UserWiki:David Hedlund/HPPD
Causes
HPPD can be a cause of anxiety and/or neurotoxicity.
Anxiogenics
HPPD caused by anxiety (eg by bad trips). Causes:
- Overwhelming high doses of psychedelics
- Psychoactive substances that cause anxiety, aka anxiogenics. Examples: Caffeine. High doses caffeine or a lot of coffee combined with psychedelics can trigger anxiety induced HPPD.
Manifestation
HPPD caused by anxiety manifest itself with intense anxiety occasionally, at worst panic attacks. If you live a healthy life and are not bothered by your HPPD but still get significantly more anxiety than you had before you got it, then it's certainly anxiety cause by the HPPD itself.
Shamanistic point of view
"They say that this is an issue of energy being trapped in the head." - http://hppdonline.com/topic/3975-an-amazonian-shamans-view-of-hppd/
Possible treatment
The only way to get of anxiety is to process it emotionally, relaxation exercises (or spiritual practices) during episodes of intensified anxiety is useful. Benzodiazepines will prolong the HPPD by delaying the anxiety, but they are effective to regulate the anxiety if it's overwhelming. "There is no real great treatment for it," said Dr. Henry Abraham, a psychiatry lecturer at Tufts University and one of the few scientists in the world researching HPPD. "We've tried all kinds of things, we've published papers, but there is no cure for HPPD other than mother nature." - https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7xkxey/when-drugs-fuck-you-up-forever-safe-sesh
"The best thing you can do to recover to not over think it. The more you think about it the more anxiety you feel which stresses your body and prevents recovery. The more you think about it the more anxiety you feel which stresses your body and prevents recovery." says Clarity
HPPD caused by anxiety often shares similarities with PTSD, "that's why sometimes the best treatment for HPPD is psychotherapy to treat the underlying PTSD anxiety, as opposed to more drugs." says Clarity.
Psychedelics has been used:
- "OP , I had my main HPPD symptoms subside up to 60-70% from one experience with low-dose mushrooms." - http://hppdonline.com/topic/3975-an-amazonian-shamans-view-of-hppd/
- YEARS of HPPD and flashbacks cured with psilocybin
- HPPD - Should YOU use mushrooms as a cure
- comment: "3.5 shroom trip fixed me idc what people say my brain is normal now after I did lsd u had real hppd from that now I’m fine pls take a high dose shroom trip you need a lot to fix your brain"
Affected chakras:
- Third eye chakra
- Crown chakra
Suggested use: Keep up with healthy routines for at least 7 days prior to the session, use meditation during the session, avoid anxiogenics (eg caffeine) with the psychedelic substance. Start on below psychoactive doses and gradually increase the dose each week until you have reached a therapeutic dose but be willing to five up after a few sessions if you don't notice any improvements to not further impair recovery of the disrupted sensory pathways.
Neurotoxicity
Prognosis
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7xkxey/when-drugs-fuck-you-up-forever-safe-sesh
Abraham estimated that HPPD affects about 4 percent of people who've taken hallucinogenics, but as no large-scale studies have ever been done, how many people have it is still very much unknown. He also said that a very concerning aspect of the condition is the fact it can present in patients years after the drug use happened. Unlike what Miller experienced—waking up the next morning after a trip with symptoms—the onset of HPPD can develop long after the fact.
"If you've taken LSD in the past and you haven't developed HPPD yet, that doesn't give you a free pass," Abraham said. "Many times people develop this syndrome after a heavy night of drinking or smoking weed." That's to say: If someone has ever taken acid or other hallucinogenics, a sesh further down the line can tip them over the edge and trigger HPPD.
"At a recent Society of Biological Psychiatry conference, Dr. Abraham presented findings, later published in the S.B.P. 2012 supplement, that suggest up to sixty-five per cent of H.P.P.D patients chronically endure panic attacks, and fifty per cent, major depression. Some patients feel their only relief is suicide." - https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/a-trip-that-doesnt-end
"For about half of Abraham's patients, it seems to go away on its own after about five years; for the others, however, it can linger much longer. "The lucky ones have it a day or a week," Alderliefste says. "The unlucky ones can have it for life."" - http://behdad.org/mirror/www.braindecoder.com/hppd-the-psychedelic-trip-that-never-ends-1538483873.html
"Perceptual disturbances may last for 5 years or more and represent a real psychosocial distress." - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15963699