Often the symptoms are transient and occur with anxiety, panic, or phobic symptoms. However, symptoms can be chronic and persist or recur for many years. Patients often have great difficulty describing their symptoms and may fear or believe the symptoms mean they are going crazy. The patient often feels unreal and may experience the world as unreal and dreamlike. Although some can adjust to depersonalization disorder or even block its effect, others have chronic anxiety about their state of mind, worry whether they are going crazy, or ruminate on the implications of their distorted perceptions of their bodies and their sense of estrangement from themselves and the world.
Diagnosis is made based on the symptoms.
The physician must rule out physical disorders, substance abuse, and other dissociative disorders. Psychologic tests and special interviews are helpful. Prognosis and Treatment Complete recovery is possible for many patients, especially those whose symptoms occurred in connection with stresses that can be dealt with in treatment. Other patients do not respond well to treatment but may gradually improve on their own. The feeling of depersonalization is often transient and resolves spontaneously.