Posted by Marie D on August 29, 2000, at 13:45:08
In reply to Re: CRAIG and everyone please read - Unreality, posted by Doug on April 12, 2000, at 16:47:12
> I have suffered from panic attacks for the last couple of years but even worse is the derealization which goes along with them. Like sharon I also have searched for a medical condition with these symptoms and have developed a form of hyprocondia as a result!!! Having read this page I am slightly reassured that I am not going mad. Can anyone identify with the feeling of looking at family members, including my husband and feeling like they all exist in a different world and they are like strangers to me? It is very hard to describe but frightening. At my worst I also have awful ringing in my ears.
>
> People,
> I had this exact same problem when I was 16.
> I am now 41 years old and its strange to remember
> how much trouble I had coping with it. For,
> instance, when I would be in a large department
> store, I would have trouble focusing my mind
> on a particlar item on the shelf (I'm not taking
> about visual focus, but mentally isolating a
> specific item which I was looking for). What
> was so troubling is that the change occured
> almost overnight and linked (I think) to the use
> of pot (panic reaction). I felt that I had
> suddenly developed a barrier in my visual
> preception of the world, which took one or
> two years to shake off. When it would bother
> me, I found that reading would take my mind
> off of it. It eventually either went away or
> my mind adapted and overcame it. I think that
> it was the later, but I'm not sure and I don't
> know if I could tell the difference. I think
> that the key to overcomming it is to accept it
> and deal with it, but don't expect it to go
> away. When you truly come to grips with it
> then it will gradually cease to be a problem
> and you will forget you ever had it (well almost).
poster:Marie D
thread:8172
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000822/msgs/44006.html