Jay1

I think you missed my point..... Lung cancer was a direct result of smoking cigarettes. HPPD/DP/DR/Anxiety was a direct result of taking drugs. For either set of sufferers to rid themselves of those issues, and expect absolutely no chance of getting those problems again, if they start smoking / start taking drugs is simply a pipe dream.

Trip, your idea of a cure only being 100% a cure when you can start taking drugs again without any risk or reprise is akin to someone thinking they will only be fully cured from lung cancer when they can start smoking cigarettes again, without any risk of the cancer coming back.

If I could remove the anxiety and dp/dr, I would consider myself cured... The visuals, I no longer care about ....

I left the UK with €600 and didn't return for 11 years!... I had severe hppd, depression, dp/dr and anxiety... had no meds, no job, no idea where I was going, but knew that my life needed to change. It is easy to find work in some sunny country like Spain or Portugal, especially is you speak English and German. You can either make excuses and live a miserable life, or just go and live life and hope that the experiences make you a better person. Anxiety only ruins your life when you don't fight it...... Even yesterday, I was anxious and panicking and was going to avoid playing football because I didn't want to speak to people... But I just said fuck you to the anxiety... Once I was there, it was ok again.

I used to think like that... now i look back and think how sad that mindset was. Go and travel, you will soon realise there is way more to life than some chemical distortions.

A year was just a long amount of time to allow you to heal without drugs in your system... Personally, I would just forget weed, I still get panic attacks if I smoke it now, 20 years later. Everyone is different though, you might be one of the lucky few who can smoke it again. Btw- did you get panic attacks before you got hppd?

Which was my original point.... If you don't care that the opiods you take are synthetic.. then why not try a synthetic anti anxiety/depression med that could actually make you 100% better again?

The tramadol you are wanting to take is synthetic. If you are referring to it being a derivative of an opiate, then you can also find derivatives for nearly any synthetic. Once again, you are just trying to justify getting high instead of getting treatment. I no longer care, but at least stop lying to yourself.

Why are you against anxiety/depression meds... Yet seem fine about taking a synthetic opioid?

Yep... It is scarily naive. I pray she never goes through the levels of hppd like some of us have, but if she does... Then I hope a follow up article will address her mistakes

Good exposure, but a big shame about the misinformation about "flashbacks", getting HPPD wrong - calling it post-hallucination perception disorder (PPD) and her attitude to psychedelics is disappointing... In fact, I would say she has HPPD, not VS.. but has not connected the dots. This line made me cringe "As for psychedelics, good sense and doctor's orders would suggest it's time for me to stop. We'll see how that goes."

WuWei... You are one of the very lucky few. For everyone else... Tread very carefully... My cousin, a heroin addict, was put on valium during his recovery.... He said it was ten times harder to get off than herion and a horrible 2 year anxiety ridden withdrawal

I can get about 70% relief of all symptoms with 1.5mg of klono. Benzos are the only med that work, for me. I have since learnt that I only need enough to remove anxiety though (0.5 to 1mg, depending on circumstances). This also removes other symptoms by about 40%.

Maybe take a look at something like pregabalin. I would be very cautious about SSRIs, they make me psychotic. I will make a suggestion, but as i'm sure you know, benzos are highly addictive... So only take this into consideration if you think you can stay strong willed: This is a routine I have had with benzos for over 6 years now, with no sign of addiction or tolerance... (you would probably need less than these doses) Thursday 6pm - 0.5mg klono Friday 9am - 1mg klono Saturday 9am - 1mg klono Sunday 9am - 2.5mg lorazepam* Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- benzo free.. Once every 2 months, i take 7 to 10 days benzo free, to make sure that I am not seeing any signs of addiction or withdrawal. * I take lorazepam on the sunday as it has a shorter half life, making sure my body has less benzo in the blood stream, come the monday... This system only works by having the 3 (and a half) full days without benzos... If you did 1 day on, 1 days off... I think the long half life would cause addiction. I find that the Monday, I still have some anxiety relief... So the system gives me almost 5 days anxiety free out of 7. Of course, we are all different, and you have to tread carefully... I only recently added the Thursday dose (about a year ago) and all seems fine... But it might be wise to do 3 days on, 4 days off, if you do consider this. If you are getting good results from 0.5mg, you can probably half the doses I take, which will be even safer.

Bang on mate, this is exactly where I was 20+ years ago... So far into the drug life that I couldn't even differentiate between come downs, highs and mental disorders. I don't think I have seen one person on here who is "scaring" people off drugs for any reason other than empathy and compassion, based on our own mistakes with drugs. Just be thankful that to have the internet, where you can get information from people who have been there, done that. Some of us didn't have such a luxury.

These guys have a clear pro-lsd/mdma agenda (and alot of anecdotal evidence shows that it can be very effective for things like PTSD).... But they seem to be very reluctant to purposefully look for dangerous side effects (like hppd).

It is a big concern... Dementia seems to be directly related to dopamine release which is thought to also be related to hppd. I expect an explosion in dementia as the rave generation of the late 80s / early 90s starts hitting 50+ years old.

Trip, it is clear that you have very fixed views about hppd and drugs, so I am not sure what you can really gain from these sort of conversations... Maybe Gman is different, he seems to swing from cautious to risk taking from day to day (which is true of most teens). Gman... there is a big chance that your medication will cover up problems that will only become apparent if you discontinue the meds... Considering that the meds are not even prescribed to you, it is very possible you will run out soon and think "fuck, why did i smoke?". Be careful.

The biggest issue with taking drugs that might affect your hppd is measuring your baseline symptoms. Imagine a normal person has a hppd baseline of 0 out of 100 (eg, no symptoms) Now imagine you have a baseline of 35 You take a drug, feel high, have a good time. The next day you are at a 40.. You feel a bit different, but nothing to worry about. The next day you go down to 36... You don't even notice a difference form your normal baseline of 35, so think that drug is pretty safe. But your baseline now stays at 36. The problem mounts over months, even years.... You can soon find your baseline slowly rise to very uncomfortable levels, but the rise is in such small increments that it sneaks up on you. This is EXACTLY what happened to me... I kept using drugs, I kept enjoying drugs... I very slowly went from manageable hppd to severe hppd. Now factor in the medications that might be masking your baseline "rise"... What happens if you get tolerant to the medication and have to stop? You then notice the baseline rise.

The problem is... It doesn't work for you or Gman either You can't smoke weed without needing to contemplate taking herion to stop the weed induced anxiety Gman can't smoke weed without a strong prescription medication

I have taken them for recreational purposes, but they made my dp/dr higher and kept me up all night with trippy thoughts, so I quickly stopped that little experiment. Others have reported no increase in hppd and others still have reported a reduction in symptoms...

Great post, very much my feelings too. You have to grab your life back, no matter how hard it seems... Fight this shit with the same force you would fight cancer.

I tried that, it doesn't seem to get any better, though we are all different.

Just use the dark web!

How long until you think "well, weed is ok... Let's try some other drugs"? It frustrates me seeing young people being offered a second chance at life by getting a medication or supplement that works, only for them to use that break in symptoms to get high again... I'm not judging, as i'm sure it is what I would have done at your age... But frustrating, none the less. As cliched as it is... Just being anxiety free would be the only high I would need... I'd be out trying to hit some of that school/college ass rather than wasting the time getting stoned!