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The Big & Dandy Brain Zaps / Brain Shivers Thread

happyland said:
Since ive been taking all these daily my zaps have pretty much disappeared unless i get really stoned then i experience them
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I have also noticed that I have been getting these when stoned, particularly when engaging in problem solving activity

To date I have only noticed them when playing a game of Scrabble with family members once a week (my mother has recently had a stroke and she likes to play to keep her mind active). It is almost like I get tunnel vision briefly then feel a slight buzz in my head then immediately after I cannot recall what I was thinking about beforehand (though this passes).

I would definately come under the definition of an MDMA abuser in my past (though not all now, mainly due to availibility) and I have only noticed this phenomenon while under the influence of cannabis (specificially skunk).
 
MPH1 said:
I have only noticed this phenomenon while under the influence of cannabis (specificially skunk).
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yeah theres something about it that triggers it. tingly sensations run through my body and a dull ring appears and my vision becomes distorted kinda like how you said tunnel vision, but more staticy with colors. become disconnected from my surroundings. i feel like if you let your self get more tired or sleepy the worst it gets..like it wants you to get sleepy or less responsive so it can get you good and shock the fuck outta you, its almost as if its on purpose haha. Oh also i found taking xanax helps with the zaps but then i just feel blank(cant complain) all day and allows me to get some sleep too. dont know if taking Benzo's is a good idea..
 
happyland said:
. Oh also i found taking xanax helps with the zaps but then i just feel blank(cant complain) all day and allows me to get some sleep too. dont know if taking Benzo's is a good idea..
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It's not got to the stage yet where I would consider it too much of a hinderance to want to start taking a drug to combat it but it's one of those things that make me realise that I may have actually hit things a little too hard in my formative years.

Thinking about it I do conced that I may have been tired on the times it was noticed though...
 
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I used to get these in the old days when I was taking a lot of MDMA on the weekends. They would occur several times a day from Monday until about Wednesday. I remember reading something in an old edition of Mixmag that said they were supposedly mild epileptic seizures but I don't know how valid that theory is.
 
I have got these twice while tripping: once on mushrooms and once on syrian rue.

Since then I've started a semi-regular meditation practice and now notice them (a) when I seem to be slipping from one state to another in meditation and (b) when I try to wake-induce a lucid dream.

Now I don't know if anyone else has made this connection, but these shocks have a way of totally and instantly sobering me, no matter how far out I've gone. And they also seem to come at just the most obnoxious time - i.e. when I feel like some kind of interesting state transition is about to happen. This leads me to believe that they are at least largely psychosomatic.

If anyone's read Stan Grof's LSD Psychotherapy, he claims there that some people, especially with OCD-related disorders can "instantly sober" themselves when confronted by unpleasant trip content, even when loaded on 500 mic + doses. This seems to be what the brain shocks are doing in my case.
 
If xanax and magnesium work for the brain zaps, and things like xanax WD can cause them, then I suspect the brain zaps are a symptom of neurons becoming overly excited, perhaps even to the point of excitotoxicity.

Or, I wonder if it could be related to melatonin. I had brain zaps the other day when I took 6 mg of melatonin to try to go to sleep, only slept for 5 hours (I'm ridiculously hard-headed against sleep, my brain just doesn't like going to sleep even with the help of melatonin, GABAergics, NMDA antagonists, antihistamines, or anticholinergics, unless I take a relatively high dose), and when I was about to get back to my sleeping after being awake for a couple hours, I felt like I was in a slight mystical state with a few brain zaps that amplified the mystic euphoria for a moment each time, before finally passing out. Weird. The melatonin system is connected to the serotonin system, so when you mess around with serotonin it'll affect melatonin. I remember reading something about how LSD was shown to increase melatonin production, but I can't remember where I saw it and Google isn't helping me find it.
 
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hmm, im glad i stumbled across this thread

my first brain zaps were happened on the come up of a shroom trip every step i took id get a brain zap and things start getting trippy they stoped after a few minutes,

a few months later i started abusing E, mostly on friday nights, and on the follwing sunday when id try to sleep id get brain zaps, followed by sleep paralysis, and on thoose nights when ever id take a big gulp of cold water id get them,

and this would be a patern, and would often relate to the onset of sleep paralysis, and often in my sleep paralysis the whole time there would be that fuzz, or noise what ever nonstop thats in sleep paralysis,

i stoped doing e and these attacks stoped, although ocasionally on nights i smoked cananbis id get them, and then get sleep paralysis again, but its rare,


i also know someone who is currently quiting ssri's and is experiencign chronic brain zaps, mushrooms, mdma, and ssri's all have an effect on serotonin, so my guess is its linked to that,

to be honest unlike the majority of people here i enjoy the brain zaps
 
egor said:
I get them from doing lowish (no more than 400mg) doses of dxm 2 or more days in a row also.
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I had them today from using aMT (monoamine releaser) two days in a row a few days back and now that the 300 mg of DXM I took is kicking in they're completely gone (I can dart my eyes back and forth without getting them). I assume it has something to do with DXM's serotonin reuptake inhibiting effects restoring higher concentrations of serotonin in the synapse. It'll be interesting to see if the zaps return tomorrow. I'll try to remember to post back in any case.
 
psood0nym said:
I had them today from using aMT (monoamine releaser) two days in a row a few days back and now that the 300 mg of DXM I took is kicking in they're completely gone (I can dart my eyes back and forth without getting them). I assume it has something to do with DXM's serotonin reuptake inhibiting effects restoring higher concentrations of serotonin in the synapse. It'll be interesting to see if the zaps return tomorrow. I'll try to remember to post back in any case.
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How long did the individual zaps last for you?

I think I've had them a couple years ago from MDMA but they would only last a split second.
 
tBirdee said:
How long did the individual zaps last for you?

I think I've had them a couple years ago from MDMA but they would only last a split second.
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They only last a split second for me, too. But they come in waves and are much more frequent if I have to move my eyes around. The zaps are related just to eye movement and not rapid changes in optical input (as from darting one's eyes around a scene for instance). I know this because I can close my eyes and I still get the zaps when I roll them around beneath my eye lids.

The zaps have yet to return. I just took a 200 mg booster dose of DXM so I doubt they'll be back tonight, if at all. As others who get them after using serotonin releasers have reported, mine subside after three or four days.

Also, these zaps are comparatively mild to those I've experience on hydrocodone while falling asleep. In that case, right as I'm falling into sleep I'll hear a loud buzzing noise and get a strong zap that wakes me right up. I end up having to stay awake until the hydrocodone fades.
 
^Mephedrone is the only thing that's ever given me brain zaps, they were awful, like a balloon popping and a camera flashing simultaneously inside my head. They persisted for a week. Horrible.
 
Well, it's the next morning and the zaps have not come back after using DXM last night. They were intense and frequent enough yesterday before taking the DXM that, had I not used anything, I'd expect them to still be around today.

Again, I took 300 mg followed by 200 mg about four hours later (pure powder). If indeed DXM is a promising candidate for a brain zap "cure" it may work at lower dosage levels as well. The next time I experience them I'd like to try taking just 100 mg a couple of hours before bed to test out a more "functional" dose people can go to sleep on and wake up from and go to work or school or whatever without having to endure any lingering effects. I'd encourage anyone suffering from brain zaps who tolerates low dose DXM well and who is willing to do it to pick up some generic syrup at a convenience store, give it a shot, and report back.

Of course, egor's report of repeated DXM dosing CAUSING brain zaps indicates this may not be the best idea. Just the same it seems to have worked for me. I'll post again if the zaps return.
 
i get them a few days after a heavy session on mdma or even worse on methadrone...they always happen just as i'm drifting off to sleep....scary the first few times but you get used to them although they are a bit worrying...i tried the magnesium tablets recommended on here didn't seem to work though...anyone any other idea's apart from avoiding drugs?
 
I'm actually comforted to see this topic being spoken about. In the past week I've experienced zaps twice, both times right as I'm about to fall asleep. The odd thing is it's never happened before, and I haven't touched any drugs for about a month or so. When I have been doing drugs I've never noticed it...

I have tried some questionable 6APB powder recently, but that was literally a dab on the end of my finger. Now I think about it (as I write this) I haven't slept well since.

The zaps are like an explosion/camera flash/BOOM inside my head. Like an electronic explosion. It really jolts you and wakes you up. I wouldn't say I was scared by it, but god damn it was weird.

Not sure what caused it for me, I highly doubt it was the the dab of 6APB but maybe.
 
Magnesium supplementation helps tremendously both as immediate relief and as a rehabilitative measure, using pills and epsom salt baths. But first you've just got to quit whatever drug your doing(sometimes combos) that is causing the serotonin depletion which is the root cause of most zaps.
 
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