What It Is
A disorder characterized by persistent visual abnormalities, but not actual hallucinations. Things look "off", but do not hamper one's ability to identify whether or not something is real. Symptoms include visual snow, halos, wavey "breathing" surfaces, "broken pixels" of reality (anecdotal), "glitches" (anec.), blue field entopic phenomena and hue-shift.
Where It Comes From
Possible sources for HPPD:
- Glutametergic excitotoxicity - Nerve cells are killed through "excessive stimulation"
- Messed up sensory gating system - Decreased ability to filter out unnecessary stimuli.
- Messed up 5-HT2A receptors - Especially in the visual and orbiofrontal cortices.
- It's a side-effect of an anxious or depressed brain.
What to Do If You Think You Have It
1. Lay off hallucinogens for a while. (At least two months, and honestly, if you have any frontal lobe issues, you shouldn't spend much time with hallucinogens anyway.)
2. Actually, stop doing anything anything that might make you artificially release serotonin or dopamine. That includes weed.
3. Eat healthy, and avoid caffeine and alcohol for a while, drink plenty of water.
4. Keep track of when you're seeing weird things; not just your surroundings, but your state of mind as well. A certain amount of visual weirdness is normal, and it's possible your symptoms are just confirmation bias. (e.g. you never noticed floaters before you started actively looking for them.)
Also, don't look at this for too long:
IS THE GIF MOVING OR NOT?!
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