation, ... my mind was to be concerned for the exams and NO was receiving 100% from my environment, we could say that I "sliding" around and could not find the peace until they find me studying. There was a continual contradiction between my body and my mind, which ended abruptly ending in an episode of derealization.

Can you live without paying attention to what surrounds our body?

Undoubtedly yes, it is precisely what makes someone just having a DP / DR. Your body goes on "autopilot" for life while you are worried about your topic. At first it can be controlled at will, after the "stroke", it becomes permanent.

EXERCISE # 9 - "Visiting a shop"

For example, when you go to a counter of a shop or a store to buy or order something and have to wait in a queue:



• Look around to see if you are annoying somebody. Watch your feet and place well.
• Compare your height with those of other people you have around. Are you higher or lower?
• Compare your age roughly with them. Who are your age about?
• Calculate how far is your body from the walls of the room, the door, the window, desk, ...
• Look closely everything there on the counter, even things you are not intended to buy. The idea is to not only focus on what you need to do on the shop: what else do they sell?, what type of cash register / POS are, read the name of the clerk on his shirt.
• Account , including you how many people are in the queue. Do you know in what order you go in row ?, ..
• Do you feel hot or cold ?, Are you comfortable? ...
• What's that smell ? Have you even smelt that scent?, where?
• What sounds are in the trade ?, is there any radio on ?, the other people in the queue, are they talking or are they silent ?, why do not you talk to someone in the row?

IF YOU WANT TO RECOVER THE NORMALITY...

STOP AVOIDING THE SITUATION WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE, READING A NEWSPAPER, LISTENING MUSIC OR THINKING ABOUT WORRIES PAST OR FUTURE IN A PLACE DIFFERENT WHERE YOU ARE

In short, you must be alert to the real world , you should certainly focus your eyes to what is around you (Exercise 7: An Active Seeing) and make an effort to feel the pace of time.

You should be awake, AT PRESENT TIME!!

A GRAPHIC EXPLANATION OF DP/DR DISSOCIATION - Prezi.com

I have worked on an graphic explanation of the DP/DR disorder.
You can visualize it in the following link (better on a PC):

http://prezi.com/iikti0087jzy/?utm_campaign=share&utm

I argue that we all have two different types of mind, one devoted to control our body, senses, time and spatial references (identified with the right hemisphere from our brain) and the other one, the logical one devoted to think with words, abstract concepts, language, beliefs, duties, goals in life,... (identified with the left hemisphere).

Enjoy it!

I hope your comments.