A New Direction Of Treatment

[DizzyMike]

Hi,

I'm new to this site, but a veteran of hppd and it's associated symptoms.

Anyways, I've been down the traditional routes with little relief; I am now trying a different approach. At the request of my neurologist (a smart guy in his own right) I am going into vision therapy.

 

After reviewing the site -- http://drmccrodan.com/brain-injury/ -- I am fairly confident that this will have an impact. The overlap between hppd symptoms and traditional brain injury symptoms cannot be ignored. If you read that webpage you will see that he is talking about exactly what we are dealing with and I hope that his treatment is effective.

 

Here are the symptoms of a brain injury (chemical imbalances are brain injuries in their own right)

• Sensitivity to light
• Sensitivity to patterns
• Double vision
• Swimming sensations or moving backgrounds
• Moving objects appearing to have a trail behind them
• Not being able to focus for periods of time
• Difficulty changing point of focus
• Headaches or Migraines
• Poor hand-eye coordination
• Reduced peripheral vision
• Dizziness/nausea
• Poor depth perception

For me this is very exciting after being static for so long. In my opinion I think the "cure" for what we have will come from retraining of the brain, not retaking of a pill. I will update this thread as the therapy progresses. Wish me luck

 

- Mike

 

ps. A link for the users who wish to read studies on the effectiveness of such treatment http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18156092

[chrismo]

I've looked at something similar myself, possibly to be used in conjunction with medication. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with this, although I imagine it will take a fair amount of time for any benefits to occur.

[Syntheso]

This is great, I agree with your thinking somewhat. Ditto the above - look forward to hearing back from you.

[DizzyMike]

I had my initial appointment today and it seems promising. I was fit with some special lenses to help with my eye streaking, blurriness, and overall weirdness. They actually worked! I am now able to look at a pattern and it seems mostly stationary. In combination with these training lenses I will be embarking on 30 weeks of therapy(eye training).

This is the first concrete change in my condition in 5 years.

He describes what's I'm experiencing as a "bug in my eye software" and believes we can fix it. I'll keep you guys updated.

[Merkan]

Well, neurofeedback has been suggested before, but no one really tried it cuz it was expensive. Tjis something different but yet very interesting. I hope you update frequently, so we get an idea if whats going on.

[LarryC]

I tried neurofeedback.  It did not help.

[Cupasoup]

Very interesting! I strongly belief that visual training has the potential to reduce visual symptoms. Maybe you should consider taking some supplements/nootropics that promote neurogenesis? E.g. Ashwaganda, Lions Mane, alpha-GPC, creatine

[onedayillsailagain]

I had my initial appointment today and it seems promising. I was fit with some special lenses to help with my eye streaking, blurriness, and overall weirdness. They actually worked! I am now able to look at a pattern and it seems mostly stationary. In combination with these training lenses I will be embarking on 30 weeks of therapy(eye training).

This is the first concrete change in my condition in 5 years.

He describes what's I'm experiencing as a "bug in my eye software" and believes we can fix it. I'll keep you guys updated.

Very interesting stuff Mike! Looking forward to further updates Will you be wearing these lenses all day during your 30 weeks (wow 30 weeks?!) training?

[DizzyMike]

Very interesting stuff Mike! Looking forward to further updates Will you be wearing these lenses all day during your 30 weeks (wow 30 weeks?!) training?

I'll only be wearing the glasses for close-work. Reading, computer, etc. The shape of the lens(prism) makes them less than pleasant for walking around, so I am not supposed to wear them while out and about.

[Syntheso]

I had my initial appointment today and it seems promising. I was fit with some special lenses to help with my eye streaking, blurriness, and overall weirdness. They actually worked! I am now able to look at a pattern and it seems mostly stationary. In combination with these training lenses I will be embarking on 30 weeks of therapy(eye training).

This is the first concrete change in my condition in 5 years.

He describes what's I'm experiencing as a "bug in my eye software" and believes we can fix it. I'll keep you guys updated.

Cool - have you been given some perceptual exercises ?

[DizzyMike]

Cool - have you been given some perceptual exercises ?

As of right now, I am pretty much just practicing focusing close and than far. One eye, other eye, then both. Unfortunately, I came off of lexapro a month ago after 4 years of taking it, this seems to be affecting me. For the first time in about 2 years I feel symptoms of dp/dr that are really freaking me out.

 

I will try to separate the eye issues from the DR.

[Syntheso]

Hi Mike,

After reading this you encouraged me to do the same. I have found a behavioural optometrist in London who is very interested in the condition and believes he may be able to help. I will be seeing him in two weeks.

He has had anecdotal success in positively affecting the visual cortex; his wife was suffering debilitating visual migraines (which occur in the VC as I'm sure you know) and when they occurred she had to stay in a dark room. He gave her some perceptual exercises and they stopped, except for once when she was pregnant. 

He also said;
 

Has anyone ever suggested omega 3 supplements? I ask because from the description of the problems, they all affect the peripheral vision pathway, which is mediated by different neurons than the central vision pathway. Many believe that supplements can help with deficiencies of that pathway. There is a special formulation known as Eye Q which is supposed to be a good mix of omega 3 and 6 and helps in that regard.

 

If you have not tried it, you don’t have much to lose…Has anyone ever suggested omega 3 supplements? I ask because from the description of the problems, they all affect the peripheral vision pathway, which is mediated by different neurons than the central vision pathway. Many believe that supplements can help with deficiencies of that pathway. There is a special formulation known as Eye Q which is supposed to be a good mix of omega 3 and 6 and helps in that regard.

 

If you have not tried it, you don’t have much to lose…

 

I believe others on the forum have looked into that. I am planning to do so too.

Best,
S

[DizzyMike]

Syntheso,

I really hope we are onto something and it does appear promising. Please keeps us updated on your experience and progress as well.

[DizzyMike]

Glasses should arrive next week.

[Syntheso]

Syntheso,

I really hope we are onto something and it does appear promising. Please keeps us updated on your experience and progress as well.

Will do, my appt is next wednesday.. look forward to hearing your results

[DizzyMike]

Thanks to JapaNese's cunning salesmanship I've decided to stop vision therapy and invest my resources in zithromax....

Anyway, I now have my glasses and am wearing them to type this. I think that they stabilize my vision a fair bit and hopefully over time I will see some other benefits.

[Syntheso]

Hey Mike et al,

So, my behavioural optometrist examination concluded the following;

- I was written a minor lens prescription. He said it was very subtle and most optometrists would not write it, but he did because he thought it would help my case.

 

- I qualify for vision therapy. This is due to the fact that when focusing on the background with one finger in the foreground, I was seeing one finger when normal vision processing should let you see two. This suggests that my brain is not processing as much visual information as it should, which makes sense.

- He believes 2 months in vision therapy once a week will resolve this processing issue, as well as some other coordination problems in my body, head tension, getting tired when reading etc. He also said that he could not guarantee but was confident that my HPPD perceptual distortions would also clear up in the process. I will be very surprised, but it's worth the shot!

Will keep you posted

 

[DizzyMike]

sytheso, how is your vision as far as 20/20 stuff goes? Mine is quite bad now, and I did poorly on almost every visual test. I think having hppd for so long may have wreaked havoc on my visual system.

 

Do you have prisms in your lenses? Do you wear the glasses all of the time?

 

All in all, it sounds promising and I hope we both see some markable changes!

[Syntheso]

sytheso, how is your vision as far as 20/20 stuff goes? Mine is quite bad now, and I did poorly on almost every visual test. I think having hppd for so long may have wreaked havoc on my visual system.

 

Do you have prisms in your lenses? Do you wear the glasses all of the time?

 

All in all, it sounds promising and I hope we both see some markable changes!

It was pretty good, slightly long-sighted but he said it was normal. It was the behavioural tests where I demonstrated dysfunction. Sorry to hear yours isn't so good.

There were these lens that he narrowed me down to and I swear when he put them in front of me all the mist on my vision was gone. I was so confused at the time and only got to glimpse that I couldn't be sure if I was 'seeing things'   I think this is the prescription he wrote me (I hope so). I asked him to put his observations in writing to me including details of the prescription lens, he hasn't got back to me yet. 

I haven't worn glasses yet, I am not sure how often I am meant to wear the one's coming.. I guess as and when. Again, still waiting to hear a bit more info on that.

Indeed it does, let's hope for the best!!

[brendan]

can a moderator please block japanese!?

[onedayillsailagain]

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

[DizzyMike]

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

Interesting, shows just how much of an affect altered vision has on your brain. HPPD's symptoms are more far-reaching than meets the eye...

[Syntheso]

I have started vision therapy. I will keep everyone updated.

My vision therapist, Mr G.Shindler has speculated the following;

 

As regards speculations, my thoughts are the following. Clearly, LSD has a powerful effect on the multiple visual areas in the brain; however some people have the persistent hallucinogenic perceptions, and some don’t. I was wondering if that if there was someone who does not use all the available visual connections in the brain, and suddenly these were stimulated by LSD, perhaps these connections would continue to fire in the absence of the LSD stimulus, and generate a visual effect. The first test I performed on you confirmed that you do not take advantage of a lot of the potential visual input, and increased my suspicions. Over the next few weeks I hope to coax you into being aware of more elements of the visual environment, in the hope that the visual snow will diminish. In the worst case scenario that that does not occur, you will still be using your eyes in a more efficient manner than as you started.

[morbide]

I will follow this with burning interest, this is really exciting!

[brendan]

very interesting - how much does this goober cost?