Are you currently dissociated, or better said depersonalized, due to smoking marijuana or other triggers and are constantly trying to find a way out, back to reality? Read ahead and find out what you can do to mitigate the symptoms of anxiety, such as panic attacks and depersonalization, and how to eventually eradicate them for good.
Anxiety is an emotion that comes in innumerable forms.
In excess, anxiety can produce symptoms that could make one ponder about one's sanity and overall physical health.
Racing thoughts, extreme fear, or strong dissociation can make you wonder whether schizophrenia is knocking on the door, and a racing heart, chest pain, or difficulties with breathing could very well convince one of having a heart attack.
If you are relatively young and fit, then these should not be any of your primary concerns and the chances that all of this is just a product of anxiety go high.
Cannabis, among other psychedelic drugs, has a natural tendency to amplify your present inner states and this, hand in hand with the environment, shapes the resulting drug experience.
Feeling apprehensive beforehand, due to external stressors or just having a jittery personality, may surface emotions and sensations that one would not associate with the marijuana cliche.
In such a way, marijuana can untangle dormant disorders such as anxieties, depressions, and more rarely psychoses.
In the case of depersonalization, the sufferer becomes overwhelmed by the eruption of anxiety ensued by a panic attack, which is a short, but potent, outburst of anxiety.
Panic attacks result from flooding of sensory input; when so much information is flowing at you that you fail to process any of it and even become confused.
Because memory, sensation, and emotion are interconnected in the brain (hippocampus/olfactory bulb/amygdala), the overwhelming panic experience becomes imprinted into your memory and, as you are constantly reminded of it, you cannot refrain from reacting to the experience as you did initially - with fear and confusion.
Some of your senses may fall victim too; the smell of cannabis can become a trigger/aggravator for example.
This associating of senses with emotions or actions is known as conditioning and is something you might know from Pavlov's experiments on dogs.
Constantly analyzing the situation and the circumstances that got you here might feel compelling, but can prove counterproductive too, as it detracts too much attention from the surrounding life and directs it inwardly.
To bring order back to this disorder you will have to break the vicious cycle; by following these tips you will learn to mitigate the underlying anxiety and eventually eradicate its most unpleasant symptoms - depersonalization and panic attacks.
1.
Take up exercise - If you already haven't done so, try to partake in a physical activity on a regular basis.
Aerobic exercise is especially recommended, as it has a great regenerative impact not only on the physical body itself, but the mind as well.
Many neurotransmitters implicated in mood are released during this dynamic deed and so are compounds that promote the growth of new neurons in a brain region responsible for a legion of cognitive and memory processes (hippocampus for those who are interested).
Coincidentally, the very same region is known to be eroded down by depression, so exercise definitely proves to have tangible regenerative properties.
Even if you are not in a direct need of extra hippocampal matter, exercise will deflect your attention away from the inwardly analytical state towards the surrounding scenery, and so help you relax from all the chaos trying to conquer you.
2.
Eat healthily - you have probably heard of the saying "you are what you eat.
" Although some may take it as an overused mantra giving it no further credit, there is a lot of truth to this saying.
From an evolutionary perspective, humans have relied on fruits, meat, and vegetables for the most part.
Grain products, such as bread and other forms of complex carbohydrates laden with gluten may appear to be tolerated and used on a wide scale in the contemporary culture, but just because they are tolerated that does not mean you would do better without them.
Alcohol is another substance that is tolerated, yet it is clearly toxic and detrimental when used chronically and at lavish doses.
Therefore, minimizing the amount of gluten consumed may prove yielding to your health, as many of us may be plagued by unidentified intolerances that can reveal themselves as migraines, anxieties, gastrointestinal discomforts, and other equally troubling symptoms.
Another, and perhaps more villainous, component of our diet to be ostracized are simple carbohydrates, which are more colloquially known as sugars.
Excessive and intermittent sugar intake can lead to unpleasant mood shifts not limited to anxiety.
These emotional imbalances arise from sugar's action on endogenous opioids.
In other words, sugar dependence is very real and shares its traits with opiate addiction, as it is mediated through those very centers.
As you might have deduced by now, binging on sugar might prove counterproductive not only to your recovery but general well-being as well.
Perhaps, try to substitute soft drinks with water and move from there on.
Although reforms in your diet will not completely obliterate your anxiety-driven depersonalization/derealization, it will contribute to the overall effect noticeably.
3.
Acquiring the right perspective - probably the most essential step towards a successful recovery is how you wish to interpret this situation and how you integrate the acquired knowledge into your psychological apparatus.
Understanding that thoughts that may seem ominous and intrusive are just intangible and harmless, yet disturbing, generations of anxiety is crucial to reversing the negative emotional imprinting driving your depersonalization.
During panic attacks, you are more likely to seriously start considering and believing thoughts of the type: "I am going crazy", "I am dying", "I cannot leave my house because people will notice and exploit my fears".
This will need to be stopped; consider the chances of something going awfully wrong - they are slim.
If you think you are going crazy the chances are high that you are not, as insane people do not usually acknowledge of their aberrations.
Therefore, conceiving and developing a reliable, sturdy defense mechanism that will protect you against victimization by thoughts is in place.
How does one go about doing so? One of the first steps would be to take a step back every time you feel an anxiety attack approaching and try to stay as emotionally blunt as you can throughout its duration.
This will slowly, but continuously, replace the initial paralyzing response with an indifferent one by gradually decreasing the emotional intensity that the anxious, intrusive thoughts evoke.
Instead of chasing the worst-case scenario as the answers to your struggles, try to think logically - what could realistically happen? This temporary condition will not kill you; what cannot kill you will only strengthen you, which fully applies in this case.
By practicing this reformative technique, the panic attacks will feel less and less debilitating and will lower in frequency until they completely vanish.
Once the panic attacks vanish, depersonalization will be eradicated as well, for one fuels the other.
Furthermore, thanks to this practice, you will become more in control of your emotions and more resistant to any future affective threats, as it teaches you to readily recognize anxiety and panic attacks as innocuous and temporary tricks your mind is playing on you.
The keywords here would be time and patience; the recovery is not likely to occur over night, but following anxiolytic techniques as such provided in this text can greatly reduce the total length of the recovery period, which definitely is something worth the effort.
There are many similar approaches aimed at reducing stress/anxieties (supplements, meditation, herbal remedies, etc.
), so do not be afraid to research and experiment.
If you have triggered this state by means different than marijuana, then the same techniques and directions apply, as the core cause - anxiety - is identical.
What you are currently experiencing is not permanent, nor is it going to destroy your brain, but in order for it to clear you will need to invest a bit of time and effort.
Hold strong and you will soon become re-personalized!
Anxiety is an emotion that comes in innumerable forms.
In excess, anxiety can produce symptoms that could make one ponder about one's sanity and overall physical health.
Racing thoughts, extreme fear, or strong dissociation can make you wonder whether schizophrenia is knocking on the door, and a racing heart, chest pain, or difficulties with breathing could very well convince one of having a heart attack.
If you are relatively young and fit, then these should not be any of your primary concerns and the chances that all of this is just a product of anxiety go high.
Cannabis, among other psychedelic drugs, has a natural tendency to amplify your present inner states and this, hand in hand with the environment, shapes the resulting drug experience.
Feeling apprehensive beforehand, due to external stressors or just having a jittery personality, may surface emotions and sensations that one would not associate with the marijuana cliche.
In such a way, marijuana can untangle dormant disorders such as anxieties, depressions, and more rarely psychoses.
In the case of depersonalization, the sufferer becomes overwhelmed by the eruption of anxiety ensued by a panic attack, which is a short, but potent, outburst of anxiety.
Panic attacks result from flooding of sensory input; when so much information is flowing at you that you fail to process any of it and even become confused.
Because memory, sensation, and emotion are interconnected in the brain (hippocampus/olfactory bulb/amygdala), the overwhelming panic experience becomes imprinted into your memory and, as you are constantly reminded of it, you cannot refrain from reacting to the experience as you did initially - with fear and confusion.
Some of your senses may fall victim too; the smell of cannabis can become a trigger/aggravator for example.
This associating of senses with emotions or actions is known as conditioning and is something you might know from Pavlov's experiments on dogs.
Constantly analyzing the situation and the circumstances that got you here might feel compelling, but can prove counterproductive too, as it detracts too much attention from the surrounding life and directs it inwardly.
To bring order back to this disorder you will have to break the vicious cycle; by following these tips you will learn to mitigate the underlying anxiety and eventually eradicate its most unpleasant symptoms - depersonalization and panic attacks.
1.
Take up exercise - If you already haven't done so, try to partake in a physical activity on a regular basis.
Aerobic exercise is especially recommended, as it has a great regenerative impact not only on the physical body itself, but the mind as well.
Many neurotransmitters implicated in mood are released during this dynamic deed and so are compounds that promote the growth of new neurons in a brain region responsible for a legion of cognitive and memory processes (hippocampus for those who are interested).
Coincidentally, the very same region is known to be eroded down by depression, so exercise definitely proves to have tangible regenerative properties.
Even if you are not in a direct need of extra hippocampal matter, exercise will deflect your attention away from the inwardly analytical state towards the surrounding scenery, and so help you relax from all the chaos trying to conquer you.
2.
Eat healthily - you have probably heard of the saying "you are what you eat.
" Although some may take it as an overused mantra giving it no further credit, there is a lot of truth to this saying.
From an evolutionary perspective, humans have relied on fruits, meat, and vegetables for the most part.
Grain products, such as bread and other forms of complex carbohydrates laden with gluten may appear to be tolerated and used on a wide scale in the contemporary culture, but just because they are tolerated that does not mean you would do better without them.
Alcohol is another substance that is tolerated, yet it is clearly toxic and detrimental when used chronically and at lavish doses.
Therefore, minimizing the amount of gluten consumed may prove yielding to your health, as many of us may be plagued by unidentified intolerances that can reveal themselves as migraines, anxieties, gastrointestinal discomforts, and other equally troubling symptoms.
Another, and perhaps more villainous, component of our diet to be ostracized are simple carbohydrates, which are more colloquially known as sugars.
Excessive and intermittent sugar intake can lead to unpleasant mood shifts not limited to anxiety.
These emotional imbalances arise from sugar's action on endogenous opioids.
In other words, sugar dependence is very real and shares its traits with opiate addiction, as it is mediated through those very centers.
As you might have deduced by now, binging on sugar might prove counterproductive not only to your recovery but general well-being as well.
Perhaps, try to substitute soft drinks with water and move from there on.
Although reforms in your diet will not completely obliterate your anxiety-driven depersonalization/derealization, it will contribute to the overall effect noticeably.
3.
Acquiring the right perspective - probably the most essential step towards a successful recovery is how you wish to interpret this situation and how you integrate the acquired knowledge into your psychological apparatus.
Understanding that thoughts that may seem ominous and intrusive are just intangible and harmless, yet disturbing, generations of anxiety is crucial to reversing the negative emotional imprinting driving your depersonalization.
During panic attacks, you are more likely to seriously start considering and believing thoughts of the type: "I am going crazy", "I am dying", "I cannot leave my house because people will notice and exploit my fears".
This will need to be stopped; consider the chances of something going awfully wrong - they are slim.
If you think you are going crazy the chances are high that you are not, as insane people do not usually acknowledge of their aberrations.
Therefore, conceiving and developing a reliable, sturdy defense mechanism that will protect you against victimization by thoughts is in place.
How does one go about doing so? One of the first steps would be to take a step back every time you feel an anxiety attack approaching and try to stay as emotionally blunt as you can throughout its duration.
This will slowly, but continuously, replace the initial paralyzing response with an indifferent one by gradually decreasing the emotional intensity that the anxious, intrusive thoughts evoke.
Instead of chasing the worst-case scenario as the answers to your struggles, try to think logically - what could realistically happen? This temporary condition will not kill you; what cannot kill you will only strengthen you, which fully applies in this case.
By practicing this reformative technique, the panic attacks will feel less and less debilitating and will lower in frequency until they completely vanish.
Once the panic attacks vanish, depersonalization will be eradicated as well, for one fuels the other.
Furthermore, thanks to this practice, you will become more in control of your emotions and more resistant to any future affective threats, as it teaches you to readily recognize anxiety and panic attacks as innocuous and temporary tricks your mind is playing on you.
The keywords here would be time and patience; the recovery is not likely to occur over night, but following anxiolytic techniques as such provided in this text can greatly reduce the total length of the recovery period, which definitely is something worth the effort.
There are many similar approaches aimed at reducing stress/anxieties (supplements, meditation, herbal remedies, etc.
), so do not be afraid to research and experiment.
If you have triggered this state by means different than marijuana, then the same techniques and directions apply, as the core cause - anxiety - is identical.
What you are currently experiencing is not permanent, nor is it going to destroy your brain, but in order for it to clear you will need to invest a bit of time and effort.
Hold strong and you will soon become re-personalized!