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Hello everyone: My name is Marco, I am a 21 year old student living in Mexico. I'd like to tell you my story, my toughts towards HPPD and the lessons I've learnt from this experience. I developed HPPD on January 2021. I was throught a bad emotional moment, due to the pandemic and a broken relationship. Since august 2020 I had decided to try LSD so I did it with a couple of friends. I did it twice, both times in parties and drinking alcohol. having as a result pretty mild experiences. I've never really been into drugs: I'd tried weed before, a couple of times, also in social situations, but I was never a regular consumer. Then on October me and one of my best friends had mushrooms, which were actually very strong. I did not enjoy it at all, but nothing bad happened after that time. Then, at the beginning of this year, I bought acid and made the decision to have an LSD trip for the first time without alcohol or any other distraction. In fact I don't know if it was LSD or something else -based on the research I've been into these recent months it could've been N-BOME.- and had a horryfing bad trip, with lots of negativity and hopeless thoughts. The upcoming day everything changed. I almost had no sleep after the trip, as I was heading home from a holiday, and all the hallucination symptons remained more that two days. I almost had a panich attack and I had to tell my parents the situation as I thought I really needed to see a doctor or go to the hospital. Fortunately I was able to calm down and had some sleep after 36 hours. Since then I'm on this journey. I talked with some of my friends about my syptoms but everyone told me the same: they were normal, LSD may have some flashbacks and that it was nothing I should worry about. But the weeks passed and I was not feeling any better, but the opposite. Since my university classes are online now due the pandemic, I got a job on a hostal near the beach in Mexico. My plan was to travel the country as the school allowed me to take the remote classes wherever I was. My departure was scheduled one week after the LSD trip, so I almost decided to cancel it and to stay home. But finally I decided to travel anyway and here's wher I am right now. I must say some of my symptoms have improved a little since this started. But some have worsen at moments. Generaly I feel better than two months ago. February and March were definitely the worst period for me. I barely could not concentrate on my classes and tasks. I was drinking a lot, so I felt bad all day long. I had terrible headaches and pain in the eyes. My visuals were strong and the braing fog affected the way I talked and some of my daily activities. I decided to implement some changes on my lifestylle and they have helped me to feel better. I quited coffee and alcohol, and of course any kind of drugs. I have as much sleep as I can and I am trying also to eat healthier and to drink lots of water. It was hard for me to work out at the beginning but now I attempt to take a run three or four days a week. Anyway I don't feel capable to do some of the stuff I enjoyed the most before this started. I used to read a lot and now it is hard for me to concentrate, and it is painful actually to read. I used to play chess, to participate in forums. I wrote for a newspaper and had a radio show. I am aware that some of this activities are hard for me now because I've lost some confidence on myself. And also anxiety makes it way worse. I've realized that when I've been capable to lower my anxiety everything feels so much better. Traveling has been fun, but I haven't feel able to enjoy it a hundred percent. Now I am coming back home so I will experience again how it feels to have a routine and be more calmed as I won't have to work anymore and I'll have some time to rest, eat healthier and work out. I am not closed to the idea of seeing a doctor, but honestly with everything I've read about the condition I am not hopeful either. HPPD has taught me a lot about patience. I don't know if I'm ever gonna fully recover from this, but the only way I'll find out is with time. Taking one step at a time and working everday for my wellness and health. My hope is far to be over. I am a resiliant person and I've faced pretty hard challenges during my life. I try to see HPPD as another challenge life had for me. Of course it makes life so much harder, but also it feels right to notice I've been four months now with this, and yet I've managed to keep studiyng an International Relations bachelor in one of he most demanding universities in my country, to work in some of the most beautiful and touristic places in the world, made dozens of great friends from all over the world, worked as a High School english teacher, and discovered amazing spots with amazing people, enjoying the craziest adventures. Of course it hurts, of course it's hard, unconfortable, demanding, painful and discouraging. But I am not letting HPPD ruin my plans, goals, objectives and dreams. I'll force myself to be a more empathetic, healthy, honest and transparent human being. And also to help others and understand other people's problems. I really have to thank everyone on this forum. It has helped me a lot to understand more about this condition, the way I can live with this, and a source of inspiration and aid in some of my lowest moments. Greetings to everyone, if you have some recommendations, tips, or you just want to have a conversation feel free to send me a message, I'd love to meet you all. Marco S.

Hello. This is my first post. I'm sorry for the length but I didn't want to miss anything. I strongly urge you to read this because maybe I can't help everyone but I know I can help people with this information. I used to visit this website because I was absolutly sure I had hppd. I experienced a bad acid trip approximately 6 months ago. I essentially had a panic attack mixed with acid and I thought I was going to die. When I came out of it I felt as if I couldn't feel emotion anymore. However, the next day I woke up and felt ok so I never did acid again but I continued to smoke weed. Now My health I would say had been someone deterioating over the last two years. Nothing medical (doctors find nothing wrong) but I just felt shitty. Tired, lethargic, no libido and just no enthusiasm. Now I was at a families for dinner and was staying over night and ate a big meal (many courses and desert). I experienced what was essentially the same feeling as when I did acid and was I started panicking and thought I was having a heart attack, stroke, brain aneurism, something of that nature. My dad took me to the hospital and they found nothing wrong with me other than slightly low sodium levels and told me that I just had anxiety and was having all the signs of a panic attack. I had never been much of an anxious person and so this both surprised me and unerved me. Now when this happened I worried that I was perhaps contracting a mental disorder and this is what it was like to go crazy from drugs. I spent my days as alone as possible going to school (I go to university in Canada) and them coming home and staying in my room. The worst was the feelings of what this website calls depersonalization and deraelization. I felt like I was living in a dream and wasn't myself. I also experienced bad versions of visual snow (seeing little blue and red spots especially in the dark. Now what I began to notice is that when I ate alot of carbohydrates I had symptoms of the panic,,,, and this is when I found it. I don't know if this is the exact medical reason but I discovered something called candida. Essentially it is a gut disorder that many people experience to varying degrees and mine was bad. The reason it causes these symptoms is that it has no harmful affects other than your body must fight to kill the infection that food causes when you have an overgrowth of this stuff (candida). If your like me your body has been fighting these infections from years and your body is just getting exhausted, particularly your adrenals. From what I've learned is that candida feeds on carbohydrates and any form of sugar. I began the candida diet which consists of only non-starchy vegetables (broccoli, spinach, zhuccini etc.), meats (not processed, my favourite being ground beef due to its cheapness) and then you can also use oils( ie. olive oil). I highly recommend you visit websites and research it yourself. I've been eating this way for approximately 2 months. The symptoms don't lift immediately but from day 1 you feel them lessening in degree. I have begun to feel so light and happy. I can't describe how amazing I feel. If I can help even one person lift from this hell and into the real world I will be happy but I hope that I can help everyone. Atleast try the diet out. The body at least in my opinion is not meant to eat all the carbs, dairy and processed food we eat. I wish you all the best and please post if you experience favourable or even unfavourable results.