onedayillsailagain

I feel compelled to add something to this thread regarding St. John's wart. It made my symptoms worse by a factor of 10. What could have been the basis for this?

Thanks for the heads up. Did the aggravation persevere after cessation of SJW, or did they dissipate thereafter?

Californiaguy: Hey cool study, thanks! I'm about to start playing with SJW myself, see how that pans out. Seems like one of those things you need to take for at least a few weeks before effects become noticeable.

I don't really remember what I was going to comment on the serotonin syndrome theory.. Basically the inducing drugs should cause for mass downregulation of 5HT receptor, universally when speaking of MDMA, selectively when speaking of LSD. Perhaps as a compensatory attempt the brain overproduces 5HT after this event, preventing subsequent upregulation? I've no literature to back that up; just a wild thought. I'd like to see more ideas on this; don't have much myself at the moment.

On theory generally accepted to cause upregulation is indeed either long-term antagonism, or the lesser known process of short-term/intermittent agonism. I fear the process would be quite slow though, but indeed worth the investigation. One thing that might hinder this, is if the individual is stressed. How directly, I don't know, but I doubt it would be very beneficial. Perhaps as a reduction of visual symptoms this might help, but for other symptoms I'm not so sure.

Merry Sinemet day Chris.

I think it may depend on what SSRI in particular. Paxil for example has anticholinergic effects, albeit not as bad as Scopolamine for instance.
Which are the most common SSRI's reported to have adverse effects? I did Prozac for a while, and I didn't experience any effects.
Are you suggesting that HPPD may be a case of serotonin syndrome/too much serotonin? I have some thoughts on that which I'll try to add later.
Funny; because I tried Tianeptine, which is a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Enhancer, and albeit not a fair trial, the first week I noticed some benefits such as anxiolysis. I quit after week 2 however, because I didn't notice any benefits past ~day 3-6 and wrote it off as placebo, plus I tend to be impatient and I was going to try something else. Hardly can this be seen as useful data though, considering the improper trial.

By the way; Ketanserin seems better from an initial glance.

IMO drop the Tramadol and try the Gabapentin by itself.

Cheers Syntheso!

Sam:
I'd imagine it would be equally difficult if not more so to get Suboxone prescribed. Acquiring it is of course a different story, and it would be likely that if you can acquire Buprenorphine you can acquire Naltrexone as well. Indeed, dosage is something that would need to be worked out. I've seen some posts about it in one of the links I've mentioned, and as soon as I reread the thread I'll post a direct link here. Apparently with the correct ratio of Buprenorphine/Naltrexone dosage, tolerance can be avoided as well as addiction. Or so I've read in a glance. I'll post that too once I find it again.

Yes I too believe this holds great potential

Anyhow; I'm able to acquire all of the above, so I'll have to quit Keppra first. Also, I'm hoping that the process of acquiring JDtic will go faster than that of Coluracetam. In any case I'm definitely going to try it when possible, so I'll see how that goes. Depending on how long it'll take, I might not even bother with Naltrexone/Naloxone/Suboxone/Buprenorphine. Also, I think Nalmefene might take a while to be available here, so I presume JDtic will be available faster than that.

I'll probably go commando when I do try the JDtic; not sure about interactions etc. Haven't even looked into the studies.
Ohh.. I was going to type more but I typed this 2 hours ago so I forgot. I'll just press post.

You took the words right out of my mouth.. I feel like that every other day or so. None of the supplements/noots have been helping significantly then?
Sorry to hear man.. I know it can be fucking hard. Just you know.. keep as positive as possible, and know that we're all working on finding a cure/treatment.
Can't be much longer now 'till one is found, or so I like to think. Some people (divided over several forums) are on to something with KOR antagonism; seems to be ace for DP. And afaik 90% of us say that if only the DP/DR/Anxiety/Depression/Brainfog was gone, we could live with the visuals.

Anyhow; good luck with your appointment!

TMS on this part of the brain perhaps?

Yes.

Thanks Andrew. Bummer about the Naloxone. Have you tried combining buprenorphine with naltrexone instead?
What do you mean by 'white gf with extra pulp'?

Anyway; as an update: I bought Perika SJW and Ginkgold Ginkgo. However it's unlikely that these will contain any amount of Amentoflavone. But I figured what the hey; worth a shot regardless of that. Also, for those interested, I've provided the following links that discuss the merits of Kappa Opioid Receptor Antagonism:
Link 1
Link 2

And my own thread.

And a thread over at DPselfhelp about Nalmefene.

I've been thinking about trying Buprenorphine+Naltrexone, however I'd have to completely quit Levetiracetam before doing that.

@@Syntheso KOR antagonism supports your idea of NMDA agonism, which would be a downstream effect of KOR antagonism.

Well I went ahead and ordered Perika SJW, along with Ginkgold Gingko Biloba, which are both supposedy the best of the best.
Should be here in a few days, so I'll start with them when they arrive. And I'll try to adhere to a regimen for sake of evaluation.
I'll post my experiences here.

Hmm.. apparently SJW may cause cataracts.. Well I guess using NAC eye drops could put that into balance.

Anyone have any experiences with Naltrexone? Or Naloxone, but I believe the latter is only available intravenously, hence I doubt anyone has tried this for the long-term. If you do have any experience with either of these, how did it help? Apparently Naloxone is pretty ace for DP, but of course comes with practical difficulties.

There was an average 30% reduction of symptoms with treatment, as measured by 3 validated dissociation scales. Three patients were very much improved, and 1 patient was much improved with naltrexone treatment. These findings are potentially promising in a highly treatment-refractory disorder for which no treatment guidelines exist and warrant a randomized controlled trial.

An open trial of naltrexone in the treatment of depersonalization disorder.

In three of 14 patients, depersonalization symptoms disappeared entirely and seven patients showed a marked improvement. The therapeutic effect of naloxone provides evidence for the role of the endogenous opioid system in the pathogenesis of depersonalization.

Effect of Naloxone therapy on depersonalization: a pilot study.

Also Suboxone has been reported to help with DP/DR, but I haven't looked into that.

What I'm interested in is "Amentoflavone", found in SJW and Ginkgo Biloba, which is an antagonist at the Kappa and Delta sites (not sure about the latter). No; this is not a hippie agenda, it's merely because Naltrexone, Naloxone, and Suboxone are particularly hard to get prescribed, thus Amentoflavone would be the easiest way to go. Anyway, you also might want to have a read through this post about Suboxone virtually curing DP.

Though pure Amentoflavone is really expensive and hard to get, I'd thought that perhaps combining high-quality extracts of both SJW and Ginkgo Biloba may have a chance at helping.. Thinking about trying this out myself. I haven't ever tried SJW, so I thought it could be an interesting idea. As for Ginkgo; I've tried your average supermarket brand without any noticeable effects. Turns out that quality and brand really does matter, so it's worth giving another shot. Altogether that would be +/-$40 for a 20 day trial of both with the products I'm considering, so not ridiculously expensive.

Input anyone?

Any updates on St. John's Wort? I was reading about opiod antagonism mitigating depersonalization, and found that Amentoflavone is a plant constituent found in Ginkgo Biloba and SJW, among others, that acts as an opiod antagonist, which I found quite interesting. I haven't given SJW a try myself, though now I'm considering it. Does anyone have any input? Cheers.

Just a comment on Tramadol: I tried it too.. I didn't notice much of an effect besides that I would 'dream' I had convulsions. I say dream because I don't know whether it happened for real. As I would drift off I would semi-awaken and experience what I can't describe other than convulsions. Then again, the stuff I had I ordered online and it may well have been bunk, but I did notice that effect. In any case it did nothing for my HPPD or other symptoms.

Congratulations Chris; hope it helps!

I've combined it with Choline Bitartrate twice I believe, but no; generally I don't take choline supplements.

Maybe we should all get our prostates removed? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3377929
Just kidding, haha But Glycine levels do seem correlated with the VEP P2 component, however not with latency, or at least not in this study.

Ohh I see I never updated this one.
Alright so the first day I ended up doing 100mg, or 10 gums, and it was quite nice. The second day I did 60mg, or 6 gums, and it started getting a bit.. spacey and lethargic. But I can't say this isn't due to the usual weirdness.

Last night I had 3 gums, or 30mg, before bed, and I slept freaking amazing again. Before I fell asleep, I felt a several pleasant waves/rushes from my head down to my feet. Also some long lost memories past through my mind's eye, which was refreshing. Can't remember them as vividly now, but it was nice.

Think I'm going to stick to using these at night though. In any case; I sure like the product.

Damn if I really can't sleep I go all the way with whatever I have: Damiana, Melatonin, 20-spices tea with honey lemon and milk, Magnesium, sometimes Passiflora.. Recently also CBD has been awesome for sleep, which I'll give another go tonight to confirm. I really just make do with whatever I have available. I know Kava was pretty awesome for sleep as well. Ashwagandha in particular I only take at night, but I've only taken it a few times. Though there comes a point where I wonder how it'll all interact, so usually I don't combine too many things. I still have this one product "Instant Tranquil-ability" with Mulungu, Wild Lettuce, California Poppy, and a bunch of other herbs that I haven't tried yet, for the reason that it has so many ingredients! But generally speaking I know nothing about histamine so I don't mess with it consciously.. Not sure if histamine drugs are the way to go for sleep, but what I've listed usually helps with sleep, some better than others, so perhaps give those a try

Ahh I see what you're getting at.. Yeah sometimes I too get that: Ohh shit it's too much. Waking up can take me anywhere up to an hour sometimes, just trying to adjust to being awake (and to the light). Dunno about goggles though.. would be quite uncomfortable. But a ceiling lamp above your bed that could do this, combined with closed curtains, may be an idea. Just the money.. ohh the money

the therapeutic and neuroprotective potential of drugs that attenuate glutamate release should be explored in traumatized individuals with dissociative symptoms.

It's a tough one.. You obviously don't want glutamatergic excitotoxicity, but I wonder whether mitigating the toxicity/its effects is sufficient to alleviate symptoms? It would be more like slowing down the detrimental effects rather than stopping it all together, or so I'd think. Nice work though! Finding what causes this extensive glutamate release may provide for a better way to stop it from occurring altogether in the first place; on a physiological level that is.

Which may lead back to endocrinology.. And there is development in all kind of hormonal drugs. Problem with hormones is that they effect the entire body, and messing with those can lead to a wide array of changes to the body. IIRC corticosteroid receptor blockers (can't remember the exact scientific name alas) have been made/discovered an are being tested. If these would be brain-specific, that might be interesting..

Perhaps I'm taking it at a wrong angle, but I feel there must be something in between the steps that may be more beneficial/specific. Just a hunch though.

GLYX-13 does look awesome, and I'd like to try it, but yeah.. circumstances and all. Perhaps it's worth the dig to see if there are any other substances that produce the same or similar effects, even if indirectly? Also, what else is involved? I don't know why this is popping to mind, but my mind says "Glycine" and/or "Glucose"..  (EDIT: turns out Glycine is indeed involved.. perhaps worth looking into?)Can't connect the dots myself, but usually when stuff pops into my mind like that, even when I don't know how it's related, it turns out it is related anyway. I'm just too lazy to help you out on this one for now, I'm sorry! But like I said; perhaps an idea to try to understand more about glutamate release, from bottom to top and all interlinking mechanisms that play with it, to get a bigger picture.

Again; nice work!

Hurrah! Thanks Visual!

• The right temporo-parietal junction: a specific brain region for thinking about thoughts 
  
• Multisensory Mechanisms in Temporo-Parietal Cortex Support Self-Location and First-Person Perspective
  
• Neural correlates of the first-person perspective
  
• Dissociated visual perceptual and spatial deficits in focal lesions of the right hemisphere
  

Prism adaptation reverses the local processing bias in patients with right temporo-parietal junction lesions.

Ohh hey this one is interesting:
 

We report the case of an 84-year-old lady who, after a right temporo-parietal infarction, complained of seeing things smaller than she expected. She also related that straight lines appeared distorted and described seeing colours as if they were a badly mixed assemblage of hues. Her visual field was normal except for a transient left field extinction. No spatial neglect emerged. The patient's micropsia remained unchanged during the course of the six month follow-up.

PubMed