How to Cure Anxiety Disorders and Depersonalization
Depersonalization is a term for a way in which an anxiety disorder can be manifested. The American Psychiatric Association classifies depersonalization as a dissociative disorder. If you suffer from depersonalization, you have feelings that you are in some way unreal, detached from your body, your environment and your own life. Treatment for depersonalization always focuses on an underlying anxiety disorder. According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, anxiety disorders affect at least 40 million adults in the United States.
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Instructions
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Discuss your feelings and any symptoms with your primary care physician. While anxiety disorders are treatable, no treatment can occur until you tell your doctor what you are feeling. Your physician will examine you to ensure that your symptoms are not physically based. She will ask you questions about your family's mental health history and then provide you with a referral to a mental health care professional if she thinks that is needed.
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Engage in therapy with a psychiatrist or psychologist. Your anxiety disorder treatment will depend upon the severity of the disorder, as well as the symptoms you are exhibiting. Treatment usually involves a combination of therapeutic measures (cognitive therapy, behavior therapy, medication and relaxation techniques). Participate actively in your therapy to accelerate the cure.
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Practice the therapeutic techniques on a regular basis. Regardless of the way the anxiety disorder manifests itself, you will be asked to change both your thinking and your actions when you are confronted with anxiety-producing stimuli (for example, if you "disengage" every time you walk outdoors, you may be asked to touch objects and focus on them to reinforce their reality and your relationship to them). You will always practice these techniques when you feel you are ready to attempt them, and without any coercion on the part of your therapist. In time, you become conditioned to more normal feelings about yourself and your place in the world.
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Schedule periodic follow-up physical examinations with your primary care physician to ensure that any anti-anxiety medication you are taking is having the desired effect and is not creating physical problems.
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Tips & Warnings
Ask your primary care physician for more than one referral option. Select a therapist you trust and with whom you feel comfortable.
Don't give up. Anxiety disorders are curable, but progress may not be fast or linear, since treatment usually deals with learned behavior and responses. You have to "unlearn" the behaviors and then re-train yourself for more normal ones with normal responses.
