Serotonin Syndrome? or Just Anxiety/Depersonalisation?

[Kid-A]

Right, where to start... Basically was looking for someone with insight or maybe some professional knowledge or even similar stories.

I went to a festival in Croatia, September 2014. I had suffered pretty badly with anxiety on and off for 18months before but I t had been much better than when I first experienced it

Before I went I was very stressed and anxious again. I was very apprehensive of taking anything whilst there in case I made this worse, but obviously I ended up taking half a gram of MDMA one night

I slept OK that night, but the day after I felt extremely different really spaced out and depersonalised and I didn't sleep at all for the rest of my holiday, couldn't eat, body was shaking/tremors, felt really confused about everything etc etc.

after returning home, I had insomnia for 3 months, couldn't eat for 1 month, had terrible anxiety, DP/DR, was depressed, was paranoid about going insane all the usual anxiety shit, but was far worse then ever before

I managed to get on top of these things eventually, treating it as anxiety, but I am still anxious/DP'd/confused and find myself constantly worrying about existential things since (feels like I broke something in my brain).

I then heard about serotonin syndrome around February 2015, and wondered if this is what actually happened? and would also like to just get on with dealing with it if is just anxiety etc.

and If it is, does anyone have any advice/prognosis? it seems a pretty little known thing to go to the doctors about

Thanks

KA

 

[nuube]

Serotonin syndrome normally stops when you stop the drugs. I wouldn't imagine that the symptoms you are experiencing are the result of that . In my humble opinion it appears to be a worsening of the anxiety symptoms.


Have you thought of mindfulness practices to help you? If you are dwelling on those feelings you will be digging them up and experiencing them over and over again - keeping them alive and effecting you.

I would imagine with a bit of mindfulness and meditation you will be able to put this experience behind you and move on. Maybe skip any substance for a while until you get the anxiety under control.

Hope that helps.

 

[Kid-A]

thanks for the reply.

yes, I did go down this route and still am with some success; think more than anything I would like to burry the idea that I've damaged my brain...

I think getting the anxiety under control is what I did for a while, but sort of going back to the beginning to see if it is something else

 

[nuube]

What sort of damage do you think you might have done? I think often a lot of the harm is done to the psyche as opposed to the brain, and it then takes time integrating the experience in order to take the sting out of it.

Maybe its your heads way of telling you to get things in order before you use anything?

 

[Kid-A]

not really sure, it feels more psychological to be honest

just read threads on here describing serotonin syndrome, and feels fairly similar (if less severe)

and in those threads, sufferers explain about the lasting effects of it...

 

[nuube]

Then on the plus side as you meditate and integrate the experience you will get over it and move on. Always remember that these are conciousness tools and as such should never be taken lightly.

 

[MysteriousOne]

If you Google 'full list of anxiety symptoms' there's a website that has over 100 symptoms and all the ones you mentioned are one of them.

 

[Dawglaw]

Post MDMA anxiety can absolutely feel like physical damage. The key is to get your mind off the idea of brain damage asap or you will be fixated on it and just make yourself feel worse.

Millions of doses of MDMA (and the other shit that is sold as MDMA) have been taken with very few instances of brain damage outside of huge overdoses or overheating. Hyperthermia is the biggest cause of brain damage.

I know it sucks and you feel like shit but you will be ok, work on that anxiety.