shaolinbomber

Opiates SHOULD lessen the HPPD symptoms.

i just read about it on that forum as well and im willing to ask my doctor about it and maybe give it a try IF I can get ahold of it without spending too much.

I dont remember really since I had mine almost 3 years ago. I'm waiting to get into a much bigger hospital in my area and to have a qEEG done.

Opiates are the only thing i've found that totally alleviate ghosting for me and it's because of their effect on pupil size. The constriction really reduces the amount of light entering your eyes.

2mg was overkill for me. 1.5mg was perfect for combatting the anxiety and it also helped slightly with the visuals.

And why do you assume that any neurons have been damaged? It seems to me that the brain is highly capable of adaptation as is evident by it's function of learning new things at rapid rates during childhood. Epigenetic responses from a very chaotic situation that arises quickly from drug use, like the mass release of neurotransmitters, a situation that someone's brain would never encounter otherwise, seems more plausible to me. But I do agree with you on the Dopamine aspect to the HPPD question. I have a rather unfortunate opiate habbit and it seems that the opiate effect on the brain releases large amounts of dopamine and this counteracts my dissociation and visuals by quite a bit.

IS this med similar to Sinemet? I'm doing well with my Suboxone but it's a bandaid effect and it wears off too soon during the evening. If this med works differently than the mechanisms of Sinemet then I might ask my doc. about it.

I'm on 8mg a day but this dose comes with a rather strong tolerance for opiates. If you were to try Suboxone and you don't take opiates often I would start out with nothing higher than 2mg. But I get a lot of relief with it. It's good for muscle tensions, facial pressure, the headaches, and it constricts pupil size and this cuts down on a variety of the visual symptoms. Plus my DP/DR is lessended with it too. I think that is contributed to the opiate's effect on the Dopamine system.

I used 5-htp before I got HPPD. I definitely felt a difference on it. It changed my mood considerably for the better and I would think that meant that it was increasing serotonin levels in my brain like it said it was supposed to do. That being said, I think i got HPPD from the fact that i combined that drug with a rather large amount of MDMA one night.

I've just started Suboxone (Buprenorphine/Naloxone) for opiate addiction maintenance and this is probably the best med i've ever come across for treating my DP/DR and visuals. It's a very strong narcotic though so make sure you know what you're doing if you ever try opiates.

Ya, try to stay away from amphetamines if you have HPPD.

^ this.

No offense here but people who say that ignoring the symptoms makes them "go away" I dont believe even have HPPD. The problem is much deeper than that. One simply does not ignore the dozen+ visual symptoms and the dissociation and feel ok again. No, if you think ignoring is a cure then you're on the wrong message board.

Perception of reality comes from your visual cortex which is very much a physical entity. It's the back part of your brain which processes everything you see.

Sounds like some mild HPPD for sure. But read what Jay said carefully. The disorder can become much worse and you dont want to go down that road.

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i know what you're talking about. I noticed these towards the beginning of my HPPD journey. They would happen more often whenever I'd take an amphetamine based drug like adderall. Now I don't get this effect so much either because my brain has repaired some of the damage or because I've stopped using anything amphetamine based.

Yes. Startbursts indeed.

Am I the only one that has dp/dr as a 24/7, continuous symptom? I have had a very FEW moments that lasted about 3 seconds where I felt normal again, and this was with the help of powerful narcotics, but other than that I always feel like i'm in a dream and everything has no meaning to me.

I have it as well. I think it came one when the visuals did but I didn't notice it till later.

I get this effect in my afterimages. Ill look at a bright light and look away and ill have multicolored dots sparking all over the afterimage. Very weird.

About the same. The helpfulness of Sinemet seems to have leveled off a bit.

If im standing for too long my back begins to hurt a lot. I was a heavy weightlifter for about 8 years so I don't know if that's what causes that but the headaches I get are the biggest problem.

The only thing I can get prescribed to me right now is Tramadol and I have to take 5-6 50mg to feel them at all. Where I live, Codeine is not even an OTC med. I live in Texas and they're very strict about that kind of thing. Im going to my dr. on Tuesday and i'll be asking to be moved on to another, more effective pain killer. I get a lot of involuntary muscle movement and head twitching from Tramadol. That can't be good.