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1,4 BDO - New Experience - One hell of a bad experience

QuasiStoned

Bluelighter
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Nov 6, 2007
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2,362
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Pennsylvania
This is a collection of experiences and overall reflection of the chemical 1,4 BDO. For those who don't want to read through my background info and collection of 1,4 BDO experiences, you can start with the 8th paragraph which is the primary focus of this report.

I had the most terrible drug induced experience of my life a couple of days and I'd like to share it. In a way I feel it will be very cathartic for me to share, but I also want to tell my story in an attempt to spread knowledge that 1,4 BDO is a very dangerous drug. I have read reports from other bluelighters that 1,4 BDO "just felt wrong." I indeed pick up that vibe, there really is something that doesn't feel quite right, even though it took me a couple of uses to notice it. I have only ingested it 5 or 6 times, but at least 2 of those times were markedly unpleasant, and the experience I will go into detail about was outright horrifying. The odd thing I observed is that the experience is euphoric at first, but about 2 or 3 hours into the experience is when I usually begin to note peculiar side effects.

Before I begin the actual trip report, I want to give a few details about myself. I am a 21 year old male with a reasonable amount of drug experience. I am addicted to poppy tea and have been using it for pain for over a year. I had what seems to be a cliched drug progression: Alcohol -> Weed -> Psychedelics -> Opiates. I smoked marijuana regularly until it gave me anxiety, now I only use it occasionally. I stopped using psychedelics around the time that I started using poppy tea. 1,4 BDO interested me due to it's legality and it's apparent conversion to GHB in the body. I had read both positive and negative experiences and decided to give it a try. Many people consider it to be a completely interchangeable experience with GHB/GBL, but there are also quite a few people who thought it was nasty crap. I suppose that I was hoping that I would fall into the group of people who had no problems with it. It seemed pretty benign fine at first, but over time I began to change my mind.

My very first trial with 1,4 BDO was actually positive. I studied the bottle - 1,4 BDO is a clear oily liquid with very little odor. I was aware of the potency and relative ease of overdosing so I started very small, pouring a small capful into a small amount of water, the purpose of the water being dilution. I took a small sip - the flavor was pretty awful: it tasted bitter and sour. When I felt nothing 30 minutes later I took a gulp of the mixture. 20 minutes later I noted a slowly intensefying dizziness and euphoria, the euphoria being quite inviting since I was in opiate withdrawal and feeling a bit down. I should note that the effects were comparable to my past experience with a freely available chemical called Phenibut, which is not surprising since they are both GABA b agonists. After a deeply involved session with my acoustic guitar I felt extremely sleepy and slept rather soundly through the night. The next morning the opiate withdrawals were a little worse, but otherwise I felt completely normal. I was excited to try 1,4 BDO in a social setting so I thought I would drink a little at work. This turned out to be my first mistake with this substance.

I suppose I knew that dosing at work was probably a bad idea, but I thought I was responsible enough and careful enough that I wouldn't run into any problems. I dumped some 1,4 BDO (be smart, always measure your doses!!!) into a small bottle of Mountain Dew. I knew that I had put in way too much, so I figured I would just sip it slowly. Throughout the day I took occasional gulps from the Mountain Dew bottle and found an inviting euphoria and noted quite a loss of inhibition. I chatted more openly with coworkers and worked harder. I was in opiate withdrawal on this particular day of work and found the 1,4 BDO to be very helpful for getting my mind off that too. Unfortunately, like alcohol, it seems it can be easy to go overboard while chasing the euphoria. I kept on hitting the Mountain Dew and realized after the last gulp I took that I was getting way too fucked up. I was by myself in a prep room trying to put labels on meat and was smashing buttons trying to print the proper labels and was frustrated that it wasn't working. I later realized I was using the wrong machine (oops!). Shortly after this I wanderd into the bathroom and sat down on the toilet, slumped my head over and proceeded to pass out for an uknown amount of time, occasionally waking up to close my mouth and stop the flow of drool that was leaking from my open mouth. When I came to, I realized I had been in the bathroom for a while and that I was a lot less dizzy. I also noted a strange 1,4 BDO induced phenomenon..

As I walked out of the bathroom and hurried back to work (lucky that I didn't get busted for my stupidity, I might add), I noticed that I was no longer feeling very good. I was now feeling rather nauseated and had constant goosebump and an exagerated reflex to the cold i.e. walking into the prep room which normally wouldn't phase me had me rubbing my arms and tensing up as if I had walked outside in short sleeves in the winter. I have felt this way before when deep in the throes of opiate withdrawal, but I never had that degree of nausea and usually felt both hot and cold, not just freezing. I had researched the pharmacology of GHB and was aware that it had stimulant effects that usually became noticable on the come down, so I concluded that perhaps I was experiencing the reflux of dopamine that I had read about and it was intensifying the goosebumps of withdrawal. I also figured that it might be normal to feel nauseous as I had taken a little too much if I had just pretty much fell into a short coma. I did not dose for several days but I eventually resumed my trials with 1,4 BDO.

I had a couple of more careful sessions over the next couple of days where I kept my dosage small and had an enjoyable time. The effects of the high were better than alcohol, there was none of the "stupifying" effects of alcohol and none of the head pounding next day hangover associated with alcohol. Under the influence I was a nicer person and found life a little more interesting, at least until I got tired and nodded off/fell asleep. I was beginning to notice that the "goosebump phenomenon" was not from opiate withdrawal because it always occurred several hours after I dosed, regardless of whether or not I was in withdrawal. It was not particularly problematic in smaller doses (especially if taken at night because I would just sleep through the worst of it), but after gaining some experience with the substance I was beginning to recognize it even with small doses and it wasn't really pleasant. The higher the dosage the more unpleasant this feeling would become. I was not convinced this was indicative of anything bad at this point, I thought perhaps it had to with the pharmacology of GHB and I didn't enjoy the stimulation or perhaps it was some sort of minor hangover effect. Whatever the case, I found it to be an excellent sleep aid and it was helpful with my opiate withdrawal. I might still be using it if it wasn't for what happened next.

The focus of this report is the night of September 27th and/or the following morning. I got off from work at 8:30 PM and returned home in mild opiate withdrawal, intending to take the night off from my poppy tea habit (primarily to reduce tolerance) and use 1,4 BDO to relax and get to sleep. I dosed approximately 3ml over the course of 1.5 hours and had a nice open conversation with my mom and had an overall positive experience. I got really tired after a while and fell asleep at 12:30 AM. I slept soundlessly and dreamlessly until about 6:00 AM when I started to experience insomnia. In my research of GHB/GBL and 1,4 BDO I was aware that they all tended to induce a roughly 6 hour sleep followed by wakefulness, but getting up was not desirable for me because I was in withdrawal and just wanted to sleep. I had never redosed 1,4 BDO in the early morning hours to return to sleep, some part of me just thought it wasn't a good idea. I tried to fall back asleep for another hour and kept on thinking about how easy it would be to take a small dose and snooze a couple more hours.

Finally, I decided that I would either dose more 1,4 BDO or get up and try to do something productive because it was obvious I wasn't going to fall back asleep naturally. I picked up the bottle of 1,4 BDO and had what I can only describe as a strange intuition that I should really just forget about it and put the bottle away. I should have went with my gut on this one, but unfortunately I figured that there was no reason not to redose and I really wanted to escape opiate withdrawal again if only for a couple of hours. I got a measuring cup and intended to take about 3ml but managed to pour too much - I actually poured just over 5ml. It was a large dose, I knew this. I also knew that some people took large doses like that to sleep so I figured that the worst that would happen is I would sleep deeply and be a little groggy for work. I dumped the 5ml of 1,4 BDO into a small amount of Dr. Pepper and took it all down in one gulp. Then I lay down and wait for sweet sleep to overtake me. It did - 15 minutes later I was feeling the familiar dizziness and felt like I could sleep again. I was out rather quickly and slept soundly for about 2 hours.

I awoke at 9:30 AM with a jolt. Something was terribly wrong and I had no idea what it was for a second. Then my stomach contracted as I gagged and I realized I was trying to throw up in my bed. My first priority was to find some sort of receptacle to throw up into (I am surprised I knew well enough to do this considering how out of it I was) so I jumped out of bed and immediatly realized my balance was completely off - I kicked over my trash can and fell into my computer chair. I also knocked down my $700 dollar guitar - but all of these things seemed far off and very trivial. I finally got my trash can in front and managed to only make a couple of deep gagging sounds, enough to give me some acid reflux but I didn't quite throw up. As I was gagging into the trash can I began to realize the extent of my condition.

My pulse thudded in my head. My body felt like it was going haywire - All of my hair stood on end and I was freezing cold, shivering, and shaking. Even though I felt cold, I was beginning to sweat as though I had a high fever. I was also dizzy and practically blacked out. After the gagging fits had ended, I still felt extreme nausea. I was hopeless to do anything but run my fingers through my hair while a long painful groan escaped from my lips - I had never felt so sick in my life. I knew that I had ingested 1,4 BDO but I had no logical explanation for the way that I felt, I only knew that I have never had such a negative reaction to anything. It felt like the flu combined with some kind of terrible poisoning... I imagine something really toxic like antifreeze. After a few minutes of writhing around in my chair and feeling ill, I realized I could barely hold my body up because I felt so weak. With the urge to vomit having passed momentarily, I was suddenly dead tired and managed to stumble into bed and wrap up in a blanket and pass out for 2 more hours. When I woke up I still felt that awful sickness

As I said earlier, some people have suggested that 1,4 BDO "just feels wrong" and I am inclined to agree. I think either 1,4 BDO is inherently toxic, or perhaps one of it's metabolites are. I would suggest to anyone who is thinking about giving this a go to avoid it like the plauge. Even if the negative symptoms weren't so bad, it still would be dangerous given it's ability to knock one out so easily. There are plenty of overdose experiences in the vaults of erowid so that goes to show the unpredictability of the substance. Going from my own experience though, anything that makes me feel that way cannot be good. I think I will stick to drugs with a good track record, had I have taken the advice of those who recommended against it I could have saved myself a terrifying experience.
 
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Although it does seem that 1,4B is more nauseating than GHB/GBL (the taste alone is enough - for me it tastes like melted crayons and plastic - but also the fact that it is more of an irritant than the other two), everything else about it is identical to the other two (I tried - and was addicted to - them all).

Not to belittle your experience, I am sure you had a horrible time, but try things like falling asleep while walking (and waking up to find yourself contorted in a weird pose on the floor). Try this "6 hours of sleep" being shortened to barely 2 by tolerance, then jolting out of bed in goosebumps, elevated heart-rate, anxiety, dysphoria, shaking, and nausea, and HAVING to redose again to both sleep and run away from that hell. Repeat and rinse every 2 hours, 24/7.

I think you ought to be glad you didn't like 1,4B/GHB/GBL. It isn't just 1,4B that "feels wrong" - it is the whole lot. These drugs are poisons IMO.

If you think opiate withdrawal is bad, wait till you try this one. I experienced both, and I take opiate withdrawal as relief from GHB withdrawal! I hope you never do, though.
 
Yeah I agree with Jamshyd. I never went through withdrawal, but the side effects you mention are normal GHB abuse issues. They aren't due to specific BDO toxicity.
 
Interesting, I've read a lot on GBL/GHB/1,4B and I've never heard this described before. Never tried it, but I'm interested in if everyone feels like this happens.
 
When I first began to notice the whole cold feeling/goosebumps deal I initially thought that it had to do with GHB's pharmacology (at least until my minor overdose). I guess that might be the case, GHB effects the GHB receptor which releases glutamate (if I remember correctly) and I would assume that could be the reason behind that feeling then.

Not to belittle your experience, I am sure you had a horrible time, but try things like falling asleep while walking (and waking up to find yourself contorted in a weird pose on the floor). Try this "6 hours of sleep" being shortened to barely 2 by tolerance, then jolting out of bed in goosebumps, elevated heart-rate, anxiety, dysphoria, shaking, and nausea, and HAVING to redose again to both sleep and run away from that hell. Repeat and rinse every 2 hours, 24/7.

Yeah I understood that the withdrawals from this shit are really bad. I've never passed out while walking, but I have certainly woke up with my head slumped over at a sharp angle and a puddle of drool on my shirt. It's very difficult to dose properly, I used 3 ml over the period of an hour and didn't feel anything, so I redosed about 2 ml more later on and passed out sitting up with no warning.

After my bad experience I stopped using altogether for at least a week. I have continued experimenting with it in small doses, but I am lucky that I only ordered about 100ml. When it runs out, I don't think I will be in any hurry to order.

Jamshyd, how did you manage to get off the shit? That sounds really frustrating having to redose every fucking 2 hours just to mantain some sense of normalcy.

*Edit
I wanted to add (and I Know how many people say this... :\ ) that even though I have continued using this drug a little bit, I am definitely not using often enough to get addicted. I don't use it as a party drug, nor do I use it daily. I just use it occasionally at night, and I will continue to tread very carefully with this chemical. I don't want to risk for a moment having a second addiction. Opiate withdrawals are miserable enough!!
 
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I don't know of any way to get off the G other than to give it away or dispose of it otherwise.
 
^ Precisely. Also get rid of your source. Maybe tell them off or something so they refuse do deal with you again.

I said it before and I said it again. I have been addicted to, and suffered withdrawal from, Meth/Dexamphetamine, Benzos, a number of Opiates including Heroin, and GHB.

Of all of those, my GHB addiction was the most destructive and seems to have had the most long-lasting damage. I still feel "broken" today, more than two years since my last dose.

I don't care how good it feels. I resent the very fact that GHB exists.
 
I felt no aftereffects at all once I disposed of my butanediol, but I could tell the 24/7 dosing regimen was going to lead to immediate health effects if I hadn't stopped.
 
Yeah it would seem that constant use of frontal brain depressants is always an accident waiting to happen. I read all kinds of horror stories about people who were addicted - the one guy fell asleep behind the wheel twice after dosing on the 1,4 BDO and crashed into other peoples cars both times (during active addiction). The tendency to pass out is too high and it's just too easy to overdo it.

I really hate the side effects that this stuff has besides the sedation. Last time I took a lot, I had alternating hot and cold flashes, goosebumps, and what felt like electric tingly sensations flowing through my limbs. I get terrible sleep on it too, I wake up a lot even before the sedation wears off and then after it does finally wear off I experience a couple of hours of insomnia until it's all out of my system.

It is more euphoric than alcohol though, I'll give it that.
 
jamshyd-so you would say that 1.4 BDO gives you the same pro-social, increased sex drive as GHB/GBL?? just curious because thats what im looking for....i used to take tons of ghb in the past when it was widely avail and never had anything close to resembling an addiction..then again i never took it more than twice a week...
 
i had a similar experience with 1,4, BDO actually it happened a couple times. I would take to much pass out and wake up extremely sick I actuallt vommited green slime a few times? And I had thid weird pulsating through my body the same as you get during alcohal poisoning. I read on another site I think it was the lyceum that the mechanism that converts to GHB is not well understood and may actually be toxic. I now stay far away from this stuff
 
jamshyd-so you would say that 1.4 BDO gives you the same pro-social, increased sex drive as GHB/GBL?? just curious because thats what im looking for....i used to take tons of ghb in the past when it was widely avail and never had anything close to resembling an addiction..then again i never took it more than twice a week...

Like I said, 1,4-BDO has identical effects to the other two but has extra side-effects, making it the worst of the worst. Indeed, 1,4-BDO is converted to GBL in the body.

You're lucky you never got addicted. That's all I have to say.
 
1,4B most definitely made me nauseated, but nothing like what you experienced OP. Im glad to hear you're alright, that sounded like an awful reaction!
 
Theres something just toxic that comes with taking 14bd. i wish i never went that route again, made me go through withdrawal all over again after being clean for a while.
 
Sorry to bump a ridiculously old thread, I stumbled on my old thread quite by accident. I can't believe how crazy it was to read this experience through again. It gave me a good reminder as to why BDO is really utter crap. Some of the effects were great, but I felt that I had to really take the good with the bad on this one, and it's just not worth it.

Thizzerfershizzer said:
1,4B most definitely made me nauseated, but nothing like what you experienced OP. Im glad to hear you're alright, that sounded like an awful reaction!
Yeah it was really a terrible feeling. I didn't learn my lesson though because I overdosed on a combination of BDO and phenazepam, and drove my car off the road on that same combination. I haven't bothered with this shit in months though, and for that I'm glad. I don't think I would ever order it again, no matter what the circumstances.

alphabetalactone said:
Theres something just toxic that comes with taking 14bd. i wish i never went that route again, made me go through withdrawal all over again after being clean for a while.
I never tried real GHB/GBL so my opinion might not be worth much, but I agree. There was always some very unhealthy feeling hidden in the background of that sedation.
 
Like I said, 1,4-BDO has identical effects to the other two but has extra side-effects, making it the worst of the worst. Indeed, 1,4-BDO is converted to GBL in the body.

You're lucky you never got addicted. That's all I have to say.


With all due respect I'm going to have to ask you post some credible sources to back up your statement above. One person a few years ago puts up a review, very biased, non-scientific, no actual studies, just a lot of opinion masquerading as facts. Since then 1,4 BDO has been so unfairly judged and the same wrong "facts" have been repeated since over and over until the lie becomes accepted truth.

The studies show overwhelmingly over and over that 1,4BDO is almost identical to GHB in safety. 1,4BDO is almost 100% converted to GHB in everyone, takes longer in some than others, but it still is the same in the end for everyone. The extra side effects you might be referring to and not everyone experiences this are all related to the conversion in the liver with the same 2 enzyme process that breaks alcohol down. Depending on a persons level of those 2 enzymes before hand, many never experience anything disimlar to GHB itself. If have low levels of those enzymes it will take longer and more passes thru liver to convert all of it to GHB. This is where you will see the sideeffects of dizziness, nausea, etc. The extra strain on the liver that this process produces is negligble if you drink any amount of alcohol regularly to semi reguluary.


That may be enough to turn some off of being able to enjoy 1,4 bdo, but lets stop with the unsubstantiated "toxicity" smears. I'll wait to start posting studies to let anyone else find them for themselves.

Also 1,4 converts to GHB not GBL. And GBL is the most toxic of the 3, based on 40 years of studies. Its only use is to convert before using into GHB.
 
There aren't really a lot of studies done on 1,4 BDO. I know there have been a few select studies and significant toxicity hasn't been proven, but it hasn't been completely disproven either. The long term effect that it may have in people hasn't really been studied either.

I understand that stating ones opinion as fact can lead to some confusion. I don't state my opinion to be as such, it is merely an opinion based on my experiences and nothing more. There does seem to be a lot of anecdotal reports of 1,4 BDO having additional side effects when compared to GHB,l but having never had pure GHB myself it's useless for me to even speculate.

What you say is true that 1,4 BDO is completely converted into GHB by the body. On the other hand though, 1,4 BDO is freely distributed through the body before it's first pass in the liver. There *could* very well be some intrinsic activity of 1,4 BDO itself which might change the subjective experience. Another thing to keep in mind is that even after it passes through the liver, it is first converted to 4-Hydroxybutaldehyde and once more distributed throughout the body before it's next pass through the liver. I see no reason to say that either of these chemicals may not be good and may have a subjective effect on the experience.

These are just some thoughts. I would like to see some really detailed studies on the use of 1,4 BDO as a recreational drug. Perhaps more light will be shed on the subject in the future.
 
My pulse thudded in my head. My body felt like it was going haywire - All of my hair stood on end and I was freezing cold, shivering, and shaking. Even though I felt cold, I was beginning to sweat as though I had a high fever. I was also dizzy and practically blacked out. After the gagging fits had ended, I still felt extreme nausea. I was hopeless to do anything but run my fingers through my hair while a long painful groan escaped from my lips - I had never felt so sick in my life. I knew that I had ingested 1,4 BDO but I had no logical explanation for the way that I felt, I only knew that I have never had such a negative reaction to anything. It felt like the flu combined with some kind of terrible poisoning... I imagine something really toxic like antifreeze. After a few minutes of writhing around in my chair and feeling ill, I realized I could barely hold my body up because I felt so weak. With the urge to vomit having passed momentarily, I was suddenly dead tired and managed to stumble into bed and wrap up in a blanket and pass out for 2 more hours. When I woke up I still felt that awful sickness

Anesthesiologists call this the "emergence phenomenon." I know the feeling, having had several surgeries, waking up from anesthesia can be downright hellish. You feel cold, shaky, emotionally miserable, and incredibly nauseous yet unable to purge. Can't pee either. Uhg.

In my experience, this acute withdrawal is followed by 6-8 weeks of depression and slower cognitive tempo (sluggish brain, memory problems). There are lots of studies on anesthesia backing that up. For whatever reason, drug-induced comas are quite traumatic to the brain and take a while to repair.

Thanks for writing this up. People that want to play with these serious downers (general anesthetics) should be aware of how brutal they can be.
 
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