Anthony David - Overcoming Depersonalization and Feelings of Unreality

Dawn Baker is a chartered psychologist and trained therapist in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). She has worked at the Depersonalisation Research Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, developing a psychological model of depersonalization disorder as well as treatment and management strategies. She also works as a clinical health psychologist for a mental health trust in central London.

Elaine Hunter is a trained psychologist and CBT therapist and has worked at the Depersonalisation Research Unit where she developed a CBT model of depersonalization disorder. Prior to this she carried out research into the psychological effects of abuse. She has since trained as a clinical psychologist and currently works in the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and continues to research depersonalization disorder.

Emma Lawrence is an experimental psychologist working at the Institute of Psychiatry and Associate Lecturer for the Open Universitys cognitive psychology module. She was a runner-up in the 2002 New Scientist essay competition, and has twice been awarded the Public Engagement with Psychology grant by the British Psychological Society.

Anthony David was appointed Consultant Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry in 1990. He was awarded personal chair of the Institute in 1996 and was, until recently, Chairman of the British Neuropsychiatry Association. In 1998 he set up the first clinic for depersonalization disorder in the UK (the Depersonalisation Research Unit).

Contributing authors Nick Medford and Mauricio Sierra are both clinical psychiatrists working at the Depersonalisation Research Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry. Dr Sierra originally qualified in Colombia and did his PhD on depersonalization at Cambridge University. Dr Medford worked in neurology before training in psychiatry at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

The aim of the Overcoming series is to enable people with a range of common problems and disorders to take control of their own recovery program. Each title, with its specially tailored program, is devised by a practising clinician using the latest techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy techniques which have been shown to be highly effective in changing the way patients think about themselves and their problems. The series was initiated in 1993 by Peter Cooper, Professor of Psychology at Reading University in the UK, whose original book on overcoming bulimia nervosa and binge-eating continues to help many people in the UK, the USA, Australasia and Europe. Many books in the Overcoming series are recommended by the UK Department of Health under the Books on Prescription scheme.

Other titles in the series include:

OVERCOMING ANGER AND IRRITABILITY

OVERCOMING ANOREXIA NERVOSA

OVERCOMING ANXIETY

OVERCOMING BODY IMAGE PROBLEMS

OVERCOMING BULIMIA NERVOSA AND BINGE-EATING

OVERCOMING CHILDHOOD TRAUMA

OVERCOMING CHRONIC FATIGUE

OVERCOMING CHRONIC PAIN

OVERCOMING COMPULSIVE GAMBLING

OVERCOMING DEPRESSION

OVERCOMING GRIEF

OVERCOMING HEALTH ANXIETY

OVERCOMING INSOMNIA AND SLEEP PROBLEMS

OVERCOMING LOW SELF-ESTEEM

OVERCOMING MOOD SWINGS

OVERCOMING OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER

OVERCOMING PANIC AND AGORAPHOBIA

OVERCOMING PARANOID AND SUSPICIOUS THOUGHTS

OVERCOMING PERFECTIONISM

OVERCOMING PROBLEM DRINKING

OVERCOMING RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS

OVERCOMING SEXUAL PROBLEMS

OVERCOMING SOCIAL ANXIETY AND SHYNESS

OVERCOMING STRESS

OVERCOMING TRAUMATIC STRESS

OVERCOMING WEIGHT PROBLEMS

OVERCOMING WORRY

OVERCOMING YOUR CHILDS FEARS AND WORRIES

OVERCOMING YOUR CHILDS SHYNESS AND SOCIAL ANXIETY

OVERCOMING YOUR SMOKING HABIT

All titles in the series are available by mail order.
Please see the order form at the back of this book.
www.overcoming.co.uk

DAWN BAKER,
ELAINE HUNTER,
EMMA LAWRENCE
and
ANTHONY DAVID

Constable & Robinson Ltd

5556 Russell Square

London WC1B 4HP

www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the UK by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd 2007

This edition published in 2010

Copyright Dawn Baker, Elaine Hunter, Emma Lawrence, Anthony David, Nick Medford and Mauricio Sierra 2007, 2010

The right of Dawn Baker, Elaine Hunter, Emma Lawrence, Anthony David, Nick Medford and Mauricio Sierra to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

The information on antidepressants in Appendix 2
2007 Royal College of Psychiatrists

The Cambridge Depersonalization Scale: a new instrument for the measurement of depersonalization, by M. Sierra-Siegert and G. E. Berrios in Psychiatry Research, 93 (2), pp. 15364. Reproduced in Appendix 1 Elsevier, 6 March 2000.

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library.

Important Note

This book is not intended as a substitute for medical advice or treatment.
Any person with a condition requiring medical attention should consult a qualified medical practitioner or suitable therapist.

ISBN 978-1-84529-554-7
eISBN 978-1-47210-574-5

Typeset by TW Typesetting, Plymouth, Devon
Printed and bound in the EU

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The Depersonalisation Research Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital, London, opened in 1998 and was the first unit in the UK to specialize in depersonalization and feelings of unreality (DPAFU). The Unit was in part set up by a grant from the Pilkington family charities, to whom we are hugely indebted. The Pilkington family have shown enduring faith in our work and have continued to challenge us to improve our understanding of the condition and, hopefully, help to overcome it. The launch of the Unit was marked by an article in The Times by Dr Thomas Stuttaford (12 March 1998), which prompted a flood of enquiries from people seeking more information and help. The Unit was initially co-directed by psychiatrist Mary Phillips, whose work on emotion and the brain helped increase our appreciation of DPAFU and what might cause it. Many other individuals have contributed to the clinic over the years as psychologists and psychiatrists including Carl Senior PhD, Poppy Schoenberg, Dr Michele Lambert, Dr Maxine Patel and numerous visitors from abroad. In addition, work in the US by Dr Daphne Simeons group has added to our knowledge about this condition and has therefore been drawn on throughout the book. The research undertaken in our Unit has also been supported by various additional funding agencies such as the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust. Most importantly, however, we would like to thank the people who experience DPAFU and who have agreed to take part in the numerous research studies our Unit has conducted. The Unit continues today as part of a national service within the South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust. Referrals must come through a general practitioner or psychiatrist.