Catching a 'high' from someone

[holden_17]

I remember reading about a phenomenon in which a person recieves a state of intoxication or high while being with someone under the influence of a drug. Does this have any truth to it, especially with Ecstasy? I'm not sure whether this belongs here or in drug discussion, and does anyone know the name of it?

 

[cacophonaut]

I remember reading about a phenomenon in which a person recieves a state of intoxication or high while being with someone under the influence of a drug. Does this have any truth to it, especially with Ecstasy? I'm not sure whether this belongs here or in drug discussion, and does anyone know the name of it?

I believe it is called a psychosomatic reaction, in which a social stimuli can trigger an actual bodily symptom or range of symptoms. It is supposed to be stronger than the placebo effect, but nevertheless you would not feel much. I don't know about it being particularly prevalent with MDMA, but I have never seen it happen.

Still, its interesting what the mind can trick itself into doing to the body. Have you heard of hysterical pregnancy? It is possible for a woman to present all the symptoms of being pregnant, including a swollen stomach, without actually being pregnant at all. Biology is weird.

 

[Bearlove]

Contact high is the regular term

I believe there is some truth to the matter - its not a full on experience but you can certainly feel the love when your with somebody who is close to you and they are high on pills/rolling

 

[AndroidsDreamofBTC]

I think with MDMA, it's just a psychological reaction to seeing people being so friendly and open. You let go of you're own hang-ups once you see people acting all empathic and lovey-dovey. A natural version of MDMA so to speak. Just my theory...

 

[extae2]

Humans (as well as other animals) seem to have an innate, subconscious, ability to mimic behavior through observation of others. I'm referring to "mirror neurons": the parts of the brain thought to responsible for this. Some think they may be involved in empathy and the development of the "theory of mind" of what others are thinking/feeling.

Seems plausible to me...

 

[Legerity]

I don't think it has anything to do with drugs in particular, but rather one person's emotional state can somehow be sensed by other people and their own state can then be influenced by it whether they are aware of it happening or not. Notice how some people have a calming effect whereas others increase anxiety, just by being themselves.

 

[biocloudy]

I believe this reaction is real, it has been studied by psychologists over the years along with the placebo effect. There is an interesting antidote in Pihkal about this under 2C-I under qualitative comments with 0 mg.

 

[llama112]

Contact high is the regular term

I believe there is some truth to the matter - its not a full on experience but you can certainly feel the love when your with somebody who is close to you and they are high on pills/rolling

This is exactly what I was going to say.

If someone else is really high then it increases your high or something.

I know someone who had a good pill, had a great high. He redosed but we found out later that those pills were bunk pills. Not sure what was in them (I know, we were dumb not testing them, but not the point). They were pretty useless though. He just kept the high going because he was at a rave and everyone else was rolling so he kept it up.

 

[severely etarded]

Contact high is the regular term

I believe there is some truth to the matter - its not a full on experience but you can certainly feel the love when your with somebody who is close to you and they are high on pills/rolling

man, you should see my dog sometimes when we are rolling! she gets excited and i swear she looks like she's gotten into the stash it just looks like she feeds off the energy. it's awesome though lol. even the cat I had would do the same thing.

 

[Legerity]

man, you should see my dog sometimes when we are rolling! she gets excited and i swear she looks like she's gotten into the stash it just looks like she feeds off the energy. it's awesome though lol. even the cat I had would do the same thing.

lol this is so true...pets are really great at picking up the vibe. Entertaining to have around.

 

[stoneddave]

I have experienced this once before, not the high from E, but still a contact high...Thanksgiving of this past year...party at a co-workers house where most of us were rolling, some MDA pills so kinda trippy-rolling...me and two of my buddies went into room to do some whippits. I sat on the bed with my one friend, the other friend sat in a chair across from us...The friend in the chair went first, blew the whole charger, and in about 7 seconds, both me and my friend on the bed got a bizzarre headrush, similar to nitrous but had some weird flash to a salvia-like state for just a second or two. We both snapped out of it and based on the looks on both of our faces, we realized that we both had felt it, same description of the feeling and all, it was crazy, I had heard the term before but never had anything even close to it happen before...

Pretty damn cool if you ask me, makes you wonder what goes on between ourselves and others that we don't even know is happening.