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Perceptual distortions in late-teens predict psychotic symptoms in mid-life

binghamton.edu

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Re: Perceptual distortions in late-teens predict psychotic symptoms in mid-life

#61
post #3

This is a bit disturbing to read as someone who had perceptual distortions in my late teens. I always attributed it to HPPD after using LSD around 15 years old. Now I'm not so sure.

I get a world tilting thing maybe once a year. Usually while falling asleep. I also sometimes get this weird perceptual thing where objects look huge, again, normally while in a dark room. I've also had odd sensations that accompany these perceptual changes. All of these occur very rarely. Like I said, maybe twice a year, but closer to once per year. I can't find it now, but I had learned about seizure activity and h…

The distortions while falling asleep is sleep paralysis. There's nothing weird about this.

Every once in a while, i'll have this and there's an entity in my room. Once, everything in my room flew and the world 'cracked'. It's just a waking dream. Wiggle your toes, and things will go back to normal. Toes still work when the delusion sets in because it takes time for the hormone that causes bodily paralysis to get to your toes, and when the brain notices you moving your body, it wakes back up.

Re: Perceptual distortions in late-teens predict psychotic symptoms in mid-life

#63
post #60
post #3

This is a bit disturbing to read as someone who had perceptual distortions in my late teens. I always attributed it to HPPD after using LSD around 15 years old. Now I'm not so sure.

One single dose of LSD can cause permanent psychosis, so this is not surprising. This is why drugs like LSD need to be absolutely banned. They can turn functioning people into permanently non-functioning ones. It is an incredibly dangerous drug.

no, it's not. best estimates (admittedly poor) put the incidence around 1/50,000 for frequent users.

considering the potential mental health uses and the extremely low toxicity (i'm not sure anybody has ever overdosed on lsd) banning psychedelics would be a huge mistake.

and > They can turn functioning people into permanently non-functioning ones. It is an incredibly dangerous drug. applies to legal drugs too. alcohol for example. or painkillers or benzos.

Re: Perceptual distortions in late-teens predict psychotic symptoms in mid-life

#64
post #63
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One single dose of LSD can cause permanent psychosis, so this is not surprising. This is why drugs like LSD need to be absolutely banned. They can turn functioning people into permanently non-functioning ones. It is an incredibly dangerous drug.

no, it's not. best estimates (admittedly poor) put the incidence around 1/50,000 for frequent users. considering the potential mental health uses and the extremely low toxicity (i'm not sure anybody has ever overdosed on lsd) banning psychedelics would be a huge mistake. and > They can turn functioning people into permanently non-functioning ones. It is an incredibly dangerous drug. applies to legal drugs too. alcoho…

One drink of alcohol is unlikely to lead you to become unstable. I don't know about the others.

I didn't call for a blanket ban. LSD may have therapeutic uses (other debilitating drugs like paracetamol do), but the self-dosing that people do 'for fun' shouldn't be tolerated.

Re: Perceptual distortions in late-teens predict psychotic symptoms in mid-life

#66
post #60
post #3

This is a bit disturbing to read as someone who had perceptual distortions in my late teens. I always attributed it to HPPD after using LSD around 15 years old. Now I'm not so sure.

One single dose of LSD can cause permanent psychosis, so this is not surprising. This is why drugs like LSD need to be absolutely banned. They can turn functioning people into permanently non-functioning ones. It is an incredibly dangerous drug.

This is not true, or partially true at best. As far as I'm aware, current consensus is that psychedelics are not a causative agent in psychosis or schizophrenia in the absence of predisposing risk factors. 0.5-1% of the population will develop schizophrenia, and for these susceptible individuals, a psychedelic trip can be the event that triggers the full-blown disorder. But so can any other significant psychological stressor, like the death of a family member or friend, or going off to college alone. But in general, psychedelic use is not correlated with mental disorders, in fact there are some studies that suggest that psychedelic users may have lower rates of depression, anxiety, and increased empathy and openness.

oh, here's an interesting one I hadn't seen before: https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/aop/article-10.155... "Lifetime use of psychedelics is associated with better mental health indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic"

But even if psychedelics were a causative risk in some mental disorders, shouldn't we as a society entrust adults to determine their own risk tolerance? We don't ban alcohol because a certain percentage of drinkers will develop alcoholism. We don't ban smoking even though it is a (or even THE?) leading cause of preventable death in the US. Why should other drugs be any different?

Re: Perceptual distortions in late-teens predict psychotic symptoms in mid-life

#67
post #65

You could have predicted a parade of "but I had this.. does it mean.." from the story. (I wrote that as a late age male who read the medical dictionary and had everything, from leprosy to pregnancy. Classic hypochondriac)

not forgetting the fact that 99% of psychiatry is 99% bullshit. goes parabolic within that last percent, though.

Re: Perceptual distortions in late-teens predict psychotic symptoms in mid-life

#68

The experiment had 191 random participants, and around .5% of people have schizophrenia. Without seeing the full paper, it seems like there would be single digit differences in the resulting cohorts.

The original paper indicates the starting sample was 3500. On a quick read I didn't quite follow how things were narrowed from there (it's complicated) but it was not just 191 random folks off the street.

Re: Perceptual distortions in late-teens predict psychotic symptoms in mid-life

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One feature of psychosis and mental illness, in general, is a lack of insight into one's own condition, or the lack of a complete picture into how symptoms impact one's thoughts and behaviors. In psychosis, this very pronounced because many of those who experience psychosis don't know they're experiencing delusions or hallucinations. It's all very real to them. The fact that you have an awareness of your distortions…

I’ve had psychosis and knew I was completely out of reality. The problem was my rational brain wasn’t in the driver’s seat. So I got to watch myself believe and do things I didn’t want.

I had a friend who had a few psychotic episodes in her teens and early 20s. She fully knew there were no aliens, but that didn't stop the sensation that they were real and hiding in her apartment, or the actually real fright that came along with experiencing it.
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