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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Harm Reduction Anyone who developed heart problems from drugs, did they ever improve?

underairpressure

underairpressure

Greenlighter
Joined
May 2, 2023
Messages
39
After ~5 years of using dissos, thc, gaba drugs, and drinking, I developed some pretty scary heart (and stomach) issues. Overall increase in BP, heart arrhythmia, chest squeezing/pain, sudden bouts of feeling like I can't breathe, etc. Doctors looked into it but the results were inconclusive, just "well SOMETHING'S happening but we don't know what exactly". I was given BP/palpitation meds and honestly, I don't think they've improved anything.

I had to stop most of the drugs I was taking, and have been off them for a while now (gaba drugs over a year, thc 9 months, dissos 6 months). I still drink on and off....... longest I've gone without is ~3 months. But in those 3 months, my heart issues got even WORSE, not better.

So I want to know, if anyone else developed similar heart issues, and if so, did they ever improve or go away? Was completely staying off substances what healed it? And if so, how long did you have to stay off?

I also want to know, how dangerous it really is for me to keep using/drinking. A part of my brain is desperately trying to convince me that even though it's painful and scary, I could just try and get used to it/ignore it, that clearly I'm not dead yet so it can't be that dangerous and I'm overeacting. (And, since cutting out the drugs hasn't helped, and not drinking for 3 months ALSO didn't help....... I'm afraid this is permanent. And if it's not going to improve, then I might as well keep drinking/using, right? I know that's stupid, but I keep thinking that way)
 
After my tryst with stimulants (NEP, meth, base cocaïne), I did feel pain around my heart region, shortness of breath and vasoconstriction for over a week.

Not sure if I'm back to normal at this point.

Drinking is supposed to be bad for your heart too.

I actually used O-PCE once to end the pain for a few days after a NEP binge, and after that, it didn't return.
 
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underairpressure said:
After ~5 years of using dissos, thc, gaba drugs, and drinking, I developed some pretty scary heart (and stomach) issues. Overall increase in BP, heart arrhythmia, chest squeezing/pain, sudden bouts of feeling like I can't breathe, etc. Doctors looked into it but the results were inconclusive, just "well SOMETHING'S happening but we don't know what exactly". I was given BP/palpitation meds and honestly, I don't think they've improved anything.

I had to stop most of the drugs I was taking, and have been off them for a while now (gaba drugs over a year, thc 9 months, dissos 6 months). I still drink on and off....... longest I've gone without is ~3 months. But in those 3 months, my heart issues got even WORSE, not better.

So I want to know, if anyone else developed similar heart issues, and if so, did they ever improve or go away? Was completely staying off substances what healed it? And if so, how long did you have to stay off?

I also want to know, how dangerous it really is for me to keep using/drinking. A part of my brain is desperately trying to convince me that even though it's painful and scary, I could just try and get used to it/ignore it, that clearly I'm not dead yet so it can't be that dangerous and I'm overeacting. (And, since cutting out the drugs hasn't helped, and not drinking for 3 months ALSO didn't help....... I'm afraid this is permanent. And if it's not going to improve, then I might as well keep drinking/using, right? I know that's stupid, but I keep thinking that way)
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I've been prescribed Oxycodone and Pregabalin for 10 years and I've also used Cocaine on and off for nearly 20 years. About 6 months ago I developed chest symptoms which would radiate up my neck. I'm currently waiting for a Echocardiogram and a CT Angiogram to take a closer look at my heart. The cardiology team told me they don't think it's my heart as I've got no other symptoms but they're still going to run tests to rule out my heart. I hope to fuck they don't find anything! If they don't find anything then why am I getting angina-like symptoms?

EDIT: I forgot to mention.. My Oxycodone ran out on Friday morning and I switched to Tramadol and my chest symptoms seem to have vanished, I get my next Oxycodone script on Tuesday and if my chest symptoms come back then it's obvious the Oxy is the cause. But why now after 10 years of use?
 
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Never figured out what it was but like... 7 or 8 years ago I smoked a big rock of crack after not doing stimulants in quite a while and it was really intense. I thought I was dying or having a heart attack. It was unbearable for 10 or so minutes but I retained a tightness in my chest after that... which has remained. Its been worse at times and better at times. Some times its been so bad its been unbearable and I've had to try and sleep feeling like there's an elephant on my chest.

Stimulants make it worse and benzos seem to relieve the symptoms, leading me to believe it may just be anxiety related. The only thing that keeps me from fully believing that is sometimes the tightness comes at the same time as a rash on my skin. Its easily treated by some topical steroids but yeah, if it was just anxiety, I don't get how it could include a rash.

I've had a few tests and nothing has come up as being wrong with my heart. Though I think technically I've had a heart attack before, I'm not quite sure on the details, I was in a coma for a couple weeks over 12 years ago and my memory from that time is very bad, but some drs were calling what happened a heart attack. So yeah a heart attack in my 20s, probably aint a good thing to have on the record.

The feeling is still there, its just hidden by my daily diazepam dose (~100-120mg/day) and the gabapentin ( 1.2 -2g a day).

Soooooooo yeah I bet if I was able to get off coffee and nicotine (vaping) it would be easier to speed up my diazepam taper without the chest pain being an impediment.

And I was doing quite well at that for a while, got my nic down from 20mg/ml to 3mg. But other things in my life have really turned to shit. Like its unbelievable how much fucking shit life has thrown at me these last few years.

So right now getting off coffee and nicotine is pretty far down the list of priorities. And I've been... going backwards...

So anyway, uh, I guess NO is the answer IME TLDR sorry to say.
 
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evo4ever said:
I've been prescribed Oxycodone and Pregabalin for 10 years and I've also used Cocaine on and off for nearly 20 years. About 6 months ago I developed chest symptoms which would radiate up my neck. I'm currently waiting for a Echocardiogram and a CT Angiogram to take a closer look at my heart. The cardiology team told me they don't think it's my heart as I've got no other symptoms but they're still going to run tests to rule out my heart. I hope to fuck they don't find anything! If they don't find anything then why am I getting angina-like symptoms?

EDIT: I forgot to mention.. My Oxycodone ran out on Friday morning and I switched to Tramadol and my chest symptoms seem to have vanished, I get my next Oxycodone script on Tuesday and if my chest symptoms come back then it's obvious the Oxy is the cause. But why now after 10 years of use?
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I also hope they say your heart is fine. But, I was also told my heart was fine, besides the fact that it's "acting up"....... and sadly, my chest pain and symptoms haven't eased at all, and have ruined my ability to enjoy most drugs anymore. All I can do is pray they go away, someday, or I find something new to latch onto that doesn't trigger my heart symptoms

I've asked myself the same, a million times, "why now"...... but. I guess when the body is put under stress repeatedly over a long time, it can finally reach a "breaking point"........ that may be it.
 
The heart is a muscle. You can make it stronger by working it i.e. cardiovascular exercise like running/jogging and sports. A person with heart problems should always differ to the counsel of their medical team however. You definitely don´t want to use Bluelight to make big decisions like this. Follow what your doctors tell you. If you have issues with your heart, they will be able to tell you jus how you should live to ensure the best possible outcome.

In short, yes, the heart can be made stronger. There are innumerable conditions that can affect a person´s heart though, hence, you really need to trust what your doctors tell you.
 
Keif' Richards said:
The heart is a muscle. You can make it stronger by working it i.e. cardiovascular exercise like running/jogging and sports. A person with heart problems should always differ to the counsel of their medical team however. You definitely don´t want to use Bluelight to make big decisions like this. Follow what your doctors tell you. If you have issues with your heart, they will be able to tell you jus how you should live to ensure the best possible outcome.

In short, yes, the heart can be made stronger. There are innumerable conditions that can affect a person´s heart though, hence, you really need to trust what your doctors tell you.
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The problem is that the many doctors I've seen have no clue what's going on or why. And when I tried to tell them the drugs I was taking when all this started, all they could say was, "well, there's no research on any of that, so. Who knows." I wasn't really looking for advice here, just any indication that maybe, just maybe..... someone had experienced something similar due to drugs, and then recovered eventually. I so badly don't want this to be forever.

I've been told my heart is incredibly healthy, from all the testing that's been done. I have an "athlete's heart". I think I may have fucked up the system that controls heartrate/BP/etc (autonomic?) rather than my heart itself. And sadly the autonomic system is one of the least understood/researched parts of the human body.......... I hate this
 
It sounds like this could be some garden-variety anxiety my friend.

When I was just a young soldier, before even joining Bluelight, I had used a ton of MDMA over the course of a summer; sometimes 10 hits in a day. Well, I developed a fear that I had destroyed my heart. I could feel it, you see. It would give me anxiety. I would go ¨there it is!¨ in my head when trying to pinpoint just where and how I had destroyed my heart.

Well, I had a pretty good pediatrician who was a member of the Woodstock Era. He basically told me that it would be highly unlikely that I would do permanent damage to my heart. Once I knew, I never felt the anxiety again, nor the palpitations that I thought ẅere my heart failing. It was all in my head

It´s just something to consider man.
 
I used to get crazy heart farts from drinking too much. Now I never drink. Alcohol weakens the heart. Its a slow way of killing yourself if you're that binge drinking "Lets smash some beers" and do shots type of drinker.
 
Spoonkter said:
I used to get crazy heart farts from drinking too much. Now I never drink. Alcohol weakens the heart. Its a slow way of killing yourself if you're that binge drinking "Lets smash some beers" and do shots type of drinker.
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What absolutely disgusts me is how ppl say let's get para tonight or ahh i got so para last night translation paralytic.
 
Keif' Richards said:
It sounds like this could be some garden-variety anxiety my friend.

When I was just a young soldier, before even joining Bluelight, I had used a ton of MDMA over the course of a summer; sometimes 10 hits in a day. Well, I developed a fear that I had destroyed my heart. I could feel it, you see. It would give me anxiety. I would go ¨there it is!¨ in my head when trying to pinpoint just where and how I had destroyed my heart.

Well, I had a pretty good pediatrician who was a member of the Woodstock Era. He basically told me that it would be highly unlikely that I would do permanent damage to my heart. Once I knew, I never felt the anxiety again, nor the palpitations that I thought ẅere my heart failing. It was all in my head

It´s just something to consider man.
Click to expand...

I've had anxiety all my life and it's never been like this, ever, before my stint of using muscimol constantly. The symptoms get better and worse almost randomly, there will be times where I am in extreme distress and have no heart/stomach issues, and then times where I'm relatively relaxed and fine but my heart/stomach as horribly acting up. And, even when I take drugs that ease my anxiety and I'm euphoric, taking it causes the symptoms to flare up massively.

Not to say there can't be ANY psychological element, but regardless, being relaxed and convincing myself there's "nothing wrong" didn't ease the symptoms at all. And they make it extremely difficult to enjoy doing drugs anymore.
 
You know what I´m gonna say. You need to get checked out medically and have the right tests performed if you want to have any peace of mind for yourself. You might get these tests done, find that nothing is wrong with you and further find that your anxiety disappears. Anxiety is often of a far more complex origin and presents in more complex ways than we give it credit for. What you´re experiencing could be caused by a variety of issues. I´m pretty sure they would begin by describing your situation as anxiety or general malaise and move on from there.

Just go get checked out and make sure you´re okay. That is the best decision.
 
15 years ago I developed a habit of daily pseudoephedrine. It gave me a lot of enjoyment. Suddenly on day my heart decided it had had enough of this and went crazy will palpitations and extreme tachycardia. I had it checked but doctors found nothing wrong. I tried to take pseudoephedrine again, and my heart immediately went into tachycardia. So I took a pause of something like 10 years without stimulants. Now I find that I can enjoy them again. So basically I guess the recommendation is to take a loooong break.
 
Update: I tried to use muscimol again, it had been over a year off of it, and half a year since I'd gotten high on anything else. My heart FREAKED OUT, far worse than it EVER had when I was actively using, BP jumped to near-heart attack levels and I had serious heart arrhythmia and palpitations. One of the single most terrifying experiences of my life.

Apparently, if this will EVER heal, I'll have to wait much, much longer. Which is terrifying in itself, being sober is torture. I don't know what to do.

Thank you to everyone who gave their input and stories here, at least. Not a lot of places I can ask a question like this.
 
Yeah ...
I was prescribed darvon from a nice old Dr. from 2008 - 2009
(the year he retired)

I started noticing heart
arrhythmia / losing energy jogging foothills
etc...
found out they took it off the market in 2010
for causing chronic heart problems
my bp was on average
high 180's over high 80"s

thankfully I took it for less than two years

Ive been on hydroclorothiazide, amlodipine and clonidine for the last few year and my bp is near and sometimes lower than normal most of the time

The hydroclorothiazide is known to repair heart valves in most patients
and clonidine (a first generation) bp med always seems to help better than most new meds'

I feel pretty lucky
 
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