r/HPPD

I seem to experience what seem to be hppd symptoms - like visual snow, floaters and seeing the white blood cells in my eyes - , but I have yet to take any psychedelics.

My question is how big of a risk i have of my symptoms getting worse? And to be clear I've had these symptoms for as long as I can remember and I dont mind them at all, quite the opposite. Thank you for your answers in advance

5-HT2A Activation 

 Inhibits Dopamine: 5-HT2A receptors inhibit midbrain dopamine pathways. Over-activation of 5-HT2A dampens dopamine firing, which can worsen the "negative symptoms" of schizophrenia (such as lack of emotion or motivation).

In 2020 I dropped acid. Fast forward a year later in 2021, I started getting alot of anxiety and then for weeks i got stuck in seeing these severe intrusive images and it felt like I was on acid again. For a little over a year after that I fell into a really severe depression and got stuck in intrusive thought loops until I finally got help. My problem is I dont think I ever mentioned the acid and I was chatergorized as having severe depression with pyschotic disorder. Now for the past 4 years I've been to the hospital several times and same with treatment facilities because somethings really not right with me mentally. I usually just say the same stuff, I'm very numb and detached mentally, I cant feel happiness, I feel stuck. It cant be severe depression because I got really into mma and trained like a madman to try and heal from this and it really didnt do anything. Now that Im putting no pressure on myself, accepting my mental state for as it is, I'm pretty sure I've been stuck in the same state of mind i was in during my acid trip. Its weird i really have been convinced I was fine too, so going to a rehab I like put pressure on myself to be depressed. I'm realizing now just how distorted my reality has been since 2021 and how I've just been stuck in the same mental state. I'm back at a rehab now and therapist / pyschiatrist, groups, TMS, really intense workouts everyday, and it really hasn't been doing anything.

Has anyone else ever been this trapped and firgured out stuff that worked to get better. Could really use your feedback on what you guys think.

Hi (16M), I have a question. For the past 30 days I’ve had severe HPPD and I constantly feel half-high, with almost all the symptoms. Since birth I’ve also had tinnitus and VSS. I want to ask what would happen if I didn’t go to a doctor, or if I don’t go soon, because the only available appointment with a psychiatrist is at the beginning of next month. Before that I’m going to a pediatric doctor, but I don’t want to tell them because I think they’d just send me to a psychiatrist anyway.

sorry guys stupid question but you think i can do ket after getting hppd. its been a year since i have it and year since im clean, but at this point in life im content with it im not bothered by it that much anymore. my vision is kinda fucked like all those typical hppd symptoms, but mostly related to vision, the daily snow static afterimages halos and so on. kinda dont care anymore. and thinking if it stays this way why not just continue what i like, i wont abuse ket like before but occasionally. i dont want. y vision to get worse, but if it stays at this level i kinda dont care anymore. also personally, the risk benefit analysis of doing ket for me is more favourable 😂

this is my personal experience so it may not help everyone but i hope some people suffering with this condition find this useful

im not writing this post to hear about how its all my fault (i know that it is - its quite obvious) my drug abuse stems from childhood trauma and severe mental health problems which started prior my use. i am not condoning this behaviour or promoting it to anyone - this post is intended to help anyone suffering.

for context i dabbled consistently with high doses of alcohol from the age of 12, various psychs, stimulants, cannabis and dissassociatives from the ages of 15-18. i have had several long breaks from all use since then (im now nearly 20) and i now choose to lay off most things or avoid them completely.

unavoidable triggers for me include: stress, sexual activity and sleep deprivation; while you can avoid these things they typically will happen to the majority of people living their day to day lives. It may be a good idea to limit these triggers as much as possible (while recovering) if your symptoms are worsened and they bother you.

avoidable triggers for me include: psychoactive compounds of any form (obviously psychs, stimulants, depressants and dissacociatives) i dont seem to notice my symptoms being effected by cannabis - however i have cut it out. Suprisingly my symptoms are more noticeable now - not sure the logic behind why but it may have something to do with neural activity in the brain increasing or returning to normal levels. my hppd is also triggered by long intensive exercise specifically long distance runs, it is also effected by extreme heat / cold temperatures and long meditation sessions.

things which help my hppd include; good routine, sleep hygeine, moderate exercise, clean diet, lower caffeine, cutting out nicotine, maintaining healthy social life and relationships. I find it difficult to maintain all these things all of the time but if your symptoms are severe id recommend trying them at all costs

my symptoms: periferal vision looks like its shaking/ vibrating, i also get visual snow (multicoloured orb like dots and static) both open and closed eye visuals, i also sometimes get hyper realistic moments where life looks too real. my symptoms do not cause me panic or anxiety however they do concern me and cause me stress as they make me feel like i am broken. it is also isolating to know no one else around me is experiencing it (specifically after sex - makes me very existential and reflextive of my past)

this has all made connecting with people / romantic relationships harder however it has been beneficial in forcing me to take more time than the average person to engage with people sexually as i know it will put me in a vulnerable state (most of the time). so i do not sleep around and make sure to know people first for a long time.

this information is all very personal and somewhat embarrassing but i hope it can help some of you.

Okay basically, about a year ago when I was 14, I took around 525mg of benadryl with barely any prior drug experience. At the time I was extremely unhealthy as well so I really felt it. I can't remember almost the entire month after except for a few things. I think I had a seizure, and I know I saw a crap ton of scorpions during the trip. But I do know I've felt like completely different since it happened. Everything just feels different in a way I can't describe. My brain hasn't worked the same since, and I'm very often not able to gather thoughts or find words despite the fact I was regarded as incredibly well spoken before. If I'm not constantly moving around my vision I see like black dots that seem to be pulling in the air around them if that makes any sense. I also see what some people on here dubbed "the sky vortex." On top of that I do see like noise that almost feels like watching one of those old TVs. I watched a few benadryl trip simulations to try and jog my memory, but a lot of it just felt like what I'd see on a daily basis. I don't have to big of a problem with seeing shadow people, but I guess it does happen sometimes. But sometimes things just feel like they are constantly moving and warping in some way. On top of that I always see these weird shapes in my vision. It's almost like the pattern of a thumbprint and it shifts around. I've had problems with depersonalization and derealization for a long time, but this is just something I've never experienced at all. And I'm not sure if this is relevant here but whenever I catch myself like REALLY seeing stuff I just feel so terrible remembering that I did this to myself. I was really looking for research on HPPD but so much of it just confused me. Because I don't really see weird colors or have "flashbacks' to what happened, so I'm scared that I'm just overthinking it. And I haven't been able to find many cases of benadryl induced HPPD anywhere. At the very least that benadryl definitely gave me some sort of vision problem because this is nothing like I used to be. I can't express enough how debilitating this has been for me. It's constantly on my mind.

I only learned what HPPD was today because a friend told me I probably had it, prior to this I simply thought I had brain damage. This is my first time ever really posting on reddit so I apologize if this comes off strange lol.

Hasn’t gotten any better I don’t know how you guys do it this shit has ruined my life 🗣️🗣️🗣️

Buonasera a tutti ragazzi, vi scrivo perche sto passando l'inferno peggiore della mia vita da 1 anno esatto a questa parte. Era il 13 maggio scorso quando mi ritrovo ad un festino e a mia insaputa fumare tutta la sera metanfetamina ( pensando che era qualcosa di innocuo) e a bere ghb. Comunque , perdendo cognizione tempo spazio, mi ritrovo il mattino seguente a lavoro in condizioni : solo lì capisco di essere sotto effetto di sostanza dato le mie midriasi e avendo gia timbrato ho dovuto iniziare e terminare il turno ( da infermiere) . Non potete capire , volevo scappare le mie mani tremavano fortissimo e il mio cervello stava impazzendo per rimanere forte e non collassare. Da quel giorno sviluppo un forte PTSD , ogni uscita di casa era un attacco di panico ovunque . Il mio cervello era come incendiato. Passa il tempo, cambio vari farmaci con lo psichiatra che inizialmente mi prescriveva un antidepressivo che ha degenerato la condizione , poi finalmente l olanzapina che è l'unica che mi ha aiutato a spegnere un po. Comunque a parte la questione psicologica ho capito che il problema è puramente fisico, nessun medico me lo ha spiegato cosi bene come ha fatto gemini: NEUROINFIAMMAZIONE. A distanza di un anno dove ho tolto tutto quello che mi fa star male: nicotina , alcol , caffeina , droghe . Ancora il mio cervello è ipersensibile allo stress, ho dovuto smettere anche la palestra perche dopo l allenamento sento bruciare letteralmente il cervello e aumenta l'ansia. Sto integrando esapent 3 volte al giorno per disinfiammare , 20.gocce di delorazepam che devo dire che mi aiutando tantissimo con i tremori residui dello stress e sensazione di morsa alla testa che ho costante e bruciore. Raga cosa sapete dirmi di questa condizione? Aiutatemi, qualcuno ha avuto episodi simili? A breve avrò una visita neurologica dopo mille visite psichiatriche e psicologa ( che non serv e assolutamente a nulla perche parlare quando il cervello frigge ha poco senso , anzi mi dava

pure consigli sbagliati)

Took lots of edibles,it was my first time too,it's been over 2 months and i see a bit off sometimes like i just see stuff weird,i do not hallucinate,or have visual snow,the stuff is the same but i just see it in a weird way(not 100% of the day) and have a lot of anxiety,am i gonna get better?

For how long your symptoms stay flared after stress/panic? It's been a week for me already after a stressful period and my palinopsia is killing me. No signs of symptoms cooling down yet.

I’ve been thinking, and please don’t tell me not to ask about everything. The first improvement was yesterday after 25 days, but today it still feels the same again. Doesn’t HPPD go away sooner depending on how serious the thing that caused it was? In my case it was 200mcg of 1cP-LSD, so wouldn’t that be different compared to someone who took like 400mcg or more? Would their HPPD last longer because of that? What do you think?

and anotha question is if i should leave the vape for more months because it was now 26 days without vaping and its killing meeee and when the symptomps are same i think i will just fuck it and start vaping (nic) again but i dont know if it will make my hppd more pernament or how tf this works omg

i got vss/hppd 5+ yrs ago from taking molly and then a pill of trazodone 2 weeks later

i’ve struggled w insomnia since taking the molly (hence trying trazodone), but the sleep got better after 2 months and then i was mostly able to manage 8hrs of sleep through the years, i would just always wake up once or twice throughout the night

however since december it’s been a lot worse. i wake up so many times during the night and am lucky if i can manage 6hrs of sleep. i cannot physically sleep more than that unless sleep deprived. i’ve tried cbt-i, hydroxyzine, amitriptyline 10mg, bromazolam, melatonin, zopiclone - nothing really helps.

i want to try seroquel or mirtazipine but given trazodone played a part in me developing this im scared to use anything ssri related for sleep. i mean at least the amitriptyline didnt worsen anything when i tried it at a low dose, but im scared to try anything else

does anyone have experience w sleep drugs and can advise me?

So i dont want to bullcrap this sub but on other hand its dead, but my question and probably last and its for people who recovered from hppd, do you feel like before you had the hppd? Completly sober or do you still have some hppd symptomps ( even when they are minor )

And another question is if vaping nic is worseing your hppd or no, thats a big one, i didnt hit it like week now and i just keep thinking if im doing good or nah ( like if it will help me recover faster)

Do you also have constant sounds in your head like ringing or similar to electricity 24/7 with HPPD?

so i don’t know exactly where to start, but i’ve been doing acid since i was 14 and im 20 now. i’ve done a lot of dxm and dph in the past, i’ve slowed down on doing dph though. i have been doing dxm every now and then just because it’s all i have to get, i’ve tried a lot of psychs too like, 2-cb, 2-cb-fly, 25-b-nboh, 25-e-nboh, 4-ho-mipt, salvia, dmt, lsd, nbomes, and shrooms. anyways to get to the point i’ve done too many drugs during my teenage years and since i’ve kinda slowed down, i’ve noticed it still feels like im tripping every day. some days it’s worse some days it’s not. but i’m just wondering if it’ll ever go away or should i go to a doctor for this to get diagnosed this. i just want to feel normal, so much people i know don’t understand and never will.

Do you feel like its only visual? Cause I feel like my whole brain works differently now. Like more easily irritated to stimuls and even more disconnected from reality which I was even before lsd use

Hello all, I’ve had tinnitus and hypercaucis for about 3 years now as well as VSS. I used to be a cannabis smoker before that and during onset I stopped because it made the ringing in my head louder. Took a 9 month break and then dabbled again with no effect thankfully. So I’ve been consuming for about 2 years with these conditions with no issues. Randomly on May 7th I noticed I am seeing tracers, now when I first got this condition I noticed tracers before but was so consumed by the ringing I didn’t pay attention.

For some reason my brain is paying attention to the tracers now. I suspect it’s because my tinnitus is so low I almost can’t hear it; or it’s so far in the background now. This has been the case in the past (December 2025) but I wasn’t focusing on tracers I was just enjoying my life.

I don’t know if these tracers are new or if I’m just focusing on them out of the blue… I love cannabis, it calms me and helps me with stress. I don’t know why this is happening now but I dunno.

I test it with my partner and she says she can see the tracers too, I can only see them in certain light with a dark background.. ugh.. I just want to enjoy my life man…

Does this sound like thc induced tracers? I don’t even know if I have HPPD but everyone in the VSS Reddit suggest to come here.

Does HPPD come and go? Or is it something like once you have it that’s what you’re going to see for the rest of your life? Like with the static I see and the ringing in my ears - I know that’s for life and constant. I need advice.

TYIA