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Solyaris
The point of this post is to try to compare how HPPD effects someone with an INTP personality. I'll start with some information.
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_perception_disorder):
"Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder or HPPD is a disorder characterized by a continual presence of visual disturbances that are reminiscent of those generated by the ingestion of hallucinogenic substances. Previous use of hallucinogens is needed, though not sufficient, for diagnosing someone with the disorder. For an individual to be diagnosed with HPPD, the symptoms cannot be due to another medical condition. HPPD is distinct from flashbacks by reason of its relative permanence; while flashbacks are transient, HPPD is persistent. HPPD is a DSM-IV diagnosis with diagnostic code 292.89."
"There are a number of perceptual changes that can accompany HPPD. Typical symptoms of the disorder include: halos surrounding objects, trails following objects in motion, difficulty distinguishing between colors, apparent shifts in the hue of a given item, the illusion of movement in a static setting, air assuming a grainy or textured quality (visual snow or static, by popular description), distortions in the dimensions of a perceived object, and a heightened awareness of floaters. The visual alterations experienced by those with HPPD are not homogeneous and there appear to be individual differences in both the number and intensity of symptoms.
Visual aberrations can occur periodically in healthy individuals – e.g. afterimages after staring at a light, noticing floaters inside the eye, or seeing specks of light in a darkened room. However, in people with HPPD, symptoms are typically so severe that the individual cannot ignore them and HPPD is associated with new visual disturbances. It does not appear to merely increase those already in existence.
It also should be noted that the visuals do not constitute true hallucinations in the clinical sense of the word; people with HPPD recognize the visuals to be illusory, or pseudohallucinations, and thus demonstrate no inability to determine what is real (in contrast to, e.g., Schizophrenia)."
The symptoms that I exhibit in order of intensity are: Visual Snow, Palinopsia, Starbursts, Trailing-Images, Light-Halos, and Floaters that take the form of protozoan-like shapes that fall through my vision from top to bottom while moving in elliptical or figure-eight patterns.
Visual Snow causes the most problems for me. What it looks like: http://www.visionsimulations.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=171 - background 5 with a flicker rate of 3 and snow density of 60 is the best example of what I experience. The other symptoms are rather minor in comparison and I don't really notice/pay attention to them unless I feel like it. The Visual Snow I can't even begin to ignore though, and it tends to to lead to thought patterns along the lines of reality being a fabrication, that I can see through the world, that I can see some kind of life force everywhere, etc. Constantly having such a disruption in my vision sometimes materializes in a nihilistic manner in which I believe the world is not real, and nothing I do matters... in the past having led to me doing some very dangerous things such as taking heroic drug doses, or exhibiting very manic and self-destructive behavior while driving or other potentially dangerous activities (driving at 100+ miles an hour on rural highways, climbing cliffs with little training or experience etc). The behavior is very closely linked to strains of thought that have their root in the visual disturbances I experience. Most of the time I don't have a problem living with this, but when it does cause disruptions in my life, they can be big. I'm aware that placing belief in these hallucinations is somewhat Schizophrenic, but that's been brought to the attention of more than one Psychiatrist and none of them felt treatment was necessary as the episodes are rare.. they just suggested talking about it openly with people around me and researching the phenomena thoroughly which works most of the time.
Does anyone else have HPPD or something similar? What effects does it have on your life? How do you deal with it?
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_perception_disorder):
"Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder or HPPD is a disorder characterized by a continual presence of visual disturbances that are reminiscent of those generated by the ingestion of hallucinogenic substances. Previous use of hallucinogens is needed, though not sufficient, for diagnosing someone with the disorder. For an individual to be diagnosed with HPPD, the symptoms cannot be due to another medical condition. HPPD is distinct from flashbacks by reason of its relative permanence; while flashbacks are transient, HPPD is persistent. HPPD is a DSM-IV diagnosis with diagnostic code 292.89."
"There are a number of perceptual changes that can accompany HPPD. Typical symptoms of the disorder include: halos surrounding objects, trails following objects in motion, difficulty distinguishing between colors, apparent shifts in the hue of a given item, the illusion of movement in a static setting, air assuming a grainy or textured quality (visual snow or static, by popular description), distortions in the dimensions of a perceived object, and a heightened awareness of floaters. The visual alterations experienced by those with HPPD are not homogeneous and there appear to be individual differences in both the number and intensity of symptoms.
Visual aberrations can occur periodically in healthy individuals – e.g. afterimages after staring at a light, noticing floaters inside the eye, or seeing specks of light in a darkened room. However, in people with HPPD, symptoms are typically so severe that the individual cannot ignore them and HPPD is associated with new visual disturbances. It does not appear to merely increase those already in existence.
It also should be noted that the visuals do not constitute true hallucinations in the clinical sense of the word; people with HPPD recognize the visuals to be illusory, or pseudohallucinations, and thus demonstrate no inability to determine what is real (in contrast to, e.g., Schizophrenia)."
The symptoms that I exhibit in order of intensity are: Visual Snow, Palinopsia, Starbursts, Trailing-Images, Light-Halos, and Floaters that take the form of protozoan-like shapes that fall through my vision from top to bottom while moving in elliptical or figure-eight patterns.
Visual Snow causes the most problems for me. What it looks like: http://www.visionsimulations.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=171 - background 5 with a flicker rate of 3 and snow density of 60 is the best example of what I experience. The other symptoms are rather minor in comparison and I don't really notice/pay attention to them unless I feel like it. The Visual Snow I can't even begin to ignore though, and it tends to to lead to thought patterns along the lines of reality being a fabrication, that I can see through the world, that I can see some kind of life force everywhere, etc. Constantly having such a disruption in my vision sometimes materializes in a nihilistic manner in which I believe the world is not real, and nothing I do matters... in the past having led to me doing some very dangerous things such as taking heroic drug doses, or exhibiting very manic and self-destructive behavior while driving or other potentially dangerous activities (driving at 100+ miles an hour on rural highways, climbing cliffs with little training or experience etc). The behavior is very closely linked to strains of thought that have their root in the visual disturbances I experience. Most of the time I don't have a problem living with this, but when it does cause disruptions in my life, they can be big. I'm aware that placing belief in these hallucinations is somewhat Schizophrenic, but that's been brought to the attention of more than one Psychiatrist and none of them felt treatment was necessary as the episodes are rare.. they just suggested talking about it openly with people around me and researching the phenomena thoroughly which works most of the time.
Does anyone else have HPPD or something similar? What effects does it have on your life? How do you deal with it?
