Dr. William (Bill) Dodson

It's wordless.

I always think of it as having been so primitive it came before there were words.

But people can describe the intensity of it.

And so they use words like, it's awful, it's terrible, unbearable, catastrophic, overwhelming.

And the person can't just keep going.

It knocks them to their knees instantaneously.

And so that's one of the problems is that it hits so suddenly, so completely that most people can't see it happening in advance and bring up all the stuff that they learned in cognitive behavioral treatment or dialectical behavioral treatment.

You just get slammed with it.

People report feeling totally cut off from their surroundings, totally cut off from everybody else, just a profound loneliness.

and that they've been cast out from everybody, every place that they know.

I feel totally bereft.

It's an awful, awful feeling.

It then will continue an unknown period of time.

It can be minutes, it can be days.

But during that time, there's really nothing much that you can do.

You just have to let it run its course.

One of the most important things I found that people need to know up front is that it will end.

Most people, when they're in an episode of RSD, have the conscious fear, this is never going to end.

I'm going to be in torment forever.

So letting people know that every time it does come to an end, you will survive it, is just extremely unpleasant.