was this a flashback?

[sapphire life]

now flashbacks..i'm sure they do occur but i don't think that that is what happened to me in this case..but i can't think of anything else that it could be...here goes.

today i woke up from a dream in which i was hippyflipping. the dream was extremely pleasurable, not too different then when you wake up afterglowing from a sex dream. in the dream i was laughing with joy, etc. when i woke up i felt extremely content and had a sense of well being. i stood up and went to use the bathroom and noticed my eyes were dilated to all hell. almost none of the blue of my eye was showing, all black. I was surprised as hell to mention the least. it stayed like that for about 2 hours, i stayed in my room because i didn't want my parents thinking i was on any drug or whatever, until they calmed down...i hadn't smoked the night before and was completely sober for the week before this dream..could this have been a flashback of some sort? or some brain interaction due to past psychedelic or mdma use? i'm thinking it's more likely that it's something from a past LSD trip..but it's just a hunch. any one ever experience anything like this?

 

[Flickering]

Wow, that's weird!

I know very little about drug chemistry or HPPD, but I think it's possible for small traces of LSD to stay in the bloodstream for long time. It's possible you triggered an actual small trip while you were sleeping, I suppose - and your mind created a dream where you were in fact hippy flipping. Kind of awesome, I reckon, unless it becomes a problem for you. You might want to lay off the psychadelics for a while though.

 

[sapphire life]

it was extremely unusual! it was the first time I had ever experienced anything like it, i think a trip was recreated but i really wonder how..i know the mind is extremely complex and all it takes is certain connections that are made, for out of this world stuff to happen. it wasnt a problem for me at all, i was in such a good mood haha. i went back to bed and woke up kind of groggy and blah-y, but nothing that a small snack didn't fix..and the weird thing is i haven't taken LSD since mid may..the shrooms since early july..and mdma not since apr. 9....very odd indeed

 

[sekio]

Dreams and sleep are still a mystery for most scientists, I wouldn't doubt you put yourself into a psychedelic state

There's no reason people can't have "mystical experiences" without taking any drugs, especially right around the time you fall asleep/wake up. Some people experience sleep paralysis, some hallucinate, some luicd dream. I personally think that "flashbacks" are entirely psychological - LSD doesn't stick around for long enough to remain active past a day in your body.

 

[sapphire life]

yeah i'm kind of iffy on flashbacks..i don't exactly believe in them..kinda lol. but i'm sure they do exist in the fact that someone thinks they are having one, and thus "experiences" one. i'm thinking the dream causes a release of serotonin or dopamine..going to consult encyclopedia brown on this one

 

[tBirdee]

I'm thinking it was placebo to be honest, mind's damn powerful.

And yeah, LSD does not stay in your blood for a long time, at least not nearly enough to be active after say a week.

 

[SpinOutOfControl]

Flashbacks have nothing to do with the drug specifically. They are more connected with having an intense experience, good or bad.

I've had plenty of tripping dreams and I agree they are just about as exciting as the sex dreams. I haven't ever noticed my eyes being dilated after waking up though. I have a friend who has tripped an awful lot and her eyes are always dilated. Even in broad daylight. Every picture I see of her, she has saucers lol.

Sekio sounds like he's got it right when he said you may have pushed your mind into a psychedelic state.

On the rare nights I made it to sleep after getting rocked from a mega dose of LSD, I would wake up in the middle of the night or even in the morning hallucinating heavily. Any light would bend like crazy before it got to my eyes. The room would spin while changing colors, and after images imprinted my whole visual field. This went on for several months. I was not very functional during this time.

 

[any major dude]

there are a couple threads about this somewhere or another. I wouldn't call it a flashback as much as i would a... well... dream, ha. I've actually had a psychedelic dream where some visual alterations persisted into a wakeful state, but it didn't last very long, and was actually kinda cool (despite the fact that i was in a county jail at the time). But it isn't terribly odd for feelings, sensations, etc, from dreams to persist into wakefullness, like you mentioned with the afterglow from sex dreams.

What typically get referred to as "flashbacks" are most often depersonalization/derealization type incidents, often times coincident with a panic attack.