Week-long comedown from MDMA, over 2 weeks later, not 100%

[TVBOHankThompson]

So a friend spoke to me the other day asking for advice and I felt this the appropriate place to turn to in order to inform the advice I am to give him.
The story goes as follows: he said he was not unfamiliar with the drug and had taken varying amount 3 or 4 times before this occasion with no obvious or serious comedown effects. On NYE however, he took .5 of an untested substance (he claimed it was in crystal form with a slight brown translucent tint, you can't adulterate a crystal right?); he had taken .4 before of a different batch so it is unlikely to be the sheer amount - although I am aware that each batch can be radically different in chemical composition and could have been different drugs entirely.
Anyhow, for the next two or three days he said he felt simply wrong. He said he was quite tense and anxious and uncomfortable and generally just wrong, he vowed never to do drugs again during this period as he said he felt as though he was close to a psychotic/nervous breakdown or something but also self-proclaims as something of hypochondriac. He felt less bad after a few days but continued to have moments where slight anxiety/uncomfortableness would wash over him.
It is now the 18th so about 2.5 weeks and he says that, on the whole he feels fine and wonders whether he'd be able to handle drugs again after all, after some time; however there are fleeting moments when he says he feels glad to have vowed to never do them again. In these moments, he says he feels anxious of the fact that if he were under the influence he would feel scared. He says that he feels like one of those people who would denounce drugs for fear of being out of control but then go on to get shitface drunk; this logic seems flawed and ridiculous but he claims that alcohol doesn't have the capacity to cause/exacerbate mental fuckedupness.
I've never known him to have any sort of mental issue and he confirmed that he has never even entertained the idea and that both of his parents are sane and even has a brother that enjoys the wonders of MDMA. For these reasons he rules out the chance that it has exacerbated anything pre-existing but says that it feels like very mild bipolar in that he would occasionally get fleeting waves of sadness or hopelessness and also, sometimes when engaged in a conversation, he would feel a surge of happiness and want to laugh. These waves are said to last only like 10 seconds and occur less than once every 2 days.
Sorry for the long post, he seemed pretty set that this was big decision, he said that he feels like he needs to decide now whether he'll be able to dabble in MDMA again or not. It also seems bizarre to me that he'd done it previously 3 or so times yet suddenly this experience has really shaken him? Any advice/help is much appreciated and I'll make sure to send it his way!

 

[terarc]

0.5g of pure MDMA, if that's what it was, is too much, way too much, 4x what someone who has only done it 3-4 times (low tolerance) should be doing really. The fact that it is a crystal isn't any indicator of purity, firstly almost any drug can be a crystal, crystal MDMA, crystal methamphetamine, crystal methylone, sugar crystals... secondly, drugs can be mixed together before they're crystalised to create an adulterated crystal. My friend got a single rock crystal of MDMA once that I had analysed for him that contained both methylone and PMA.

MDMA could definitely cause the effects you are describing when taken in such a large dose, but so could a number of drugs, the only advice would be to eat healthy, exercise, drink plenty (maybe exclusively) water, and abstain from drugs, preferably including alcohol and maybe even caffeine. When he is feeling better he should probably wait the 3-4x the length of time it took him to recover again before indulging in any other drug use. And if he does decide to use drugs again, use a test kit and take a sensible dose.

 

[Black]

On NYE however, he took .5 of an untested substance (he claimed it was in crystal form with a slight brown translucent tint, you can't adulterate a crystal right?); he had taken .4 before of a different batch so it is unlikely to be the sheer amount - although I am aware that each batch can be radically different in chemical composition and could have been different drugs entirely.

crystal can be adulterated just like anything else. the previous batch obviously was, because 0.4g is already a huge dose, and you woudn't have a good time if it was pure crystal. 0.5g is even more and it might have been due to doing to much mdma or due to taking a huge dose of something else. we have no idea what it could have been, there are simply too many possibilities.

always test your stuff before consuming, and if you have no way to ascertain its purity then always treat it as if it was pure. that means an initial dose of 1-2mg / kg body weight. 0.5g would be enough to get a >300kg person rolling hard. you can always redose, but you cannot reduce your dose once you have taken it.

mood swings are a possible side effect of overdoing it. just as terarc said, the best course of action is to stay healthy, don't do any drugs and wait it out. he shouldn't stress himself and should be fine in a matter of days (if lucky) or weeks (if unlucky). if he decides to drop again, he should make a break of a few months before that (and not take stupidly high doses again!).