Im 32 years old and live in the north west of england and ive had what i assume is hppd for the past
12 to 13 years. When i was about 13 i was introduced to solvents and I would spend the next 3 years bouncing between glue,petrol , lighter gas a. acid .At first i didnt really trip but after the first time i did, I found it would happen every time and thats what got me hooked.It was if i had opened the door to aladdins cave.Whilst my friends would sit just giggling about how funny they felt I would drift of into dream like state in a world of my own.
Once i got to the age of 16 it was time for a change from solvents, which was when i got into going to raves and then it was e's and amphetimine for my drug of choice for the next 3 years. Between 16 and 19 i had no problems on daily basis but after one night i had been to an alnighter and took alot more than i would usually take and found myself feeling not quite back to normal the following week and as a daily pot smoker i would put the visuals i was getting down to the drugs still being in my system from the previous weekend, it was easy to dissmiss because the following weekend i would do the same again without realisng this was hiding the real problem.
when I was about 20 or 21 I guess i had grown out of this phase but was still a daily smoker and I couldnt understand why my vision wouldnt go back to normal cause i wasnt taking anything that i thought was hallucinogenic yet when i got stoned it was like i was tripping and my friends thuoght i was joking when i would tell them. The problems got so bad with my vision that I confided with my parents and they decided ishould go with my dad to go and see the doctor. The doctor that i saw wasnt my doctor infact she was just a locum and didnt seem like she wanted to know. After I had explained everything to her she explained to me and my father that permanent damaged was very unlikely and that Id be best to just give it time, besides which if she put down about my drug use on my medical history it could prevent me from getting a mortgage and other things, so i left her office the same way i entered and havent wanted to see a doctor about it since.
From the age of 21 till now I dialled down the drug use as i dont really take e's anymore probaly 20 in 10 years i Havent done acid in 10 years and rarely get drunk but until the last couple of months i had smoked pot daily as even though it made my vision bad being stoned kind of took my mind off it and i could get to sleep with no problems. Now that i have stopped smoking it ive started to realise how bad it is to have this permanent problems with my vision.
A couple of years ago i decided to get my eyes tested and it turned out that I had had a stigmatism in in both eyes so i decided to get laser eye surgery which sort of proved once and for all that what i had wrong with me was more than just bad vision as although i could now see things bolder and clearer i was still left with the problems i already had.
After reading some posts on here its seems as if alot of people on here have quite an understanding of hppd and its causes where as i have searched the internet on numerous occasions trying to see if there was any information on the permanent effects of hallucinating but never finding an answer until today.
The symptoms that i suffer from are just visual but that can cause other problems like keeping eye contact with people. I have light sensitivity and when im in dark room or at night struggle to focus, i also get what seems like an image burnt on to my eyes so that even when i close my eyes its still there which makes getting to sleep hard and when i wake up my eyes sting like i havent had enough sleep.
Its good to finally know that this isnt just happening to me and that this is an problem, Id just like to know if there is anything that can be done or taken to help settle the bad vision?
thanks for the info
stu...