Aerospace engineer seeking mental clarity through treatment

[aeropsia]

Today is my two year anniversary of contracting HPPD. Through continued reckless behaivor and drug consumption in the first year, I managed to make it significantly worse. I have obstained from drug use for one year now and will never consume anything ever again. Anyways I'm 18 and about to go into college to become an Aerospace Engineer, and I'm considering treatment. I have an array of visual symptoms ( Visual Snow, Floaters, After Glows, Tracers, Percieved motion of stationary objects, etc) The visual symptoms are not bothersome to me. I hate the mental symptoms. I'm not talking about depression, and panic attacks. What really bothers me is constantly feeling "high", and thinking "high". I feel like HPPD has limited my mental capacity to think critically, do mathematics, and analyse information. In my classes I have had to work extremely hard to do things that came fairly easy to me before I had HPPD. I have had to do the same problem sets 3 or 4 times just to be able to do decent on exams.

I am looking for a medication that will remove this mental cloudy-nes and give me a better sense of mental clarity. Do any of the current treatment options work well for this? From your experience what has improved mental clarity?

Thank you all for your help and support!

[mgrade]

Sadly, I have found HPPD to be detrimental to my math skills. Nevertheless, i think if you try very hard, you can actually excel in writing. It's not that my math skills are gone, it's just that some of MY spacial reasoning and spacial relations/processes in my "mind's eye" are somewhat gone. I have a harder time envisioning images in my head. Maybe you can relate. ....of course, your quickness with math problems will be hurt a bit. I would say it's akin to reading the same sentence 3 or 4x to get the actual meaning. But that's what HPPD does, worsen mental clarity. Anti-Deps and ADD med. are your options, if you actually have dep/add symtoms. .....Listen man, HPPD is really bad for a math persons mind. Reading people is not nearly as bad. People who like fiction, forget it, it's not that bad. But try to write a Physics book with HPPD. I'm a math person,got 720 on math sats. Now I feel like i can barely understand my bedroom, much less the universe. You got to reduce stress, stay sober, go to a psychopharmacologist, take some asprin/iboprofen/little benzo, and drink some water and get some sleep. Probably in 3 years you'll be 110%.

[balance]

Meditation helps. It will only help if done consistantly though. Try work your way up to 20mins 2 times a day. Definitely not a quick fix but sure has helped my self!

[aeropsia]

There is no medication that can magically give you mental clarity. Some medication can lessen symptoms and relax you, making you able to more properly use your mind intellectually.

Surely some medications have more of a mental effect then others. Thanks for the reply, I was hoping some medications would have more of a direct effect on mental clarity.

I have a harder time envisioning images in my head. Maybe you can relate. You got to reduce stress, stay sober, go to a psychopharmacologist, take some asprin/iboprofen/little benzo, and drink some water and get some sleep. Probably in 3 years you'll be 110%.

Yes I can relate somewhat to your problem with envisioning things spatially. I am sceptical that benzo's would have a beneficial effect on mental clarity, maybe if taken in moderation they could help, but I don't believe becoming a "benzo zombie" will be very effective!

Meditation helps. It will only help if done consistantly though. Try work your way up to 20mins 2 times a day. Definitely not a quick fix but sure has helped my self!

What type of meditation are you practicing? I am definately willing to try this. Also, how did you learn to meditate?

[VisualDude]

There is no medication that can magically give you mental clarity. Some medication can lessen symptoms and relax you, making you able to more properly use your mind intellectually. We have asked if HPPD impairs cognitive abilities, but that´s a yes and no at the same time. Your attention will recognise the visual and mental disturbances and in this way, your attention will be directed to these things thus making it difficult to reinforce your mental power and concentrate.

Anyone with HPPD can go to school, but you have to arouse your will more because of your symptoms, it´s an obstacle mostly. If you train your ability to assert your psychic energy, you can surely complete an education despite your distractions.

Focus/attention are often problems with HPPD. They are 'hallmark' with toxic encephalitis.

Practice and self-discipline are very important. Sometimes the cognitive problems require doing the task over repeatedly to get it right. The more you build focus, the better things will be. There may be limits depending on how your brain has been affected.

Focus has not improved the accuracy of a number of tasks I do ... nor does it prevent 'jamming' problems with certain tasks. But making the environment around you quiet (if physically possible) or learning to ignore distractions does help.

Surely some medications have more of a mental effect then others. Thanks for the reply, I was hoping some medications would have more of a direct effect on mental clarity.

I find Sinemet helps a lot. Again there are limits. I also find Gabapentin important, though the 'balance' tighter than with Sinemet.

If you do try meds, start with lower doses than prescribed and feel your way through.

[mgrade]

Odysseus hit on some important notes, and there has been a lot of people talking about Gabapentin, which Visual mentioned.

[shaolinbomber]

15-20mg of Adderall and .5mg of Klonopin would do the trick for you. These are controlled substances however and you would need a prescription for both of them from a psychiatrist.

[mikethemerc1]

Well you have to train your brain again slowly almost like a stroke patient retraining the brain I feel you though I had to this once and now again. Low dose sinemet is said to help, and klonopin will help temporarily but then cloud your mind more. Vitamins, supplements, problem solving will help, I know the effects of going from a 4.0 to shit after this. But you are still as smart as you've always been you're just having some difficulty. Try videogames, sports, train your rapid thinking skills first then the more advanced, baby steps go along way with cog problems

[mgrade]

Aero----i like shaolin's idea but i would even drop the dose of the klonopin to .25 or .125 mg. ..........Benzodiazepines can, IMO, clarify the mind insomuch that it can be effective when one can't possibly contemplate pertinent issues with intense anxiety or panic. The idea of the sedative effect of benzos is virtually undebatable. But just like other drugs that effect the brain: such as LSD: where at low levels of LSD actually enhances serotonin concentrations but at higher doses it blocks 5-HT binding to the 2A receptor as a partial agonist/agonist (and at times antagonist).............People don't totally understand exactly the neurobiological mechanisms involving benzos in terms of anxiety disorders. But they have a pretty good idea. Benzos bind to their receptor (the receptor is coupled with a GABA receptor <by nature>) and by doing so, it aids GABA action and binding. (GABA being one of the main inhibitory agents).

[dreisind]

Anything you can do to reduce anxiety will help with this from my experience. For me this has included .75mg of clonopin twice a day (NEVER MORE than prescribed...never), 20 mins of cardio per day, 10-20 minute sessions of mindfulness meditation once per day, a daily routine that stays the same (regular sleep, regular eating patterns), avoiding stimulants like caffeine and tobacco, chest breathing exercises.

Also, as you can read in a thread I just made, you could try fermented skate liver oil. Like I said, I can't rule out placebo, but I've seen a pretty significant improvement in my symptoms after about a month of taking 2 capsules every morning. I hope this is helpful, and just remember that the brain is an incredible and adaptable organ. Your brain will figure out how to do these things, even if its through a new lens.