pennyarcade

I think the best way to determine if you have a fungal infection is to attack it and look for a response. If you were to do a quick trial I would reccomend raw Garlic as it is easy to come by and contains an extrememly powerful antifungal/bacterial agent called Allicin which is especially good because it can pass the blood/brain barrier. Allicin becomes ALOT less effective when the Garlic is cooked that is why it has to be raw for this experiment to show noticable results. Raw garlic is a bitch to chew amd it burns like hell but if you are brave and really want a strong hit that is the way to do it. I don't take Garlic everyday but when I do I chop it up and add it to a hot (not boiling) drink of tea or coffee. It still has very powerful effects with this method. I would reccomend starting with 1 clove top ordinarily as you would start up slow but we are not treating a condition here we are forcing a responce so if you can take 4 cloves go for it but it might not be pretty. The garlic will start to act almost immediately especially if chewed and over the course of the next few hours things will be happening within your body and head. With many antifungals that I have tried many have caused temporary flare ups in m y HPPD symptoms I put this down to things litterally rearranging within the head, toxic load also seems to play an important factor here. For me Garlic was somewhat unique in that it had the opposite effect and actually made my vision temporarily clearer but please bear in mind this could upset your HPPD so I reccomend doing this at the weekend as some of my experiments with antifungals have been overwhelming but I have learned how to mitigate some of the temporary negative effects... As the fungus dies of it gives of many toxic byproducts such aceteldahyde and formeldahyde. These byproducts will flood into your system and as this happens you may experience extreme iiritability and feel uncomfortable I myself experienced this with overly negative thoughts and heightened anxiety your skin may flare up in a rash or become itchy or inflamed, This is known as a "Herxheimer" or "die of" reaction and if you didn't know better you would probably stop exposing yourself to something that seemingly makes you feel worse but it is actually part of the healing process. I recount many tales of HPPDer trying herbs that have caused flare ups or helped for a while and then caused flareups and obviously from that point on consumption is ceased to avoid furthur damage. The key is managing the toxic load within your body... when you start feeling anxious or experience unsettling thoughts take 1-2000mg of Vitamin C and as much water as you can this will help you body reduce its toxic load, you can repeat this throughout the day but I have not taken more than 5000mg in a day. Vit C can give you a bad case of the shits but I have been fine at that dose spread out. Wether you have taken an anti fungal or not if you experience anxiety and negative thoughts try this method I think you will be surpised. Some other common sympton of toxic load include Fatigue (Chronic in my case) Heart Palpitations Difficulty Concentrating tingling/pins and needles a feeling of being overly cold especially in the extremities (not so much after Garlic as it aids blood circulation) muscle spasms/twitches muscle pains joint pains (mine click if it gets really bad) Depersonalition/Derealisation (I wouldnt say this one is common but I get this if I overdo things) Micropsia/Macropsia (See above) Also look at the bags under your eyes they will become really dark and sunken like ( i dont know how to describe it well) but I look like shit when my toxic load is high There are many more but of my head I think I have covered the main ones. Please keep this knowlege in mind all I can really tell you is that you will feel something happening... negative or positive use this information to help decipher what your body is telling you it is possible you wont Herxheimer and it may be plain sailing but I very much doubt that if you are infected to the point of Visual Distrubances you are in a severe condition. Feel free to fire me questions and I will do my best to help... this is not a treatment plan this is just for you to experiment. Garlic will not permanently hurt you (unless you are allergic or something) but proceed at your own risk. I stand by this information 100% please give it a try and report back with your experiences people Good luck!

Hi Jay... It's great to see a familiar face here. I posted about my trials with alternative mostly natural treatment before I went AWOL I don't really think people took me seriously but any way I have directed my OCD at really thinking outside of the mainstream and trying things with brutal dedication and refining my own theories as to what has happened to me and why. TBH Jay My ideas would probably seem far out there and I feel somewhat of a reluctance to post here but I'm going to anyway. To sum it up.... A fungal infection was to blame for my HPPD. I do not believe that hallucinogens were the soul cause, they allow an already present fungal infection to colonize further I believe hallucinogens allow the fungus to cross the blood brain barrier or at the very least mutate but this is not the only method of disruption. The fungus gives of many byproduct toxins such as aceteldahyde which contribute to anxiety symptoms. I believe the fungus itself also has some hallucinogenic properties. I really want to put my money where my mouth is regard to this theory. If there is a well known old timer here who is interested in trying my protocol and as long as I am confident your cause is fungal I am willing to front the money for 6 months of treatment (supplements not food) on the agreement that you follow my protocol (within reason) and post a blog with photos where necessary of your progress with your honest feedback. I will obviously discuss what is involved before you commit to anything. Send me a pm if you are interested.

I have returned here to share my progress and I am super happy to say that I am now 95% symptom free compared to my HPPD symptoms at there worst. I have a very faint static which sometimes goes away completely when I first awake from sleep but so far it keeps coming back but it is SOOO much better. Everything looks brighter and more vibrant it really is night and day difference. My anxiety is no longer a constant thing and I only really experience it in some social situations but even that is improving. I am sorry for being away for so long but it has been a really hard battle of trial and error and brutal persistence I made descision to stay away from forums for various reasons.. I hope you are all well Penny

NAC is NAC just buy it from a reputable place so you know you are getting the real deal. Its is common place for people to feel bad when they start taking NAC some people say it detoxes metals etc from your system so its going to put strain on your liver/kidneys try drinking more water while you adjust to it. I get flu like symptoms myself when ever i start taking it.

in away these things he mention are scientific... meditation has proven affects on the brain... acupuncture... well as a sceptic you could say thats a placebo still the placebo affect is powerful... religion lights up parts of the brain. It seems that people that come back with success stories overwhelmingly display the same message like Jay says push yourself out of your comfort zone hah id love to see gill write a post about his experience at the acupuncturist lol

Thanks man, my bp is pretty normal ive been to hospital a few times in the past couple of years and its been normal when they checked it. No idea about cholesterol though. Interesting about the high BP, A couple of years ago one of my psychs trawled though the NHS database to find anything on HPPD, she said she found one entry of a person treated with clonidine which I believe is a antihypertensive for high bp.

Hey man my mood has picked up over the last couple of days and so have my visuals... But a big change in the last fewhours... Dude I feel fucking normal!!! I still see snow but I don't feel like I have HPPD i'm calm I have space to think straight its that elusive feeling of content. It's a shame man there is so much anti natural health propaganda at the moment and they are passing bills to outlaw the sale of many supplements in Europe as we speak http://www.anh-europe.org/node/3113 ... as if the war on drugs wasn't enough. I read a news article that just said flat out that supplements don't work no specifics they just don't work gggrrr. I feel genuinely sad for the people that dont give alternative medicine the time of day its as if there were never any real treatments before the drug companies invented them. I hope people close to me will see the change in me, and maybe one day consider the option. I've had a major paradigm shift, I don't know how many people check this thread or even take it seriously and at this moment in time I couldn't care either way. If you guys have had ear infections eye infections weird clicking noises in your head/neck... head pressure, unexplained muscle pain, severe cramps, radial palsy or any kind of peripheral neuropathy (I could go on) seriously please please please look into this, ive been a member of these boards for many years and ive got better things to do than play HPPD.... I know exactly what you mean about the 9 - 5 and buying things just not meaning anything thats why I pursued music because it seems to be the only place I fit in, it doesn't matter how messed up you are as long as you create something that people appreciate or that you even appreciate yourself. I'm going to visit a practice that my psychiatrist advised me on, the Doctor who works there combines mainstream and alternative medicine hopefully I will be able to get some proper antifungal meds prescribed. Peace!

Ok I was just thinking strokes are pretty serious I hope you didn't have any lasting problems mate? Did the docs give you any advice for going forward? Im hoping what I had was down to the lyrica. Did you feel retarded when it happened cos I really was in a bad way mentally and physically.

Hilarious mate. I just had my tenth anniversary, I feel like a proper hardened vet now. I eat strokes for breakfast... I thought this was a club

LOL yeah with my pants down holding an IPAD 3000 perhaps

Awesome... how long till Alzheimer's im going have nothing to look forward to in old age at this rate. All the good shit is already happening.

I think I actually used to take the inositol before drinking and the water before bed... yeah pretty sure that was it, I read it somewhere and it seemed to work really well for me.

Penny, Would you please let us know the physical problems you developed from the drug? I woke up and was incredibly weak on the left side of my body, my left hand was shaking big time i couldn't grip things properly and i couldn't walk without dragging my left leg it was pretty traumatic my memory is very bad especially of that particular period but I seem to recall everything getting better over the course of a few days once i stopped the lyrica. I should also say before this happened it made me uber confident and quick witted I got this crazy hot girl back to mine to bad the fucking drug gave me problems in the trouser department... Should have known it was to good to be true

I don't drink currently but inositol and as much water as you can manage before going to sleep (after drinking) did wonders for me.

I did lyrica, at the start it was amazing I was incredibly euphoric and everything looked so beautiful even through the static, but it made me wacky/manic and sent me on a drug/booze spiral I later developed some physical problems and had to stop taking it... probably for the best.

Thanks man

Thanks for your post man I really appreciate the support, your feelings are very similar to my own its comforting to know im not the only one feeling this way. This thing has made me very self centered its felt like a prison where I only have myself for company and the occasional visitor who comes and goes, free to live a normal life on the outside. I know everyone has problems but I have great difficulty taking other peoples problems seriously they just seem like they are for the most part not really problems I hate feeling like this I feel cold and apathetic. Still I have always recognised like you that things could be much much worse but suffering is all relative. That whole thing with the twenty dollar bill I can relate... I'm always overanalysing things looking for connections where there are most likely none. Sometimes this whole thing feels like a test like its been setup by some greater power to teach me something that I could not have possibly comprehended otherwise. It seems very silly when I talk about it, I am for the most part very rational im not religious (wish I was) I think these feelings are probably coping mechanisms as I to want things to make sense but they really don't. This candida thing is messed up... I'm sure ive had it since birth my Mum was telling me about these physical and psychological problems she was having after my birth I was born prematurely and very nearly didn't make it. I think my mother has a serious candida problem to. Sometimes she gets really depressed and when this happens she gets a little delusional when things get really bad she gets a sore/itchy scalp with hair loss, i'm trying to convince her to do a candida cleanse but she is rightfully sceptical, its hard watching her suffer when I feel I have the answer. I also believe one of my close friends who smokes alot of cannabis has candida. He has had sinus problems for a longtime and has some physical problems and is often overly tirred, I've suspected he has had this for a while and I can clearly see his condition deteoriating he has an itchy scalp and is losing alot of hair and recently he has become quite obsessive. I was talking to him about HPPD and he told me that from time to time he has experienced these strange sensations/hallucinations and he described what we would know as macropsia/micropsia. His diet is so bad I really want to tell him I think he has candida but he is not very open minded and how do you even approach someone and tell them ... the reason your sinuses etc are getting worse is because your doctor is giving you antibiotics and what you need is antifungals lol it sounds crazy and thats probably what he would think I am I'm going to have to try and find a way to tell him cos he looks like he is heading to a really bad place.

Things have cleared back up again im not sure if it was the l-methione or just coincidental but ive taken it again at half dose as it really feels beneficial so fingers crossed my visuals stay stable.

Thanks for the input guys... unfortunately i decided to take l-methione instead... yesterday I felt great but today ive woken up with heart palpitations and visuals as bad as they have ever been ... my visuals were getting better as well they havent been this bad in a long time FUCK!

Thanks for your reply odysseus. Better sleep and calm sounds good to me... can I ask if you have ever had problems with antidepressants/psychotics in general if you have ever tried them.

I have some lying around but ive been reluctant to try it as ive had bad experiences with antidepressants natural or otherwise... I need something to help with stress so any feedback on this would be grateful

hey ludwig, a bit of a mixed bag. The sinus drainage has nearly stopped after literally months I am now just getting a sticky residue in my ears occasional popping bubly noises it feels like it is the last of it now. My head pressure has completely gone now I would say my visuals are maybe 65% better and maybe as good as 80% at times (usually a couple of hours after taking antifungals), Ive been having some really vivid dreams and most nights I am waking up in a puddle of sweat my visuals are also intensified after the dreams but it clears up within a minute or two of having my eyes open. My energy levels are ok but im experiencing really bad depression despite the improvements in my visual symptoms I was taking MACA which helped for a while but as the HPPD has been getting better ive been having this overwhelming sense that my life up until now (not just HPPD) but prior also has been a lie. I feel like ive been through all this suffering needlessly, I feel really let down by doctors and the like, I feel I could have been succesful with something in my life instead of the situation I am in now... depressed with hardly any friends with a very twisted sense of what the world/reality is, I think i may need to talk to someone about it as at times it becomes to much. I don't know if its just my brain playing tricks (candida related) or if I really feel this way as sometimes I seem to be without any burden at all.

Hey merkan, have you thought about trying to treat it without antibiotics to negate the risk. I don't know how bad your infection is but I have succesfully treated localised infections with natural supplements. Look into apple cider vinegar. You basically put a teaspoon in a glass of warm water and pour it in your affected ear while lying on your side, I can personally vouch for its affectiveness... but don't take my word for it there are loads testimonials if you search I would also try taking an odorless garlic supplement (natural antibiotic) to boost things alongs. All the best. Also if you use acv be sure to get the unpasteurised kind.

Keppra rage was a big problem for me I would lose it over stupid little things some days i felt like a ticking time bomb...

Indeed we are all valid visual . Good call on the junk mail idea Jay if it turns out to be the case maybe a heads up could be implemented on the sign up page.