• Psychedelic Drugs Welcome Guest
    View threads about
    Posting RulesBluelight Rules
    PD's Best Threads Index
    Social ThreadSupport Bluelight
    Psychedelic Beginner's FAQ
  • PD Moderators: Esperighanto | JackARoe | Cheshire_Kat

The Big & Dandy Brain Zaps / Brain Shivers Thread

At this point I have to imagine any boosts in synaptic serotonin levels I got from the DXM's reuptake inhibition I posted about above would be back to slightly below normal like when I was having the zaps. I'm not sure what to make of that. I kind of expected at least mild zaps to return. I suppose the 300 mg plus 200 mg DXM dose two hours later trip could have done something to stop them and keep them stopped in one shot. I don't know what that could be but I'm not complaining.
 
ragingboy said:
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.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what happened to me when I was trying to sleep once, but the strange thing is it happened years before I'd ever consumed any psychoactive substance.
 
I had these after a heavy binge of meph, I would get them while thinking about something. They were worse when trying to sleep and made me jump and scared to sleep. Was wierd shrieking like feeling that made my heart race. Think it's a toxic or mood chemical deficiency probably. I really thought I had made myself epileptic and was about to have a seizure. Horrible stuff.
 
botfly said:
I had these after a heavy binge of meph, I would get them while thinking about something. They were worse when trying to sleep and made me jump and scared to sleep. Was wierd shrieking like feeling that made my heart race. Think it's a toxic or mood chemical deficiency probably. I really thought I had made myself epileptic and was about to have a seizure. Horrible stuff.
Click to expand...

Serotonin depletion.
 
botfly said:
I really thought I had made myself epileptic and was about to have a seizure. Horrible stuff.
Click to expand...
The zaps probably are isolated seizure-like activity. Seizures cause brain damage, so I wonder if zaps are doing damage, too. Clearly a single zap would do far less damage than a full seizure, but still they last for days or even a week so the damage could really build up. If you get zaps you may be a person who stands to lose a lot more from using serotonin releasers than a person who doesn't get them for this reason. Definitely don't use releasers in quick succession. This seems to be the way a lot of people get zaps.
 
psood0nym said:
The zaps probably are isolated seizure-like activity. Seizures cause brain damage, so I wonder if zaps are doing damage, too. Clearly a single zap would do far less damage than a full seizure, but still they last for days or even a week so the damage could really build up. If you get zaps you may be a person who stands to lose a lot more from using serotonin releasers than a person who doesn't get them for this reason. Definitely don't use releasers in quick succession. This seems to be the way most people get them.
Click to expand...

Interesting(and quite scary). I've only had these zaps when I've gone on a multi-day mephedrone binge with no sleep or food. those days are over though thank fuck, i get the occasional mild zap every now and then mainly when I've had a few beers. I've not noticed zaps if I've had say a day or few hour binge which is good. i'm done with it though, too toxic and leaves some real anxiety issues i've found.
As Sir Foxx mentioned above it is probably serotonin depletion or even dopamine or both?
I think the toxicity may exacerbate these symptoms as it's causing more stress on the brains coping mechanisms.
Also do you think there's any role that vasoconstriction play with this? The brain struggling to get enough blood etc?
 
Last edited:
I don't think vasoconstriction plays a role because MDAI use causes zaps and if it causes vasoconstriction it's very mild compared to mephedrone.

There seems to be two big ways to control - not mitigate unfortunately - brain zaps: moving the eyes around a lot and falling to sleep. The eyes have robust connections to the brain. I wonder if moving them while serotonin is depleted causes a charge to be released that's sufficient to start a firing cascade in the neurons around the areas where the optical nerves terminate. One way to potentially avoid damage may be to simply not look around too much. Easier said than done, clearly.
 
I have gotten severe and long-lasting brain zaps from reasonable MDMA usage. I have also gotten brain zaps during a phase where I abused the fuck out of AMT, like 3-4 times a week, and after I did it 7 days in a row, for 3 days after that I felt like I got hit by a truck, and had terrible brain zaps. And also sleep paralysis and EXTREMELY vivid dreams about the end of the world or me being stuck in an alternate reality where I was insane and didn't have any of my friend or my wife or my kitties or anything, and I assumed I must be dreaming for a while but I couldn't wake up and it was SO real that I eventually gave in and assuming I WAS crazy and I had just imagined up this other great life I had been in... probably the greatest despair I've ever felt.

With MDMA, the brain zaps lasted for like a month and sometimes I got dozens of them all one after the other and would almost collapse while walking. Really scary. MDMA gave overall worse brain zaps, but it never had the crazy dreaming effect quite so much. They seemed like prophetic dreams from the AMT at the time... the most vivid and meaningful dreams of my life. And the most terrifying. AMT brain zaps and shitty aftereffects lasted about 3 days at most and after that I felt fine... MDMA took much longer to feel normal again, months, with brains zaps pretty heavy for a month and lightly for another month.

Anyway, it seems to me from experience that brain zaps are caused by serotonin depletion, or they are comorbid with it at least.
 
Ultra brain zaps

Since last Tuesday I have experienced some extraordinary brain zaps. Details here since it's fairly long.
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showpost.php?p=8694255&postcount=600

Read through all the theories and bought and or tested various suggested ways to moderate the problem. In all frankness and without a control I couldn't say if anything has hurried the abatement or not. Seems to have just withdrawn in stages over the last five days. Still it's nice to know the common nature of this condition.
 
I had a zap on mushrooms when i ate around ~4 grams, it started in my head and then travelled all the way down my spine.. Anyone have this happen to them?
 
I used to have an issue where I'd like "jump" as if I had been scared a lot of the time while falling asleep along with sleep paralysis constantly. The jumping issue sounds similar to what a lot of people are describing, is that actually it?

With a lot of amphetamine use I usually experience a ton of spasms and stuff, what could that caused by?
 
wtblife said:
I used to have an issue where I'd like "jump" as if I had been scared a lot of the time while falling asleep along with sleep paralysis constantly. The jumping issue sounds similar to what a lot of people are describing, is that actually it?

With a lot of amphetamine use I usually experience a ton of spasms and stuff, what could that caused by?
Click to expand...

The sudden jump, often while falling asleep, isn't a brain zap. The technical name is Myoclonic Jerk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myoclonus

I have, in my earlier years, occasionally had some weak brain zaps from really overdoing speed over a long period. However, this would be stamped street stuff so I wouldn't like to say what might have caused it. Certainly never a frequent issue like it can become with immoderate hammering of your serotonin supplies.
 
Brain Zaps?
dont really know what you mean, but I seem to be able to flex an area above my throat/tongue that causes a sever high pitch noise to ring, people tripping seem to hear it, and I made some dogs go silent after a while of pushing hard and then they all started barking all at once after stopping and slowing down...

i dunno, maybe IZ CRAZY!

other times, i push really hard and get open/closed eye visuals like mads,and when withdraw I get the lasting visuals for a bit and a strange waving sensation throughout my head/body..

seemed to be able to do it after my LSD phase and a couple higher dose Mush trips, along with one mush powder trip that was in some strange infused chocolate mix, guy didn't say what else may had been in the pudding/chocolate mix, but I smoked some of the powder as well with some weed and had about 10 speedos that night...

never been the same after that night, HPPD (Hence my nick-name) and the weird headscreache thing...

few times I done it very hard in my car with my dad and out of nowhere he said he was getting very dizzy lol...(He wasn't driving)
 
Last edited:
i've only experienced one or two brain zaps on the come-down of 2C-E. to me it feels kinda like a 'brain-sneeze' where you can feel it building slightly, but when it unleashes you had no idea that there was that much force built up in your vision/hearing/feeling. i can't remember exactly if it was accompanied with a sound, but it seems to come with a 'pop' and a flash of light in the visual field. very much like a flashbulb or explosion.

^can you elaborate on the location of your mystical inner-ear-dog-whistle? sounds VERY interesting and i'd really like to know more!
 
greenmeanies said:
^can you elaborate on the location of your mystical inner-ear-dog-whistle? sounds VERY interesting and i'd really like to know more!
Click to expand...

You know when you yawn, that pressure in the middle part of your head,, as well as on the outside of your jaws, where your wisdom teeth are, its kind of like flexing that inner part of your head...

try moving your jaw forward, literally bottom teeth past front and as far as you can, you'll feel it kind of and probably hear it...

I just do it sitting still not really moving...

Its located around where I believe the pineal gland itself is, as well as the pituitary gland, so I dunno if it has any correlation to the actions based off the part of your brain which produces DMT and the secretions of the brain from those points..

I find on DXM I can do it very strongly and can hold it for a long time, Ketamine im just too fuckard... on Shrooms... well I won't go there, a tiny bit made my entire head just go fuckzard... :!

Then I moved here to Afghanistan where psychedelics don't exist, so hopefully once mushrooms start sprouting I'll find some liberty caps, sheep and cattle graze the lands everywhere, and the area I'm at is at a good place for them to grow nicely...
 
I've never had a brain zap.. and they don't sound like they can be good. If you are getting them before you sleep and magnesium isn;t working... why not try taking some melatonin before going to bed....

or even the natural herbal melissa pills, those helped me a sheeeyat ton when i had trouble sleeping and didn't have the lovely maryjane to comfort me
 
I first had these 'cranial zings' after a mephedrone binge around March this year, however since moving on to MDMA use, the zaps are both more frequent and more intense. For about a week after use, I can feel them brooding in the background, a slight edgy feeling. They are most prominent when I am on the verge of sleep. A quiet rhythm of zaps will start. The rhythm gets louder and more intense. I begin to hear it in my ears, see it in my eyes and ultimately feel it over every inch of my body until the sensation becomes so intense I can't help but pull myself bolt upright and hold on for dear life as they subside.

The zaps also occur from drinking cold drinks, smelling intense smells (such as incense), loud, sudden noises and quick movements. Basically anything that gives my body a bit of a shock sets them off.

The most intense zap I had was last night, I toked on a joint and in the same second, one deafening zap tore the world down, I saw two vivid blue lights and blacked out. This all happened in the fraction of a second, but I was left shaken and didn't dare smoke any more.
 
Look further up the thread for potential cures. I've had great luck with DXM. About 1.5 hours after dosing they're gone and don't come back either. I can't explain why they don't come back though. Anyways, see my earlier posts for elaboration.
 
My ex described something very similar, I was in bed with her at the time, after a mad MDMA sesh.

She looked terrified. There wasn't anything I could really comfort her with. She hasn't had them since. Right now I'm on SSRIs, and larger doses than I've been on before... so I'm not messing around with MDMA etc right now, but I wonder if I'm likely to get these when my dose is lowered? I hope not, I've never had a problem even after MDMA, meph binges etc...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top