I honestly think that we all have to learn the hard way.
I've always been fairly educated about drugs, I knew the effects of what I was taking, I always knew the dose. Needless to say, I knew what I was getting into.
MDMA is just something else, though. The feeling is so great, that the possible damage done seems worth it. I went through a period where I did MDMA several times a month, for 3-5 months. Sometimes I'd do it 2 days in a row. Yea, the next morning sucked, but I felt fine the next day after that. I figured I'd be fine..
Anyways, I did move to another city, and got away from the party scene, and from ecstasy. About a month in, it all set in. The night terrors. The horrible depression. The depersonalization/dissociation. Emotional detachment. Suicidal thoughts. Homicidal thoughts. My anxiety was so bad, that I would have full blown panic attacks if I had to stand in a line for more than a minute. I loved reading books, and I couldn't even keep my mind focused enough to read anymore. My ADD was terrible as a byproduct of my mdma use. I couldn't even watch t.v. and stay focused on a show. I had to have my t.v. on, my laptop on, my iphone out, a novel open, and my homework sprawled on the table, alternating between all of those because I simply could not keep a train of thought for very long. It would take my the longest time to finish an assignment, and the way I did it was by switching between my homework, t.v., reading, texting/games, and misc. My brain just could not focus on one thing for more then 5-10 minutes at a time, so I learned that I had to switch off.
It all got better though.. After about 3 months, I noticed that I felt normal again. It happened slowly, so it wasn't like I was better in the blink of an eye, after several months. My memory will still be impaired, but it's not that much of an inconvenience, so one day, I looked back over the past few weeks and noticed a postive change in my mental state. I made a full recovery.
I believe the brain can always heal itself with time. It's just that the time spent dealing with the negative long lasting effects of heavy mdma abuse are hard to deal with. This January I had a friend hang himself in his garage because of the same thing I went through.
Sit him down, talk to him, and make him know that you care, and that you're dead serious, and that this shit is real. If he doesn't listen, he'll learn the hard way like I did. Just hope that he is strong enough to pull through it.