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Passed out due to drugs(?)/dehydration(?), want to make sure I know why

Spipdop

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Joined
Jun 18, 2018
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Hi. Long-time lurker here. On a couple of VERY scary occasions, I've fainted or nearly fainted, seemingly due to a combination of recreational drugs and hot weather. (I've reacted poorly to hot weather all my life-- heat prostration or heat exhaustion would be the term-- but I've never fainted while sober. I just feel lethargic and uncomfortable.) I want to make sure this NEVER happens again. I intend to take a break from recreational drugs at least for a little while, but probably not forever, so in the interest of responsible drug use and looking out for my health, I want to make sure I understand what happened and why. I thought this would be a good place to seek input, so here's what I've experienced. If you have any thoughts, thanks!

And in each case, the drugs in question were drugs I was very experienced with and had had no other significant issues with.



1) 2015: I drank beer (I no longer drink), ate a weed brownie, used what I was told is one of the strongest vaporizers around, and smoked a little weed. This was indoors in an apartment at night, so hot weather may not have been a factor (I don't recall what the temperature was like). I used to be a heavy drinker and have blacked out from that before, but this did not seem similar. I was and have continued to be a heavy weed user, so my tolerance was pretty high.


2) A few months later, during the summer: I drank, I smoked weed, I was in very hot weather, and I had taken MDMA a few days before.


3) The other day: I was about six hours into an LSD trip, I went out in hot weather, and I took one hit from a vape pen that I was told had an extremely strong cartridge. I began to feel like I was going to faint while I was on my way to an air-conditioned apartment, and it got really bad just as I was entering. I didn't actually faint this time, but probably would have within moments if I hadn't been helped to a sofa. This was the first time something like this happened without alcohol involved.


I think I may have also had a couple of times, not recently, when I sort of felt the early signs but it didn't go any further.


Each time this happened, I initially felt weak and disoriented. I didn't quite have trouble standing, but felt like I did or was about to, if that makes sense. I felt myself starting to fade a little bit, and leaned against a wall or person. Also each time, I felt my heart racing. Each time, the feeling slowly built, sort of hitting a new stage every twenty seconds or so as I tried to gauge what was happening and how bad it might be.


When this happened the other day, I thought I was facing a serious health issue and was scared for my life. Needless to say, this is not a great way to feel on LSD, and I'm sure I talked myself into feeling worse than I might have otherwise. While I was sitting and recovering, I started to feel the early symptoms again a couple of times, and did notice that that seemed more likely to happen when I thought about it, which makes sense for LSD.


So here's what I THINK happened: I think these experiences were largely caused by dehydration, due to the combination of drugs and heat. The other day in particular, I think that that one hit from the vape pen was too strong for where I was at. (A person I was with who had the same amounts of LSD and weed felt almost identically uncomfortable, although without almost fainting; that suggests to me that the weed was too strong to throw on top of the LSD and the heat, although it's also plausible that I put those symptoms into his head while having them in his presence while he was in an impressionable state.) I do NOT think there was any sort of medical condition going on beyond heat exhaustion and dehydration-- but I'm not sure, and I remain a little terrified that something similar will happen again at some point.


For now, I intend to take a break from psychedelics and either take a break from or seriously cut back on weed (which I'd been wanting to do anyway). That's partially because of how rattled I feel from the other day. That said, I suspect I'd be fine going forward as long as I don't combine those variables again. I've decided that as a hard rule, I will never again mix drugs and hot weather. I've also decided that should I trip again in the future, smoking a little weed is okay toward the end, but something exceptionally strong is not okay. I suspect that if I hadn't taken that hit from the pen, I would've made it back to the apartment without any problems, and would've then smoked weed indoors and not had any problems.


So... does it sound like my assessment is correct? Or do you think there might be something else going on, particularly something medical?


Again, thanks so much for any input!
 
I live in Florida, and every time I do meth I forget to drink. I start to pass out when I’m dehydrated in the very hot weather. It’s very noticeable when on meth. Lots of sweating too! Because of the drugs.

On like day two or three I start to have stomach cramps due to lack of potassium.

Spipdop, its probably a combination of the drugs and heat.
Do the drugs make you sweat a lot?
 
I definitely sweat more than usual when I'm on certain drugs, but not necessarily a crazy amount that I've noticed on a consistent basis. (But maybe it's enough when I'm in hot weather on top of that.) And not particularly from weed.
 
If your body is hot and you're in relatively dry air, you may not notice that you're sweating despite sweating tons because of quick evaporation. On a number of occasions I noticed a very apparent residue on my skin, typical of what I get after a heavy sweating session, after being outside in hot and dry weather doing stuff, not noticing that I was sweating at all.
 
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