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Wow, I've had this for 11 years with no idea what it was...


Dannohawk

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LSD triggered it when I was 19 and I'm now 30. At that time I suffered from severe short term memory loss, a bright static fuzz, and pretty funky patterns on everything. Since then I've had to pretty much progressively give up alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, and even ibuprofen. I'm now even worried that pollution is making my symptoms worse. And it does seem to be getting worse over time. Even while I'm typing this the room is floating up and down making it hard for me to concentrate. 

 

My doctor told me that I was suffering from drug induced psychosis and prescribed me Trazodone. Which of course didn't help.  

 

But at the same time the idea that there's actually other suffers, treatments, and even people for whom the symptoms have cleared up completely leaves me feeling elated. Even having a name for the condition feels good.

 

So if you guys have any advice on any treatments that could help me I'd really appreciate it.    

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My thought would be to lower the lighting of the room and perhaps even the lighting of the display. It helps that my PC monitor sits against a blank white wall but if I'm at work its black and white tiled floor makes it hard for me look at my phone for longer than it takes to read a paragraph or perhaps write a sentence. I guess I've always learned learned to deal with it like when I tried reading in the back of my parent's car on our first trip when we lived in England and it made me want to throw up after a bad headache. The Gameboy however had never been an issue when I finally got one of those and back then it was the original that had the dot matrix screen but even the Sega Gamegear was fine on the road with enough breaks. I guess a lighted screen held in your hand seems to bounce around along with you better than text on a page.

 

As for your doctor I wouldn't talk to him about HPPD but rather find one that may have more knowledge of it. What you have is nowhere near as bad as psychosis which is a real bad disconnection with reality and actually believing something false. Whereas we just notice the little stuff, dwell on it and we are still aware of our actions and what is supposed to be real but it may not appear to be real to the eye or senses. The trick is to ignore it or find some other mental exercises if you can't find something else to distract your attention long enough to finally find yourself asleep or more aware before you realize it. Just thinking about it is like a constant feedback loop that is more likely to keep itself going unless you figure out that you have the keys and can turn it off when it's not needed. Well, the fuzzy light won't go away as easily but it too can be ignored enough to enjoy a 3D movie like when I just saw The Edge of Tomorrow.

 

I'm sure I have more ideas but I'm just a new guy here and I'm positive there's some better advice on the way.

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Welcome to the site... I also went along time, 14 years i think, without knowing what this condition was... It is quite amazing when you finally hit the right search terms in google and find this place!

 

The only treatment that seems to help me is Clonazepam.... I use it on a 3 days on, 4 days off basis.... It gives me a break from my symptoms, but the 4 days off seem to help avoid addiction and tolerance (I have more or less stuck to this for 5 years now, occasionally taking a 7-14 day break from the med to make sure I am not getting addicted). It has made my life quite a lot more bearable. But do you research, especially about the addiction side of things (and depression side effects).

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Is Trazodone the only med you have tried?  How did that med affect you?

 

Would you describe your current symptoms is more detail?  Do you have changes in depth perception, color, trails/tracers, starbursts, etc..?

 

I speak as one who is bothered by pollution - even diagnoses as such (which is amazing to have any doctors actually recognize) - so perhaps there are similarities between our cases.

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Hey guys,

 

Thank's for the advice RLS, I'll try the computer thing. And yes Visual, Trazodone is the only med I've tried. It made things slightly worse so I stopped it. Recently I've noticed the trails/tracers getting worse, the fuzz is brighter and more colourful, I've got a very muddled head, and it feels like everything's floating around. It's very disorienting. I've not even thought about this for maybe a couple of years so it's quite distressing, but I'm comforted by the fact it's got like this before (because of alcohol, coffee, ibuprofen pills ect...) and then gone back to a manageable level again after a few weeks

 

​Jay, I've read some of your posts and I think we're had very similar experiences. I can really empathise with what you've been through. But after abstaining from drugs for seven odd years I'd be scared to start taking anything again. How much does Clonazepam reduce your symptoms? 

 

​I'm hoping I've had a flair up because of all the mould in my work room, because some of your members have talked about being affected by mould. Anyway last night I took care of all the mould in the house so hopefully I should improve over the next week or two. 

​And whether my doctor has heard of hpps or not, I'm going to fill him in anyway. So it's on my medical records, if I can react so badly to an ibuprofen pill I think my doctor should know.     

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The clonazepam... at around 1mg, i get a mild reduction in visual symptoms and trippy feeling, but quite a strong reduction in anxiety. Good for family gatherings, parties etc... where the anxiety would usually be a little higher.

 

At 1.5mg-2mg... My visuals and the trippy feelings reduce significantly, upto around 70% reduction. Anxiety is almost gone completely and I can deal with most anything.. clients meetings, public speaking etc. It also helps alot with the occasional hangover I tend to find myself with!

 

After so long without a days relief (other than alcohol) it was almost a miracle.... In fact, the first time I took klono and felt like I had stopped tripping.... I got scared and actually went on the hunt for some weed to make me feel "normal" again... Strange how you get used to the hand you are dealt.

 

 

If you are strong willed, I would give it a go. It is actually one of the safer meds you could get hold of as long as you don't drink with it.

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Drinking kills me the next day (without klono) but makes me feel alive on the night itself.... I've calmed down a lot these days though... Just a few beers here and there

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