Valerian root?

[TheForeverTrip]

Has anyone here tried valerian root? I've heard it can be used as a replacement for clonazepam, since I have a rough history of benzo addiction, clonazepam is not a option for me. I'm going to start trying valerian and keeping a journal. I'm curious if anyone has had any experience with it? 

[tomvillen]

My HPPD started after taking valerian root (with prior use of MDMA but that was 6 months before! and no signs of HPPD until that moment). But it can be highly individual, I am not sure why this triggered HPPD for me.

[SomebodySomewhere]

On 10/7/2023 at 2:17 PM, tomvillen said:

My HPPD started after taking valerian root (with prior use of MDMA but that was 6 months before! and no signs of HPPD until that moment). But it can be highly individual, I am not sure why this triggered HPPD for me.

This interests me.

You say MDMA 6 months prior, but what about any other substances since then? Weed, even alcohol in proximity to taking the Valerian, or even an SSRI? Anything at all.

What HPPD symptoms do you have, and do you have DP/DR as well?

[tomvillen]

10 hours ago, SomebodySomewhere said:

This interests me.

You say MDMA 6 months prior, but what about any other substances since then? Weed, even alcohol in proximity to taking the Valerian, or even an SSRI? Anything at all.

What HPPD symptoms do you have, and do you have DP/DR as well?

No weed, no substances, alcohol yes but not during the last month before the start of my HPPD, as I started taking St. John’s Wort and I did not want to mix it with alcohol. From what I know, it acts similarly as SSRI, but I took it without problems in 2017-2018 and I also did not have any problems at that time (in the last month before the start of HPPD) in December 2021. I stopped taking it about a week before taking valerian root.

When I wanted to take St. John’s Wort again in January 2022, I couldn’t. Even just one dose worsened my HPPD for the next few months.

My HPPD started going away quite quickly, but it was permanently worsened by gabapentine in April 2022.

It started with all visual symptoms, especially the wavy text in the beginning. The snow itself + tracers went away, but I struggle with very severe ghosting and palinopsia. Now after the second hand smoke of weed that happened last week, even the wavy vision and tracers came back and I felt like the world was not real.

All benzos except clonazepam also make me temporarily worse. I have not tried SSRI thanks to the advice on this forum.

I have severe OCD-like anxiety (it was very mild before HPPD), regarding DPDR… well, I suspect that my other vision problems are part of DPDR. I have also had colourful migraine auras and problems coming from cervical spine (but I have learned to distinguish HPPD and visual snow coming from the spine, which is rather mild). Sometimes it is still hard to say what causes which though, as my vision is influenced due to a car accident. But I think that DPDR caused me moments when I thought I was going blind. 

[SomebodySomewhere]

Do you feel it's possible that your hppd symptoms could be heavily influenced by your migraine with aura and car accident?

I'm just playing devils advocate, I don't doubt you got HPPD from Valerian. I'd have to look it up but I believe valerian affects both gaba and serotonin.

[tomvillen]

They are for sure. However, the car accident happened AFTER the start of my HPPD.

On this website, I have encountered a few cases where people developed it after like 6-12 months after taking MDMA/LSD - they took cough syrup/DXM and it started, even though they were clean during the previous 6-12 months. Or maybe it can be linked to St. John's Wort which made some people worse. I really don't know. I remember that I saw very mild visual snow in my room at night with lights off in the months after taking MDMA, but that's actually what many people see - at least in my family. VSS runs on my mom's side of the family on top of that. But I have been free of any symptoms till 2021.