Hey guys, I figured I'd make a post for those of you lookin for a way to help you get past ur HPPD or any visual disturbances u might have from previous drug use. If your HPPD is so severe that u find it IMPOSSIBLE to avoid or ignore you're probly not gonna find this post to be much help, and you should definitely see a doctor/neurologist if you haven't already. I'm basing this on my own personal experience with HPPD, which was bad, but not completely crippling.
I know a bunch of narrow minded people will say that if it doesn't completely destroy ur function thru ur every day life then it's not HPPD. This is a load of shit tho. If it's not HPPD, tell me what it is then when u end up with a persisting perception problem due to hallucinogens.... Just cuz u wont get diagnosed for it doesn't mean u dont have a form of HPPD. U'r just not gonna get medically diagnosed cuz if it's not effecting u severely, you can most likely get over it or at least learn to cope with it urself and ur not gonna need medical help or special treatment for ur problems. If the medical field wasn't based so much on insurances willingness to fund treatments, im sure more ppl would be getting help for their floaters or HPPD...seems if u have an issue nowadays, as long as u can go to work and contribute to society, it's NOT an "issue", no matter how much it effects ur day and drains ur quality of life.
If u think u have HPPD the best thing you can do for urself is NOT worry about it, give it time and see what happens. Once u understand what u have and what u need to do to help ur body and mind recover you know pretty much all u need to know about HPPD, and you should stay away from the net and dont spend too much time readin up on it or thinkin about it. (unless it's been 6+ months and u've found NO improvement whatsoever even after trying all coping skills you've learned, in which case u might want to seek a new kind of help and maybe speak with a medical professional) Whether ur optimistic about it or not, the best thing u can do is to try to completely forget it's happening.
This is a list of things that i noticed helped me cope with and forget about my HPPD. Not COMPLETELY forgotten yet (i still have floaters and VS, but i dont notice them as much as i did b4) i feel im getting there tho. The sooner u start the better...the longer u let urself suffer from HPPD the more the brain is gonna get used to functioning WITH HPPD and the longer it's gonna last.
________________________________________________________________________ (1) Refrain from Drugs ~ Stop taking any drugs ASAP...this includes even coffee and tobacco. You want to clean ur system out as much and AS SOON as u can. I know some drugs help u COPE with it and make having HPPD easier to accept, but they're not helping u actually get over ur HPPD. (2) Exercise ~ The better shape ur body is in the less u will struggle to move about ur day, and the less energy ur body will have to put into it. This leaves more energy to help ur brain and nerves recover.
(3) Diet ~ Same reason as exercising. The better ur diet the more energy ur body will have to put into ur recovery.
(4) Glasses? ~ If you have floaters or visual snow glasses may help. For ME my VS was worse in my peripheral, With glasses on, ur mind tends to block out ur peripheral anyways. You usually lose sight of ur glasses and can tend to forget they're even on. Along with blockin out the glasses, ur mind can block out the VS as well, at least it did for me. With floaters i didn't get anxious as often when i saw them with glasses cuz rather than thinkin "oh there's something in my eye" i would tend to chalk it off as part of my vision being disrupted by my glasses and would tend to stop noticing it rather than my nervous system going crazy from noticing something wrong with my body that it doesn't know how to take care of.
(5) Keep from getting COLD ~ A lot of people dont meantion this one, but getting over HPPD has a lot to do with calming ur nerves. If you get cold enough to shiver ur nerves are far from calm. (6) Avoid Anxiety ~ Main thing to this is try ur best not to think about HPPD or anything negative going on in ur life. If you find urself feelin depressed take control and do what u can to think about something positive. If you're suffering from social anxiety, try stayin in for a couple weeks while ur trying to get over ur HPPD. Also try to avoid getting too excited about things. You want ur nerves to calm down. Ur probly gonna get VERY bored just as i did, but hang in there. After "babying" my nerves for just a couple weeks i noticed a tremendous improvement. (7) Sleep ~ Good sleep does wonders, just dont sleep TOO MUCH.
(8) DONT KEEP TESTING URSELF FOR HPPD ~ NO LOOKIN AT THE SKY OR A BLANK WALL TO SEE IF U STILL HAVE FLOATERS OR VS. If you dont see it, why TRY to see it? Why ruin a good thing ? I know if ur suffering from HPPD ur probly anxious for it to go away and soon as u feel for a second that it may be gone, ur probly gonna wanna look for signs of HPPD to see if u still have it. This is a big NONO. When u look for signs of HPPD it's easy to find them. Remember ur trying to forget about HPPD all around. Dont let ur brain remember what it was like to have it or it just might take u a step back and ur brain might start noticing these symptoms more often again. No need to look to see if it's still there, You know ur already doing something right and moving forward if ur not noticing it as much, so why look to see if it's still there? It's not gonna help it go away, Ur not gonna get anything out of it other than the pride of knowing u finally beat the HPPD if it doesn't show, which just makes u think about HPPD again WHICH IS exactly what u want to avoid. Be patient please. You wanna forget about HPPD to the point that when ur not noticing symptoms u dont even notice that ur NOT noticing them. U wanna forget u ever even had symptoms to begin with. You want to think about what it's like to be NORMAL, dont let ur brain remember what it's like to have HPPD, you only wanna let ur brain remember how it's SUPPOSED to function.
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That's my list, If u can think of something that u believe can help HPPD that i didn't mention, Please leave it in a comment below. Hope this can be a help.
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