Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self"Everything feels unreal to me, like a dream...I feel detached, like a stranger to myself." These are quotes from actual people, experiencing something they don't understand. What they are saying is being heard by friends, families, and physicians today more than ever before. They do not simply suffer from anxiety, or depression, and they are not schizophrenic. They have found themselves trapped in a very real and singular disorder, yet few even know its name. Their enigmatic state of mind has been studied for more than 100 years, but only recently has it become clear how prevalent and how distinctive it really is. The condition is called Depersonalization Disorder, and Feeling Unreal is the first book to reveal what it's all about. This important volume explores not only Depersonalization, but the philosophical and literary implications of selflessness as well, while providing the latest research, possible treatments, and ways to live and thrive when life seems "unreal." For those who still believe that such experiences are merely part of something else, that depersonalization is just a symptom and not a disorder in its own right, Feeling Unreal presents compelling evidence to the contrary. This book provides long-awaited answers for people suffering from Depersonalization Disorder and their loved ones, for mental health professionals, and for all students of the condition, while serving as a wake up call to the medical community at large. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Strangers to Our Selves | 5 |
Expressions of the Inexpressible | 17 |
The Path of UnderstandingA Century of Exploration | 49 |
Diagnosing Depersonalization Disorder | 71 |
Unraveling the Enigma Clinical Research on Depersonalization Disorder | 83 |
The Biology of Depersonalization | 105 |
The Blow of the Void | 127 |
Other editions - View all
Feeling Unreal:Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self ... Daphne Simeon,Jeffrey Abugel No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
activity Alex alization Amiel amygdala antidepressants anxiety disorders areas associated awareness become body brain Cattell chapter childhood chronic depersonalization clinical clomipramine cognitive condition deper depersonaliza depersonalization and derealization depersonalization disorder depersonalization experience depersonalization symptoms depression derealization described detached Diagnostic dissociative disorders dissociative identity disorder dissociative symptoms DPD patients dream drug DSM-IV Dugas dysfunction effective emotional episodes Eric Evan existence experienced fear Feeling unreal felt fluoxetine function Guralnik happened Ibid intense Journal of Psychiatry ketamine known Knutelska lamotrigine lives lobe look marijuana medications memory mental mind mother Mount Sinai naltrexone never NMDA norepinephrine normal obsessive one's onset opioid panic parietal parietal lobe perception person prefrontal cortex psychological psychotherapy PTSD reality receptors reported response Sally seemed sensations sense sensory serotonin Simeon somehow sonalization specific SSRIs strange syndrome therapy things thoughts tion transient trauma treat treatment of depersonalization trigger visual vulnerable