What happens to the brain/mind after excessive use of psychedelics?

[kratomized]

So I keep reading about and hearing of strange and interesting also seemingly permanent effects that users of psychedelics seem to experience. I myself seem to have some permanent changes.

One common one seems to be the character of the cannabis "high" seems to change. Many claim weed is trippier..often MUCH trippier and also in a way which most people find negative or overwhelming or anxious. I personally used to enjoy weed but no longer can after one particular negative acid trip.

Another one is HPP ...I say HPP because I would like to include those who feel that their perception has changed but do not find it in any way to be debilitating. I also seem to have some of this going. Ive had HPP for over a decade...closer to two decades in fact.

Another one that I hear about is a hypersensitivity to drugs, especially psychedelics. For example I have heard of people taking massive doses of mushrooms and from that point forward the can take a gram or two and feel as if they are tripping off of ten grams. Whats interesting is it seems to be some sort of reverse tolerance , perhaps? I used to be able to handle heavier doses of acid or shrooms. NOW it seems that i reach the same level of tripping at lower doses. I only need 1-2 grams of mushrooms for a full on transcendant experience whereas i could take 3.5 grams or more and not even go as deep.

Sometimes a large dose of a psychedelic can forever change the character of said psychedelic. Ive also heard of people having very visual experiences early on and then after using for so many years or after a particular trip they just cant achieve visuals anymore.

What do you guys suppose is going on here? is this a neurological/neurchemical issue? Psychological? I find this fascinating.

 

[Cotcha Yankinov]

Reverse sensitization to stimulants is well established in the literature, it is generally blocked by inhibiting glutamate. Glutamate has a property called long term potentiation, which basically means the more you stimulate glutamate the stronger it gets.

A lot of psychedelics action has been linked to 5HT2A/glutamate (2/3 glutamate) and thus I would assume enough psychedelics could induce some long term potentiation not at the level of 5HT2A but one level beyond that, the glutamate.

 

[Help?!?!]

Well you'll be insane like me.... Though I was already fairly insane to begin with so!

One thing that i figured would happen is the lose of visuals. I recently took a six month break from all substances. My first trip without bud, very visual. While I love visuals, that was just a nice add on for me, so I don't really mind if I have them or not. I mean I'll still get minor visuals either way, just not the crazier bits. I'm fairly sure if I stopped for an even more prolonged time period I would have pretty good visuals, but once again that particular thing isn't the reason I take them.

After extended heavy use of all sorts, I got HPPD. At first it was a big unnerving and slightly annoying. Then once I got used to it, it was pretty cool and could be fun. My case was pretty minor and no where near full visual capacity.

Yes bud did change for me, but in a good way. I love pretty much all cannabinoids and most likely always will. When I devolved heavy duty anxiety for a time, I wasn't enjoying it as much, but when I would get anxiety when I smoked, I would just think to myself "Your the one making this uncomfortable for yourself! Why even worry? You love cannabinoids and this will only last two hours max, and is nothing like a strong twenty hour trip you've done many times! Just relax, enjoy it before it's over, and you get pissed you wasted your money/time". It would put the ridiculousness out of my mind most times. Even when I was anxious after smoking, there were still enjoyable effects to it so I knew I still liked them. All I needed to do was get over my anxiety and it would be great again.