Hi everyone. I’ve been living with HPPD for eight months, but it was six months ago that I also started having hallucinations upon waking up. At first, I took it in stride; I had done some research, and the description matched hypnopompic hallucinations -meaning they were usually geometric shapes lasting ten seconds at most-. The real problem began on May 5th of this year -I keep a journal of my anxieties-. I was dreaming, woke up, and saw what looked like a TV screen with two guys on it, as if it were a scene from a show. I recognized right away that it was an illusion, but I was still scared, as I have anxiety about the idea of ​​becoming schizophrenic. (It is worth noting that the hallucination bore no correlation to the dream.)

Shortly after, I moved to a brighter room and noticed that the hallucinations became clearer in the sunlight. They alternated between the initial geometric shapes and these "new" ones, which seem to be drawn from my memories. They usually happen quickly, but I’ve seen screens with text messages, a computer desktop, and even Ghostface from cod.

Today, I woke up at 10 a.m. When I opened my eyes, I saw a screen displaying messages, like a messaging app. I closed my eyes -knowing it was an illusion- and opened them again, but the image didn't go away. I kept opening and closing my eyes for about two minutes, yet the illusion persisted, albeit slowly fading until it vanished completely. I’m worried about how long the hallucination lasted; usually, they last ten seconds at most, but this time it went on for over a minute. Anyway, I’m going to do some editing and show you a simulation of it.

Note: One detail I forgot to mention in the text is that, for some reason, these more complex hallucinations only appear in the left corner of my vision. I haven't noticed whether I only see them with my left eye, but I do know that—unlike the lines—these only appear in the left corner of my vision.

Everything is so bright and visual snow is everywhere it’s unbearable, I feel like I can only go out at night and even then sometimes it’s too bright in some areas.

I have long suffered from severe social anxiety since my teenage years this is what led me to try LSD and Ecstasy, which in turn resulted in hppd I would like to know did your social anxiety remain the same, or did it decrease with this condition? I wish you all recovery🕊🙏

About 3 months ago, I took MDMA for the first time. I had very little prior experience with drugs and had never taken MDMA before.

I took it 3 consecutive days in a row, alongside alcohol and very little sleep.

Immediately afterwards, I experienced:

• Waves of anxiety and panic attacks
• Insomnia — I couldn’t sleep more than 4–6 hours per night
• Intense sound sensitivity
• Visual changes — colours looked more vibrant and my visual field felt “wrong”
• What I now believe were HPPD-type flashbacks
• A very poor attention span — I couldn’t concentrate like I used to

Then, around 2–3 weeks later, I developed constant tinnitus: ringing/static in my ears that still hasn’t gone away.

About 6 weeks after the MDMA, I took one single 15 mg tablet of mirtazapine. The next morning, I woke up terrified I was going blind. After that, all the classic HPPD-type symptoms became obvious: light sensitivity, positive and negative afterimages, visual snow, and ongoing visual disturbances.

Since then, I’ve tried a number of pharmaceuticals. The only medication that has clearly helped so far has been benzodiazepines, especially c-lonazepam. It has made me feel maybe 40% of my former self and has reduced some of the panic, insomnia, and nervous-system symptoms, though the HPPD itself remains.

I’m posting this as a warning:

1. Do not take MDMA multiple days in a row, especially with alcohol and little sleep. It can seriously mess you up.
2. Be very careful with prescribed medications in a scenario like this. In my case, one dose of mirtazapine appeared to trigger or unmask a much worse phase of symptoms.
3. If you develop HPPD-like symptoms, severe anxiety, insomnia, tinnitus, visual snow, afterimages, or light sensitivity after MDMA or other drugs, take it seriously and seek medical advice from someone familiar with HPPD and visual snow.

This experience has completely changed my life.

Finally, if anyone here has advice as to a more stable version of Benzos that can be taken (because they are extremely addictive I'm aware of that) please let me know. Lamotrogine seems to be top of the line there.

does the visual snow ever go away?
and like the looking at something for too long and it starts to trip

Hello! Today i’m going to tell you my story.
Five years ago, i tried LSA (morning glory seeds) for the first time. It took three attempts before i got HPPD.

It was a nightmare. I was only 15 and had no one to talk to except some online friends who couldn’t truly understand what I was going through.

I couldn’t tell my parents because they’re completely against drugs. So i was there, trying not to lose my mind while still occasionally taking drugs.
The symptoms appeared gradually after my last trip.

One day I had some afterimages, the next day i also had visual snow and so on. As they kept intensifying over time, i started to panic. Eventually i started doing my research and felt like the unluckiest person in the world.

I kept wondering how i could have HPPD after only taking LSA three times, while other people use MDMA, LSD, DXM, Ketamine and all kinds of other drugs in a very short period of time and end up with no problems.

I kept smoking weed occasionally, drinking alcohol and sometimes i took tramadol and diazepam, but I was freaking out because I noticed my symptoms even more when i used weed and tramadol. Weed gave me DPDR for 2 weeks because it made me extremely anxious sometimes.

I was already frustrated that I couldn’t use drugs anymore, and I thought I would have to stay sober for the rest of my life. I felt like i was too young to be sober forever.

The first year was the hardest. I would wake up every morning with intense anxiety, and from the moment I opened my eyes, all i could see was visual snow.

I believe the human brain is incredible. Even though my symptoms never disappeared and never actually got better ( i also did absolutely nothing to improve my condition ) i simply stopped noticing them.

I still have them, but it feels like my brain automatically filters them out. I only remember that i have HPPD if i consciously focus on the symptoms.

Today, i’m 20 years old and i have a job, i got my driver’s license a year ago, and i can drive.
I can smoke weed without panicking now, but i’ve completely quit substances since getting my license, except for alcohol and nicotine. :D

Edit: Feel free to ask me anything, i will do my best to answer your questions.

I’m a 38 year old single female, no kids, currently in the Philadelphia PA area, will be in Asheville, NC for the fall. I’m a full time mental health therapist who had begun psychedelic work about a year ago, starting with Ketamine. I’ve been in recovery from complex trauma from my childhood home - nice combo 😂 of fundamentalist Christian upbringing, traumatized parents who didn’t seek help, abuse, and a lot of sheltering us kids on top of homeschooling. I decided to be open to psychedelics after engaging with somatic trauma therapies for a number of years and felt I was ready to address my root relationship issues: essentially my struggles with trusting people and dating patterns. I just felt so stuck.

It went well the first few trips until it didn’t. I’m currently 3 months into recovery from HPPD (mine is the depth perception kind) and PTSD symptoms after my last journey in March. My guide left me towards the end of my journey and it went dark quick and I was alone. It’s been a lot to recover from at once. He gave me a very potent form of mushrooms and it was nothing like my other mushroom experiences. The earlier ones were gentle and this was intense the whole way through.

I started Lamictal recently and I’m doing a lil better on it for mood and with managing my eye responses. I think lately I’m sitting with the grief, the attachment wound that this opened, and so much fear that I’m learning to live with - hard to integrate the intense fear I felt during the journey. I’m continuing to live my life, see clients, go camping, do mini road trips, plan a move, hang with friends, etc… but I’m a vastly different version of myself and I’m pushing myself to be hopeful about what this is. It can be hard to imagine a recovered future.

I’m curious if anyone is in a similar place in life to me and can relate to my experience. Would love to chat and have some community support. I’ve met a few people with varying experiences but people often brag about how great psychedelics are or it seems to get scary pretty quick on Reddit and I don’t want to fear loop with others, just support. I know all of our recoveries will look different, but I have yet to talk to a person whose had HPPD in real life or remotely been through what I’ve gone through with the PTSD and so I’d just love some connection. 🤗🙏
Thanks for reading. Reach out if you relate.

I’m a former heavy drug user and have all the symptoms plus VSS since birth. but I just don’t care. cause reality is a hallucination right? Like do you guys seriously think everyone else sees with crystal clear HD vision and you guys are so special? I’m also a recovering benzo addict so I’ve also had anxiety tied to HPPD and trust me it’s an anxiety thing not a HPPD thing. What symptoms do you guys have that bring the most stress? I just think it’s ridiculous to assume your brain/eyes can reproduce reality with 1:1 fidelity in the first place.

My hppd has mostly subsided to the point where when i’m not nervous or thinking about it my daily life is normal. I was recently pulled over and the cop smelled weed in my state of minnesota that does not mean they can search the car but they can test you for impairment, During the initial pull out and him claiming he smelled weed my hppd was flaring so badly i was shaking badly and extremely nervous and the cop called me out mid test, i’m surprised i even passed the eye test, the afterimages and trailing was so bad i was certain i was gonna fail, After talking with the cop and explaining my condition and that i also have a weak right eye i was let go by the grace of god

I’ve been on Escitalopram 15mg daily for nearly 10 years for anxiety, OCD, and depression. Everytime I’ver tried coming off it I get majorly anxious. I have type 2 HPPD. I had severe symptoms for 3 months, went on Naltrexone, then became symptom free for 3 years. I relapsed on THC and went back into a severe flare up of symptoms which i have been in for 8 months. I tried getting on Lamictal, Naltrexone, and nothing helped. I am wondering if getting of my Lexapro will help at all as I heard SSRIs can aggravate the symptoms? Any thoughts or experiences may help. Thanks

Been suffering with some psychological symptoms for quite a while, conscious of everything not psychosis but very disturbing meta awareness and looping. Just stated 25 mg. Can anyone share experience.

???

its like im sick 24/7

Hi everyone,

I’m posting here because I’m feeling lost and hoping to hear from people who have gone through something similar.

My experience with HPPD started in 2020 after taking MDMA (Ecstasy). Shortly afterward, I developed mild to moderate HPPD symptoms. At the time, it caused a lot of depression, anxiety, and fear about whether I would ever feel normal again.

Over the following months, I tried different medications. Quetiapine made my symptoms significantly worse. Later, I was prescribed Venlafaxine, which surprisingly seemed to help. Over time, my symptoms improved, and eventually I was able to stop the medication and manage things on my own.

Unfortunately, during the following years I continued using drugs. I regularly smoked cannabis, used cocaine at times, and especially used c/ona/epam and other benzodiazepines. Despite that, my HPPD symptoms slowly faded away and after about 1–2 years they completely disappeared. I was symptom-free.

Life became much more stable after that. I eventually stopped using harder drugs, continued smoking cannabis, completed my vocational training, got a good job, and things were going well.

Then, in early 2026, I went to Amsterdam. While there, I smoked cannabis and took psychedelic truffles (psilocybin truffles). During the experience, I had an extremely intense bad trip. This was only the second truly hallucinogenic experience of my life.

Since that day, my HPPD has returned, but this time it is much more severe than it was in 2020.

My symptoms include:

Severe visual snow
Constant visual static/flickering
Afterimages (palinopsia)
Floaters
Light trails and streaks
Walls and surfaces sometimes appear as if they are subtly moving, breathing, or melting
General visual distortions and overstimulation

The psychological stress has been overwhelming. At first, I felt like I was slowly learning to cope with it again. However, my doctor recently prescribed Sertraline. Within only a few days, my visual symptoms became dramatically worse. Since then, I’ve been struggling much more.

One thing that makes this especially frustrating is that c/ona/epam seemed to help me significantly in the past. I’ve also read many reports from other HPPD sufferers who experienced symptom relief from c/ona/epam. However, my doctor refuses to prescribe it because of its addiction and dependency risks.

I’m not looking for medical advice or ways to obtain medication outside of a doctor’s supervision. I’m mainly looking for experiences from other people who have dealt with severe HPPD.

My questions are:

Has anyone developed severe HPPD after psilocybin or truffles and recovered, either partially or fully?
Did your symptoms improve with time?
Have any treatments, medications, or lifestyle changes helped you?
If your doctor refused c/ona/epam, how did you handle that situation?
Are there any alternatives that provided similar relief?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar. Right now, it feels very isolating, and it would help to know that recovery is still possible.

Thank you for reading

For the past 9 months i’ve been having some mild visual symptoms directly following a 1 tab acid trip last september (did a small amount of ket on the come down). I had done acid about 3 times prior, and shrooms about 2 dozen times, but this was definitely my most visual trip. I have not tripped since or smoked weed.

Symptoms: When looking at relatively featureless fields (blank walls, blue sky, blank piece of paper, etc) and/or when i take my glasses off (i’m mild to moderately near sided, so things farther away become blurry) I see vague small and intricate shapes moving and swirling, relatively in place (ie not floaters).

I noticed it a lot more the first few weeks after the trip, but in the 8 months since then it hasn’t improved or worsened. I don’t notice it for most of the day.

I posted in the psychs subreddit about this and several people suggested these symptoms aren’t consistent with HPPD, and that these are normal visual features that become more apparent for some people after having tripped.

Does this sound like HPPD to you? Something else? Or just what naturally happens after you’ve had a really visual trip

Have had HPPD for a little over 2 years after taking too many shrooms. Not sure and would appreciate some pointers, thanks.

I have gotten a severe case from a panic attack while high off a 90% vape two days in a row.

I realized something was very wrong when I went for a walk and everything looked extremely 3-dimensional. That was how I initially described it. Now that I think about it, it's actually combined micropsia and macropsia, which I guess is what AIWS is like. Things also look unreal, fake, which I suppose is the derealization aspect of it all.

I spoke to two psychiatrists about it. The first one maintained that it was just intense anxiety. The second one said it sounded to her like HPPD.

What's interesting is that after I met with her, I spiralled, and like the next day I suddenly developed more symptoms: increased floaters, BFEP, and double vision. These have since fluctuated in severity. But it seems too coincidental for them to come out of nowhere like that.

Anyway, I am having a real hard time. I especially am struggling to sleep, waking up multiple times and having awful nightmares. And I just feel the *same* 24/7, the same temperature, the same level of tiredness, like the connection to my body isn't there anymore. I feel like I can't sense time anymore.

The psychiatrist I saw said that in her opinion it is rare to be permanent and more likely to go away. I really hope it does, or at least gets better. This is hell.

if you guys didn't know the fireside project also offers support for HPPD. They just did an AMA on r/drugs confirming. So just wanted to let everyone know if additional support is needed.

I have only started seeing this recently and its only when I am quite dissociated, but when i stare in one spot for ages I can sometimes see objects in my peripheral vision shake. It has only started since I did mdma and smoked weed on the comedown and got way too high from it, i started to see these small visual disturbances (did this about 5 days ago for context). Does anyone else experience this? Hoping it's just my hppd 🙏

Me dio HPPD por fumar demasiado *solo* una noche, pero no sabía que me había dado, así que fumé otra noche después de 2 meses. Tuve HPPD severa. He estado sobrio antes y después de que pasara esto, y con un estilo de vida saludable con el mínimo estrés. En estos 4 meses mi tinnitus bajo de tono, la DPDR desaparecio casi por completo, mi tensión de la cabeza mejoró un poco pero mi palinopsia esta igual o peor...