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Why the terms hallucinogen persisting perception disorder is misleading about the condition


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Why the terms hallucinogen persisting perception disorder is misleading about the condition

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HPPD : Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) is a disorder in which a person has flashbacks of visual hallucinations or distortions experienced during a previous hallucinogenic drug experience, sometimes with the same feelings experienced before, which cause distress or impairment in work or everyday life. (very poor definition ; 70's pop culture, cliché. There is no such thing as Flashbacks, for exemple). People don't get stuck into flashbacks/trips, except the few unlucky ones who got schizophrenia triggered with the use of drugs. The so called "HPPD" symptoms most of us fight every days , have nothing to do with that.

 

What if i correct with the following definition :

HPPD is a Neurological disorder characterized by a continuous visual disturbance that occupies the entire visual field and is described as tiny flickering dots that resemble the noise of a detuned analogue television. In addition to the static, affected individuals can experience additional visual symptoms such as visual images that persist or recur after the image has been removed (palinopsia); sensitivity to light (photophobia); visual effects originating from within the eye itself (entoptic phenomena) and impaired night vision (nyctalopia).

>Non-visualsymptoms such as tinnitus, depersonalization-derealization, fatigue, ...

 

This is the definition of the visual snow syndrome.

 

Clearly, this is the same pathology.

 

To me , HPPD can be misleading, as it's a "perception disorder" equal to the "visual snow" condition.

We don't have persisting hallucinations as a matter of fact, same as "visualsnowers" dont have them either.

"Hallucinations" , in fact ( perception of non existing things) are irrelevant to describe our condition that has nothing to do with psychiatry

 

I actually try to have the wikipedia page changed, as it states HPPD main symptoms are ?? "flashbacks" ??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_perception_disorder

Probably written by casual psychiatrists....

 

I believe "flashbacks" can occur to psychedelic users, but it's absolutely unrelated to the main syndrome we experience.

The main characteristic and most annoying, being actual "visual snow"

 

Any one who agree, upvote this and , anyone documented enough to try to contribute to this wikipedia definition.

 

However, my addition was off course removed. I also publish this in the edits that was left (yet) :

Visual Snow Syndrome similitudes[edit]

I added a paragraph on the exact similitudes regarding both pathologies and why it's important to differentiate HPPD symptomatology from the actual "flashback" pop culture urban myth -- Thanks for removing my contribution but the definition here is really wrong and should be updated. flashbacks have nothing to do with HPPD and is not the main symptom of it.

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It is thought that there are two types of HPPD, most people with HPPD has HPPD Type I aka "flashback" ,while small percentage of HPPD-er (most of people here) has HPPD Type II, which is more disturbing and have more of the negative symptoms.

And yes, HPPD is accomplished by visual snow, but categorizing HPPD as a form of visual snow is problematic since scientists know nothing visual snow let alone HPPD,  and there is no guarantee that they are have same underlying mechanism.

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I don't have visual snow, never have.  I have visuals to beat the band, but no snow.  Categories, taxonomies,  labels, etc. never quite fit in the real world.  I think hppd a spectrum disorder as varied as the people who have it. 

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I wouldn't be surprised if there is a strong correlation between VSS and HPPD, considering the similarities of the conditions. Not everyone with VSS do have all the other symptoms associated with VSS and not everyone with HPPD have all the symptoms associated with HPPD.

I am speculating of course but considering the similarities, I get the feeling that the sort of neurological damage among (some at least) people with HPPD has gotten from drugs is something others are born with or develop later in life because of other conditions. Many people with VSS say they've gotten it from stress, anxiety, panic attacks, etc. and I've also seen speculation that HPPD might be associated with PTSD, and therefore there could be a correlation there.

My symptoms check of both VSS and HPPD symptom lists, but I am today convinced I do have HPPD after remembering some minor cases of "flashbacks" and hallucinations before developing VS, palinopsia, ghosting, halos, tinnitus, dp/dr, etc.

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On 5/31/2019 at 3:33 AM, sami said:

My symptoms check of both VSS and HPPD symptom lists, but I am today convinced I do have HPPD after remembering some minor cases of "flashbacks" and hallucinations before developing VS, palinopsia, ghosting, halos, tinnitus, dp/dr, etc.

Yes, i check that too, but in the end, after that hellish triggering phase ( last not more than a few months ), the condition is totally similar as VS it seems.

Also, i believe Visual Snowers who wake up with this shit suddenly must go into the same psychic trauma, horrible anxiety, depersonalisation , depression phase.

Once it's all gone , what's left is just the same syndrome.

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