jbalsa2

Check out my thread here if you find that Keppra is doing nothing for you I'm on a combination of Topomax and Buspar, these drugs take a while to work and stabilize in your system, i've been on them for about 2 weeks now, as well as lamotrigine, and I feel absolutely incredible. Mental clarity, reduced stress, tension headaches and mental fog and fuzziness are completely gone etc etc. Check out the thread and read up on it and see if it's relevant to you. http://hppdonline.com/topic/5840-dpdr-sufferers-topomax/#comment-36850

We're also working on titrating up my dosage of Lamotrigine to 200 mg daily

More news guys! We've increased my dosage of Topomax again, at 75 mg 2x daily now, what's also fantastic is that the buspar that i've been taking has finally taken effect. My psychiatrist has described the mechanism of action that these drugs are having on me, I am lucky to have one that's as knowledgable on the subject as he is. The Buspar is a serotonin agonist at the 5-HT1A receptor site and more importantly increases secretions at the GABA-B receptor sites. He's told me that along with the Topomax that i've been taking (Which increase secretions at the GABA-A receptor sites) that they work synergistically together to mediate the effects of HPPD really effectively. Today has been absolutely amazing. I've been coming down off of valium, and feel absolutely no come down effects at all, in fact I feel like i've increased my dosage of valium. The combination of Buspar and Topomax together = the feeling I would get off of taking 2mg of clonazepam.

I'm excited to get to the maximum dosage of 250mg daily. We'l be splitting it up so that I take 125mg first thing in the morning, and another 125mg between lunch and 2 pm. This will go along with my 200mg of lamotrigine daily.

Cognitively it acts as a stimulant at first. Imagine doing a line of cocaine - that lasted for 4 - 5 hours. It's that sort of mental clarity that topomax brings. But with that mental clarity, you see the decrease of the symptoms of the hppd with it. If you can picture that. After you've been on the drug for a while, that stimulant like effect subsides and what you're left with is a mood stabilizing effect, and a sort of added visual and mental acuity and tactfulness that lasts all day, which sort of "is" the hppd at that point. Hopefully what i'm saying here makes sense

@Onemorestep if you have a psychiatrist that's open to prescribing topomax to you, i'd definitely recommend it. My experience has been nothing but positive. When I say that topomax clears up DP/DR, I should clear up the fact that it goes a little bit deeper then that - it goes to the core of the hppd and clears up the fizziness and brain fuzziness that the hppd brings and replaces it with a clear head. My psychiatrist has been filling me in on the details of the drug as we go through treatment, he said it also aids in your brains ability to translate short term memories into long term memories, which I believe might also be one of its mechanisms of action as to why it aids in the depersonalization effect that HPPD brings.

Just an update on treatment, we are now weaning me off of valium, and have increased my dosage of topomax to 100 mg daily. The decrease in dosage of valium has proven to be rough, but for the 5 hours after my morning and supper time dosages of topomax I continue to experience the positive mood stabilizing effects and reduction of DP/DR effects. Currently however my HPPD symptoms are on the rise as I am coming off of valium, as I have been on it for a number of months. We'l be replacing the valium with Buspar, which has been proven to be generally as effective as benzodiazepines in treating anxiety. If i'm lucky, I might have found the golden combination of long term medications that can be taken to treat HPPD with the same efficacy as benzodiazepines, but without the negative side effects that benzodiazepines bring to the table. I'l keep you guys updated, particularly after I get off of benzodiazepines completely, and we reach the maximum dosage of topomax, and as the buspar kicks in. (which usually takes up to a month to happen)

Thought i'd add this quote on the mechanism of action on the efficacy of topiramate. This seems to correlate with allot of evidence quoted on this site as to mechanisms of action to treating hppd. Topiramate blocks voltage-dependent sodium and calcium channels. It also inhibits the excitatory glutamate pathway while enhancing the inhibitory effect of GABA. Moreover, it inhibits carbonic anhydrase activity. The relevant mechanism of action responsible for efficient migraine prophylaxis remains to be determined. Here is the quote on the mechanism of action of benzodiazepines. Notice the similarity. Benzodiazepines enhance the effect of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) at the GABAA receptor, resulting in sedative, hypnotic (sleep-inducing), anxiolytic (anti-anxiety), anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant properties.

@Jay1 Just thought I would tag you in this thread, as I remember having a conversation with you about the efficacy of using benzodiazepines to treat symptoms of HPPD. So far with my experience with this medication, it is as effective as benzodiazepines in mediating the symptoms of HPPD. As stated in a post above, topomax's mechanism of action on HPPD (as far as I believe) is by increasing secretions of the GABA-A neurotransmittor. This is what my psych doctor told me. As far as I know, this medication is relatively unknown in terms of this forum. I've been on this medication for 5 days now, and I feel amazing. As far as my progression in terms of how this medication is continuing to affect me, the stimulant effect is dying off to a more stable effect, whats fantastic is that I get this effect that comes in waves; where it feels like my HPPD is going into regression. This effect comes and goes, but then again i've only been on this med for 5 days. I'm on 50mg daily now, my doc says it's safe to take up to 250mg daily, and that it's non addictive and safe to take on a long term basis. I'l keep posting as I go through treatment.

I will add, the first time you use topomax, you might feel a little bit overwhelmed by its effects to the point that it feels like it's making your HPPD worse, this happened to me, this effect wears off after about 20 minutes as you adjust to the drug being in your system. As it increases your visual acuity, it also increases your sensitivity to the visual field distortions you would experience from HPPD. ie; the first couple times I took it, for the first 20 minutes or so, colours would become much more vibrant, but that effect quickly subsided to a much more preferable effect of mental clarity and visual acuity.

The doctor upped my dosage today, i'm on 25mg twice daily now, first thing in the morning and before supper, and it's the same thing every time I take it, DP/DR disappear and my norm train of thought comes back. Visual snow is there, but it's almost like I don't even care that the visual snow is there because the topomax is actually curing the physiological/psychological side effects that the hppd brings. Where as normally the visual snow is a huge annoyance visually, while on the topomax, the visual snow is there and is just something I can look at and be perfectly okay with. As the weeks go on we will be increasing the dosage of topomax. I self medicated with xanax to treat my HPPD for months, taking topomax is easily just as effective as xanax at treating the effects of HPPD, although I wouldn't take it before bed time as it is quite stimulating. It increases the effectiveness of the GABA-A receptor group, just like xanax or any other benzodiazepine for that matter, which leads me to believe that that it's mechanism of action in making my HPPD symptoms so much better.

Hey guys! Have some exciting news for all of you who suffer from depersonalization or derealization. I've been in in an inpatient care centre for a little while now to try out some various treatment options for my HPPD. Currently I am titrating up on lamotrigine to try and help with visual snow, as well as buspar to treat some of the anxiety that has come with my HPPD as an alternative to benzodiazepines. But the most exciting thing is that my doc has started me on an anticonvulsant called topomax. About an hour after taking it I feel a slight stimulant effect, however my depersonalization and derealization is completely gone while I am on it. My thinking and mental state becomes tactful and present, with no brain fog. I'm on 25mg before supper time, and we'll be increasing dosage gradually, as well as adding a morning dosage. The effect I get off 25mg at supper time lasts for about 6-8 hours. Just thought I would share this information with you guys, and hopefully it excites and helps you guys as much as it does me! If any of you guys give it a go, please post here and let me know how your experience goes.

I got really bad HPPD after doing a few hits of acid probably 3 times within a week span. During my last trip I had a super immense trip which involved my brain sort of playing back a movie (Kind of like an interactive dream if you will) for my own perception to watch. It was really similar to what you are describing in the sense that it made me think that I was in a simulation, or that there was another acting force beneath the surface that drove life. Although I thought it was really cool at the time, I woke up the next morning with severe hppd - saw colours and static everywhere, and could never sleep at night because my hppd would cause body parts to move (Ie my fingers twitching or acting out thoughts, hppd works in mysterious ways) and I could never stop focusing on it, which drove me pretty much insane. However a year later, (Which is now, this all happened last july) I am recovering really well. I went almost a full year without having a job due to my hppd, which made things tough, but hang in there and you will notice your symptoms start to get better. You could be much healthier than I am and recover allot faster, but i've done MDMA and smoked weed almost daily since the onset of my hppd. In terms of my recovery id say my hppd has almost receded around 50%, and let me tell you, when you start to feel yourself recover, its a huge and unmistakable sigh of relief. TL;DR: You've only ever done one or two hits of the drug, give your head some time to heal, and I think you'll be fine. I have hppd after doing easily 250+ tabs of LSD in my time, and I am noticing significant an unmistakable improvement within a year of getting my symptoms in the first place. A psychiatrist will only give you psychiatric meds, such as seroquel or clonazepam, which usually do not work, in my opinion its better to stay of them than on them.

Not sure I understand your question fully, moreover the answers are posted in the blurb I posted above. It took me just over a year to get to where I am now, yes I still have very prominent hppd, but the DP/DR aspect of the condition (Feeling like my head is always permanently stuck inside the trip) has faded away enough that, if I ever notice that I have some DP/DR, I can quickly snap myself back into the ability to just move around it, which has become much easier to do. The feeling of being able to literally shrug off DP/DR gives you a sort of brain confidence boost that tends to exponentially affect the way you feel about and view the HPPD in the first place.

Hey guys! Just thought I would post an update here. When I started this thread I was pretty disappointed with the fact that nobody had reported any instances of their hppd improving, or going away, while there was allot of info on tips and tricks about how to simply deal with hppd. Given some good news on my end i'd like to change that, and keep an ongoing log of what happens over the next year or two to come. I'l start with the good news, and that is that after getting moderate to severe hppd just over a year ago, I am starting to notice major improvement in allot of my symptoms. My hppd came in really strong, as in when I woke up the next day after my trip I still had full on visuals, colours, distortions etc that simply didn't go away. Prior to getting hppd I had done acid numerous times, easily 20-30 times, with some nights being very high dosages whilst mixing the substance with mdma. For a full year leading up to this point my hppd was a nightmare, giving me certain schizophrenia like symptoms, as well as delusions and ideas that I believe stemmed from the DP/DR side of the condition and its associated paranoia and stress levels. It's only just now, over a full year later that my DP/DR symptoms are starting to completely fade away. What was interesting is that this transition of improvement only actually took about two weeks for the full onset of the improvement to take place. My visual symptoms, although still just as visually acute and prevalent, are beginning to fade ever so slightly into the background. And by that I don't mean that I am noticing them less, but that their presence of consciousness in my own head is starting to become more distant. I just thought id share this information with you folks, as for the past year I have gone through some serious turmoil, at times worrying for my own life. What I would like to do is to post here periodically and document the progression of my symptoms to keep you guys, as well as those who are curious as to what the timeline of this condition is like, updated and perhaps to give people insight and hope. Given the amount that my condition has improved, I don't think it would be farfetched for me to say that another year will bring another vast reduction in symptoms, and in 2 years give or take I might see complete regression of all symptoms. Over the past year I didn't take any supplements or any form of pharmaceuticals, and did occasionally smoke weed and do mdma, however I would strongly urge against this, as everyones physiology is different. I'm currently 22 years of age, with symptoms having started just before I turned 21. Heres to the future, and I hopefully look forward to being able to post back here at some point in the future being able to say that I made a complete recovery from hppd, and so can you! Thanks Jason

Would you describe your symptoms as being gone entirely? Or do you still notice some form of visual snow? I'm totally past any form of DP/DR or anxiety, but I still notice static. Its not bothersome but I long for the day I can look at a blank white wall and see it for what it is; a blank white wall, haha.

Hey guys, Used to take LSD lots a couple of years back, but never noticed any recurring symptoms until last year when I did LSD 2 or 3 times. Went to bed after the last trip and woke up the next day with HPPD that has stuck ever since. Over the past year I think I've noticed perhaps a 10% improvement in my symptoms. Anyways my question to you guys is how many of you guys have fully recovered from HPPD to the point where all of your visual symptoms have gone away? My symptoms are manageable during the day, but its after I get tired in the evening and when I close my eyes to go to sleep that my symptoms come into play. (IE; when I get tired I start to 'feel' the HPPD in my body, and the static becomes difficult to stop focusing on when I close my eyes to sleep) Thanks for the replies guys, it really means allot to me to be able to hear of other people who have fully recovered and given a time frame on that as it allows me to plan and base my recovery off of.