HPPD theory Please Read and give your Opinion/Experience

[LethargicAcid]

To start off, I would like to say that :

 

Some people have HPPD with anxiety/DP/depression, and some people just have harmless HPPD and don't care about it.

4 of my friends in real life have HPPD but don't care about it at all; they still continue to smoke everyday and trip frequently.

 

My theory is: 

The people who have debilitating HPPD seemed to get it from a horrifying trip. I think that this horrifying trip may have been a mental breakdown deep in the subconscious. So deep in the subconscious, that it is hard to access these memories while sober. And they are so traumatizing that it causes anxiety each time u see a visual. So basically, we associate the visuals with that bad trip trauma, meaning it is some type of PTSD. 

 

Also, I think we may have had this "mental breakdown" which caused HPPD, DP, anxiety, depression etc.. because our parents didnt teach us how to process emotions correctly, so the mind-expanding drug just messed things up somehow. Does that sound like u guys? 

 

 

"HPPD-PTSD mental breakdown- induced by mind-expanding drugs"

 

Basically we had a horrible trip that defiled us I guess?

 

So I guess its a form of PTSD? 

 

 

 

Whoever is reading this, please comment on:

-was the drug experience that you had extremely frightening/mental breakdown? (for me, i lost all contant with reality to the point where I could barely hold a glass of water and was pacing back and forth for 5 hours alone nonstop, fear)

 

 

 

 

I mean, why would simply visuals cause so much mental illness? I do not think that HPPD is some sort of brain damage. If it is, what proof? Besides, brain damage does not cause anxiety of what Im aware of. Plus I dont think psychedelics can cause brain damage anyway, unless u take like 1000x the dose. Does not seem likely at all.

 

What is the root of all of this anxiety? Is it purely visuals? I dont think so because some people are born with Visual Snow and they arent Depersonalized.   So I theorize that a horrifying trip that caused the HPPD traumatized us. And the visuals that we get are like flashbacks in some way. Like a mental breakdown? 

 

To get into the subconscious, options:

-meditation

-drugs

-hypnotherapy

-(ok im going to get critisized probobly) psychic readings

 

I think that this "mental breakdown" is so deep-rooted that its hard to access while sober, plus its extremely frightening and thats why we are Depersonalized from it, to numb. 

 

 

The drugs that cause HPPD are seratonin-based, so it would be hard to access these alleged traumas while sober, i theorize. 

 

 

Please comment, give opinions and experiences of how u got HPPD. was it a bad trip?

[Jay1]

I think you are confusing brain damage with neurological changes. Serotonin based drugs can shut down serotonin receptors, dopamine based drugs can shut down dopamine receptors. These drugs can cause long term neurological changes that are not in anyway defined as brain damage.

 

There may well be an element of PTSD too, I never had a bad trip, but that doesn't mean my mind didn't go through some degree of trauma during various trips.

 

I am not sure why it has to be so black and white though... Either neurological or psychological... It is very likely both. In fact, alot of psychological issues can cause neurological and physical issues, and vice versa. Stress, for instance (psychological) causes a neurological and physical response leading to things like lower serotinin and melotonin release (neurological) and difficulty breathing, clenching teeth (physical)

[LethargicAcid]

true, i shouldnt have made it so black and white

[Jay1]

Please don't think I am trying to discourage you from exploring these avenues though... I think it is essential we try and think of everything that could be a cause and potential relief/cure

[leelalala]

I remember every moment of the trip that gave me HPPD. I was already on the brink of a mental breakdown before that trip, (few months before that I quitted taking my meds, then some shitty stuff happened and I got too depressed, then my boyfriend left me because of my depression etc...). Then took some shrooms at the most fucked up environment possible. A party gone bad, music was cut off, lots of people were on heavy stuff and freaking out. I remember a guy whose forehead was bleeding heavily and he was unaware of it, and many people were in that kind of situations.

The whole time I was trying to keep myself together, not to become a freak out like the others. For a long while I had my eyes closed, but couldn't stop laughing, and with every laugh I saw flashing fractals too vividly. Still I was aware of everything around me. I'm thinking maybe if I didn't try so hard to control myself, it could have been less traumatizing...

Perhaps, some of us are more frightened by the possibilty of damaging our brains, so when we get HPPD it causes a lot more anxiety for us, and some people just don't care that much...

[TheGman6072]

Ok fuck it. This was something I was NEVER going to tell anyone not even on here but I have taken PCP 4 times and those trips were traumatizing. I try to keep those memories out of my head but sometimes they come back and I still can't get over it

[LethargicAcid]

bradon you are going to be okay. just think positive. you will eventually get over all of it. I pretty much am

 

 

Maybe get on antidepressants or something I dont know... i never tried them. 

 

 

 

Its going to take a while but the more u believe in yourself and think positive the better u will gradually feel. 

[LethargicAcid]

ok I think that this theory probably is not true now. 

 

 

I think that the anxiety and DP is just related to the visuals. which i think is overcomable in most instances