Wow, that's great to find someone with some relative experience with this very odd phenomenon. I wish that you didn't have to experience it, so I didn't mean it like that, but none of my friends, family ,etc. understand what I experience. I don't know how deep I can get into this and don't want to violate any terms/conditions of these threads, because I quite honestly enjoy them, lol, but I can make it brief.
I have experience with a wide variety of substances. My favorite, though, were psychedelics. To make a point clear, I have been sober from everything (including weed) for I have no idea how long - 6 or 8 months maybe, and before then I toned it down a lot. February 22 2012 was the day that I believe this was brought on, although the entire weekend of that day, especially the day before and after, may have caused my symptoms. In the past, after LSD, I would experience HPPD like symptoms only after being sleep deprived, using lot's of stimulants, or smoking TONS of weed or hash oil. Even then, it was minor - things would just seem kind of trippy, but no anxiety or depersonalization or visual snow or psuedohallucinations. I believe the drug that caused it was PCP or embalming fluid - I never smoked cigarettes but regrettably took a puff of some random persons cig at a concert and instantly felt odd and anxious and really mind blowingly trippy. It makes me feel odd even thinking about it. My friend and I investigated it and it was definitely laced - the filter was pushed up. there was some other substance in there, etc. Based off of my (at the time) bio-hacking of drugs through sites such as erowid and bluelight, I knew it was a deliriant and did further researcher in the coming weeks. That night I was also on MDMA. The night before - I drank, took xanax, codeine, smoked weed, and took a very high dose of DXM. I believe the DXM could have still been in my system from the night before, and MDMA and DXM don't mix because they can cause Serotonin Syndrome, which is deadly. The following day, having only slept about 5 hours in the past two nights, I collapsed and woke up for the (again) following day to trip out on an even higher dose of DXM. Both the day of the concert, and two days later with DXM, I had slightly odd and scary experiences. I'm sure this is what caused my problems. I never had anything but spiritually thought provoking, blissful experiences before. Reading all that, I have so many regrets. I maintained good grades throughout that period of my life (was in AP courses, in fact), and I was a rather talented wrestler - but I let my 'knowledge' get ahead of me. Looking back at it, I always scoffed at people who thought young people couldn't make wise decisions - well, I agreed, but I thought that I was somehow smarter than others my age because of all the research I did and being friends with kids much older than I - but damn, my prefrontal cortex was NOT developed thoroughly, let me tell you that (lol)!
I agree with you, that psychedelics have a dark side. I don't know if you're familiar with Graham Hancock, but he's a large proponent of Ayahuasca but he had one of the most life changing and frightening experiences on night when doing ayahuasca with shamans. They can be a catalyst for growth - or, demise.......
Dr. Abraham is a physician/researcher who specializes in treating HPPD - I've thought about seeking him out. The best theories surrounding HPPD is that in genetically susceptible individuals (*field alert*), psychedelic use can cause HPPD, and this is due to altered CNS function and altered/diminished sensory gating. There are some medications that
strongly help with the depersonalization, and then benzodiazapines such as alprazolam and clonzapam can diminish HPPD symptoms; not only anxiety, fear, and panic, but visual snow and depersonalization. Oddly enough, after this weekend, I would occasionally used Xanax because it not only made me feel more calm, centered, and mellow, but it took away my visual snow and other trippy visual things quite a lot. I stopped smoking weed too, because anytime I did it (after this event) not only would I get so anxious I thought I was going to literally freak out, but all the trippy visual things would come back, and I would have INTENSE intracranial pressure so to speak. It felt like my head was going to implode, and my vision would get all shaky. I don't know if it was psychosomatic but any time I would rub my temples it would get better, but the second I stopped..... came right back. This is when I first started experimenting with things - going gluten free and vegetarian helped tremendously, but I believe it was more due to a lack of gluten and GMOs, rather than vegetarianism - I'm no longer vegetarian.
I really hope LLLT can help, and, right now, I believe it does. I was wondering if I could stimulate other areas, and you gave me ideas. Currently have done 3
very short sessions focusing on the forehead, based off of the depression study. I think I might figure out how to affect areas associated with sensory gating/visual perception, though. You noted that you've had success by also targeting the back of your head, I wonder if I could target the occipital lobes associated with occipital migraines (visual migraines, in which sufferers also experience some trippy visual symptoms as well) and visual problems. Gives me some ideas. I'm at least hopeful that I've come across such tremendously intelligent AND kind individuals. I'm also extremely excited and hopeful with the more research I do, considering I'm really accepting the fact that our brains are even more thermoplastic than I had previously imagined.
***What I meant by field alert, is, according to Dr, Kruse the 'field' determines the fate of our cells. This is why so many people go from diet to diet. why people still remain fat and fatigued even after they drop calories/increase exercise, why cancer, AZ, dementia, etc. is prevalent, why there is childhood diabesity, and so on. We have been changing our environment faster than our genome/epigenome can adapt, and now were speeding up all the negative epigenetic adaptations at increasing rates. Dr. Kruse theorizes that there are three fundamental keys to life: the photoelectric affect (sunlight), water, and magnetism. He routinely says Mars has two out of the three and look at the planet - it's dead. Apparently our brains have actually diminished in size in the past hundred or so years, and many people say its due to consumption of grains, lack of essential fats, and so on, but, it may in fact be artificial lighting and EMFs coupled with a drastically decreased beneficial magnetic field and Schuman resonance. Robert O. Becker, who was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize, who also regenerated salamanders hearts and brains without magnesium, did amazing experiments at Clam Lake with the Navy showing that non-ionizing radiation from ELFs cause acute stress responses leading to depression and autoimmune diseases. 9 out of 10 of the radio tower workers at Clam Lake developed hypertriglyceridemia; Becker went on to do more studies, but this knowledge remains un-investigated. If I were to guess, it's probably because our economy relies on devices that largely emit ELFs, but who knows. I'm not saying there is a conspiracy or something. Going onward, the reason I said 'field alert', is because if Dr. Kruse (and others) is right, and the 'field' (electromagnetic field; both the electric and magnetic field), dictates our cells fates and causes negative epigenetic changes, maybe I caused damage to my blood brain barrier through concussions and what not, started using these substances while being in a bad emotional state and not having changed my diet to its current nature, all WHILE living in an altered field. Get's me thinking. By the way, I don't always just follow Dr. Kruse theories, but he, Dr. Raymond Peat, and Dr. Klinghardt are really the only innovative ones who connect dots from multiple fields. I just did a quick first time search on Robert O. Becker, and here's what I found:
http://www.earthpulse.net/Becker.htm wow..... enormous amounts of research that would probably take months to go through. Here are his books:
http://www.amazon.co...er/e/B001IGNU3Y but two of them are pdf files on the previous website.***
Edited by BigPapaChakra, 03 September 2013 - 02:21 AM.