joe

cool, yeah, so far, so good with me. I had to start low too, in fact I started even lower than that, a quarter of a 50mg pill and that took a couple of days to move up on if you've read through my post, I've tried to be rather detailed on the important stuff. I got a little nausea when beginning and the first couple of days definitely knocked me out for a couple of hours at least in my experience and then when I came to, I felt a little more with it, a little more than slightly noticable. That feeling continued to increase over time and now at a higher dosage with no knockout effect it seems to be working well. I really hope it works for you because if this can be concurred with a couple other people than maybe something larger has been stumbled upon. I can unequivocally say it's helping me and I really hope it helps you too robbie. Give it a little time, I hope you'll be pleased and please, keep me updated on what's going on with you. Side effects have been minimal too, I really don't even notice it except the little nausea I get sometimes now about twenty minutes after I take a pill, but that's kind of going away too. please update, good luck joe

Just thought I'd give a quick update. My DP/DR is practically gone. 80% reduction I guess? My cognition is still improving so good there. I don't notice visual symptoms during the day so much but when I'm in dark rooms I can still see the HPPD. Only thing I really notice during the day is brightness off of street and car lights I guess or at least that's what comes to mind but it doesn't bother me as much at least with DP not so much in the picture and it's a little less bright, definitely not brighter like taking an SRRI in my experience. Over focus on certain objects like someone was pointing out on here has decreased. I always use the example of a cigarette cherry and being able to see every little detail overly. That seems to have decreased. When I look at my hand during the day is doesn't look like it's tripping if you know what I mean. Trails too have decreased but right now that seems more up and down, sometimes better, sometimes worse. I still notice the HPPD in darker rooms but things don't sound so spaced out and distorted if you know what I mean. There's a lot less noise in my head too which is really cool, like everything has really calmed down, a lot more than ever taking antipsych's in my experience at least. I haven't been going on these worry binges either so to speak either where I almost couldn't stop myself and thoughts. I think people can tell around me too that I sound more organized when I talk to them and that I'm not all over the place and just more centered and calm in myself, I feel more calm in myself. Afterimages are down a little bit too but what's weird and like I've said earlier in this post, I notice them more at night or in darker rooms like the underlying visual disturbance/processing is just more apparent in that state. Once a doctor told me that was because my pupil is bigger in darker rooms so your trying to pull in more but who knows, I doubt he really knew what he was dealing with but it kind of makes sense. I feel more connected overall, so far, so good. Want to know anything else, just let me know. joe

I thought about the low dose naltrexone when I started but it just didn't happen that way. When I started I was cutting up 50mg pills into fours to see if a low dose would be the better way to go even though low dose naltrexone is even lower than that. Just taking a quarter of a pill knocked me out at first and at least in my experience I don't doubt that low dose naltrexone probably has some applications for some people. After reading the studies too about DP and naltrexone is seems like higher doses are the way the go and just my fiddling around with it a little bit I notice more change at a higher dose. I don't get a lot of side effects if any on just regular naltrexone. A little bit of nausea but it goes away after awhile.

here's another study I found http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10520978

David set it up so that this site cannot be looked up through a google search. He has his reasons I imagine but I don't know what they are. Naltrexone is helping most with Depersonalization and Derealization. I'm noticing slight improvement with visual symptoms slowly, definitely not an increase in any way and just having the depersonalization marginalized makes the visual aspect of HPPD a lot more bearable/manageable and less noticable. The marginalization of DP/DR seems to be steadily increasing or at least I'm getting more use to not having it so much in the picture and I'm trying to use my brain as much as I can while I'm in the "window" of the medication so I'm reconnecting faster so to speak if that's not over anybody's head. I've increased the dosage of Naltrexone a couple of nights past from 50mg to 100mg, and once 200mg just to see what the effect would be. The more I increased the dosage the more effect it had of DP/DR and visual disturbance but I don't have enough right now to stay at that level of dosage. Being on it doesn't really feel like you on much of anything and you can look that up other places on the internet with med info about naltrexone. It's nothing like SRRI's where you get dry mouth, weight gain, all of that and definitely not like antipsych's. The only symptom I've gotten from Naltrexone is nausea when I've taken it but that doesn't last too long and it's not overwhelming. Taking like a dose like 200mg really makes you feel like you've "come down", it kind of sends you through a whirl. Overall, I feel a lot more centered too and my cognition seems/feels more organized slowly but surely. You could say I've grabbed a new sense of hope as well. I imagine if you wanted to get a script for naltrexone from a doc without too much hassle there was a small study done on naltrexone and depersonalization that you might want to take with you. You could probably say too that you know someone that is having a lot of success with it. This too kind of gets you off having to have the complete HPPD conversation if you haven't had it already. Here's the link to the study's abstract http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15876908 If you read the study, I would say I've had more than a 30% decrease in DP/DR and I imagine other HPPD patients would as well due to our DP/DR more than likely being more of a chemical etiology, just my take in short. Again, I wasn't even expecting anything to happen when I started taking naltrexone, it just did and it's been less than a total of two weeks so that's rather remarkable. hope that helps, I'll update how I'm doing and I wish you all the best

Kind of sucks your in a foreign country where you can't talk to the doctors well. Since it's something that has just come on, it may not be so much HPPD related and even if it is, it's something new so you probably want to get it checked out again. My vision is worse when I wake up in the morning and then it clears up and at night too. If I want, I can make things double and all that but I usually have to make my eyes see that way so it sounds like yours are kind of doing it without trying. Probably want to get it checked out again I'd say at least but you know yourself better than anyone.

yeah, I agree, this board seems completely dead and it's kind of discouraging. I know my HPPD hasn't gone away but I'm still working on it, still trying to find something that makes life easier, what I'm doing now seems to be benefiting. I guess when all the old information was lost it's possible that some people just threw there hands up about it. Something about this board seems a little more constraining too, just my take. It would be nice to see some old names on here just for the sake of it. I guess you can't look this board up by just googling it either. And it kind of sucks for people that may have just gotten this because there was a good base of information to sift through and a "your not the only one" feeling but I guess that's life and it will have to go on.

I was going to wait a little bit longer to post about this but I feel pretty confident where I stand now. Last Monday I got a script for naltrexone 50mg. Before I took it I didn't really give it too much thought meaning I didn't really think it was going to make me feel any different or I was going to have any success with it. I've been on a god damn list of medications for this prior to and haven't gotten much relief from anything. This includes Keppra which I took for maybe eight months and actually ended up in the hospital because of(that whole thing was a real nightmare which I'm not going to get into). I know a couple of people have had success with Keppra but a lot haven't and that's just a fact. I guess I could list some others just to give you some perspective on where I'm coming from as far as trial and error. Others include Abilify(which helped slightly but was probably the only one for my case at least), Asenapine/Saphris(nothing there), Lamictal, Tegretol(bad side effects and no relieve), Topamax, Welbutrin, Klonopin(it's like a little break, most will tell you that but noone has really gotten anything long term), Celexa(SRRI, increased visual) Remeron(a long time ago), Effexor(also a long time ago), some others that aren't even coming to me right now but what I'm getting to is that I've really been through the ringer with this and got honestly say I've played the part of guinea pig to no avail numerous times. So I figure if something helps me since I've been resistant to pretty much damn near everything, it should probably work for most people dealing with HPPD. I myself have been dealing with this fucking enigma for over 13 years now and can't even tell you what it has cost me in so many ways. I'm not trying to cry about it, it's just a fact. But I hope this helps others and that their struggle may be shortened due to it. So I got a script for Naltrexone on monday and like I said I didn't even give it too much thought or really had any confidence something would happen. Well something did happen and it was rather dramatic, more than anything else I have taken! It was incredible. The first time I took it I cut it into four pieces so I only took a quarter of a 50mg tab and it completely knocked me out for about two to three hours, plus my stomach got a little sick but when I got up after that I felt a little bit more in myself so to speak, it was definitely noticeable. I was a little ecstatic but I didn't really want to jump the gun or anything. There's a lot of internet fuss being made about low dose naltrexone, a couple of pages dedicated to it and how it is helping with a wide range of diseases. I guess the next day I took another quarter of a tablet and the same thing, got knocked out for a couple of hours and when I came to I felt more with it. I got a little more ecstatic but still didn't want to jump to gun. I also noticed that my vision had gotten slightly better, like I could tell the difference between shit I don't know like corners where light meets better, like everything wasn't just blended together if that makes sense, especially sunlight. After the first three days I had only taken a total of one 50mg pill and was continually feeling more with it. I was really getting excited about what was happening but like I said, didn't want to get ahead of myself. Naltrexone is used for opiate addiction and I couldn't tell you exactly how it is working but it is working and it's not taking long. I could really feel it "manipulating" things in my head or whatever, it's rather profound. What the Naltrexone is getting at the most is the Depersonalization and Derealization. Shaolin bomber, I know just tried naltrexone not too long ago and that you only took it one time and it was too strong for you and I'll agree, it's a pretty strong med, a lot stronger than I thought it was going to be, really knocked me out at first but really man, give it another try(the knock out has dissipated over the last week too)! I've been on a ton of different shit over the years for this like I was saying to set this up and Naltrexone really helps and I've only been on it for a week. My DP, DR has seriously gone down and my vision hasn't gotten any worse, in fact, it's gotten slightly better, most noticable neon like lights which nothing has helped with that I've taken previously. I'm feeling more organized mentally and just more with the program. There is no way I could have placeboed myself with this and I know that's not what's going on. In total, I've taken three and half 50mg pills for the week as I've increased it rapidly in the last two or three days to see what the effect would be. Right now I don't know if staying with a low dose or an even lower dose like some of these websites advocate would be the way to go or a regular dose is best. Either way this is definitely a beneficial med for HPPD as I've said I've been on everything so if I get relief, others I would hope have to as well. It kind of pisses me off because if you go and look up the old old HPPD board, the stormloader board, Naltrexone is listed as a possible treatment and I never tried it, but I tried all of the others at some point or other. I know too that some people on the Depersonalization boards have tried Naltrexone and haven't gotten anything from it but I don't think this would be the case with HPPD as no offense but a lot of those people's DP lean more to the psychological side or posssibly something else where HPPD etiology is something of it's own, I couldn't talk myself out of HPPD you know? There was a paper written in '97 by Lerner about anecdotal accounts of HPPD being treated with Naltrexone and I've looked everywhere for them on the internet but nothing comes up. So bottom line, Naltrexone working, good, good, good, give it a shot, it would be nice to see this concurred with others. I'll update this as I go a long, if you have any questions don't hesitate to drop a line. It would be nice to see some activity on this board as it literally hasn't moved in over a week. I hope I made this readable enough for everyone. The knock out effect has dissipated over the week too. Good Luck!!!

what is the issue? time? money? what does all this constitute?

good luck getting that, it's an injectable too, probably possible. I may have stumbled across something, but i'll let you know in a couple of weeks when I'm sure, also, i'll be asking my doctor about naltrexone regardless here soon.

I haven't

How did you stumble across this? Has somebody tried it?

I always noticed a drop in DP when I took opiates, even if it was slight, and it would linger for a day or two, not that I was abusing them, just if I got them for some other kind of pain. I should be getting some naltrexone which I know isn't that hopefully in a couple weeks when i see the doc, I want to ask him about it. I know that the reviews at the DP site have been mixed but there supposedly have been a couple of instances where it relieved HPPD. I'll let you know.

I was just wondering who has trouble with neon lights since I don't hear it mentioned so much. I guess this comes more from shroom hppd than lsd. Mainly street lights, car lights, any artificial light basically that's kind of bright or neon like. Has this gotten better for anyone? If so from what? Thanks

i think it's the mix with klonopin with it, something about a klonopin kicker.... klonopin seems univeral to most regardless

lol HOLY SHIT!!!!!

so you were having "episodes" and your visual phenomenon wasn't constant?

so it was mainly the klonopin that helped you out, since you were off remeron for awhile?

yeah, just stay away from things altogether and you'll probably start leveling out

even if they get a little worse, the worst thing you can do is take more psychedelics, just ride it out for awhile and see where your at

A

yeah, abstain from everything for a while, definitely stay away from psychedelics and just try to go about everything normally, don't dig your hole any deeper