Posted by jazzdog on April 1, 2002, at 15:40:39
Dear Dr. Kramer -
I've been plagued with lifelong derealization - a sense of living in a waking dream. This has served to isolate me both from other people and from my own emotions. After ten years of therapy, my psychiatrist - a psychoanalyst biased against medications - has finally acknowledged that the derealization is biochemical in nature. He contacted the depersonalization unit at Maudsley Hospital in London, who suggested a lamictal / ssri cocktail as having shown success in 50% of cases. So far, it hasn't worked, though I do feel more emotionally resilient on the lamictal. As for the zoloft, I've been on it for ten years - at first, the d/r actually lifted, but after a year, emotional numbing reestablished itself. Nine years later, I think it has made the numbing worse.
Here are the things I've tried:
- ten years twice a week therapy
- mindfulness training
- giving up all drugs, alcohol and nicotine (10 years clean)
- nine years of zoloft
- six months of lamictal - now at 250 mg dailyThe derealization is still there. Do you have any other suggestions?
Thank you for your valuable time -
- yours, Jane
poster:jazzdog
thread:101326
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020327/msgs/101326.html