Syntheso

Cheers for the breathing tip. Hm, can't say I get a tingling, but I've never experienced something quite like the above before, so haven't had a chance to familiarise myself with the feeling and pick up on everything. "it's almost like an emp blew in my nervous system and knocked everything offline briefly" - I can relate to. I get little muscle twitches as well. Do you have a case of restless legs syndrome by any chance? Guessing that's to do with DA levels. I can't say I experience any of your vibration stuff.. sounds pretty mad! Only thing in that department is tingly skin sometimes. Yeah you're right about breathing.. I find yoga really helps clear brain fog. Also alternative nostril breathing.

brrrrrrrrrrr

Yeah the emotiv one looks good. Indeed, having both would be bloody awesome. I am hoping to get the Foc.us headset soon.

Was about to ask if someone could post me some, but they're already out of stock!

http://advancedbrainmonitoring.com/xseries/ or http://www.neurovigil.com/ibrain/ There doesn't appear to be any other EEG headsets available to the consumer currently that look any where as good as these. You can make a pledge and potentially receive one of these next year; http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tanttle/emotiv-insight-optimize-your-brain-fitness-and-per The first looks like the baddest boy though. There is a website dedicated to making your own EEG devices at home; http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/ Would be great to have a few of us wearing these.. particularly when we're sleeping. That would interest me quite a bit.

$80 postage to UK?!!

My Guanfacine is in the post some where :-), will keep everyone informed

Fantastic work onedayillsailagain! I sent it to my psych to see what he thinks. Have you sent it to Abraham?

Quoted for emphasis.

Not at all mate. I'm all about the critique! I'll come back to you properly later, I'm currently sitting in a practice room at my very empty uni.. essentially procrastinating.. I blame the brain fog, as usual. Anyway, I won't respond now and practice so as to make myself feel better about myself. I'll try and summon the sorcerer with sweet melodies to conjure us the wonder potion, Coluracetam! Big love

Well, anything that messes with your dopamine is going to mess with your HPPD. Not so long ago I did a fair bit of drone (yes, okay, don't judge me, shit happens!) and for a week or so afterwards, my visuals went to new levels. My vision was distorting so much that the outline of some fairy lights on my ceiling in the dark turned into a huge school of black fish swimming right up to my face. I've never had visuals like that. And I felt particularly foggy for a few months after. As for coke.. well.. I imagine it would mess you up as much if it was decent coke and you got off your rockers. I've had a few lines here or there whilst with HPPD and can't say much happened to my HPPD.. but then again I can't say much happened with the 'coke'.. 'cause then again most coke is shit unless you have more money than sense. So, I guess... you could buy some shit coke and do it for the sake of ritual and it might not mess with your HPPD ;-) But basically man.. if I were you, I wouldn't take any coke... unless the concentrated peak experience outweighs the consequences, for you.

Hey, Something happened to me today which I've never experienced before.. assuming it was HPPD related. Got up this morning, had a good breakfast, usual supplements etc. Feeling really good, no brain fog or anything. Had a three hour drive on the motorway.. again feeling absolutely fine for about an hour. Then suddenly out of no where I kept getting really chronic moments of spacing out... like super sharp flashes of brain fog... very acute... kept happening every 30 or so seconds for 20 mins. Thought I was going to pass out from exhaustion. I could not control it in any way of the normal way you could keep yourself awake.. I had no control over what was going on. It was bloody dangerous, I was swerving lanes and stuff. And there were split second strange visual disturbances, like double/quadruple vision. Just about held my shit together. If I remember correctly in the chapter 'Visual Migraines' from Sacks' Hallucinations, one of his migraine patients reported something like this double vision thing. But the whole thing passed after 20 mins and I was back to normal, feeling good again, as was the rest of the day, like nothing happened. Nothing like this has happened to me before. Haven't had a migraine or a seizure before so I don't know what they're like. I had no pain or dizzyness after. Any ideas what was going on? I assume some sort of electrical current was passing across some part of my brain. Migraine, mini-seizure?

Hello mate! Yeah, well I thought someone should.. esp. since docs are taking ages to Keppra-me-up after saying I could go on it three months ago . Thanks for the resources, I'll read over that tonight. Yeah figured you'd be busy with Coluracetam! I need to read youe doc tonight too... it's research o'clock! Done my other day's studies :-) back to getting the mind sorted. By the way, before I start, just to say... none of this is intending to reduce the visuals. I'm hoping you've got that down with Coluracetam ;-) which I am very excited about. Where the F- is it ? I might email some pharmacies tonight if I get around to it. This bit's not about Guanfacine.. Yeah you might be right about an alternative to Nimodipine, I will look into the other things. But I'm basing it off a specific treatment designed for chronic fatigue syndrome. As I said before I am still looking into my hypothesis, which I will write out and post here. Whilst HPPD and CFS are very different, there are a few similarities that seem relevant to me. The thing that interested me about what this text said of Nimodipine, in the context of their proposed treatment plan for CFS, quote; "[Nimodipine] works in this context to eliminate neurotoxins".. and it's a calcium channel blocker. The context of the treatment in the first stage "Improving Brain and Body Circulation" includes Gingko ('to promote peripheral circulation'), L-Glutamine ('to promote brain function and general well being), eight glasses of filtered/bottled water a day to flush out toxins/improve circulation, evening primose oil (to promote brain function and reduce muscle symptoms nb: not sure I would go that far). This is just the Step One of the treatment plan in this book (as mentioned "Improving Brain and Body Circulation"), and is probably the only part I will follow for a bit (afterwards it goes into more nutritional stuff). It's very specifically dosed over the course of a month or two, very slow build up. Basically, I know it won't do anything revolutionary, I just reckon it would just be a good precursour to help the body in general (but more importantly the brain) to start getting back on track. Then I figure and hope other meds will work more effectively as and when you have helped your system begin to reboot. What d'ya reckon? So I guess I was a bit misleading. Or didn't really think before I wrote the OP. My plan really is to do the Nimodipine + other supp regime first, as hors-d'œuvre shall we say. Then Guanfacine, or maybe Keppra, as the mains. I'll be more distinct about how these things go in the future (separate threads!) By the way.. some of my research on CFS could be relevant and useful with regards to HPPD. Not the visuals. But there's lots of mention of brain fog and similar symptoms we experience, which might not be as definitively neurological as we tend to think. The limbic system, HPA axis and other things which seem to have pathophysiological relevance in HPPD are induced in CFS. So it's interesting. Like I said I will be more detailed when I get around to it. Do correct anything I've been mistaken on. I'm still learning! The book is called 'Beating Chronic Fatigue' by the way. I've read the whole thing (well except for 'dealing with the psychological side') with notes which I will write up.. as I keep saying. All the best man! Keep posted re Coluracetam. I'm keeping my eyes and ears open and will let you know if I find a source, please do the same!

Hey, I finally decided to take the plunge and give some Guanfacine a go. Got some on order, should be here in a week or two. Will be letting my physician know of course. Also considering concurrently (well, introducing one before the other first) taking a small dose of Nimodipine per day. Reason being from a certain strain of my readings.. Nimodipine.. originally a calcium channel blocker used for strokes; a book I am reading suggests it has the ability to remove neurotoxins with a few other supplements (not sure if they are necessary though). The idea is that it should improve blood flow to the brain, helpful to functioning of a dysfunctional brain.. my thinking is that the improvement of blood-flow, particularly to the HPA axis, will help the brain recover somewhat, certainly aid the healing process. I speculate that a lot of the brain fog is to do with HPA axis dysfunction. I will be monitoring my blood pressure etc. throughout this trial. I need to fully consolidate my readings before I do this, and also give a more a detailed account of my thinking (to the forum), but let me know if you think of anything. As far as I can tell no contraindications.. and I can't see how Nimodipine would be negative in small doses.. just to aid the healing process by making sure the brain is getting a good circulation. Excited about the Guanfacine, which does look very promising. Will keep you posted. Sorry for the briefness.. there's a couple of review type theories/docs I want to put out, will try do that soon. Two completely different approaches, hence the lack of organisation in getting that out there. Be well !

Oh and just for anyone (well, Chris, I suppose) who views things like meditation as pseudo-spiritual bullshit (I presume, but apologies if not).. even Neuroscientists, to mention one discipline, are interested: No one really knows what the hell's going on in the world. Of our time, science is the new orthodox, because it seems to be able to explain an incredible amount about the world and space.. but scientists still maintain that a lot of what they talk about is theoretical (another comparison would be a psych for example who will prescribe you something for a certain condition, because it's known well that that will by efficacious for that condition.. but quite often they don't really know how is works). Yes they (back to scientists now) do experiments and empirically prove things. But science is not the sole discipline for explaining the world (I know I'm not providing any big revelations here - just making a point), and of course the huge issue with science is that it doesn't really provide any spiritual guidance (aside: I simply define spirituality as a feeling of connection to others around you in the world, and the world itself.. not necessarily going to church or something, for example, and I don't say spiritual in what you could infer as hippy talk) or provide ethical/moral frameworks. So we need the philosophers, theologists, spiritual practice like meditation etc, which does work... if you train yourself. Anyway, sorry for the long post.. went off on one there a bit. I haven't read much of your conversation, so not too sure how out the loop I am. But just wanted make a couple of things clear; meditation is valuable and even the scientific community are starting to take that on board. Secondly, as I said before, Chris, please be a bit more thoughtful about how you write to people. Oh and also, I do apologise in advance if I've said anything unfairly, as I say, haven't read through the entirety.

Not reading this whole thing, but two responses.. Bang! Chris, I don't really like to judge people or anything, I only know you from what you have written on the board, but I would just like to say I have particularly noticed an incredible negativity in what you say to people and how you express yourself. Obviously, you are free to act as you wish, but I don't know what's going on over there but from what I can see, your bringing bad vibes to the forum. I don't really care how intelligent you are and about what good you might have done research-wise if you're also going to sit up on a elephant and spout brown crap out of your trunk. Please, just be more considerate to other people, most people here have some pretty bad psychological issues and your attitude is in no way helpful. Be nice. :-) And sorry about the personal 'attack' but I have read quite a few things that you've written and been like 'really, is that how to speak to people'?

Definitely give it a try man, give yourself some serious determination. I'm about to finish my last year of uni doing music.. last couple of years were a bit foggy for me and I didn't always make it in.. I certainly couldn't hack the 10 hour a day practice that my peers were doing! Two if I was lucky.. but I've done alright- in my case, technique is not always necessarily the most important thing.. vibe is ;-) In other words - don't suppose you've read a book called Emotional Intelligence? In a nutshell, it's about dispelling the idea that having a high IQ and being super clever etc. is important.. actually people that succeed more, are people that are.. good with people.. funnily enough! So even though I know you need to work and concentrate and stuff, good supplementation and determination should be enough. It would be tough, the cognitive dyfunction is the biggest killer for me, you can overcome that to a reasonable enough degree though I think! Good luck man!

I will add something to this tomorrow because I have been experiencing something similar. I started typing an account but a benzo is kicking in and I can't finish it sufficiently right now. I'll revise it properly tomorrow and post. Glad to see someone else is experiencing something similar simultaneously.

Hey man, cheers for the link, pairs up quite nicely with my reading of Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks. Hope you're doing well!

What do we reckon about Lynch's opening credits for Twin Peaks: Fire Come Walk With Me?

Well, they certainly went in hard. What a mind fuck.

That's a brilliant film... definitely Mike Leigh's best I reckon. I also recommend a short funny series (if you like the sort of dry, stupid humour), Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

Just watched that, quite enjoyed it as well. Quite an unpretentious charm to it. 25th Hour, Wings of Desire (see my avatar), Solaris (the modern one, although the original is great), Brief Encounter, The Days of Wine and Roses, The Majestic... off the top of my head some of my favourite films. Anything by Lynch, Kubrick, Bergman gets a big thumbs up from me. Brazil by Terry Gilliam (who directed Fear and Loathing).. anything by him is quite good.. Twelve Monkeys too. Waking Life is sure to be a fav for HPPD'ers.

I don't see Coluracetam..! Is it one of those sly things?