i have hppd

[lilmop]

has anyone had it go away and still be able to smoke or will i never be able to smoke again what should i do to help my recovery nd thank you for thee POSITIVE input

 

[lilmop]

please help mee

i need help ive self diagnosed myself with hppd about a month ago i did acid and 3 days later i notied i was still feling it i didnt think much of it but now im scared ill never be normal again i dont wanna tell my doctor cause hell take me off my meds and theyre the only things keeping me sane hat can i do to help get better faster

 

[solistus]

Hey there friend, sorry you're experiencing this! I know that it can be disturbing/scary - but I wouldn't get too concerned about it just yet. Persistent long-term HPPD is quite rare, but visual flashbacks lasting a few weeks after a trip are a lot less uncommon, so there's a good chance these symptoms will subside on their own eventually.

What symptoms are you experiencing? Is it just visuals, or are the visual distortions accompanied by body sensations or mental effects? How often are you experiencing these symptoms? How intense are they - are the visual distortions severe enough to make it difficult to see normally, or perform tasks like driving? Was this your first trip? If not, how experienced with psychedelics are you, and have you experienced similar flashbacks previously? What meds do you take?

As for talking to a doctor, if these symptoms don't go away on their own over the next month or so: maybe it would be possible to see a doctor other than your PCP? TBH, though, there's not terribly much a doctor can do - there is no recognized treatment for HPPD. I've heard some reports that benzodiazepines (xanax, valium, klonopin, etc.) can help lessen the intensity of the symptoms, but I don't think most doctors would give you a benzo script for HPPD (especially these days, since new research is suggesting that long term benzo use may pose previously unknown health risks and docs are tightening up on prescribing them to new patients - but also just in general, because HPPD is diagnosed entirely by self-reported symptoms and doctors tend to be suspicious of anyone who seems like they're gunning for a benzo script, especially someone who admits to recent recreational drug use).

edit: I also noticed from your other thread that you mentioned smoking - I assume you mean cannabis? Do these symptoms only manifest when you smoke? Cannabis can trigger flashbacks for me up to several weeks after a trip.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

Yes it goes away. don't smoke for a few months

 

[Xorkoth]

Closing this since you posted 2 threads on the same topic.

 

[solistus]

^ Whoops, sorry Xorky, didn't notice you had closed one of them before I went ahead and merged them. There were replies on both so I figured consolidating the responses into one thread made sense. Reopening the merged thread.

 

[Solipsis]

HPPD is a perception disorder, the effect would be that your vision or hearing would be affected rather than 'still feeling the effect'. So you'd have to be a bit more precise.

For some people the effects of a psychedelic can linger as depersonalization or derealization, this unfortunately also is somewhat common but is not HPPD.

Both though are seriously exacerbated by cannabis. I wouldn't worry about ever being able to smoke again but about being able to stay off the weed for long enough to let yourself heal. As for what is actually going on, more details would be needed.

Cannabis can also be more intense after a trip, and involve feelings like as if you were tripping. However I disagree that this is a necessarily a flashback, flashbacks are defined as reliving a particular experience - typically because it had a huge impact like a trauma - not a general feeling. More typically triggers for a flashback involve something directly related to that particular experience rather than just smoking weed (though not always I guess), I have had it once and the trigger was a song that was very closely connected to a super heavy trip months before it.

So in short: there are various possible after-effects from a trip and while staying away from cannabis is something you should do in any of these cases, for more help / treatment you will need to figure out what is going on. For many people especially without experience a trip can feel like it changed you, but not everyone always interprets this feeling as 'something being wrong' and it may require adjusting.

It's important to not lose the connection with yourself and your feelings and to not run away from this. Cannabis makes things vague and allows you to avoid matters of the mind. Take some time to do self-inquiry about what exactly you think and feel, maybe write it down. In paying attention to this you can start to allow a natural process to unfold and either become your old self or a new version of yourself. Don't be afraid, as long as you are accepting this doesn't have to be bad.

 

[Foreigner]

Something important to remember. HPPD as a disorder can only really be diagnosed (or self-diagnosed) if it's affecting your function. That means the HPPD hallucinations would have to be so strong that your day to day world is severely interrupted. This is different from merely having anxiety about the changes in perception but still being able to function. Anxiety can be happening because the perceptual change is causing you to worry, even if the change itself is not harmful to you.

If it's the anxiety that's hindering your function then it's more to do with that than the actual hallucinations.

For example... I have always seen visual snow around objects and people which I refer to as "aura". I saw it before I ever did drugs. After doing LSD for a couple of years, the aura effect intensified. I had a lot of anxiety about it at first because I thought this meant I had some kind of brain damage, but eventually I got used to it and the anxiety went away. The aura intensification never stopped but my anxiety did. See the difference?

 

[Solipsis]

That's very true, it relates to the cliche of fearing fear itself.. or at least the unknown. I suspect that a big part of these sorts of problems people can have has more to do with the idea that something is wrong about their change than any actual reason why it would be bad.

But, I do have to say: coming here for help is kind of a sign that it's bothering enough to hinder functioning... we'll see i guess.

Hiya foreigner how are you friend