Overcoming Depersonalization Disorder: A Mindfulness and Acceptance Guide to Conquering Feelings of Numbness and Unreality

by Fugen Neziroglu, Katharine Donnelly, Daphne Simeon (Foreword)

When you have depersonalization disorder, nothing seems real. You may feel detached from reality, even from your own thoughts, as though you are going through the motions of living without ever being truly connected to your experiences. Whether your depersonalization developed after a traumatic experience or is something you've always lived with, this book can help you reconnect with life again.

Overcoming Depersonalization Disorder can help you diagnose the type and degree of your depersonalization disorder, come to understand why it developed, and cope with your symptoms using practical skills drawn from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT).

Ready to feel real again? Put the practical skills in this book to work in your life right now and start reintegrating yourself back into the world and reconnecting to your own vibrant thoughts and feelings.

Genres: Mental Health, Psychology, Self Help, Nonfiction, Health

179 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Dr. Neziroglu is a board certified behavior and cognitive psychologist, specializing in Anxiety and Obsessive-
Compulsive related disorders, and is a pioneer in the research and treatment of Body Dysmporhic Disorder. She received her Ph.D. in clinical, school-community psychology from Hofstra University and completed her post-graduate work in behavior and cognitive therapy at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is Board Certified in Cognitive and Behavior Therapy from the American Board of Behavioral Psychology (ABBP) and in Clinical Psychology fr5om the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). She is a Board Member and a Fellow of ABBP's Academy. She is also a member of many national and international societies and is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Obsessive Compulsive Foundation. Dr. Neziroglu is Full Professor at Hofstra University, Department of Psychology and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at New York University.
Dr. Neziroglu is the co-founder and clinical director of the Bio Behavioral Institute in Great Neck, New York. At the Bio Behavioral Institute, she provides direct services, supervises all assistant psychologists and psychology interns, sponsors man

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straightforward and basic. If you live with DPDR it won't tell you anything you don't already know but during intense episodes the exercises can be grounding and helpful

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm happy this book exists. It's a miracle that this dx is finally being talked about in my field.
But this book is wrong about some stuff. There needs to be more research done. It's obvious the writers used only their pts as examples. I work with male war vets with PTSD. The book kept talking about how emotional this dx is how the control that. A lot of pts simply shut down because their brain is overwhelmed with stimulation. Not necessarily by emotion but things going on and or changes. Boooo!

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5☆

[Tina Andreea]

Found it helpful.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this book in my search for a book that would familiarize me with Depersonalization Disorder given I now have a client that struggles with this disorder. Not only does the book educate the reader on what exactly DPD entails, it offers hopeful strategies (including CBT, ACT, DBT and behavioral activation) that the individual can work on both with or without the professional help of a mental health therapist.

[C.E. G · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book covers DBT and ACT as treatments for depersonalization disorder, which, as other reviewers have pointed out, are not evidence-based treatments for this condition. As far as I could tell, the authors were making an argument for this treatment largely based on three case studies. And disappointingly, I don't even remember the people from the case studies reporting any decrease in distress or symptoms. There was also something about their tone I also found a little dismissive - their attitude was more or less "these people need to learn skills to suck it up and stop malingering in therapists/doctors offices." It's true that the disorder can spontaneously or gradually disappear, but not for everyone, and this book did not convince me that this is the right treatment either way. Not recommended.

[Roisin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy but I think this book is getting ahead of the research. There have been no randomized controlled trials of ACT for depersonalization disorder. This goes against one of the main goals of ACT which is to appropriately research the effectiveness and efficacy of ACT before applying it in the real world. And while the model should theoretically work across different conditions (and probably would help in this case, at least minimally), I think the scientific work must be done. Especially when there is the possibility of adverse effects.

I also found some of the language and conceptualizations of depersonalization disorder a bit dismissive and invalidating. I find it unusual the authors claim it's a disorder on the obsessive-compulsive disorder spectrum which seems at odds with Marlene Steinberg and the DSM-V, both of whom classify this as a dissociative disorder.

I couldn't finish this book partly because the lack of scientific support and partly because it's just another ACT book and not a particularly good one.

[Mohamad Kalaaji · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reading this due to the fact that of one of my friends confronted me that she has depersonalization (clinically diagnosed) so my attempt on reading this books is to try to understand her current situation and try to put myself into her shoe for once

The book is well structured and has good enough of information about the topic but you cannot give methods like those to someone who is facing a clinical issue, it is similar to how a depressed person reads a self help book about not being sad in life, it doesn’t make that much sense

It would have made more sense if the book has a section for people who knew their closest people have depersonalization and how to help them or atleast help with easing up the issue at some point (that is my perspective about this)

[Ryan Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, could have been better. Felt like she was morbid with prognosis.

I think there has to be better books than this. I feel ripped off buying it. It basically says toughen up and live with it. I don’t need a book to tell me what is obvious.

[Pragya Malik]

i need to understand this

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too useful

[Ava · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much knowledge in this book. Ima have to read it again.

[Sorana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The theoretical part was really useful, but I feel like the therapy part could've been more detailed. I had read the ACT book before, so I understood that part, but I wasn't familiar with dialectical therapy and I couldn't grasp its full meaning just from this book. Also, I believe a lot of accent was put on the trauma aspect, ignoring the fact that many people got DPD without any apparent trigger and thus erasing some of the paradox of this disorder. But besides that, it really did give some valuable insight, especially on the theme of control and emotional regulation.

[Cheri]

This book was sitting on the display shelf where I was working today, out of place and leaning rather calmly. As a coincidence, I briefly thought about a movie I had seen with a character suffering from this strange disorder, only the night before! So, based on that I decided to read it. It's super fascinating. It's been awhile since I've read any psychology stuff, and I'd forgotten how intriguing it all is.

[locrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was decent for what the current research is. Basically what this book made apparent was how little we actually know about depersonalization/dissociation and how current treatment due to that is some stuff borrowed from the treatment of other conditions in the hopes that it does something. It was informative, however, and offers some nice workbook space to practice things. I did find several useful things in it.