Habitual psychedelic use

[PsychedelicPeptide]

Personally I like having a small bit of anxiety in the back of my mind... "Oh it's Tuesday, but on Friday after work I'm tripping balls." or "Damn next Wednesday is the music show, and I'm definitely tripping balls that night!"

For me, the angst of having to wait for the next trip is like being a kid waiting for your birthday. Is it really the worst thing to be waiting for? I mean, come on!

And of course the longer you wait between trips, the stronger they are so this is always motivation to wait that extra week.

Of course, I think for as enjoyable as it is most of us will go through some sort of binge phase at some point of our lives- given the supply and freedom to do so.

Mine was with MDMA a few years ago, I was doing it Friday and Saturday back-to-back for weeks on end. Now even if I had the supply depot I had back then, I wouldn't be nearly as interested in doing it so much.

This brings up the important point of self-control: some people have it, some people don't. But you can always have it if you want it.

 

[huolesoh]

"everything in moderation" vs. "you only live once"

 

[Flickering]

^^ Precisely.

For me, the angst of having to wait for the next trip is like being a kid waiting for your birthday. Is it really the worst thing to be waiting for? I mean, come on!

And of course the longer you wait between trips, the stronger they are so this is always motivation to wait that extra week.

Completely agree with both those points.

This brings up the important point of self-control: some people have it, some people don't. But you can always have it if you want it.

That's this curious thing I've found. It's easy to fall into the pattern of thinking, "I'm addicted, I can't just snap out of it." And then with just a little confidence and determination, that belief is exposed for the sham it is. For me, it was recent: I stopped eating so much damn junk food. I was going through like 600g of chocolate in a week, it really wasn't good. (Fortunately I have an amazing metabolism, and it neither made me fat nor sick.) After my last trip, I decided I was going back to my schedule of one small to medium treat a week. And despite quite mild temptations, I've stuck to that.

I've also resolved that my next trip will be in no less than two months. After that, I'll see about the frequency.

Chemical addiction would be a different story though. That's where you'd need serious fortitude.

 

[Apollo Matta]

this is a very good thread,
there are two types of tolerances,
physical and mental,
both are in a very grey area because ymmv.
physical tolerance according to erowid is gone in a week or less,
easy,
now mental tolerance is a whole other issue.

i agree with previous posts saying that you have to listen to you,
your body, your mind, your mood.
its hard to judge though, because i've had trips that were taken when i was down,
and it brought me up,
and others when i though life was great, and psych's helped me learn to channel life's positive energy,
and become a more constructive person.

As the person i am now, there are no Good or Bad trips per say,
because i don't think the archetypal good and bad exists,
though i've had some trips some would call bad,
but as its been said, you learn a lot from those trips,

psych's are pretty safe, even if abused,
its just stupid people,
bit harsh but that's the only way i can think of it.
sure we all mess up a trip here and there,
but when someone who takes a POWERFull drug,
because all psych's have this potential,
and is not ready, then they blame the drug for their own faults and weakness.
its unfair to those who have per say "climbed the mountain"
and now can enjoy psych's without causing damage to society or ourselves,
and use them strictly for self improvement and growth.

bi weekly is ok i think,
once a month per substance,
so say 2ce then shrooms in one month is ok.
i cant imagine taking shrooms more than once a month,
even once every month is excessive,

integration is a better word than tolerance,
you have to integrate what you learned from your trip into your life before it is necessary to dose again.

i think it was Leary who said that these substances are not for everyone,
which makes sense,
i have no skill or will to become say a triathlon runner.
and i know its not for me so i choose not to partake,
being stupid, would be if i chose to do a triathlon without training or talking to those who have done it before,
that way il get an idea of what it is going to be like, so i dont hurt my self and others,

same goes with psych's
if you chose to partake, READ ALL YOU CAN, and talk to those who are experienced already,
and trip with them, you don't know how much i wish now i had someone like me growing up to guide me,

just find what works for you,
be safe and dont underestimate them.

 

[djstrip]

Hah, I've agreed with just about everything I've read here, even though a lot of it is at odds with each other. Here are my conclusions.

How frequently you trip ought to depend on you, the substance, and what you're trying to achieve with the substance. If you listen to yourself, you'll know if you're doing too much. You'll know if you're just doing it to escape. Some people only need one trip in their whole life, and some do it infrequently, once a year or so. We obviously have a more focused interest in it. As a general guideline, I agree that limiting it to once a month, or sometimes twice, is a good idea. Perhaps you could do a low test dose of a new substance, then a higher dose a few days later, like I just did with san pedro (the low dose was unintentional). But for full trips, having some limit sounds healthy.

Of course, if you feel the need to do it more, I don't see anything wrong with that. It might be a habit, or you might just be at a point where you need to have your mind blown once a week.



This made me feel better, I deliberately confront my problems on every trip. The problem is making the changes stick, but as I realised on yesterday's trip, the first step is being honest with yourself anyway, i.e. acceptance, instead of fantasising about being a different person, which is indeed escape.

Definitely, I feel that if I try and hold back during a trip or dance around confronting an issue in my mind I have a much more difficult trip. As far as making the changes stick, that has to come directly from you. If you know you need to change some things then quit thinking about doing it and actually do it.

-djstrip

 

[PsychedelicPeptide]

Food is a pretty nasty beast actually. I think you can classify it as a drug as well, given the pleasure people get from its exotic forms (ie, fast food, candy, 5-star dinners, etc) and accompanying chemical release (mass dopamine) in the brain.

I'd argue, given the growing prevalence of obesity in the world, that food is a more dangerous drug than any illicit drug in existence. Hell if you want to compare food versus all other drugs, illicit and legal, I'd even say food still is more dangerous because it is such an "easy" addiction: you need it in some form no matter what, and worse yet the bad forms are easily available and mass marketed to all people.

This is another great thing about psychedelics, they make you think twice about your diet. Personally I love how I take psychs, don't eat much of anything (and have the drugs clear my gut lol) for 24-36 hours and come out a few pounds lighter. I am real lean and fit anyways, but there is a big difference for me in being 183 pounds versus 178-180, and I like to be on the <180 end as much as possible. And with the amount of weight lifting I do, it is real easy to creep up to 183-185 in just a few days.

So the trip is in effect like a reset button to help keep my weight where I like it, which is why I don't go too long without it. Hmm I'm thinking about Friday already. =P

 

[Ismene]

Chemical addiction would be a different story though. That's where you'd need serious fortitude.

I think even chemical addiction is very dependent on the person tho - I can't seem to get addicted to anything. I had a 60 box of oxycodone recently and after taking two or four a day for a few weeks I was bored of taking them and was just waiting for them to run out. Perhaps it's in the genes and your emotional state at the time.

 

[ToxicFerret]

it's interesting that we all think about this so much though. do heroin/meth/tobacco users even think as much as this about their addictions? probably not.

Hah you'd be surprised. I don't think about tobacco so often but thats because I have heroin to think about. Daily for five years at that. I think you'll find addiction is never far from a junkie's mind.