neffbull

I'm sorry that has been your case but you said medication can't help anyone. There's a big difference. That's good to hear that your visuals have gone away! Did you have anxiety before HPPD? The anxiety that started with my HPPD is the worst and strongest symptom that I have. Have you tried talking to a doctor about taking something for your depression? This sounds like you want to take drugs to self medicate. Could you expand on the side effects that you experienced? Did the brain fog come back like it was before? How long did you take it for? Were you taking anything else with it (legal and/or illegal drugs? I've been hoping to give it a try but I've had issues with depression and anxiety so that's worrying.

Did your OCD start before or after you developed HPPD? I didn't have it until after and have been wondering if there is a link between the two.

Just wanted to make sure Are you talking about the study that the Army did? Sounds like could work for you " 8 military prisoners were sucessfully treated with haloperidol. The case description suggest that several subjects suffering from an underlying chronic psychotic disorder " http://www.esciencecentral.org/journals/hallucinogen-persisting-perception-disorder-hppd-and-flashback-are-they-identical-jaldd.1000121.pdf I've been trying to find the article but everything has been a dead end

I'll check that out. What dosage are you taking? Type of magnesium? Any specific brand?

Lamictal is used to treat bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety and can help with HPPD. Its helped me with all of those, apart from bp which it looks like I don't have. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamotrigine

Does your doctor understand that HPPD isn't a psychotic disorder? Or are you experiencing psychosis on top of the HPPD? "It is important to note that in contrast to classical psychotic disorders, patients with HPPD recognize the unreal nature of their visual disturbances which qualifies them as pseudohallucinations." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3736944/

" Dramatic improvement with naltrexone (50 mg daily) was reported in two young men with LSD-induced HPPD. The remission was sustained as it was possible to discontinue the naltrexone after 2 months without precipitating a relapse " https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3736944/table/table2-2045125312451270/ Whats wrong with treating symptoms? Lamictal hasn't "cured" me but it has dramatically increased my quality of life.

It sounds like you need to start hanging around new people, Gman. They clearly don't care if they are willing to drug you with spice of all things. "Connor Eckhardt, a 19 year old from Roseville, died after using the legal marijuana-like drug "spice" one time." http://goo.gl/8mCg0F "Missing Teenager Found In Coma After Reportedly Taking Spice" http://goo.gl/xfdMTV "Teen narrowly escapes death after smoking synthetic marijuana" http://goo.gl/vlakHC We are here to help one another and it is frustrating to see people choose to be self-destructive instead of taking care of themselves. It's especially frustrating to see people as young as Gman, who I'm fairly certain is 17, fuck themselves over before their lives have even started. He finally started feeling better after starting buspar and the first thing he does it start smoking weed again. "Common triggers for HPPD symptoms include fatigue, marijuana, and alcohol. 'Marijuana is probably the worst,' says Abraham. 'For this population, it’s absolutely contraindicated. This is the kind of thing a doctor needs to tell them.'" http://goo.gl/wXx6JH If someone is an alcoholic and a doctor tells them they need to stop drinking or their liver will fail, it would be pretty dumb if they kept drinking just because they enjoy getting sloshed. Drug use has caused our brains to malfunction to such an extent that we are constantly hallucinating and dealing with debilitating anxiety. It's probably not the smartest thing in the world to continue using drugs. Personally, I think not having HPPD sounds more enjoyable than getting high for a couple of hours.

Why risk things getting worse?

Sorry about taking so long to respond. I didn't realize that the site doesn't send notifications that someone replied. What I've found that helps reduce my stress with out medication are the following: Running a couple miles a few times a week. Typically my visuals are worse when running so don't let that discourage you. Just do your best to push on if that happens. Running not only places you in a meditative state but it causes a wide variety of positive changes to the brain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurobiological_effects_of_physical_exercise) Seeing a talk therapist. I personally see one once a week. It is incredibly relieving to have someone who you can talk to about everything and anything and know that what you say won't end up as gossip. If you have ever had a heart to heart with someone, think about it being like that only this person has a degree in having heart to heart conversation and finding possible solutions to what is upsetting you. Avoiding caffeine. Sometime I can drink caffeine without an increase in symptoms but it isn't worth the risk. If I'm tired then it just means that I need to turn off the tv and go to bed earlier. Avoiding nicotine. Tobacco has been shown to increase ones base line anxiety, so it's best to avoid even if it gives you a brief sense of relief. Not withdrawing social. It has been shown that people with social support who deal with any type of trauma tend to recover better than those with non. With significant anxiety this is hard, I've been a shut in for the past year, but it can be done. I'm currently attending an anxiety support group and I typically feel a huge sense of relief by the end of the meetings. Finding a something to distract you. When my anxiety gets really bad I find fast past first person shooters help distract me long enough for my anxiety level to go down. Accepting my current situation. We cannot time travel and stop this from happening. Based on who we were and what was happening in our life, it made total sense for us to ingest the drugs that lead us here. Talk therapy has helped with this one. Maintaining hope. This quote has helped me immensely when I was struggling to push myself; "Discomfort is where change takes place." http://www.muscleandfitness.com/athletes-celebrities/hero-maker-celebrity-trainer-duffy-gavers-keys-success

I'm a longtime lurker finally coming out of the shadows. It's getting there. My vision has recovered to about ~85-90% were it once was, anxiety is ~80, but is drastically improving, and my brainfog is probably around 75-80% better. A lot of my progress is due to increasing my lamictal to 300 and talk therapy because they have both helped reduce my levels of anxiety.

That's bizarre. Had you ever had a seizure before starting effexor? I never experienced that with it but it sounds very similar to what I felt the first time it ate shrooms. Could that be due to the possible seizures that it was causing? Strangely, I had never been able to think clearer than when I was taking effexor and adderall, though that might have been do to it helping my anxiety. Same. Everyone told me that it changed my personality for the worse and I ended up down a brutal path of self destruction that helped landed me here. But I could see it helping someone with crippling anxiety that wants to taken an antidepressant. Side note: Is there any way to turn on notifications on this forum? I didn't realize that you aren't notified if someone comments on a thread after you post.

For what it's worth, I took effexor for a few months pre-HPPD and it obliterated my anxiety but didn't do much for my depression. YMMV

Has anyone tried it? I looked through the forums and couldn't find much. I've been taking lamictal and it has eliminated the majority of my symptoms, but there is still some residual anxiety and I'm thinking about trying a low dose of lithium (~300 mg a day) to tackle it. Hope everyone is one is doing well!

Things that have helped me: 1. Staying sober apart from nicotine, caffeine (after my anxiety became manageable) and an occasional 40 2. Talk therapy 3. Drug therapy with Lamictal (200 mg is working incredibly well for me ) 4. Working out, especially running, helped clear up the majority of my brain fog over the course of a couple months (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurobiological_effects_of_physical_exercise) 5. Getting 8 hours of sleep (Not getting enough sleep ALWAYS increased the severity of my symptoms) 6. Patience and maintaining hope! A year ago to date I decided that if things weren't after a year I was going to commit suicide. I was severely depressed and could barely function (I left the house ~once a month to get vodka). Today? I'm preparing applications to go back to school and am feeling better than I have in years No nootropics helped me personally, hppd wise, but piracetam did help a bit with the fatigue.

Did you quote yourself? lol

For number 2, have you thought about cutting your hair? One of the biggest things that has helped me recover, and from what I have read from most people recovering from hppd, is stress reduction. Your hair triggering symptoms of HPPD doesn't sound like it is helping you recover. For number 3, there is a medication called clonidine that is a sedative and has at least one published report of someone being apparently cured. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10836284

Well at least brain fog isn't something you are probably dealing with Everything you wrote is bang on and incredible well written! From my perspective, the only thing that could be added is the addition of medication along with working with a psychologist because the combination of the two have helped me immensely. Thanks for writing this out!

For what it's worth, after increasing my lamictal dosage from 150, which I had been take for months, to 200mg I saw a drastic change in my symptoms. Ghosting now surprises me when it happens because it has pretty well disappeared. No more distortion on walls. Visual snow at night has reduced to the point that it no longer "blinds" me but it is still some what there. Most importantly the brain fog, depression and anxiety have diminished greatly. From 25-150mg I hadn't noticed much more then slight reductions in my visuals. Everyone is different, obviously, but I don't what people to completely dismiss these drugs.

What doses helped you?

FYI increasing and decreasing medication dosages doesn't mean that the side effects will increase or decrease. Sometime people will react poorly to a low dose and well to a higher one. Of course, the opposite is also true. Do your best to give it a full trial and follow your doctors advice. Meds should be given at least a month or two to really know if they will help and what side effects will probably stick around. This is coming from every doctor I have met that prescribed me medication. It may suck for a bit but so does dealing with this bull**** disorder.

https://genesforgood.sph.umich.edu/ I don't know if they provide testing for the FLNA gene but they will analyze your dna and send you the data for free. It is run by the University of Michigan so it's legitimate. https://genesforgood.sph.umich.edu/ FYI, I finish the surveys (took a week) at the end of October, sent the spit sample the second week of november, and after recently talking to them I should receive the results sometime in February (they sent it to the lab Dec 1 and said it takes two months). Once you receive your DNA data upload it to this site https://promethease.com/ondemandagreed