New Yorker -- A TRIP THAT DOESN’T END BY DORIAN ROLSTON

[David S. Kozin]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/05/a-trip-that-lasts-forever.html

 

AN EXCELLENT piece covering the complexity of this disorder by Dorian Rolsten. 

 

A must read. 

 

HPPDonline.com's stories, your words and complex stories, are part of this rich story that shows the difficulties and the misconceptions about this disorder.

 

A second article is coming. This was just a short piece (albeit the best written piece on HPPD to date.).

 

Thank you to everyone for participating in Dirk Hansen's piece for the Dana Foundation and with Dorion Rolsten for this piece.

 

 

Illustration by Ron Kurniawan. (Not used with Permission, but with much gratitude and I believe falls in the Good Faith reposting with link to the image. 

 

I have been extremely busy, and thank you to all of the new administrators for your work. The statistics show a large increase in searches for HPPD and related disorders. 

 

Best wishes for Good Health!

 

David Kozin

Administrator (Retired temporarily).

[morbide]

Saw this yesterday, excellent publicity!

[Jay1]

Great work... A very big step for the community.

 

I see, in the comments, they have already attracted one moron claiming that we are just weak minded. What a joke! We are some of the strongest minded people in the world... Most folk would have jumped off a cliff or grabbed their shotgun, by now.

[VisualDude]

Maybe there is a message for that moron ...

 

 

[mgrade]

Was this in the actual magazine or just-on-the-web?    

Guaranteed the author spend some time on this site. 

Very well written article.  

Did he mention ghosting??

[Jay1]

My only concern about the article was the mention of the person who thought they saw leaves moving when walking past certain trees.

 

While i empathise with the person (sorry, forgot who it was).... It is a one off symptom and just gave the article a bit of an "i thought i could fly" twist.... rather than concentrating on the symptoms that we all deal with and are relatable to the reader.

[VisualDude]

Lots of interesting stuff in the article, but on a negative side was the "old-chestnut" of implying that it is merely another anxiety disoder (typical weak-mind moronicity):

 

Such observations have raised doubt over whether hallucinogens are the root cause of the disorder, and even whether H.P.P.D. is a bona-fide diagnosis. “The more you focus on the condition, the more it spirals out of control,” said Halpern.

 

The citing of 500 Native American users of peyote not reporting HPPD is hardly 'proof' that HPPD is an 'acceptance' disorder.  Yes, these people do have a long generational acceptance of tripping as being spiritual - thus supposedly a 'good' thing - so being stuck in a trip must be quite a blessing.  But, they also share genetics.  And there is indication that genetics are involved, just as they are in so many diseases.

 

One could argue that cancer is a good thing.  Afterall, you are one step closer to God ... ahead of all the rest ... is that not good?  Perhaps defining cancer as a state of enlightenment is too novel an approach for us primitive mortals who dare to want to live.  But it would certainly work in the acceptance department.

 

Fortunately the article went on to show that neurological tests show altered brain functioning with HPPD, so all and all was good stratagem.

 

 

Medical history is rampant with the labeling "Hysteria" when a disease is poorly understood.  And clearly, the very definition of HPPD diagnosis has yet to be resolved, let alone any 'cure' to be found.

 

In fairness to Halpern, I'll focus on the condition of getting rich and see if wealth growth spirals out of control.  If so, I'll buy you all a drink...

[shaolinbomber]

I enjoyed that very much. Thank you for sharing that with us David. As always you lead the way for the outbreaks of progress within the community.

 

The problems I had with the paper have already been outlined by a couple of the other members. Particularly the part in the article that states that this disorder is only anxiety driven and, as they basically put it, "all in your head". Well I would love to give whoever has that opinion of this disorder just ONE day with true HPPD and we will see if they're opinion on it is the same. However, I am glad that they followed that piece up with the physiological findings of disinhibition in the neural processing of visual stimuli in the brain with neurological circuitry made to measure electrical activity.