Review Erowid at GreatNonprofits.org
Help us be a "Top Rated Nonprofit" again this year and spread
honest info (good or bad) about psychedelics & other psychoactive drugs.
("Share Your Story" link. Needs quick login creation but no verification of contact info)
Salvia caused my HPPD
Salvia Divinorum
Citation:   brian. "Salvia caused my HPPD: An Experience with Salvia Divinorum (exp53946)". Erowid.org. Nov 26, 2008. erowid.org/exp/53946

 
DOSE:
  oral Salvia divinorum (extract)
BODY WEIGHT: 140 lb
The experience was a while back, so I don't remember all the details. I know that is was bad -- very bad. I was calm when I took the dose under my tongue, laying on my bed. I wasn't looking for a high -- I was looking for the kind of spiritual experience I heard salvia can bring. But I don't recall feeling any kind of high or spiritual feeling during the entire trip. Once the salvia had completely kicked in, I began to feel disoriented, and eventually I lost touch with reality. I felt that little evil things (spirits?) were circulating around the outside of my body, attacking me. I ran out of my room at one point and into the bathroom, probably thinking that I could wash them off or something. I then realized that I was tripping. Realizing this didn’t help at all -- I felt horrible. Very, very afraid. Hard to bear. It went away within a few hours. That night I had very strange and vivid dreams. When I woke up, I noticed that I could still see tracers (which I can still see to this day, in a milder form.) The next day, while at a friend's house after having went on a job, I had the first panic attack of my life. It was horrible. I felt like I was going to die, or go crazy. Classic panic attack, as I later learned. I thought it was a fluke, but soon learned that it was HPPD -- Hallucinogenic Persisting Perceptual Disorder. For the next few months I felt like crap. I kept having panic attacks daily, which were very unpleasant, and caused pain in my heart or solar plexus area. When I wasn't having a panic attack, I often felt depressed, and also often felt a strange, very unpleasant, hard to describe feeling that – like the anxiety and depression – was very, very hard to deal with. Also, sometimes when I saw tracers it actually really hurt – in an emotional way that is hard to describe – to look at them. When I drank caffeine or alcohol, I got anxious and generally felt like crap. I stopped drinking these things, and tried thinking positive, praying, meditating, exorcizing, etc. Nothing worked very much. I've never been a neurotic person, never had psychological problems. But I was a wreck. After a while I heard that acupuncture could help HPPD, and I started going to an acupuncturist. Progress was slow, but months (and thousands of dollars) later, I felt almost normal, with anxiety attacks and that strange feeling in my solar plexus area coming only infrequently. Only years later did I began to feel basically normal. To this day, though, I avoid caffeine, since it makes me anxious, sometimes bringing about panic-like feelings.

In case the reader is wondering whether other trips or drug experiences could have contributed to my case of HPPD, I should describe my previous drug history. I had once smoked marijuana fairly regularly, but at the time of the salvia trip I hadn’t smoked for months. I had tripped on LSD and shrooms a dozen or so times, as recently as two or three years before, and only one of those times was anything near a bad trip – and that one was 5 or 10 years before the salvia trip. I had some very mild tracers and other visuals that I sometimes noticed years after these trips, so I suppose this was a very slight case of HPPD, but there were no psychological symptoms like anxiety or paranoia. The full-fledged case of HPPD, with the much increased and painful-to-look-at tracers and all the psychological problems, did not happen until after the salvia trip described here.

Exp Year: 2002ExpID: 53946
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Nov 26, 2008Views: 31,443
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Salvia divinorum (44) : HPPD / Lasting Visuals (40), Post Trip Problems (8), Health Problems (27), Alone (16)

COPYRIGHTS: All reports copyright Erowid.
No AI Training use allowed without written permission.
TERMS OF USE: By accessing this page, you agree not to download, analyze, distill, reuse, digest, or feed into any AI-type system the report data without first contacting Erowid Center and receiving written permission.

Experience Reports are the writings and opinions of the authors who submit them. Some of the activities described are dangerous and/or illegal and none are recommended by Erowid Center.


Experience Vaults Index Full List of Substances Search Submit Report User Settings About Main Psychoactive Vaults