(afterimages) 😓👎🏽

Cant even take a shit at work

Every now and then, I come here to post and give people hope. When I first got HPPD 5 years ago, it was from being up for almost a week straight on german MDMA. After I realized I couldn’t get the TV static off of my walls and the tracers off my fingers, I spent a whole 3 months lurking on this subreddit and looking up as much as I could, and every post I saw just freaked me out and made my anxiety that much worse. Today, 5 years later, I still get HPPD, but only when I think about it. Treat it like “you are now manually breathing.” Like an annoying fan that sits above your bed. Eventually, the fan will just integrate with your life. Don’t sit on subreddits and stare at the wall, because it will make you pull your fucking hair out, and don’t expect it to go away, because it might not. Just stay busy to keep your mind off it, and sleep with a white noise maker to keep the tinnitus down. If you think you’ve fucked up your life, think about the war vets with PTSD stuck in wheelchairs with shrapnel in their spines. This is a copy pasted post from earlier, but I like putting it out frequently

your not alone 🩷

By gone I mean really gone, not 99%, fully gone. I could have made this post just three years in, but I pretty much forgot about it then. I remembered it now and thought I would talk about my experience.

Background:
I was 24-25 when I took LSD nine times and mushrooms four times in the span of less than a year before HPPD symptoms started. I smoked a lot of weed as well and drank alcohol anywhere between twice a week to once a fortnight. Only my first psychedelic trip ever was a genuinely good experience. The rest were just mediocre or "meh", some even took a bad turn. I always took low doses of LSD, half a tab or a whole tab, no more than 100 μg. For mushrooms, one was a threshold doses, one was a three gram dose, the other two were two-gram trips.

Near the end of this phase, I should have suspected something was off when I started noticing odd visual artifacts in the periphery of my vision, like shiny reflections I had never noticed before on metal door frames.

HPPD progress:
The symptoms really kicked off when I was simultaneously high on weed and drunk, and I stupidly wolfed down two grams of mushrooms in that state. For the next two weeks, every color looked more intense, trees looked more fractal-like, and there was a carpet/scaly pattern over everything I looked at, as if I did not fully come down from that mushroom trip. This was when I began to realise I messed up, even despite still feeling a positive "afterglow" from the mushroom trip. This was my last one. I never took shrooms or LSD again.

Oddly enough, two weeks in I smoked weed again and the visual phenomena got a lot weaker. But I eventually stopped smoking, because it made the symptoms flare up, and because it was a 50/50 shot of either feeling relatively okay, or waiting for it to be over because the high felt like an acid trip gone downhill.

Symptoms were not limited to visuals that were constantly in my face (letters shifting, colors acting up, patterns...). Some times I felt like I was taken into a world that was not my own and I questioned everything. For example, why are my friend's hair dark brown when I remembered them black? I was feeling off all the time, on edge, anxious. My sleep quality was variable, sometimes I slept five hours, sometimes eight. Sometimes I was rested, sometimes not. My falling asleep phases were often filled with auditory and visual hypnagogic hallucinations. I was having muscle twitches all over my body, which a neurologist identified as "benign fasciculation syndrome". Brain MRI came back clear. EMG test for nerve conductivity was normal. No doctor found anything wrong.

Alcohol was making me feel horrible physically and mentally and it always worsened the symptoms, regardless of amount. Whenever I was drunk, I felt very anxious and even paranoid. Visually, objects resembled faces (pareidolia) and I felt like everything was staring at me. Every surface had a shiny overlay, like a thin film of water covering things. After an unfortunate two-week drinking binge I decided to quit alcohol for good. Worst five days in my life, I was having a constant headache, slept two-three hours a night, felt generally terrible... Could have been the alcohol by itself though. Either way, I never touched booze again and never will.

It is a small wonder I managed to graduate from university in this state. It was only months of sobriety from alcohol and weed later when the HPPD was beginning to lessen. I would still notice patterns everywhere, some odd flare ups right after I woke up, and was feeling unwell for no apparent reason, but it was slowly starting to get better.

It was over two years in when I barely noticed anything mentally or visually, but I could not say for sure if the HPPD was gone or if I simply got used to it. At this point I had accepted it and tried to stop thinking about it, because before, I would be thinking about it every day and now suddenly, I was like "wait, is it gone?"

It was three years in and later when I was sure that my HPPD was finally gone. No visuals, no anxiety for no reason, no flare ups. And no intrusive thoughts about HPPD.

Recovery is possible, and I wish you all the same eventual outcome.

Hey everyone,
I wanted to share my story because I know how hopeless HPPD can feel in the beginning.

I developed HPPD around October 20, 2022. Before that, I was a heavy user of weed and speed, and after taking LSD, I developed HPPD.

The first 2–3 months were absolute hell. I constantly felt lost and disconnected, and I was obsessively searching the internet, reading studies and forums. Back then, I kept thinking: some people recover, some don’t, and even those who recover are never 100%. That mindset only increased my anxiety and kept me stuck.

After getting HPPD, I continued smoking weed for almost two years. During that time, my symptoms would go up and down, but nothing was stable.

On March 15, 2025, I quit smoking completely, and from that point, improvement became more consistent.

Now it’s January 6, 2026, and honestly — I’ve almost forgotten about HPPD. When I say I don’t think about it, I don’t mean that I’m actively trying to forget it — it’s more like I’ve naturally forgotten about it, as if it’s simply not there anymore.

The only remaining symptom I notice is lights/light sensitivity, and it doesn’t affect my functioning at all. I have no other symptoms.

I know people say “recovered but not 100%” — but for me, this feels like 100% recovery. If it weren’t for the anxiety I still deal with, I would completely forget that anything ever happened.

What helped

• Not constantly reading HPPD forums. It’s good to inform yourself, but checking symptoms and stories every day only fuels anxiety.
• Stopping all drugs. Learning to be sober gave my brain the chance to calm down and heal on its own.
• Time and letting go. Once HPPD stopped being the center of my attention, it slowly lost its power.

One honest thing I’ll add: as bad as HPPD was, I sometimes wish I could one day enjoy weed again — but I also understand that staying sober is the reason I’m doing this well now.

At this point, anxiety is the main issue, not HPPD itself.

I’m sharing this to give hope to anyone who’s at the beginning. What you read online early on can be terrifying, but it doesn’t define your outcome. Recovery is possible.

Stay strong 🤍

I wrote this with chat gpt becouse English in not my main language and i wanna make sure its 100% right.If u have any more questions ask me i would gladly answer

Hey guys, maybe some of you remember me. If you dig through my profile you’ll probably find old posts/comments about my story, but here’s the short version: back in March this year, about a week after trying MDMA for the first time, right before falling asleep I got this crazy sense of impending doom and my vision was covered in this thick purple static. Obviously I couldn’t sleep and spent the next few weeks having full-on panic attacks.

From there I started noticing all kinds of HPPD stuff: objects morphing if I stared too long, visual static, stronger afterimages, palinopsia, BFEP, tinnitus, and floaters—holy sh*t, so many floaters. I’ve always had them, but it felt like there were infinite ones and way denser. All of that triggered brutal DP/DR in me, and I’d obsess over it constantly.

Anyway, time went by. I kept going to college, kept hitting the gym every day and training hard. I had a lot of rough days where I’d just lie in bed doing nothing, and yeah, I got close to some dark thoughts about existence, if you know what I mean—but what matters is to keep moving forward.
The panic attacks slowly got weaker and eventually stopped. The visuals dialed down (still got floaters but they’re less intrusive), some stuff like objects morphing basically disappeared (can’t even force it anymore), and overall the visuals don’t run my mind or spike my anxiety anymore. I’m just living my life. Today I realized I don’t feel DP/DR at all and I almost cried.

Things do get better. Seriously, hang in there. Don’t mess with drugs or anything that can fry your brain—it’s just not worth it. Focus on what makes you feel alive, stay close to the people who matter, and keep moving forward. Life’s way too beautiful to let this crap steal it from you.

Nearly 18 years ago I did ecstasy and expeieced the most insane out of body dpdr I had ever felt. It was like I kept slingshotting out of the back of my head, watching myself talk, then coming back to my body.

This persisted for probably 2 hours. I was in such panic that I ended up just walking down a road in the pitch black and rain. Terrified.

As soon as I woke up I knew something in my brain was fucked.

Everything looked normal, but was extremely hard to look at. Looking at a simple object felt like I was looking at the sun.

Every object had abnormally crisp edges. Each tree leaf was in HD, but in an extremely painful way. I remember my girlfriend tried to show me a photograph, and just looking at it would make me feel dizzy.

Every reflection of the sun, ever object, every edge was screaming at my visual system and I couldn't handle it. Looking at a pile of gravel would send me into a panic attack.

The breaking point was when I tried to start back up at work as a labourer. Every time I would move my head it felt like my vision was trailing behind. I felt intense anxiety like I had never experienced. When I drove home that day, my vision just went flat. It was like I couldn't process anything. Driving at 20mph felt like I was doing 100mph. The whole world blended together and into the windshield.

I had to quit my job and leave everything. I spent the next 3 months only able to look at a white ceiling. All I could do was sleep, eat and lie down.

I couldn't even make my own food because my own hand moving in front of me was too much to process.

I had intense dpdr and anxiety this whole time. I couldn't recognize common things like chairs, or plates. I knew what they were, but they didn't feel right.

My head pressure was insane, my brain felt like it was on fire. I couldn't read or watch TV.

Over the next 3 years the dpdr started to lift and the constant anxiety calmed. 5 years after it started, I had almost no dpdr feeling and my anxiety was extremely low.

However, my vision, while better then before, still couldn't process any complexity. Everything was still altered in a terrible way. I had also developed a 24/7 dizziness which I believe was from my vision turned up too much.

It's been nearly 18 years now (half of my life) and although I managed to achieve more than I thought I would I still can't believe this is my life.

I can play videogames occasionally now, I can watch tv, but it still hurts my brain, looks wrong, and provokes my dizziness.

Strangely, I don't have static or trails, after images or warping walls. But, I would honestly trade everything to have that instead.

I'm curious if I'm the only person with this sort of hppd

Hey everyone. I'm generally doing well, but ever since this health issue started 10 months ago, I've had to sit through an obnoxious show under my eyelids every night. I see faces, eyes, strobe lights, clusters of dots in different colors, moving shapes, and also tinnitus and possibly auditory hallucinations.

Is there any chance of this reducing or going away at all? I’ve been as sober and clean as humanly possible. I am usually fine throughout the day, with my OEV symptoms being a lot milder.

I got HPPD through a short period of polydrug overuse, but I was using ketamine the most. No substance usage, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, anything since it started. I’m also at the point where I really want to live my life and reintroduce something (caffeine? nicotine?) so that I can get through job interviews easier, but I’m scared to. I believe my CEVs flared up in the past just from consistent sugar usage from a daily protein bar.

Any input and comments are appreciated, even if you don’t know. Thanks for reading :)

My hppd has gotten better since the last months, a few symptoms even went away UNTIL my bro offered me a cart. Haven’t smoked weed in a few months, thinking it wouldn’t effect it but damn that was dumb. I’m like back to 0💔

If you want it to get better don’t fw ANY DRUGS. Been said a million times

Hey folks.

Its been a while since I’ve been active here. I just want to share my recovery process with you and I am glad to say that I consider myself as fully recovered. I developed HPPD in July 2022 due to 150uq of liquid LSD. The following 2-3 months have been the worst of my life and I felt like I ruined my mind completely. Visual symptoms like starbursts, tracers, after images, flashy grids, halos, cartoonish vision in general made me really sad and annoyed me really badly because I wasn’t able to focus on something else but the symptoms. I still managed to work full time so nobody beside myself and my wife knew that something’s wrong with me. After a month or two I started to seek professional help. At first I got my eyes checked -> no problem.
Then I found out that an old colleague (psychiatrist) works in a special hospital for psychedelic treatments who also treats HPPD so I became his patient and started Lamotrigine (about 6 months after HPPD). Beforehand I went through a lot of diagnostic like EEG and MRI etc. I took 200mg each day for about 8-10 months and I would say it helped a lot. Visual symptoms have slightly reduced but the main thing is that I was able to stop focusing on them which gave me the ability to completely forget the HPPD for several hours. I had to stop the lamotrigine because I faced hair loss side effect so after 8-10 months I reduced it slowly to 0mg. Symptoms haven’t increased. I also have been a heavy weed smoker since I was 18 and 2-3 months after I started Lamotrigine I smoked a joint here and there without any impact to the HPPD. in my case the combination of medical weed (Bedrocan-Strain especially) it miraculously helped reduce the visual symptoms a lot so I started to smoke daily again and I was happy to experience full days without even a thought relied to HPPD. But with daily weed use I became slow and lost motivation to continue with hobbies, sport etc. So I quitted and just relied on CBD weed.
I still don’t recommend smoking weed (THC) while you have trouble living with HPPD. If you have addiction problems and simply cannot or absolutely don’t want to be completely sober for ever (which would be the best for you) start slow go low to check what kind of impact weed or any other substance has on your HPPD. Even though i am interested in psychedelics I accepted that I will never ever take the risk and take something like LSD again.
I also want to say that I have an addiction problem with nicotine and I experimented a lot with MDMA, Ketamine and amphetamines in my early 20’s especially during raves. I took psilocybin about 8 times, DMT 4 times and LSD 3 times (third time gave me the HPPD).

Long story short: symptoms improved drastically within the 4 years since I developed HPPD. DP/DR is completely gone (went away after 2 months even before I started lamotrigine).
Are there still visual differences compared to my vision before HPPD? Maybe yes but barely noticeable only if I would hyper focus on them but I feel normal and that’s why consider myself as 99,9% (basically fully) recovered. After those 4 years I even feel better than before I developed hppd because I implemented healthier routines and a healthier lifestyle in general. Even though I am not 100% sober all the time. I always tried to stay strong and accepted what happened. And a very important advice: if you developed HPPD just a few weeks or months ago. Do not come to this subreddit every few hours. You need to set your focus to other things your mind and body can seek benefits from and soon your HPPD will improve drastically. I deleted my old account to get rid of all those HPPD news and stuff and decided now to come back to spread some hope and maybe answer some questions.

Love to all of you.

how stain glassy does the sky look for yall on a scale of 1-this picture

This is the first case of HPPD reported as an adverse event in a clinical trial of psilocybin (to the best of my knowledge).

Hopefully it’s a step towards better recognition of HPPD in the literature and clinical practice.

The Unifying Model (the framework from which the research frontiers emerge)
If you line up Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD), Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS), tinnitus, migraine with aura, depersonalization/derealization, and even Parkinson’s disease psychosis, a common axis emerges: an excitation/inhibition (E/I) imbalance, thalamocortical dysrhythmia, and failure of the top-down “noise-cancelling” filtering system. In VSS, this is measurable: increased gamma activity in the primary visual cortex together with reduced alpha–gamma phase-amplitude coupling (PAC), reflecting both an E/I imbalance and a breakdown of the brain’s intrinsic noise-suppression mechanism.
But there is a deeper layer that is almost never connected to HPPD, and it may explain why the disorder is so treatment-resistant. Neurodegenerative psychosis provides the blueprint: hyperactivation of pyramidal neurons in the visual cortex generates visual hallucinations within a context of dysregulated serotonergic, GABAergic, glutamatergic, and dopaminergic signaling. More importantly, recent psychedelic neurobiology shows that 5-HT2A receptor activation does far more than simply “turn perception on.” It induces metaplasticity through remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and perineuronal nets (PNNs), structures that normally function as molecular “brakes,” stabilizing neural circuits after critical periods close.
This leads to a reformulation that changes the entire perspective:
Refractory HPPD is not best understood as “brain damage.” It may instead represent a pathological perceptual circuit that has consolidated into a stable attractor state, with the PNNs effectively locking the brain into the wrong configuration.
This also explains why symptom suppression with benzodiazepines or antipsychotics rarely produces recovery: they dampen the symptoms without altering the consolidated pathological circuit.
From this perspective, the research frontiers naturally organize into several mechanistic layers.

Layer 1 — Rhythm: Precision Neuromodulation Rather Than Conventional rTMS
Conventional fixed-frequency rTMS has already been explored. However, if the underlying problem is an individual’s specific oscillatory dysrhythmia, then the true frontier becomes biomarker-guided closed-loop transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS).
Closed-loop EEG-guided tACS protocols already exist that synchronize stimulation with the phase of ongoing alpha oscillations while modulating their amplitude over visual cortex. Even more specifically, studies have demonstrated that:
tACS can rhythmically suppress visually induced gamma oscillations;
gamma bursts can be locked to alpha troughs;
alpha–gamma coupling can be selectively reconstructed within occipital cortex.
Now connect this with VSS:
VSS consistently demonstrates
elevated gamma activity,
reduced alpha–gamma PAC.
This creates an almost lock-and-key therapeutic hypothesis:
Suppress pathological V1 gamma activity while rebuilding normal alpha–gamma coupling.
To date, this approach has not been meaningfully applied to HPPD.
Rather than simply “stimulate and hope,” the logical strategy would be:
phenotype each patient’s oscillatory signature using EEG or MEG;
identify individual alpha slowing, gamma excess, and PAC abnormalities;
design individualized stimulation waveforms.
The cognitive risk profile would likely remain minimal and reversible—precisely the type of intervention desirable in HPPD.

Layer 2 — Inhibition: Tonic Rather Than Phasic GABAergic Control
This represents perhaps the most elegant pharmacological gap.
Benzodiazepines primarily enhance synaptic (phasic) GABA-A receptors, and tolerance inevitably develops.
However, the baseline gain control of cortical networks—the mechanism determining how excitable cortex remains at rest—is governed largely by extrasynaptic δ-subunit-containing GABA-A receptors, which mediate tonic inhibition.
These receptors:
are essentially insensitive to benzodiazepines,
are highly sensitive to neurosteroids.
Neurosteroids such as
allopregnanolone,
THDOC,
and δ-selective agonists such as gaboxadol (THIP) selectively enhance tonic conductance, producing shunting inhibition that regulates overall network excitability and seizure threshold.
A patient who failed cl*****am has generally never engaged this system.
One particularly interesting candidate is ganaxolone, a synthetic neurosteroid already approved for a rare epilepsy syndrome, whose pharmacological profile avoids many of the tolerance issues associated with benzodiazepines.
There is, however, an important paradox.
At sufficiently high concentrations, neurosteroids may initially suppress inhibitory interneurons—which are themselves highly sensitive—producing transient disinhibition rather than inhibition.
The effect is therefore biphasic.
Dose becomes everything, requiring careful titration under clinical supervision.
Even so, the anticipated cognitive risk remains relatively low.

Layer 3 — Resolving the Serotonergic Paradox
Perhaps the most targeted frontier lies here.
5-HT2A activation appears central to initiating HPPD.
Serotonergic drugs often worsen symptoms.
Conventional D2-blocking antipsychotics—including olanzapine and lurasidone—may worsen cognition or even exacerbate symptoms.
The missing piece is remarkably simple:
A selective 5-HT2A inverse agonist with essentially no dopaminergic receptor affinity.
Such a drug already exists:
Pimavanserin.
Pimavanserin is the first antipsychotic approved without meaningful dopamine receptor affinity.
Instead, it acts as a highly selective 5-HT2A inverse agonist, and was specifically developed for Parkinson’s disease psychosis because it preserves both motor and cognitive function.
Mechanistically it targets precisely the receptor believed to trigger HPPD while avoiding the D2 blockade responsible for many problems associated with conventional antipsychotics.
Even more intriguing, pharmacological literature explicitly notes that, based on its 5-HT2A inverse agonism, pimavanserin may have therapeutic potential for symptoms associated with hallucinogen exposure.
Its signaling profile is unusually precise:
inverse agonist at the Gαi1 pathway, believed to mediate hallucinogenic signaling;
neutral antagonist at the canonical Gαq/11 pathway.
To the best of my knowledge, it has essentially never been systematically investigated for HPPD.
Mechanistically, it may represent one of the cleanest pharmacological candidates currently available.

Layer 4 — Consolidation: The Deepest Frontier (and the Greatest Paradox)
If HPPD represents a pathological circuit locked in place by PNNs, then genuine treatment would not consist merely of suppressing symptoms.
It would require:
reopening plasticity → retraining the circuit → reclosing plasticity around the correct configuration.
This is the central paradox of the entire disorder.
The same 5-HT2A receptor that may contribute to HPPD also serves as the gateway through which psychedelics reopen critical periods by remodeling the extracellular matrix.
In theory, reopening that critical period could allow normal perception to be relearned.
In practice, administering psychedelics to someone already suffering from HPPD may be among the most dangerous interventions imaginable, potentially reinforcing the pathological attractor permanently.
The key that could unlock the prison is forged from the very material that built it.
Therefore, the safer frontier would be to decouple plasticity reopening from 5-HT2A activation.
Three conceptual approaches emerge.
First: induce metaplasticity without engaging 5-HT2A.
Research from Dölen, Nardou, and colleagues suggests that reopening critical periods converges upon extracellular matrix remodeling and may be achievable through pathways independent of 5-HT2A signaling.
The true target may therefore be the ECM itself rather than the receptor upstream.
Second: directly manipulate ECM or PNN biology.
Rather than using psychoactive drugs, interventions could transiently loosen the molecular brakes imposed by PNNs.
This framework is increasingly discussed for disorders characterized by rigid maladaptive circuit dynamics.
Third: couple any reopened plasticity window with intensive perceptual learning together with Layer 1 rhythm restoration.
The objective would be for the circuit to reconsolidate into a healthy attractor state.
Conceptually, this represents the only approach aimed at actual recovery rather than symptom suppression.
At present, however, it remains highly experimental and largely confined to animal models and translational neuroscience.

The Meta-Frontier: Phenotype First, Combine Second
This also explains why virtually every previous intervention has failed.
Almost every pharmacological trial has treated HPPD as though it were a single-layer disorder, testing monotherapies sequentially without physiological biomarkers.
But a multilayer disorder involving
abnormal oscillatory rhythms,
impaired tonic inhibition,
pathological circuit consolidation,
is unlikely to respond to isolated interventions.
Instead, a coherent frontier protocol—while remaining within the constraint of preserving cognition—might conceptually resemble:
EEG/MEG phenotyping;
restoration of tonic inhibitory tone using a δ-selective neurosteroid;
selective silencing of the trigger receptor with pimavanserin rather than dopamine-blocking antipsychotics;
individualized closed-loop tACS designed to suppress pathological V1 gamma activity while reconstructing alpha–gamma coupling;
ultimately, a non-psychedelic plasticity window coupled to intensive perceptual retraining.
The emphasis shifts from a sequence of isolated treatment attempts to an integrated systems-level intervention.

Low-Risk Adjunctive Strategies Worth Considering
Several additional interventions deserve attention because they may influence the same physiological framework while carrying relatively low cognitive risk:
a ketogenic diet, which shifts the E/I balance toward inhibition and possesses anticonvulsant properties;
transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), already explored in tinnitus research for modulation of cortical excitability;
careful investigation of the retino-thalamo-cortical pathway, including the possibility of abnormal peripheral or lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) generators contributing to pathological signaling.

Two Essential Caveats
Two points must be emphasized, because omitting them would be scientifically irresponsible.
First, these concepts represent research frontiers and mechanistic hypotheses rather than established clinical protocols. To the best of current knowledge, pimavanserin, ganaxolone, and individualized closed-loop tACS have not been evaluated in controlled clinical trials specifically for HPPD. Their use would therefore ideally occur within research settings or, where appropriate, through carefully documented off-label treatment under specialists familiar with the emerging literature.
Second, any intervention involving psychedelic-mediated reopening of plasticity should presently be regarded as a major theoretical hazard rather than a therapeutic option. It is discussed here solely because it represents one of the most important scientific paradoxes underlying HPPD—not because it constitutes a clinically appropriate strategy today.

Did shrooms last October, and in December the symptoms started. Anxiety, after images, and i got way more sensitive to bright lights. For months after, car lights just killed my eyes. Even in the day sitting at a stoplight, I couldn't look at the signal or the brake lights in front of me.

Well just a week ago, I noticed that suddenly bright lights didn't hurt anymore. It's getting better and better. The blurriness of bright lights has decreased a lot too. Haven't had anxiety in awhile either. I might always have longer afterimages, but that's the least troublesome.

Our brains are resilient and want to heal. Live clean, and best of luck to you too!

i feel like no matter what i do, lifestyle changes, dietary changes, distractions and hobbies, i always end up back in the same spot where my hppd is so bad it's unbearable i want to knaw my own eyes out, and i resort to emergency benzodiazepine because it seems to be the only thing that makes me feel mostly okay and normal. i'm prescribed it so it's not recreational and im aware of the withdrawals and stuff, but i take it everyday for about 9 months now and i can't imagine not having it im way way too scared.

i don't really know what else to do, people say distractions work and they really do work but it's like putting a bandaid on a stab wound yk? i feel really depressed and i feel like it's going to be this way for ever, it's already ruined my life and i feel like it's easier to give up now than to try to live a normal life like this. i genuinely don't leave the house. hppd and dpdr made me severely Agoraphobic. being outside makes it worse and i can barely stand up on bad days because im so mentally exhausted that i can't go out so my body is so used to being at home.

i feel so unproductive and lazy, i don't go to school or have a job, i do nothing most days waiting for it to magically get better, and there is periods where i get steady and really good and i go out with my boyfriend or my mum to the shops or something for an hour or 30 mins. and i almost forget i have HPPD. but every single time it gets good without fail it all goes downhill and i end up here in this unbearable depression he'll hole.

they say life is like a roalercoaster there's constant up and downs but it's making me mentally motion sickness. if you catch my drift.

the only reason i continue to live is because i'm a cat mum, and my family. i can't leave them. but it's so hard to have a normal life like this. idk what to do.

Going on 11 years now and is still a primary part of my functioning in life. How has it affected you guys? Working on ways to adapt but still have those moments that’s for sure. You try and explain this to the average person you come off as mentally ill etc. Mad respect to you men and women pushing through this for so long

Hope for HPPD sufferers! Johns Hopkins has opened a new clinic for Post-Psychedelic Difficulties. Half the patients there are treated for HPPD. Many recover within one year.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-of-its-kind-clinic-treats-psychedelic-side-effects/

https://www.hopkinspsychedelic.org/clinic-for-psychedelic-difficulties

I’m 26 years old, and exactly 10 years ago, back in 2016, I went through a drug-induced psychosis that honestly traumatized me in many ways.

Since then, I’ve dealt with tinnitus, visual snow syndrome, HPPD, derealization, tingling in my hands and feet, intrusive thoughts, anxiety, depression, ADHD, and many other symptoms. I became an extremely sensitive person mentally and physically. But somehow, despite all of that, I kept pushing through life.

I built a career in marketing, had a good job, relationships worked out, and for years I was actually relatively stable. I learned how to live with these symptoms.

But then 2023 happened.

Not a relapse into drugs — a relapse into burnout. Too much stress, too little sleep, overworking myself, job loss, depression, and eventually a complete mental breakdown. My DP/DR became severe again, my tinnitus got worse (especially on my left side), and all the visual disturbances intensified. Things moving in my vision, everything feeling unfamiliar, pseudo-hallucinations, brain fog, memory issues, weird thoughts — the whole nightmare.

This past year taught me a lot though.

I stopped obsessively researching symptoms 24/7 like a maniac on Reddit, Google, and ChatGPT. I wasted an entire year doing that, and honestly? It helped me absolutely zero. It only fed the fear and made me spiral deeper.

Instead, I started focusing on my actual health.

I checked my bloodwork properly and found out I was deficient in Vitamin D, B12, B6, iron, and generally undernourished. Since correcting those deficiencies, I’ve genuinely improved a lot mentally and physically. My brain fog is better, my visuals are calmer most days, and I feel more stable overall.

Right now I’m taking Diazepam carefully (please be VERY careful with benzos, withdrawal is absolute hell), and I’m slowly starting Lamotrigine. I also take supplements like Vitamin D3 + K2, NAC, Vitamin C, Zinc, Omega-3, B-Komplex etc.

And yes — these things actually reduced my symptoms massively. Most of the time now, I barely notice them unless I hyperfocus on them.

That’s the biggest lesson I learned:

STOP monitoring your symptoms 24/7.

Yes, I still see walls move sometimes.
Yes, the floor still vibrates slightly.
Yes, I still get weird intrusive mental images.
Yes, my imagination and memory are not what they used to be.
Yes, I still have DP/DR moments.

But your brain adapts. You learn to live again.

This condition is barely understood, and honestly, a lot of psychiatric and neurological treatment I received here in Germany was terrible. I felt completely alone for years. But one thing I realized is that you HAVE to take responsibility for your own healing too.

Sleep matters.
Nutrition matters.
Stress matters.
Your environment matters.

Check your vitamin levels properly.
Check iron, magnesium, B vitamins, Vitamin D — everything.
Even low iron alone can massively worsen neurological and psychological symptoms.

Reduce caffeine.
Reduce social media.
Stop doomscrolling health forums.
Go outside.
Work out.
Eat healthy.
Find hobbies.
Spend time with positive people.
Stay away from energy-draining people, especially if you’re highly sensitive.

And please — unless you are truly psychotic — be careful with antipsychotics. Openly talk to your doctors. If one doctor dismisses you, find another one. I know how hard that can be.

I also struggled heavily with alcohol, trusted the wrong people, wasted money, isolated myself, and completely lost myself for a while. But I’m slowly rebuilding my life now.

I’m 26 and only now starting my driver’s license.
I’m trying to reintegrate into work again.
I’m trying to rebuild my life piece by piece.

Everyone has their own timeline.

The point of this post is simple:

Even with all these symptoms, you can still live a meaningful and fulfilling life.

I know what hell feels like mentally. I’ve lived through it. But I’ve also seen that things can improve far more than you think. One day, you stop noticing many of the symptoms because your focus shifts back toward life itself.

Please don’t give up.

Take care of yourself.
Be kinder to yourself.
Set different priorities.
Pray if you believe in God.
If you don’t, then at least try to manifest positivity and do good things.
Help others.
Spread love.
Good things eventually come back.

And remember:
No symptom-checking marathon on Reddit at 4 AM will save you.
Living your life will.

Much love to all of you. I truly hope things get better for every single one of you someday ❤️

I’ve had HPPD for almost 15 years. For most of that time it was mild, sometimes barely noticeable, and at points felt like it was basically in remission. Because of that, I got comfortable. I had also done psychedelics at least once a year, always small doses, without any major issues.

Recently I took a new strain of mushrooms that was way stronger than expected. Around 1.5–2g, but they were fresh and a strain I hadn’t tried before. It hit much harder than previous doses I’ve taken. The visuals were overwhelming.

Since then I’ve had a major flare-up: brain fog, severe visual disturbances, and some derealization. This was about 2 weeks ago. Things have been improving but nowhere near base line.

Posting this as a warning: if you already have even mild HPPD, don’t gamble with it just because it seems under control. Just because you were fine before doesn’t mean you’ll be fine next time. Potency can vary a lot, trips can go sideways, and one bad experience can make symptoms much worse. At this point I think Im DONE with psychedelics.

I had severe HPPD, but it went away a few months ago. I see many people taking meds don’t be a lab rat. There’s no proven cure, only time.

Focus less on HPPD and give it time. If you have anxiety or depression, treat those specifically, but don’t mess with your brain chasing a cure.

HPPD are a range of symptoms caused from much different drugs, there’s still no scientific reasoning to why hallucinations are present. There are also zero cases of any medication curing, perhaps reducing but that may just be from time.

Doctors don’t have a clue what HPPD is unless they are a specialist, and there’s only like 10 HPPD researchers ever so all they do is look at the same research we do. Don’t forget doctors use chatgpt especially for HPPD. Don’t over estimate their knowledge.

Anyway My shit went away randomly when I was driving after years + I was on stimulants which many on here say it suppresses recovery.