Blunderbuss89

So I see. I'm from the U.S. so I don't know anything about this guy. Just thought it was an interesting link and I'm all for further researching the effects of LSD on the brain.

They've reached their goal and are now going for a stretch goal. No mention of HPPD but they seem very serious about transcending political/social research barriers and understanding the effects of LSD on the brain. https://walacea.com/campaigns/lsd/

HPPD has definitely inspired me creatively. As a visual artist, I was afraid HPPD would ruin my career. If anything, I think it made me a stronger artist. My experience with LSD has inspired me to create unusual narratives exploring life and death. I've made artwork and animated shorts directly inspired by my visuals. My career has excelled in many ways over the past couple years. Some of my trippiest work has even made it to television - stuff I would not have otherwise created. I think there is a meditative component to HPPD as well, although I haven't mastered that yet. This condition can be very disruptive, frustrating and scary but I've been trying to refocus it into something positive and use it to my advantage. Much easier said than done.

Not sure if this topic has already been posted elsewhere but, I wanted to start a thread on this: http://www.gofundme.com/visual-snow It's not for HPPD, but I think VS research could lead to some breakthroughs with HPPD as well. It's a good cause.

MG makes a good point. It's hard to tell what's "normal" and what's not. I think a lot of HPPD visual symptoms are "normal" in the sense that they naturally occur in healthy individuals, but it is not necessarily "normal" to constantly see them. I also agree that it could be migraine/anxiety-related. No reason to rule that out. A doctor could give you more insight on that. It just seems to me that persistent 24/7 symptoms stemming from a specific drug experience are more likely to be HPPD, possibly worsened by the migraines. I've had migraines (without visuals) my whole life and after the trip that caused my HPPD I was in denial for over a year telling myself that it was just migraine visuals that were always there but I hadn't noticed before. For me, personally, I now believe my disposition for migraines is somehow tied to my HPPD and I know that my HPPD (while always present) flares up a lot around the time of a migraine attack, so the two are definitely correlated, if nothing else. HPPD or not, I would be willing to bet that if you can find away to get the migraines and anxiety under control, your other symptoms may improve. If I were you, I'd read up on symptoms and treatment of Migraine Aura.

Welcome to the Forum! First I just want to say I'm not a doctor, so please don't take this as an official diagnosis/recommended treatment. This is just my opinion. I hate to say it, but it does sound like HPPD to me. You can get it just from smoking weed. In a way, you could consider yourself lucky cause it sounds like you have it pretty mild. I'm pretty sure if you had dp/dr you'd know. I'm lucky enough not to get dp/dr but from what I hear it's really intense. I'd cool it on the drugs for a while if I were you. Also, I know it's easier said than done, but honestly one of the best things you can do for yourself is try your best not to worry about it. I know that's hard as hell cause it probably feels like the symptoms are in your face 24/7. It may take a while to get to the point where you don't think about it much, but you'll get there eventually. I've had this for close to two years (similar symptoms as you plus intense trails/tracers) and I'm just now getting to the point where I don't think about it too often. If you can get there, HPPD doesn't have much power over you at all. Plus, your symptoms are still pretty recent. There's still a chance you could recover. Stay positive. This is a great place to get info, advice and empathy as needed.

This is interesting. I have TMJ issues. I've never sought treatment because it's fairly mild, but when my jaw muscles swell up that causes migraines, which worsen my HPPD symptoms. I always just though the symptom spikes were due to the stress/headaches and I never considered that my jaw/inner ear might actually be the problem. I'm going to bring this up with my doctor.

David, I really appreciate all of the work you've put into this and I'm extremely thankful this forum exists. I'm also 100% on board with updating the community and implementing some kind of revenue-generating system. This forum is extremely helpful, but I sometimes feel like I'm trapped in the previous decade, technologically-speaking. It would be great to update the community to 2014 standards. I can also see where Jay is coming from in that this model may be a little idealistic. It seems like you've done a ton of research and I respect that, but at the end of the day, even guru economists have a difficult time predicting future transaction trends based off analytics interpretation with complete accuracy. I'm not saying it's impossible to raise money, just that it may not be a simple analytic conversion. Still, I think it's worth a shot. I also agree with Jay in terms of keeping information freely available to the public. This community has generated a pretty good database that has definitely helped me during some rough times and I wouldn't feel right charging for access to basic information. That being said, if I'm understanding your proposal correctly, it seems like the idea would be free access to basic site functionality including but not limited to the information database, then the "advanced features" so-to-speak such as text notifications and discounts for seminars would be part of a subscription service. I support this as long as we're not restricting basic information/support from anyone. Just throwing out ideas here, but have you considered making the forum, itself free but implementing some kind of paid app with push notifications and mobile access to online user profiles? Full resources/functionality would be free from the site, itself, but you could pay for mobile access with some useful tools for accessing the resources. Not sure how that fits in with your analytics research. Just spitballing here. Regardless, let me know how I can help out with this. I'll be happy to donate to the project as soon as we determine what direction to take.

No offense meant. This site is great. I just try to visit in moderation. My symptoms are entirely manageable as long as I can keep my mind off of them. This site can sometimes lead to obsession and, like Zukov said, it's best for me not to think about it.

I think it's totally possible. HPPD is not a death sentence. And I'm not just saying that out of a false sense of positivity. I'm not even in a particularly good mood right now. I just objectively believe you can live a good life with this. There are many people here on this forum who have gone on to have successful careers and relationships. I would even go so far as to say most people with HPPD eventually come to terms with it and move on, if not recover altogether, but it can take years.

Personally, I've been trying to stay away. Maybe other folks have been, too.

For those unfamiliar, WTF is a podcast hosted by Marc Maron, a comedian, music enthusiast and recovered drug addict. The latest episode is an interview with Jack Antonoff, lead singer of many bands including Fun and Bleachers. Jack talks about losing his sister to cancer when he was a teenager. Around that time, he also experienced a really bad LSD trip. Following the trip, he experienced intense OCD, anxiety and panic attacks. He doesn't explicitly say it, but based on some of things he says it sorta sounds like he might have HPPD, or at the very least bouts of DP/DR. He talks a little bit about dealing with it. Some of his popular singles were specifically written about trying to overcome his psychological issues. Despite how you might feel about his music, it's inspiring to know someone with these problems has become so successful/productive in their lifetime. http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_515_-_jack_antonoff

I get migraines, too and they definitely increase my visuals. I've never tried Topamax. From what I've read, it seems some people have had positive results in terms of reducing migraines, but a major side effect of this drugs is that it causes the brain to process information at a much slower rate. It can makes people feel and act slow or dumb. It doesn't happen to everyone, but this side effect is so common that neurologists have a nickname for Topamax: Dope-a-max. I guess you just have to weigh the pros and cons. Seeing as this thread is a few weeks old, I'm curious. Have you tried it? If so, how do you feel?

From late april to earlier this month I had been feeling pretty good about HPPD. My visual symptoms were still hanging around but they didn't really bother me. Just when I felt like I was getting over this thing I was hit with an enormous flare up. My Palinopsia is now worst than ever, snow is really thick and I get this vibrating heatwave-like effect in my peripherals. It seemed to happen out of nowhere. I've been managing my diet, getting regular sleep, meditating, exercising, avoiding drugs/alcohol and just generally managing my stress/anxiety level. It sometimes feels like none of that even matters and HPPD is just gonna do what it's gonna do. It has a mind of it's own. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be back on the up swing again soon, I just backslid and needed to vent.

At this point I don't even care if it goes away or not. I just don't want it to keep getting worse. If it would just level out then I think I could adapt.

This is amazing! I was skeptical but my VS totally disappeared for a minute or two. I feel like my palinopsia was improved a bit as well but that may have just been psychological.

Thanks for the reply. I decided to cancel my appointment and just try to relax and give it more time. I was kinda freaking out for no reason. I'm recovering from the flu so it makes sense my visuals would be flaring up right now. I'm gonna try to stay away from meds for now. I look at that as a last resort and I haven't quite gotten there yet.

I feel ya. Sometimes I think I never would have gotten HPPD had I not read the Wikipedia article on it the day before my trip. All it did was make me paranoid that I was gonna get it, which was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I've read a few stories on the "Thosewithvisualsnow" forum from people who claim that their VS symptoms may be related to an autoimmune disorder of some kind. Some have undergone a short-term Prednisone steroid regimen and claim it cleared their symptoms up. I'm interested in this because I've had autoimmune problems my whole life and am wondering if my HPPD could somehow be related. Could Prednisone help or would it just make things worse?

My Palinopsia has continued to get worse month by month for over a year and a half and it has gotten to the point where it is a real problem for me. It's incredibly distracting and if it gets much worse I think it will begin to affect my driving. I have a primary-care doctor's appointment Monday. I've brought the problem up to her before but she basically just told me it was all in my head. Do I press the issue? Should I ask to be referred to a Neurologist? If I do push for treatment, is there even anything anybody can do for me? After researching on this forum and elsewhere it seems that when it comes to Palinopsia, there isn't shit anybody can do about it. I've considered canceling my appointment because I'm not confident it will help me at all and I don't want to undergo a series of expensive brain scans and tests that my insurance may or may not cover (I live in the U.S.) only to be prescribed medication that I'm not sure I'd want to take. Should I continue to wait it out? Will it resolve or will it continue to get worst until the day I die? I know I've asked this before but if there is ANYBODY on this forum who has/had persisting/increasing palinopsia I'd love to hear from you. Or if anybody else has any advice. I'm feeling pretty desperate right now.

By migraine aura do you mean persisting migraine aura without infarction (also known simply as VS)? Classic migraine aura is different because it's episodic, accompanied by a migraine headache and usually only lasts a couple hours. VS is persistent and much more similar to HPPD. I can't really answer this question with much authority, but seeing as nobody else has responded to your question I'll give it a go. I'm pretty sure there are symptoms specific to HPPD that do not typically occur for people with VS. My understanding is that classic VS symptoms include static, floaters and trails/after images and possibly tinnitus(?). HPPD can, of course, include these things as well; however, an HPPD sufferer can also experience things like shifting textures/colors, geometric closed-eye visuals (phosphenes) among other things. I also speculate from the limited posts I've read on the VS forum (thosewithvisualsnow) that people who have these non-drug-induced symptoms sometimes have it in a degenerative fashion. Meaning it can worst and worst the older the person gets. I don't think that's typical with HPPD unless symptoms have been exacerbated by continued drug use. It seems most people on this board have had it about the same for years with ups and downs and some people have gotten better over time. There are some people on the VS forum who claim to be basically blind. To the point that they literally can't see their own hand in front of their face. I haven't heard of it getting THAT bad with HPPD. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the bump. I wasn't aware of this thread until just now. It's always nice to know things can get better.

I feel very comfortable talking with my psychologist but that might just be because I'm a very open person, possibly to a fault. I could totally see why you'd be apprehensive. I usually just sit down and start talking about how my week went. If your psychologist is good then he/she should be able to take what you say and steer it into further conversation/analysis. When I describe my symptoms I get very empathetic reactions from my psych along the lines of "Wow that really sucks." or "That must be extremely tough to deal with." which makes me feel a little more comfortable talking to her because she doesn't judge, she simply empathizes and offers analytical insight. She hadn't heard of HPPD but I sent her Dr. Abraham's website and she was happy to research it herself. Like StateOfRegret said, it's not a cure, but it definitely relieves anxiety to talk about it and I believe that a change in perspective of/relationship with HPPD has potential to relieve symptoms for some people. That being said, not every psychologist is great. I'm sure there are some out there that might be judgmental or closed-minded and difficult to talk to. If you get somebody like that I'd bail and try a different one.

Welcome to the forum! Also, nice username. It's always nice to see a fellow Radiohead fan.

I should also add in regards to low-fee therapy that I live in the U.S. Not sure how it works in other countries.