StateOfRegret

1998: How are you doing? Did you begin a more reasonable taper plan?

Careful speculation is always welcome and appreciated I think it's time for an update on my situation: I had an appointment with a new doctor today - a GP. She turned out to be very understanding. I brought a document on HPPD which I've written myself together with the DSM-V definition and an article on the efficacy of Keppra. It turned out that she had actually heard of HPPD (imagine my surprise) and that she was well aware of what Keppra is (including dosage and such). She said that my suggestion to try Keppra sounded interesting, and that she'd like to try and work with the HPPD, in part to help me, and in part because it was interesting and novel. I found that attitude extremely refreshing after my past experience with GPs, neurologists etc. She said that she just wanted to confer with a neurologist before prescribing it, and that she'd call me back. I really hope the neurologist doesn't turn out to be narrow-minded and conservative about it. All in all a very interesting day :-)

Exactly the same here; the only drugs that didn't lead to strange responses were sedatives. I'm somewhat better, yes, but I am by no means over my 'medication anxiety' yet, but I think I've gotten better at recognizing it for what it is.

Ah ok, so it wasn't just a transient "mind fuck". Hm. That's peculiar, though when it comes to HPPD, a lot of weird visual phenomena are possible.

I don't understand your description. It emanated from your finger, but it didn't follow it around? Was it stationary with respect to the environment, or was it stationary in your field of vision when you moved your head? How long did it last?

That's strange. And it followed your finger around?

Well, being open minded to the point that your brain falls out perhaps isn't the goal.

We can't force you either way, but I think that it is pretty clear that it is a very bad idea. Think about it man. Psychedelics have lots of treatment potential in general, but when you've already established that you are vulnerable to HPPD, you'd have to be... an idiot to seek help from psychedelic drugs. I personally know a person who got (relatively mild) HPPD from DMT. The pharmacology of DMT is not very different from that of psilocin (4-HO-DMT) which is known for giving quite a few persons HPPD.

Ach, medication anxiety, how I hate that feeling! Looking forward to hearing more .

It makes it more noticeable in a sense - sure

Well, I continued to use drugs (that was how much I ignored it ), so it got worse, which makes ignoring it harder. Also, I developed quite bad anxiety over the last 8 months (not anxiety about HPPD specifically).

Oh, not to belittle your experience in any way, but I just wanted to say that I've had absolutely crazy experiences with coffee, regular painkillers, magnesium etc. All of it was definitely anxiety-fueled, even though they felt like genuine 'physical' reactions to the drugs at the time.

Missjess: Could you be persuaded to write a report on your experience (in a separate topic)? As detailed as you can manage at present, of course :-)

I am aware of of the 'plasticity' of the brain. All I'm saying is that it is easy to abuse fairly general ideas about the brain, so that they seem to fit one's purpose. But you seem to misunderstand the point I'm making. I'm not saying that "ignoring" the symptoms (in lieu of a better word) cannot aid real recovery. I'm just saying that we do not know, and that generalizing from one's own experience is, well, treading on shaky ground at best.

I don't believe in basing one's views on simplistic generalities about how the brain works. I never said that it made reading impossible, did I? Far from it. I'm just saying that it makes it harder, for me. Focusing on the symptoms gets you nowhere, agreed, but ignoring them isn't necessarily possible. Well, I'm glad you got better.

Pretty cool I finally ordered some today, looking forward to it arriving.

Yes you are, and that is nothing but a claim. You ignored them, and you got better. Who knows, you might have simply recovered whether you ignored it or not. You're assuming causation where there is only correlation. Because it's there. Is it really so strange? I'm having visual disturbances which are sometimes distracting and can make it a challenge to read. Of course I notice them! It's just that I don't panic over them. It really does sound like your HPPD had no practical implications for you. Then it must have been of the milder variety.

Definitely, fearing the visuals is very detrimental. No question about it! I cannot say for certain (and neither can you) that 'ignoring' the visuals diminishes them in the long run. I can see how you could have extreme visual symptoms which would make it impossible to ignore. But I've never felt anxiety about the visuals, so I guess I'm not really capable of assessing that.

Please gill, stop generalizing your own story to fit every HPPD-sufferer. That's just silly. Also, you keep assuming causation where only correlation is present for certain. Edit: I'm not contesting that 'relaxing' about the symptoms is important I'm just saying that there is no evidence that it actually changes the symptoms in the long run.

Much like difficulty not thinking about a leg which hurts means that you're obsessed with legs, not that you have a leg injury... I had HPPD for years without it interfering with my life. I ignored it most of the time, but of course I thought about it, since it was clearly noticeable.

Where did you hear of this guy? To answer your original question; Yes, I often feel over-stimulated. It has gotten less severe over time (I can handle more complex, prolonged, intense stimuli). The first few weeks after my HPPD got worse, all I could do was lie in bed in a darkened room. That was literally all I did for two weeks or so. After I got out of bed again, I couldn't handle TV or music or anything of the sort.

HPPD or DP/DR can't kill you. You can make it to Brazil, I'm sure of it. It'll probably be tough, but if it's what you want to do, then do it. Don't give up ahead of time. Oh, and for me, sunglasses do help. The polaroid ones (the ones that plane polarize the light) help the most, the cheap ones which are simply tinted help somewhat as well, but not as much.

Very exciting indeed. You are doing valuable work for the community - and, hopefully, for yourself as well I see that GLYX-13 is only a partial agonist, meaning that in can function as a 'de facto antagonist' under certain circumstances (namely when a full agonist is present). However the research results I've been able to find seem to suggest that this isn't the case under normal circumstances. Sorry if I'm merely reiterating what you two already know well GLYX-13 seems to have an enormous therapeutic index - have you given any thought to what doses you are willing to go to, if necessary?

You've been advancing this view in a lot of threads lately. What exactly do you mean? I'm sure some people focus too much on their symptoms, but are you implying that HPPD is a product of obsessive behaviour?

I would like to answer the question, but I'm not sure I know how. I can list my visual symptoms, but it is difficult to convey the severity in any meaningful way. I can say that they make it a bit strenuous to read, but not to a degree that it keeps me from doing so