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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Need a memory loss drug for a story

G

glitchunter

Greenlighter
Joined
Jun 3, 2015
Messages
2
Hi! I'm writing a story and for an important plot point, I need the characters to make a plan and take a drug (or use another method, if there is one) to erase their memories of the plan. They can take the drug at any time, though it needs to erase at least a few minutes of memory from before they took it. They need to be in their right minds while making the plan, but afterwards anything is fine. Negative side effects are fine, since I'm already planning to kill one of them off right afterward.

I can make up a science fiction pill to do the job, but I just want to check and see if there's anything real I can use instead. I know a lot of drugs cause memory loss, but generally A) the memory loss only occurs after the substance is taken and B) the people taking the substance will not be in their right mind during the time they are making the memories they are going to lose. Both of those are unacceptable.
 
scopolamine maybe? i dont think there is a drug in existence which causes memory loss without impairing cognition whilst under the effects of the drug.

 
Mysterie said:
scopolamine maybe? i dont think there is a drug in existence which causes memory loss without impairing cognition whilst under the effects of the drug.
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What these characters need to do is A) make a plan, which they need lucidity for and B) erase the plan from their memories.

They can have impaired cognition under the drug if, say, the drug erases memories from before they took it. That way, they can make the plan and then take the drug. Or if the memory loss effect sets in right away but the impaired cognition takes a while to come about, they can take the drug, make the plan, and then experience the impaired cognition, forgetting all of it later.
 
The only drug that I can think of that can controllably create holes in people's memories would be IV midazolam; dosed properly, it's often used as an amnestic and sedative for medical procedures. I've had a couple of cardiac catheterizations due to a wonky heart, and in both cases I was sedated with midazolam and "woke up" to find something like a 30-45 minute chunk of memory completely gone. Here's the problem; midazolam (and other benzos) create memory holes not by erasing existing memories but by preventing the encoding of new ones. Thus, if your characters got on benzo drips and tried to plot they'd have an effective memory of a few seconds to a couple of minutes at a time. There aren't any substances that I know of that can create retrograde amnesia of a controllable intensity and duration; we don't really know how to do that yet.

The only option that I can think of to specifically induce retrograde amnesia would be to self-administer electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In effect, the characters would need to make a plan, hook themselves up to IV lines attached to electric infusion drivers preprogrammed to push a bolus of methohexital (1mg/kg), and attach ECT leads to themselves. Once hooked up, the characters could press a button that simultaneously triggers the methohexital bolus and starts a 30-second countdown to ECT administration. They'd wake up about a half hour later, groggy as all hell and with most of their memories of the preceding few hours scrambled or missing.
 
This is easy: High dose benzos mixed with alcohol. Alcohol is optional, but adds to the second idea (plan made while drug taking hold, yet still fully functional cognitively)

Xanax or Klonopin are fairly well known for causing Anterograde Amnesia (look that up if you want a list of other causative agents). This requires high doses, but again... people have a strong tendancy to redose while on both of them, adding fuel to the fire.

They are also very easy to obtain in most drug-addled areas, both rural and urban.

This would follow suit of the latter idea-- At first, while the drug is taking hold, inhibitions are severely lowered, euphoria is felt, and users are quite talkative. Within an hour or two (Maybe more if klonopin was the agent), the benzos would take hold, eliminating any sense of reason and causing the users to enter a state of technically functional yet dangerously uninhibited stupor. I'll tell you a story of my own quickly (a real one):

I was babysitting a kid when I was 19. I was a pretty responsible kid, and didn't really use drugs.... but I got bored and curious. I started looking through the lady's medicine cabinets after she told me I could take an ambien to sleep if I wanted to. While looking around, I discovered klonopin for the first time. I took a few, knowing what it was and how ativan helped me when I had panic attacks in the past... I took it to relax.

Well, I was sitting on my laptop... and I was reading through some online articles and talking to friends... and I nodded off while sitting. In what felt like a few seconds, I woke back up because my back hurt. I thought "Man, that made me tired fast, geez."

I went back to bed... the lady came home, and I went home as usual, and decided to go back to sleep again (She came home at around 5am). I then noticed something strange as I wsa going to bed..... I wasn't wearing any underwear.

"Well..... that's.... weird.................." .... Cargo shorts with no underwear? That's just.... something that doesn't happen. I couldn't fathom how on earth I'd forgotten to wear my boxers. I couldn't wrap my head around it. Suddenly, I got a text from the mom.

"Jim, what happened here last night?"

"... Uhhh.... what?"

"My pills are scattered all over the upstairs from the bathroom to the stairs." ---> .... What the....?

"... and I found a pair of white boxers in the bathtub."

O.O .... oh GOD! I KNEW I had underwear on! .... oh GOD what did I do?!

Turns out I didn't just fall asleep in place at the computer. I'd awoken as a zombie, and proceeded to start arbitrarily raiding the house looking for other drugs and items to take. I'd completely lost my shit, and started opening her pill bottles and dumping them everywhere, all over the floor, and throwing them down the hallway-- right outside her 5 year old's door. I have no idea what prompted me to remove my clothing, or what on earth I was thinking.... but I did not remember ANY of it until several months later while randomly in the shower, when suddenly the imagery came back to me in pieces. To this day, I still only remember pieces of that night.

Needless to say, I never babysat again. I could've killed the kid.

Lastly, just to add, I did have a good few conversations online after I originally thought I'd nodded off. All were perfectly coherent, but I'd forgotten all of them.

Hope it helps! =)
 
scopolamine for sure- only one problem.... youll forget about it... so it'll be difficult to write about it :)
I would not advise this drug though. You will become unsafe for your self. it is a drug with a VERY bad rep. but non the less- it is the drug your looking for.

safe tripping
 
if you need them to make a plan, then come to after making the plan and not knowing what the plan is

then, make them take a bunch o xanax or clonazepam - not knowing it'd cause them to black out.

like, one dude says 'hey, i've got these pills, my friend says they'll chill me out... i'm very stressed so let's take uh 5mg of clonazepam' BAM 10 hour black out

while blacked out they make the plan - people can be totally functional while blacked out, a bit belligerant though. then at the end of the black out they come to and have made a plan they forgot what it was

idk
 
They're actually developing this methodology right now. You can Google mice memory replacement and shows an article with brief descriptions of technique and quantitative measurement of memory replacement and implantation. Freaky stuff really, and not to sound too conspiratorial, but it just sounds like a bad idea.

Btw the technique involved gene editing and light neuronal stimulation.

Also co administration of barbiturates and amphetamines, which might sound feasible due to the encoding disruption of barbs, and cognition preserving characteristics of amps, resulted in complete and utter incoherent babbling when the US did experiments during mk ultra.
 
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The general consensus is that there is no substance that's going to cause amnesia prior to the point of said substance taking effect, right? I've tried to tell girlfriends in the past things like "I don't even remember taking any pills, I couldn't tell you how all of this started even if I wanted to" and even if that were true for a brief time after coming to, I just would have to wake up, get my bearings, then the events of the previous evening/day would sadly come right back to me. Nothing would ever erase the pathology of my own bullshit from my mind.

You might have to just invent one, like "Spice Melange" from Dune, except instead of being useful, it could be a highly addictive sedative/hypnotic that erases all cares and responsibility.
 
TheLostBoys said:
This sounds like a govt run mk-ultra program
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I'm sure it's been tried. Scopolamine wouldn't be the drug to do it with because you would be totally incoherent and out of it for atleast a day. A high enough dose of a benzo to cause full on amnesia would leave someone not used to it completely fucked up and unable to perform any given task. Same as any Barbiturate.

All these drugs have also been tried as truth serums in the past with basically no success as they are far too unpredictable. Do some reading on the MK-Ultra experiments and you'll get a idea of just how far they went in search of drugs to aid in intelligence gathering during the cold war.
 
They use IV valium in hospital settings in the US for endoscopic procedures, for the expressed purpose of minimizing memory.
 
Interesting question.

I would go with a combination of drugs and say a high dose of propranolol at first while making the plan. While propranolol certainly isn't a memory loss drug per se, it does interfere with the creation of long term memories (this is why it is successfully used to treat people with PTSD). Doesn't affect cognition at all though.Then slowly add in some flunitrazepam/rohypnol + alcohol and once impaired cognition is fine ingest more of both. I doubt this would completely erase the memories but I think only fragments would remain.

If they must have a complete loss of memories and also no impaired cognition I think you will need to make up a pill.
 
I suppose you could make up a drug that has effects similar to propofol + a stimulant. So, the propofol would erase the memories while the stimulant keeps the character active.

Your plot doesn't seem to differ much from what transpires in The Manchurian Candidate.
 
I'd make up one for the story.

I love to write myself. That's just my. 02¢.

Good luck with your story! May you have the success you envision :)

Peace.
 
Geesh, I was going to say Ambien or Ruffies but damn this Columbian shit makes those drugs seem like baby aspirin. I really hope that drug stays in Columbia!
 
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