Sam

It's going to get better one way or another. Even if your visuals don't get better, you will most likely adapt to it to the point where they don't bother you anymore. Your mental attitude seems to be a bigger problem than your HPPD. Just stop feeling sorry for yourself. It's only been 5 months and statistically there is a 50% chance it'll go away. Btw, have you tried any medications to help with the visuals?

I was wondering if anyone knew anything about diphenhydramine and HPPD. I've read on a few websites that it can cause or worsen HPPD. There has even been anecdotal cases of people getting HPPD by taking high doses of diphenhydramine to get high. I used to take diphenhydramine to as a sleep aid from time to time but haven't been taking it ever since I got mild to moderate HPPD 3.5 months ago. My HPPD has improved by about 50% in the last month and is improving so I don't want to do anything to ruin that. I was wondering if it safe again to take diphenhydramine to help me sleep. My doctor is reluctant to prescribe me any sleeping pills so this is the only option I have.

I have to disagree with WindScar. I've had mild HPPD for 3-4 months now and I've noticed some improvements. For the first couple months, it was getting worse and I was really worried about how bad it would get, but I would say that my HPPD is ~50% gone and it is still improving. I don't even notice it anymore unless I am tired, stressed, or focusing on it. There is a chance that it will stick with you for life but it could also get better. All you can do is be healthy, stress-free, and get the right amount of sleep. There's nothing you can do beyond that so just don't think about it. Remember, it is easy to think that HPPD is permanent by seeing everyone on this forum, but you have to keep in mind that once someone gets cured, they aren't likely to be active on this website so you don't notice them anymore. However if someone is stuck with it for years or decades, then they keep making posts which makes them more representative than the average guy with HPPD.

Jay, are you on any meds for your HPPD?

Damn. Those dmt images are totally different from what I had in mind. I guess it might also depend on how you got your HPPD. I got mine from mushrooms so most of the patterns I see on surfaces resemble those from my trips. They are just repetitive patterns, but nothing colorful like dmt images.

My HPPD consists of afterimages, VS, and seeing patterns on surfaces. When my visual snow is intense, my CEV consists of a bunch of lines forming a fine checkerboard pattern. I guess the best way to describe it is black graph paper where the lines are always dark green. But the lines always move and sometimes form shapes that resemble a human face. The other type of CEV I get is just random flashes of light with movement cloudlike green haze in the background.

I got my HPPD a couple months ago from mushrooms. I remember that during one of my last trips, I was looking at the carpet and thinking how nice the world would look like if I could always see patterns on surfaces. Be careful what you wish for. Now whenever I stare into something, I see the patterns that remind me of my HPPD.

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I think I have an idea about why HPPD seems to get worse on its own. Suppose you get HPPD and your brain is down regulating your receptors and is only producing 75% as many receptors as it did before. Right after your brain starts doing this, you still have the receptors that are left over from the time you didn't have HPPD. But as they wear down, only 75% of them are replaced due to down regulation. So once you first develop HPPD, you still have most of your receptors but they slowly decrease in number and stabilize at the rate at which they are being replaced (75% in this example). I may be way off. One problem with this explanation is when HPPD is "triggered" in a matter of hours.

If you had a collapsed lung or a heart attack, you'd be suffering so much that you wouldn't have any doubt that something went wrong. If you have any symptoms other than dp/dr or visuals, then it's not connected with HPPD so I wouldn't worry about it. Getting proper sleep really helps with anxiety. I am still up at 3 AM typing this and can't go to sleep. I am hesitant to take "sleep aid" because it has been linked to HPPD.

It's probably just stress. I get sore eyes when I have been studying too long or sleeping too little. It kind of feels like there too much pressure in my eyeball.

Does it affect your visuals? For some reason, I have no anxiety when I am on adderall of caffeine. So that's not a problem but my visual snow intensifies when I am on stimulants.

Wow. I am still amazed that it can remain dormant for months and get triggered out of nowhere months or years later. My HPPD started out a week after my last trip when I was using adderall to study. It was very mild and barely noticeable. I've been sober too but its been getting worse for the past couple of months. I still consider my HPPD to be mild compared to everyone else but I have to live in fear of getting worse.

HPPD doesn't give you auditory hallucinations or delusions. It's just a disturbance of sensory gating in vision. It has nothing to do with schizophrenia. Also, the visual hallucinations are composed of patterns on surfaces, visual snow, and after images. However schizophrenics usually have more vivid and abstract hallucinations such as seeing and hearing people.

Did it just come on by its own or did something like weed trigger it? I am asking this because I have mild hppd and it's been two months. I am king of worried that it's going to worse.