An influencer and parenting blogger has broken her silence about a rare illness she self-diagnosed after “blowing a pipe” as a teenager.
Perth-based ‘mumfluencer’ Constance Hall, who has an online audience of 1.3 million followers on Facebook, revealed the lasting effect of smoking marijuana for the first time at the age of 13.
The mother of six took to social media on Monday to relive the day that changed “life as she knew it.”
“It was like any other day. “I came back to my classmate’s house after school, I noticed her brother was out and we stole his weed,” Hall began.
She and her friends took a single drag from a pipe each before Hall “lost touch with my reality” within minutes.
Her friends laughed at how high she was and Hall said she couldn’t really interact with them.
“I went from an external narrative to an internal one,” he continued.
“Now I was stuck in my head and having conversations with myself, I was terrified and I knew this wasn’t just high.”
Constance Hall told her fans how a simple hit from a hookah turned into a medical nightmare.
The ‘mumfluencer’ (pictured with her partner revealed that she had ‘lost touch with my reality’ after her first success).
His walk home was plagued by “floaters” that appeared in his vision and he told his mother what had happened.
Hall’s mother told her she was high and helped her to bed.
She recalled feeling “relieved” to feel like herself again when she woke up the next morning.
Two weeks later, Hall felt like he was back in his own head, despite having abstained from taking the drug since the first puff.
‘I could see and hear but not connect the dots, my thoughts became words as if I was talking to myself in my head. And the floaters in my eyes were the most frequent thing in my vision,” he continued.
‘My mother took me to a doctor, who wanted to test me for epilepsy. “I knew it was a waste of time, I couldn’t explain (the feeling) so I was stuck.”
He said he never saw another professional after that, and the absence of social media or Google in his teens meant he didn’t know the true cause of the episodes.
‘For years I suffered random and regular attacks and felt like a prisoner of my own mind. Strobe lights; a party; “Thinking about it would set him off,” Hall said.
‘Sleep was the only way to get through it.
‘I once wrote in my journal ‘give me physical pain for this any day.’ This is hell.”
Hall said a doctor didn’t know what was wrong and spent years fighting in silence
The blogger finally learned to control his feelings and stop any impending attack.
She said she now only lives with the threat of the attacks and can feel present again before the wave “envelops” her.
Hall believes he recently discovered the true cause of the episodes after watching an interview given by Post Malone.
The music star has discussed his battles with depersonalization-derealization disorder (DPDR) on several notable podcasts.
“He was explaining exactly what I had,” Hall wrote.
“(That’s) where I found a whole world of people suffering from what I had suffered, (I even found) a simulation video that focused on visual floaters.”
“It can be triggered by trauma, stress or substances like (hydroponically grown weed) or it can occur on its own, and is more likely to affect teenagers.”
He said the disorder is “a master at making you feel alone,” but told his fans that anyone who has DPDR is not really alone.
‘1 or 2 people in 100 suffer from it and those are only the people who report it. he added.
‘I found out about this too late, it was a goal and it took away years of happiness from me. It is very difficult to explain, which increases the isolation.
Hall said an interview with Post Malone opened his eyes to the real cause of his episodes.
Hall ended the post by explaining her reasons for sharing her ordeal.
“It can be a real hell, so if I can get through to one person, I need them to know to talk about it, knowing that you will be supported.” she wrote.
‘Removing the fear of how you will be perceived during an attack is what started to eliminate my attacks completely.
“You will be happy again.”
The extensive publication was flooded with messages of support for the blogger.
Some said the post helped them identify someone they knew who might suffer from the disorder.
Others shared their own experiences with DPDR.
My 17 year old son started suffering from this this year under very similar circumstances. I almost didn’t believe him at first… However, when he called me and asked me to pick him up from school, I saw my big, tough 6’3′ boy shaking and crying, and I knew something very real was going on. happening.” commented one of the parents.
Another follower added: “This is exactly what happened to me a year ago, I touched medical cannabis in the hope of helping me with some nightmares I had been having due to stress and from there my whole world was ripped out from under me.”
Derealization can cause sufferers to feel a sense of emotional and environmental dissociation or detachment, according to Australia Counseling.
The disorder can make people feel as if they are outside their own body and as if they are simply observing events, accompanied by the feeling that the events themselves are “unreal.”
Sufferers may feel emotionally and physically numb, distrust their own memories, and feel automated.
