Hallucinogen persistent perception disorder (HPPD)
Hi! I just listened to your episode about cannabis and reacted on that you didn't mention anything about the devestating neurological disorder HPPD, which i, and many others in the HPPD community, has gotten from THC alone. Psychedelics - especially MDMA and LSD - seem to be the most common causes for it, and if we look to the litterature and Dr. Henry Abrahams estimations, about 4-6% of hallucinogen users gets it full blown, but as many as 22-31% got mild to moderate persistent visual disturbances. But as said, even THC can cause this and even SSRI's have been linked to this condition, but it's not near as common from them. Sadly this disorder is VERY underdiagnosed and underresearched and the number of unknown cases is HUGE because of the stigma around these drugs, the lack of knowledge about it in the healthcare and laws around the world. My understanding after years of reading in different HPPD forums and groups is also that >90% never seek care for it, because of previously mentioned reasons, but also because they quickly find out on the web that there isn't much to do about it. Heck, even the DMS-V is outdated and wrong. Anyways, i wish that you could spread some awareness about this in the future, because a disorder this life ruining really has to become more known so that people can make more informed decisions. If i had known about it i would never have touched cannabis, because there's nothing in this world worth risking this over. I'm dead serious when i say that i rather would have taken my chances with cancer, because my quality of life is pretty much gone and i've been in a pretty bad depression since getting this with suicide in the back of my head on a daily basis because of all the visual disturbances that it's left me with, which are: • Visual snow - it's like a filter of static across my entire field of vision, so my world looks like a "grainy" 360p video. • Halos around lightsources and starbursts from them. • Palinopsia - afterimages and tracers. • Ghosting - a form of double vision. • Started seeing a ton of floaters and blue field entopic phenomenon. I'm one of the few that managed to get a diagnosis, and my psychiatrist put me on Lamotrigine, which is one of the few meds that can help against some of the symptoms, and in my case it took away the regular visual pseudohallucinations that i saw and the horrible brainfog and head pressure that many with HPPD gets. If you haven't read about it, Dr. Henry Abraham and collegues primary hypothesis is that persistent hallucinations are the result of chronic disinhibition of visual processors and subsequent dysfunction in the central nervous system following consumption of hallucinogens and that this chronic disinhibition may occur from destruction and/or dysfunction of cortical serotonergic inhibitory interneurons involving the inhibitory neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid. This ultimately can cause disruption of the normal neurological mechanisms that are responsible for filtration of unnecessary stimuli in the brain. This diruption in the brain is also what seems to happen in people with Visual snow syndrome, but in another part of the brain.
Inclination a dopamine thing?
In Roberts Green‘s book mastery, he speaks about finding ones inclination as a step towards mastery. Inclination being activities that created sensations (hard to explain in words) such as deep wonder, sensual plaisure, feeling of power, heightened awareness. Example Einstein that got his fist compass revealing its inclination towards invisible forces (such as gravity..) * Q1: does this inclination basically refer to activities that release high amount of dopamine? * Q2: if so, is then inclination influencable? * Dopamine can be attached to activities if one learns to own the revard system * In addition, dopamine can be increased by protocols like deliberate cold exposure.. * —> so I wonder, if one has only the option to FIND ones inclination (based on childhood memories) with the consequence being to potential quit job, hobbies, relationships… Or if one could theoretically INFLUENCE ones inclination towards things by owning ones reward system?
Brain training apps
As you may be aware, there are a number of brain training Apps on the market. However, their ability to actually improve "intelligence" seems to be suspect. The argument is that one improves in the game itself but this improvement is not carried over to other tasks. However, after listening to you about making errors and putting brain in a plastic state, I'm wondering if these Apps might indeed have a utility - in that working on them for 10/15 minutes might indeed put the brain in a plastic state. I also think they might have some usefulness to measure performance to indicate if any supplements we are taking are actually producing quantifiable difference. Thank you for your work and developing the public's interest in science. =)