LaizzesFaire

Hey guys, I hope you are well Just thought I´d pop by and provide a short update on my situation. I´m nearing the 2 years mark, at least that´s when I realized that something was off. Probably had symptoms for a year prior to the full-blown stuff. Anyways, I have recovered in a lot of aspects. First thing was acceptance. Then I gave a few medications a shot, currently on a 200 mg/daily dose of Lamictal that significantly reduced my DP/DR. I still get intense sensations of this from time to time, in particular, during stressful situations, but it´s no longer a constant thing, which I´m really happy for. Also, I did some CBT that helped with this and that´s something I would recommend for anybody looking to reduce stress, anxiety etc. With respect to visual symptoms a few of these have kinda faded away. Some Visual Snow in the dark and on white surfaces, BFEP (though this is not nearly as intense as it used to be and at this point not really something I notice). Afterimages, both positive and negative, seem to have stabilised. It flares up if I drink too much coffee or after a bad night of sleep, but it´s more of an annoyance at this point. I have a prescription for Klonopin and follow Jay´s routine to prevent addiction ( I take it 3-4 times a week, never more than 1 mg during the week, 1.5-2mg during the weekends if I´m not drinking). Brain fog is pretty much gone as well so grades have improved quite a bit. Haven´t smoked weed in 2 years and don´t plan to smoke again just to be safe. Same goes for anything other than alcohol, tobacco and coffee. I drink about the same as any other college student, perhaps a bit more, and it does not affect my symptoms, though the DP/DR tend to flare up a bit the next day. So all in all, I´m pretty satisfied with my current situation, don´t really expect my lingering symptoms to improve, but that´s fine. I´ll be answering questions in this thread over the next 24 hours if there´s anything people here would like me to elaborate on. Thank you and I wish all the best for each and everyone of you. Take care. Laizz

Sorry guys, I try to take a break from this site sometimes as it helps me focus on other things. I actually ran out of Lamictal and had a hard time setting up a doctor´s appointment as I moved to a new city recently. Felt pretty weird the first couple of days and DP/DR increased significantly. Luckily I was able to get back on my daily dose of 200 mg a day and DP/DR once again decreased substantially. So I guess in a way it was nice to confirm that the medication works. With respect to visual symptoms I haven´t really seen any improvement and ghosting returned at some point for unknown reasons. However, my new job is pretty hectic and I´ve noticed that I rarely think about the visual stuff when a lot of stuff is going on. Same goes for DP/DR. I would advise people to at least give Lamictal or Keppra a shot and wait until you hit the 100-200 mg range before deciding whether to continue the trial or try something else. I´ll be back with an update in a little while! Good luck

So it´s been a while now, currently taking 150 mg a day. Sometimes I´ll forget to take it before work, which usually makes me feel extremely spaced out after a few hours. Some new observations: DP significantly reduced at 150 mg, probably about 40 % and even 70 % on a really good day DR not so much, but there has been moderate improvement Ghosting kinda disappeared at some point. E.g. I see a single moon now with a faint outline of another. Used to see three copies of it not too long ago

I have the same thing. Hardly notice it anymore though. The tracking images would freak me out in the beginning, but it gets old pretty quick and after a while you´ll stop noticing/let yourself be distracted by them. You will be fine

Well, thats good news anyway and I´m truly happy for you. I just upped my dosage to 100/mg of Lamictal(Lamotrigine), but haven´t really had any visual reduction yet. Did you experience benefits after a while on 200 mg? And are you considering taking a higher dose in order to, potentially, further reduce symptoms?

xspecm: If I remember correctly you made a post a few months back telling us that Lamictal had cured your HPPD. Is this still the case?

Judging by the wiki article it certainly looks like it might yield more benefits than a SSRI. Let us know if you give it a try!

The Sopranos is IMO in the top three category for best TV shows ever made. I´m sure you´d love it, so give it a try

My weekly pattern is somewhat the same as Jay´s, except my ongoing Lamictal trial which only seems to reduces DP/DR and mood swings. But yeah, a few beers, some wine and a couple of benzos in my system gives me that little spark. Make sure to take a few weeks off once in a while if you´re following this system just to prevent tolerance and addiction. As an alternative to clonazepam, I´d recommend valium or oxazepam. The latter, in my experience at least , doesn´t make you drowsy, lazy and forgetful, although it might not be "strong" enough to combat full on panic attacks. And even though my Sertraline trial reduced depression and anxiety for the time being, it also worsened my visual baseline. Good luck

I´ve had a few concussions , cracked my head open when I was a kid and injured my spine as a teenager after a dive resulting in a temporary paralysis from the waist down (not too severe though, lasted for a few hours). A chronic neck pain concurred with the onset of DP/DR, but that was post-HPPD. If you´re working on a theory about a possible relationship between neck, spine, brain issues and the development of HPPD I´d love to hear it!

Nice vid man, sharing and putting your story out there takes a lot of courage. Hopefully it´ll help somebody else and be somewhat "therapeutic" for you as well. Gotta say you seem like a positive guy with a healthy outlook on life!

So I´ve upped the dose to 75/mg, no noticeable difference as of now. Think I´ll wait until 200/mg before deciding wether to quit it and give Keppra a shot or stay on it for a while. Off-topic: I bought some basic reading/computer glasses too minimize eye strain. It´s been a blessing and sometimes I´ll use them outside because even though I can´t see a goddamn thing 100 feet away from me, they really make everything less "in my face" and the eyes feel more relaxed.

I don´t think he/she meant that people on this board are confusing HPPD with either psychosis or schizophrenia, but rather that doctors, psychiatrists etc might misdiagnose as this disorder is quite rare and not well-known.

Looking back at my previous post I can see how it might look like I indicated smoking weed and not cigarettes. I apologize for any confusion

Did a 24 hour water fast yesterday in order to prepare myself for the whole 48 hour thing. Got a bit dizzy at times, but felt more clear headed after about 15 hours. My thought process seemed a bit more linear it that makes any sense.

Well, I only smoke (cigs) when drinking. Gotta stop that though. Haven´t touched weed after I learned about HPPD. A little off-topic but I sometimes find myself in social situations where people are enjoying the bud all around me, but that has never had an effect on me..Which is kinda nice so I won´t have to run out of the room every time someone lights up. As for the alcohol, it´s funny that you mentioned non alcoholic beer cuz I´ve also recently tried to have a couple as a replacement. Problem is I love me some good red wine. I guess it´s a combination of taste and buzz. Also, it´s very hard to participate in social settings as the sober dude, but I´m getting better at that as well. It´s hard to escape the integrated Dionysian release pattern in our highly Apollonian society. I am determined to get on the sober bandwagon before too long tho. Makes me wanna move to some cabin in Alaska or somethin´. Anyways, I appreciate the concern Jimmy! Med-trial update: Currently at 50/mg and things are slowly getting a bit better. * My memory and thinking is better, except for recalling words. * Overall mood is a lot more stable, same goes for anxiety (no crazy spikes etc). * Dp/Dr is improved by roughly 10-20%. On good days it´s down 50% * Visual snow also improved by 10-20%, only noticeable in dim lightening and at night * This one is kinda hard to explain, but things are less "in my face" all the time. Watching action movies, reading walls of text and walking around outside is not really a problem anymore. This symptom tend to be more prominent while I´m driving. * Trails are slightly reduced. * The "sheep-stare"/absence seizures are gone. So all in all, things are starting to look up. Hopefully I´ll see further improvement when the dosage is increased. I urge people to try Lamictal or Keppra so we could get several ongoing trials. I´ll be back in a week or so. Take care!

Yeah, it really felt like absence seizures. Thanks for the link. However, I was always able to "snap out of it" if someone was talking to me. Anyways, I´m glad they´re gone. I´ll be back in a week or so and provide u guys with an update. Drinking, benzos and smoking seems fine, but I´ll try to take ti easy just in case,

I´m just gonna provide a little update from time to time. It´s been a little over one week now and still at 25/mg a day. Mood swings have been reduced and I feel more stable throughout the day. Also, I no longer catch myself staring blankly into space (felt like mini-seizures). No improvements or reduction of visual symptoms though. DP/DR might be a little better, but I´ve gotten pretty used to it anyways so that might be placebo. I´ll increase the dosage to 50/mg pretty soon.

Feel like this one might deserve a bump every once in a while. I´ve been watching it at least once a day for some time now. Everything looks very solid and the snow sort of stops for around 10-15 seconds.

Yes, benzos are usually fine and reduces the visual symptoms as well for some people. Be careful though, Xanax is one of the most most addictive benzodiazepines out there. I´d consider Clonazepam or Diazepam (Valium) instead as they have a much longer half-life than Xanax. Take care!

Thanks for the quick reply Jay! That´s good news. I asked the pharmacist about it and she just told me to take it easy with the drinking because it might make me nauseous. Keeping my fingers crossed that this´ll work, but trying to not get my hopes up in order to avoid disappointment. If you remember, did it provide any benefits (visual reduction, mood stabilizing etc) before you got the rash?

Hi, hope everybody is doing good and enjoying the summer A quick update on my current situation: A little while back I decided to try the med route. Initially I was prescribed Sertraline (and also Clonazepam to battle the increased anxiety during the first few weeks). The SSRI did work for the depression I was going through at the time, but after realizing it made my visual symptoms worse I quit (floating effect when looking at pictures/objects to be specific). Kept using the Clonazepam as it worked great for anxiety which was really helpful during finals, and also it gave me "a break" sort of. However I found it increasingly difficult to limit these breaks and luckily got off them after getting back home for the summer (Still have some Diazepam laying around just in case). I´ve finally convinced a doc to let me try an anticonvulsant and had some few questions regarding it. 1. The doc wanted to try Lamictal first. Would it be a problem to taper down and switch to Keppra later if it doesn´t work? Keppra is my first-choice, but I´m also fine with giving Lamictal a shot 2. Any recommendations on dosage? I think we agreed on starting with 25/mg and increasing with an additional 25/mg every two weeks until I reach 200/mg (Lamictal) 3. Useful studies I could bring to my doctor´s attention? I´ve already printed out some abstracts and articles, but if anybody knows about a specific study worth looking into that would be great. 4. Any interactions with benzos, alcohol or nicotine? I use nicotine daily and drink once in a while when socializing. Trying to stop the latter though. Thanks All the best, Laiz Edit: Just got a call from the doctor, I´m actually gonna start the Lamictal trial today (25/mg a day as agreed).

As you´ve concluded that LSD caused the floaters (or awareness of them), it´s not a sign of retinal detachment. The floaters are either blood or cells stuck in the vitreous chamber of the eye. The shadow they cast on the retina when exposed to light is the reason behind their visibility. There is a surgery procedure called Vitrectomy which removes parts or all the vitreous humor in the eyeball, but this is mostly used in extreme cases because it increases the chance of developing retinal detachment or catharsis down the line.

Hi there. Hopefully someone with more specific knowledge on receptors etc would like to chime in to explain in further detail. In layman´s terms, correct me if I got this wrong, the brain have trouble filtering out unnecessary visual stimuli due to overactivity. Hence the afterimages, visual static, floaters etc many of us experience. If I were you, I´d tread carefully from now on. Increased static/snow and some floaters were my only symptoms for about a year. I had no idea what was going on and kept smoking until it hit me really hard after a sudden panic attack. So please be careful and take a good long break from the bud. All the best, Laiz Edit: There is also a theory that developing HPPD is caused by a genetic predisposition, so while your buds and others may be totally fine with taking acid/psychs/mdma, there is a possibility that one might be stuck with this mess afterwards.

It sounds to me, although I am by no means any expert, that you were simply entertaining these worst-case scenarios which could fall under the category "intrusive thoughts", not uncommon for people with anxiety and something everybody experiences from time to time. I´m guessing these thoughts disappeared when you decided to pay less attention to them. In the end it could be as a result of an internal conflict. The fact that he was "weak" may have made this situation more complicated for you versus a fight against a stronger/equal opponent .Also now that you´ve become older you´re having a harder time dealing with the fact that you imposed violence on another person, which in my opinion should be regarded as a positive sign. Trying to understand the underlying causes behind your reaction might provide some insight to your values as a person.