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The Permanent Effects of Psychedelics

PuristLove

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Dec 11, 2000
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The Permanent Effects of Psychedelics
For the purposes of this FAQ, the term psychedelic is used to denote the classic serotonin agonists (ie. LSD, Psilocybin, Mescaline, etc)
What Psychedelics Don't Do
  • Psychedelics don't make your spine bleed, or your brain.
  • They don't cause chromosome damage
  • You won't get stuck in a trip forever
  • They aren't (strictly speaking) neurotoxic
  • You won't spend the rest of your life believing you’re a glass of orange juice
  • They will not make you retarded, or cause birth defects in your children
  • You will not find instant enlightenment or the solutions to all of your problems
Psychedelics can; however, cause some permanent changes in you. I'm going to attempt to lay these out.
  • Realizations- The most common after effect of using a psychedelic is a change in personality or personal actions brought about due to realizations or inspirations that come about during the course of a trip. Generally these are positive things, like a new appreciation for life, or that one needs to change careers or seek spirituality. Occasionally psychedelics will bring you to unworkable or unlivable realizations, ie. Ideas that sounds great while your tripping but don't work so well in the morning. Most people can sort these out from the valuable ideas, in the same way we sort ideas out from what we read or hear on television. Again, generally this is a positive thing, and what the majority of psychedelic users are seeking beyond recreation.
    It is perhaps these changes in some people that have led a misguided few to believe that psychedelics can provide some sort of permanent enlightenment. This is not so; or course, only when one puts in the hard work of following up on the realizations does any positive changes result.
  • Long Term Use Resulting in Permanent Personality Changes- Most of us know somebody who has tripped a few too many times. This person isn't usually dangerous, or altered in any way that is easy to put your finger on. They tend to be just a little bit eccentric, or a little out there.
    There are a lot of plausible explanations for this. The most likely seems to be that every time we put our mind through an experience, it burns a memory of that experience into its cells. Do it enough times and there will be noticeable changes. It’s the same theory behind how meditation can lead to enlightenment, or how habitual behaviors are developed.
    The mechanism of action behind how this works is complex, and I won't attempt to explain it in detail here. What you need to know is that any excitatory experience (in other words any experience that causes stimulation in the brain, or any experience period) releases neurochemicals which kill some brain cells, at the same time new pathways in the brain are being formed (or strengthened after repeated use). These two mechanisms work to cause changes in our personality based on our experiences. But I digress…
    The answer? Moderate your usage.
  • Pre-existing Conditions- A very small percentage of psychedelic experiences (less than one in one thousand doses) result in latent psychological disorders becoming notable
    ( http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_effects1.shtml ).
    The best advice is to avoid psychedelics if you have a family history of mental illness, have ever been diagnosed with one, have been particularly emotional or irrational recently, or have any other indication that you may suffer from a psychological disorder.
  • Flashbacks- About one percent of psychedelic users experience flashbacks. Flashbacks are the experience of a change in your thoughts, feelings or perceptions that resemble a previous experience. Any extremely intense experience can cause flashbacks to occur, they are considered a general symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The best way to avoid flashbacks is to be aware of set and setting when tripping, as they are more likely to result from negative experiences than from positive ones. For more information on set and setting, read The Good Trip Guide.
  • Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder- HPPD is the experience of long term visual problems caused by taking psychedelics. There is no accurate percentage of users who experience HPPD after using hallucinogens, but Erowid believes it to be less than 5%. HPPD can occur after a single use of a psychedelic drug and often does, which leads some people to believe that there is a genetic predisposition for it.
    We all occasionally experience visual garbage, weird blobs of color, grainy or pixellated vision, dust and other debris on the eyes, and other weird experiences. For some of us, the use of psychedelics makes us a little bit more aware of this visual "noise". This is not the same thing as HPPD.
    HPPD is thought to be when the visual cortex of the brain no longer has the ability to sort the garbage out. It is only considered HPPD when normal life is hindered by the perceptual changes.
    There isn't much you can do to protect yourself from HPPD. Beyond watching for the early symptoms, and using infrequently; it is mostly a game of Russian Roulette. Fortunately, most people eventually recover from it within six months to a year and a half. Sadly, some never do.
    Erowid has put up an excellent HPPD FAQ which I highly recommend reading.
Generally, psychedelics are some of the safest drugs that you can use. They can be extremely rewarding experiences, but they are powerful ones. Psychedelic Drugs are not toys and should be treated with respect and care. Know yourself, your substance and your source and hopefully all of your experiences will be wonderful ones.
[ 19 December 2001: Message edited by: PuristLove ]
 
Here is an effect that can occur related to long-term personality changes. If you are using excessive amounts of psychedelics or mixing them with other drugs until you get the point that you are completely detached from reality and in a 100% hallucinated universe, you will almost definantly have some issues when you come down. It's difficult for most people to deal with having seen the secrets of the universe then go back to school or work on Monday and try to function normally after you know so much more. It's hard to understand the simplicity of human lifestyle. If you go this far and experience this, you're not going to have an easy time paying attention to the mundane. But the reality is that you can know the meaning of the universe and understand what the heiroglyphics say, but if you don't continue to work and maintain relationships everyday, you are going to fall out of life and society and suffer. It's not uncommon to think you've driven yourself insane.
As Purist said, moderation is key.
Also, if you use psychedelics on a regular basis, you will almost certainly find yourself detached from real life after a while. Under the influence of psychedelics all your thoughts and feelings and the issues at the time seem far bigger and more important than they really are. If you make psychedelic drugs apart of your regular lifestyle, it's not too unlikely that you will like above find yourself struggling to deal with everyday situations because your mind is somewhere else and you lose motivation in daily routines which now seem very unimportant.
Again, moderation is key.
Don't try to go where man hasn't been before and keep your use somewhat infrequent and you should be fine. Most people shouldn't have any psychological issues unless they are predisposed to mental illness other than perhaps gaining greater appreciation of certain things you'd usually take for granted.
 
wow, i guess im one of the lucky 5% that has HPPD... and yes i did notice this after my first use which was like 4 or 5 years ago, but i have used many many times since then, and it is still here, maybe even more noticeable..... this came from LSD, shrooms have not adversely effected me...
Peace!
 
Great post Purist :) Good thread, well done!
I would like to add my own opinion on the matter of personality changes. From my own experiences I am now quite a different person since I've started using psychedelics. However I belive that these changes have certainly been for the better.
But they are not always in every case. However I'm of the belief that you can hold on to your sanity, certainly moderation is a key, but so is outlook and attitude when on psychedelics just as much as when off them. I'm sure morngingloryseed will agree with me to some extent when I bring up the power of suggestion.
Keep your head together, don't allow paranoia to take over, be careful, explore & have fun :)
 
Housekid5: you say you have HPPD. What effects do you still notice to say that you have it?
 
Originally posted by Housekid5:
wow, i guess im one of the lucky 5% that has HPPD...this came from LSD, shrooms have not adversely effected me...
Peace!

Housekid5, if the visual effects are not adversely affecting you, YOU DON'T HAVE HPPD.
HPPD is only diagnosed if the visual changes are the cause of clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. This is right out of the book that HPPD was created in; the DSM-IV.
I just love it how people run around self-diagnosing themselves with HPPD when they have not even bothered to read the DSM-IV. For if these tragic 'HPPD' cases were to actually read the DSM-IV they would see that in order to even have the 'disorder' they would have to be in a position where the visual changes were preventing them from living a normal life. In short, if seeing tracers ain't keeping you from getting you job or life on you ain't got HPPD. But keep telling yourself you do.
Good post PuristLove. We will have to keep it 'bumped' up.
 
mgs- You are entering a grey area with saying that people who don't aren't affected negatively by their visual disturbances don't have HPPD. Yes, in the definition in the DSM-IV, it is one of the criteria, however the DSM-IV definition is very vague concerning this part. What is generally accepted today as HPPD, goes further than the limited definition in the DSM.
Why is it HPPD for people who have been hindered by their visual symptoms, and it's nothing for people with visual symptoms who aren't negatively affected by it? It's not all or nothing. HPPD can be shown through physical tests, no matter how it psychologically effects the individual. I believe it says what it does in the DSM-IV because the DSM-IV is for diagnosing Mental Disorders only, not physical as well. So for it to be considered a mental disorder it would have to negatively impact the person mentally. But there are many people out there who either don't suffer because of their visual symptoms or have overcome their suffering but still experience all of the same visual symptoms. It may no longer be a mental disorder, but it is still a physical one.
[ 21 December 2001: Message edited by: descend ]
 
Here's a question I have:
Me and my friends took some gravity bong hits and I've been smokin marijuana for quite some time, so I got pretty darn high, but one of my friends, who'd only smoked about 2 times before, had a really bad trip. He started saying he was too cold, too high and he started waving his hands around crazily. We put a blanket over him and gave him some water to drink and worried about having to dump him in front of the emergency room. Everything turned out all right, and my friend's panic attack ended about an hour later, but for the past few months, my friend's personality has completely changed. Is this normal? To have a complete personality change after so few experiences? There's something completely different about him that I can't put my finger on, and we've been friends forever. Can someone help me out here?
 
i have HPPD
the strange thing is, i have never used LSD or shrooms, just weed, DXM and very high dosage black moroccan hash (im talking to the point of having full-room hallucinations)
its not hindering me in my everyday life, but after a while, it got boring. seeing lights and things everytime you close your eyes kinda sucks.
one of the things i noticed is that they usually show up again a few days after my last intense hash experience ... meaning, if say today i smoked a whole lot of hash (and im talking like 2 grams by myself), tomorrow i would wake up feeling a little slow and stuff, but without HPPD. it would take about 4 or 5 days before i would get into the HPPD thing. i hope it goes away soon.
i noticed the HPPD effects started after i used DXM a couple of times. DXM is definetly NOT a good drug, in my opinion.
 
gubblebum - it is believed that dissacociatives such as DXM can cause HPPD, as well as the traditional psychedelics and amphetimine-based psychedelics.
 
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