About Depersonalization

Question:

hello doctor i wanted to ask you about depersonalization , is it curable , does it have a treatment is full recovery available regards

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Answer:

Depersonalization refers to the experience of feeling detached from one’s own life as thought what you are living and experiencing is a dream or movie that you are watching from the outside. It is often a reaction to trauma and can be one of the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In other words, people can experience depersonalization after being in an earth quake, a combat situation as in Iraq, a major hurricane, a severe auto accident or any related types of disasters.

It is common for those who lived through child abuse and domestic violence experiences while they were growing up to experience depersonalization even though the original traumas occurred a long time ago.

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There is treatment for depersonalization and for PTSD. The treatment includes the use of medication to relieve symptoms of depression, anxiety and panic, and treatment includes psychotherapy. Very often sleep is disturbed for those who have been through theses types of traumas. Therefore, medication to improve sleep is used along with anti depressants. The reason for this is that the inability to sleep soundly interferes with recovery from trauma.

With the help of medications and psychotherapy people do recover from depersonalization as well as from PTSD.

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