Interestingly, they've found nitrous oxide to do something similar:
https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/lau...n-people-with-treatment-resistant-depression/
I've noticed this phenomenon myself, but it's never felt like the antidepressant effects/perspective shit was anywhere near what you feel in the days after use of drugs like ketamine, 2FDCK, 3F-PCP.
I used to be pretty heavy NOS user, perhaps addict might even been applicable, since I averaged 50 whippet cartridges a day for over a year.
I avoid it these days, but I recently bought a home oxygen concentrator (which converts normal air into 95% pure oxygen) since although it's technically a device that requires a doctor's prescription to purchase, these concentrators are still easy to buy without a script (unlike medical grade oxygen tanks, which are harder to come by). Plus, the oxygen concentrator doesn't need refilling etc.
In any event, I bought the oxygen concentrator mainly to see the effects it might have on my blood oxygen levels while sleeping (which I've been monitoring lately due to some mild sleep apnea I have developed due to the fact that because of my heavy weight lifting, I've gained 25 pounds of muscle in the past 18 months, and because I especially love bench pressing, my chest muscles are particularly much larger and heavier). So basically, because off all this damn muscle, I am technically in the overweight range when it comes to body mass index based on my height (in fact I'm almost considered obese), despite having very little fat (if you were to pinch my stomach to grab some fat, all youd get is some skin). Yet, in any event, fat or not, because of all this excess muscle I'm carrying around, I'm sort of huffing and puffing like a fat guy would.
But after buying the oxygen concentrator, the voice of that little drug demon that eternally lives in my brain said to me, "
hey man, since you now have this oxygen concentrator, and given that smoke shops now sell giant tanks of nitrous these days instead of those little cartridges....how if you got one of those nitrous oxide tanks and hooked it up to the new oxygen concentrator in a way where you could get a mix of oxygen and nitrous at the same time --- then you wouldn't have to worry about oxygen deprivation, which is one of the reasons you don't do nitrous anymore. And just to be extra sure, you could wear a finger tip oxygen meter to monitor your blood oxygen levels to ensure you're always getting plenty of oxygen. You could also hook-up a filter to the nitrous oxide gas line so you don't have to worry about inhaling oils and impurities -- which is another reason why you avoid nitrous these days. Finally, if you supplement with enough vitamin B12 you don't have worry as much about your final concern -- nerve damage"
And my response was like, "fuck you man, I truly wish you'd die already, but yeah you actually do make some good points, I guess I could try it out it". So recently I did create such a setup, where I got a tank of nitrous gas, hooked it up to a valve to control the flow, then hooked up a tube connect to a heavy duty filter to remove any oils, which is then connected to another tube that runs through yet another filter ofa different type, before then connecting the tube of now double filtered nitrous to the tube that delivers the oxygen from oxygen concentrator. So now I basically have a set up like a dentist (minus a gas scavenger and accurate dials) though the ratios of the gasses that are being delivered is guess work, but I wear a blood oxygen meter the whole time so have sort fo figured out the ratios that produce the desired effects while maintaining normal oxygen levels (note, i realize there are some issues with this methodology).
In anycase it works well in principle. But I feel way too paranoid to try to visit the depths of nitrous oxide highs that I used to regularly do (they are mystical and intense). Back when I as abusing nitrous a decade ago I guess I didn't care about living as much, and would explore depths of the nitrous experience that at the time felt almost like I was risking death). My life is much different now though, and I no longer have that kind of fearlessness (which was essentially a thinly veiled death wish), so my willingness to push the limits is tempered by increased willingness to live. So these days, I have a hard time treading even near the waters of what I would have then considered a moderate experience. Which is unfortunate because that is where it gets really intriguing. Nitrous trips have stages or plateaus much like DXM trips, and I recall there being like 3 or 4 levels (with the 5th one probably being death by asphyxiation).
The nitrous/oxygen mix also feels different than inhaling just pure nitrous oxide gas like i was used to doing inhaling and holding in pure nitrous feels more euphoric and psychedelic whereas the nitrous/oxygen mix is more relaxing. The pure gas also felt paradoxically stimulating in some ways, more dopaminergic. Never once felt like i could fall asleep on pure nitrous due to rush if thoughts. But the oxygen/nitrous mix feels relaxing and sedating, so much so that I feel like I could potentially fall asleep (at lower levels of nitrous), and after i take the mask off I feel like I could take a nap. Yet when I'd inhale pure gas, if I were to use it too closely to bed, I wouldn't be able to sleep afterwards due to all the brain activity.
In short it's not the same feeling, and when I do try to boost the nitrous oxide levels to very high levels, the psychedelic effects feel blunted, less immersive, less mystical. I also don't have the wired feeling after like I used to have with pure nitrous. I used to hit a few cartridges of nitrous the first thing in the morning when I woke up. It was almost like coffee, woke me up and gave me a positive outlook on the day. When I tried to do the same thing first thing this morning with my new nitrous/oxygen apparatus, after using it for a but I took off the mask but actually felt just really relaxed, like I could go back to sleep.
I'm not sure if it's much use to me in this format. Might be good to snap out of a bad mood, and according to that study, an hour of a 50/50 mix like this appears to have ketamine like antidepressant effects. But it doesn't seem like it really has antidepressant effects that are ketamine-like in strength. And of course, it looks a little weird to my girlfriend seeing me hooked up to all these machines and tanks, with a network of tunes, filters and regulatory valves. Then again, she's been with me for long enough to not find that sort of stuff particularly unusual.
www.nature.com
