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new, looking for answers...


mcdermp

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Hey all,

Might be some tl;dr action in this post, apologies.

So, about 6 months ago I smoked a j with some mates and had a bad-ass anxiety attack, fearing I'd triggered schizophrenia (yes I know, soft drug to do so on). Long story short I woke up feeling foggy and wierd. Found out about DP/DR and it instantly matched what I was feeling. No visual disturbaces to note, apart from the classic foggy DR vision, which cleared up pretty well on its own. Only visual disturbace was streaky lights, for example if I flicked my eyes repeatedly over a light source it would streak. Life was on the up and up, feeling increased moments of recovery and what not.

Anywho, I've known about HPPD for months, but it never worried me. For some reason I decided to do some in depth research a couple of days ago. Hey presto! I'm fucking seeing split second positive after images every damn where, streaky vision, even swore I saw some geometric patterns in the silver mesh of my mates guitar amp, rah rah.

Unless my vision has SEVERELY decreased over the last two days I've either:

1) not noticed it before and now I'm hyper aware of everything, and looking for it everywhere.

2) accidentally taken lsd in the last 48 hours hahaha.

I definitely think there's some hyper awareness/confirmation bias happening here, but thought I'd post anyways.

N.B - I've never done any hard hallucinogenic, worst I've done was ecstacy like 4-5 years ago which I suspect was mostly speed.

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Hello mate,

 

I can relate to some of what you have said.

 

I tend to put such things down to a very gradual onset, mixed with a heightened awareness. HPPD onset is very often gradual and mine certainly was. Mine was induced by heavy use of psychedelics - most notably LSD. I have a wide range of symptoms including those you have mentioned.

 

However, 6 months of a symptom plateau is a suspiciously long period of time for a prominent and distinctly new symptom to suddenly become observable - at least in my own knowledge and experience.

 

Perhaps there is some kind of unknown psychological suggestibility within the neurological framework of the disorder. Intuition alone tells me this is quite unlikely but far from impossible and your experience does seem like a little more than coincidence.

 

I know that there are definitely a handful of veteran members and 'sufferers' on this sight whose words would be of more use to you than my own on this kind of topic as they have probably read many more experiences and case studies on HPPD than I have. But to be honest there is so much about HPPD, and both more importantly and holistically the human brain, yet to be discovered as I am sure you are aware.

 

Have you smoked anything since your unfortunate event that may have exacerbated or induced new symptoms?

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Hello mate,

I can relate to some of what you have said.

I tend to put such things down to a very gradual onset, mixed with a heightened awareness. HPPD onset is very often gradual and mine certainly was. Mine was induced by heavy use of psychedelics - most notably LSD. I have a wide range of symptoms including those you have mentioned.

However, 6 months of a symptom plateau is a suspiciously long period of time for a prominent and distinctly new symptom to suddenly become observable - at least in my own knowledge and experience.

Perhaps there is some kind of unknown psychological suggestibility within the neurological framework of the disorder. Intuition alone tells me this is quite unlikely but far from impossible and your experience does seem like a little more than coincidence.

I know that there are definitely a handful of veteran members and 'sufferers' on this sight whose words would be of more use to you than my own on this kind of topic as they have probably read many more experiences and case studies on HPPD than I have. But to be honest there is so much about HPPD, and both more importantly and holistically the human brain, yet to be discovered as I am sure you are aware.

Have you smoked anything since your unfortunate event that may have exacerbated or induced new symptoms?

Nah man, just doesn't add up at all. I've never done psychedelics in my life, and have not done any kind of drug whatsoever in 6 months. Furthering that, I've never heard of anyone aquring HPPD from weed, synthetic weed maybe, but not a puff on a j. Even if they did, it's usually visual snow etc. which I do not have.

I think it's definitely a case of suggestibility, anxiety and heightened sensitivity due to dp.

The chances of me having HPPD in my case are so incredibly slim that it's almost impossible.

Wierd.

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Fair enough.

 

Best answer I could give because it's a bit of a head scratcher.

 

I have actually heard of people on these forums claiming HPPD having only smoked weed. It's not my place to say wether it's true or not but I have heard it claimed on numerous occasions.

 

Also streaky lights, afterimages and DP/DR sound all too familiar.

 

Denial is also common with early HPPD onset, however you sound down to earth and clear headed so please don't take that as an accusation lol.

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Fair enough.

Best answer I could give because it's a bit of a head scratcher.

I have actually heard of people on these forums claiming HPPD having only smoked weed. It's not my place to say wether it's true or not but I have heard it claimed on numerous occasions.

Also streaky lights, afterimages and DP/DR sound all too familiar.

Denial is also common with early HPPD onset, however you sound down to earth and clear headed so please don't take that as an accusation lol.

For sure man. I'm just kinda thinking out loud is all. My first most prominent symptom was dp. Which I was wiring through and indeed nearly recovering from. I then went parusing through hppd, searched and searched for symptoms I 'might' have and then proceeded to look very very hard for them. Hence where the split second pos after images came from. Now that I've noticed I can't unnotice, but did not notice prior. That coupled with the fact that I've never done hallucinogens and that it didn't arise after my bad weed experience is kinda strange.

Weed 'HPPD' is a funny one. I think it's along the lines of GAD, where anxious individuals are hyper vigilant, and actively searching for visual anomalies. Floaters, after images and visual snow all occur in healthy individuals, but poeple with GAD or some such take them as life threatening, negating the fact that these these anomalies have always been in their visual field. Just never noticed before. (Not to offend anyone or discredit anyone's suffering).

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