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HPPD,How to prevent getting it?

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B1ack_Ph03niX

B1ack_Ph03niX

Rising Star
hello friends
i lately read a lot about HPPD (Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder)reports of people who having it and what caused it
mostly from reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPPD/

not gonna lie but i am a i bit scared about it they mostly getting it from LSD and mushrooms even a few people get it first time they use and many of then has it for 3 to even 20 years.
i heard that maybe 1 to 1000 of people get this problem but this subreddit has a Research that said 60 percent of people who using psychedelics getting it.
this problem it very little known and most doctors don't understand it (they thinks you are crazy or ...)
how can we protect ourself from HPPD?
anyone have suggestion for HPPD i appreciate to read about it.

thanks for your time
 
60%? That sounds ridiculous. Where did they get those numbers? I know quite a few people who do psychedelics, and I know one single person who had a spiritual crisis from LSD (and I don't think it was "HPPD" ).

Isn't this one of those fake illnesses invented by the DEA to denigrate psychedelic users?

And comparing the numbers, it would seem to me that the incidence of mental illness among people who do psychedelics is not higher than among people who don't. It might be interesting to do a research about that, if someone here's studying psychology.
 
Here's a good review on it (attached).

60% of users having HPPD seems absolutely ludicrous statistics, if you can link this "research" so we can see the method, then a more informed opinion could be made on it. The attached paper mentions it is a very rare occurrence.

There are def some unknown aspects related to HPPD, but the usual health and safety recommendations are very relevant nonetheless. According to the attached paper there is some link between HPPD and traumatic experiences, so avoiding those by taking care of set and setting, and having a good support system for after the experience, can help diminish the possibility of HPPD.

While there are many possible explanations for HPPD, some of which are discussed in the paper, one thing I have thought about which might explain some (but prob not all) of the cases: it might be that all normal people also have certain visual effects happening in normal life that we learn to ignore because they dont serve an immediate survival benefit. In optical illusions, we can clearly see how it is definitely true our brain edits the stimulus received into a coherent model, ignoring certain things and adding others. It might be there are different patterns in the daily stimulus, be it visual or auditory, that are geometric, fractal, and it's only that after taking psychedelics we are actually paying attention but they were always there.

And if you have a strong emotional experience connected with a certain visual phenomenon through, it's understandable that if you have a similar emotional experience you might "remember/relive" the visual phenomenon again, or vice versa (since our brains work commonly through associating stimulus).

Personally I wouldnt sweat over it. I think there are worse risks in life to worry about, and worse risks when taking psychedelics too, most of which can be mitigated by the aforementioned safety recommendations.
 

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The only way to prevent it really is to not take powerful psychedelic substances. Beyond that there simply isn't enough known to recommend anything beyond the usual combination of diet, rest, exercise. I guess it's possible that slightly increasing certain vitamins or minerals might offset it somehow, if it's a purely neurological/synapse related issue?

I think some people are predisposed to it, and I include myself there. I've always had quite apparent visual snow in my visual field and psychedelics perhaps made me more conscious of it - if I'm tired it becomes very apparent. I've had other visual disturbances, before and after my use of psychedelics, like scintillating scotoma for example. But perhaps visual snow is normal to a degree? Who's to say, we can only see for ourselves and no one else.

Worrying about it will inevitably give credence and energy to it, making it worse.

If you're worried about extreme HPPD, like wobbly text, patterns on walls, visual things that usually happen only when you're tripping.. personally I think that is not HPPD. From a mainstream perspective it might be classed as schizophrenia, though I would dispute that term as baseless and suggest that the permeability between the inner witness and the mental sphere has lessened but not pathologically. Reading on Reddit people mentioning LSD being a common denominator is interesting though, perhaps LSD adversely affects the visual system in the brain in a toxic way? Who knows.

So long as you're sensible with dose and use then you help to mitigate the risk (though obviously there is still risk).
 
 
I've met people with HPPD. I wouldn't want it personally.

How to avoid it? No idea. I'll bet there's never been any science on it.

So, here's an unscientific view I am pulling out of my ass: stick with DMT/5-MeO-DMT/ayahuasca, and if you must venture out of there, stick with mushrooms. Why?

Brain receptors work more smoothly with chemicals that occur naturally in your body. DMT/5-MeO-DMT occur naturally in the brain (ayahuasca's active ingredient is DMT). Psilocybin (aka 4-HO-DMT, the active ingredient in mushrooms) is closer to those kinds of psychedelics than other psychedelics.

Best bet? Don't do psychedelics.
 
endlessness said:
Here's a good review on it (attached).

60% of users having HPPD seems absolutely ludicrous statistics, if you can link this "research" so we can see the method, then a more informed opinion could be made on it. The attached paper mentions it is a very rare occurrence.

There are def some unknown aspects related to HPPD, but the usual health and safety recommendations are very relevant nonetheless. According to the attached paper there is some link between HPPD and traumatic experiences, so avoiding those by taking care of set and setting, and having a good support system for after the experience, can help diminish the possibility of HPPD.

While there are many possible explanations for HPPD, some of which are discussed in the paper, one thing I have thought about which might explain some (but prob not all) of the cases: it might be that all normal people also have certain visual effects happening in normal life that we learn to ignore because they dont serve an immediate survival benefit. In optical illusions, we can clearly see how it is definitely true our brain edits the stimulus received into a coherent model, ignoring certain things and adding others. It might be there are different patterns in the daily stimulus, be it visual or auditory, that are geometric, fractal, and it's only that after taking psychedelics we are actually paying attention but they were always there.

And if you have a strong emotional experience connected with a certain visual phenomenon through, it's understandable that if you have a similar emotional experience you might "remember/relive" the visual phenomenon again, or vice versa (since our brains work commonly through associating stimulus).

Personally I wouldnt sweat over it. I think there are worse risks in life to worry about, and worse risks when taking psychedelics too, most of which can be mitigated by the aforementioned safety recommendations.
Click to expand...

"60% of users having HPPD seems absolutely ludicrous statistics" yes i agree with you i don't believe it ether i think this rumor started with vice this is the link: [sorry for delay]
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPPD/comments/d61xlw/hppd_is_pretty_common

I have a theory similar to yours . i see a youtube video mind field "the psychedelic experience" new research says that when we are on psychedelic our brain activity Decreases;so my other theory is on psychedelics We get closer to the feeling of death as our souls go to other dimensions and see or feel the higher beings talking to them and ...
If our brains are not ready (suddenly taking a large dose or using strong substances)
Causes a shock to the brain that may cause HPPD or repeated use without resting the brain can cause this problem.

thanks
 
endlessness said:
Here's a good review on it (attached).

60% of users having HPPD seems absolutely ludicrous statistics, if you can link this "research" so we can see the method, then a more informed opinion could be made on it. The attached paper mentions it is a very rare occurrence.

There are def some unknown aspects related to HPPD, but the usual health and safety recommendations are very relevant nonetheless. According to the attached paper there is some link between HPPD and traumatic experiences, so avoiding those by taking care of set and setting, and having a good support system for after the experience, can help diminish the possibility of HPPD.

While there are many possible explanations for HPPD, some of which are discussed in the paper, one thing I have thought about which might explain some (but prob not all) of the cases: it might be that all normal people also have certain visual effects happening in normal life that we learn to ignore because they dont serve an immediate survival benefit. In optical illusions, we can clearly see how it is definitely true our brain edits the stimulus received into a coherent model, ignoring certain things and adding others. It might be there are different patterns in the daily stimulus, be it visual or auditory, that are geometric, fractal, and it's only that after taking psychedelics we are actually paying attention but they were always there.

And if you have a strong emotional experience connected with a certain visual phenomenon through, it's understandable that if you have a similar emotional experience you might "remember/relive" the visual phenomenon again, or vice versa (since our brains work commonly through associating stimulus).

Personally I wouldnt sweat over it. I think there are worse risks in life to worry about, and worse risks when taking psychedelics too, most of which can be mitigated by the aforementioned safety recommendations.
Click to expand...
I had a discussion with some other nexus member, i think it was tatt, about this.

I do believe that this is exactly what's going on indeed. It is probably true that most people who've taken psychedelics, can remember a different way of looking at reality. But with HPPD there seems to be a sort of "once seen, it can't be unseen" effect.
And it could be that panic/fear for it in some sense reaffirms this effect. If you fear something, you see that thing you fear everywhere because you are on heightened alert. So that could become a sort of feedback mechanism, where you, in a very short period of time, condition yourself to always respond in a certain way, when certain triggers occur.
 
Indeed, dragonrider, there is some of that going on. It is essentially the same mechanism which ocurrs in patients with PTSD after a psychotic break/traumatic event
 
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