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  • Trip Reports Moderator: Cheshire_Kat

DXM -- First Time -- Three trips to the hospital!

Catch-22

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 16, 2001
Messages
4,518
Note: This was originally posted by treasonatsea in the Australia/Asia/NZ/Middle East Drug Discussion forum. BigTrancer and myself thought it should be included in Trip Reports so other people would see it.
Ok here goes guys....let me try to explain to you in a few paragraphs the bloody hell that was my first experience with DXM :)
BACKGROUND: Me and moebro each took 100mls each of xtra strong robitussin DX, 300mg of active ingredient. I am about 70kg, 180cm, medium build, and had had almost nothing to eat before the time of consuming (3pm)
I normally have quite strong reactions from pills, my first experience i thought i was swimming on a footstool and was more fucked up than my other friends who were also trying it for the first time. But not THAT fucked up.
Setting was shit, I did it at home, and parents came home, so i was obviously very stresed about hiding it from my parents, and this was made worse later.
I take no other medication, and had no other drug such as alcohol with the DXM.
Ok here goes:
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Taken at 3pm:
Firstly I had all the "normal" effects of DXM. I felt extremely tripped out, lied down on my bed and had massive close eye visuals, faces, panoramas, whole shows of different things occuring but all with a darkish tinge, not that colorful. I went into a sort of tunnel, and gravity was turning around in my head like i was spinning thousands of time per second, i was in a jet plane soaring up and down, etc. etc. It was v. crazy, and I enjoyed it a fair bit.
8pm: The effects have generally worn off, just a body buzz and the like. One time I went into the toilet because I felt this wave of toxicity and heat go through my body and I thought I was overdosing. This scared me shitless.
10pm: I'm trying to get to sleep. Strangely, feel very hyped and strung out. Can't sleep for the life of me. This goes on and on but I start to feel worse, more jittery and hyped out, like on speed or something, heart starting to race and my head burning. Fingers are getting tightened up. I call poisons information syndrome, lady tells me I need to call an ambulance, says I might have a seizure or Serotonin Syndrome.
10:30: Ambulance arrives, parents streseed out, I think I am going to die, fingers tight and rigid, heart racing at about 150+ BPM, get taken to hospital, put on a drip, attended to, can't open my eyes because there is too much stimulation, the light is too intense.
11 - 3: Hospital is like hell, I am anxious about my mental state, I think I am going to go insane, I am in a state of intense paranoia, keep asking nurses if i'll live, or if there will be permanent damage (that became a recurring fear)
stayed in hospital till about 10am , went home, still felt buzzy and tingled up, as well as paranoid and anxious, depressed. Tried to sleep but couldn't at all, kept getting panic attacks and all sorts of things, amongst the other symptoms.
Next day, symptoms were actually worse, I naturally got stressed again, had a full on anxiety attack which I thought meant I was losing my mind, or going to have permanent damage, went back to the hospital, doctor calmed me down, felt better.
That night couldn't sleep again, only maybe 2 hours. Still stimulated with wide dilated pupils and buzzing hands. Woke up and had an extremely fast heartbeat and had to control it.
Next day was better, but then it got worse and I panicked again, went to the hospital for the 3rd time, this time a better doctor explained that the drug was STILL in my system, and would take another 5-10 days to come out, but I was also having anxiety symptoms related to that, and that I needed to relax etc. etc.
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Its now been about 6 days since I took the drug, and only today have my pupils become smaller and the symptoms largely disappeared. It was an awful experience, and hopefully people can learn from this and research substances (and dosages!!) carefully before they engage in them. I am curious if any BL'ers have thoughts on what this actually was (deficient enyzyme? Slow metaboliser?) because it sure as hell stayed in my system for a lot longer than 8 or so hours.
Cheers all, and take care of yourselves. Don't have an experience like mine.
[ 19 February 2003: Message edited by: Catch-22 ]
 
treasonatsea, hope you are doing better and please let us know how it goes. Thanks for sharing your story.
 
I would probably suspect due to the relatively light (for most people) dose that you took that you are CYP2d6 deficient. That is probably the reason for it staying in your body that long.
Hope you are doing better....
 
I went to the hospital too the first time i tried cough syrup. I wasn't in any physical danger, but I was having massive panic attacks. I think it is irresponsible for people to go around saying how great DXM is... I'm sure in most instances it is, but there aren't enough warnings about how unsettling the comedown is. Note to anyone that reads this who's never tried the stuff: make sure a really good (sober) friend is present. The people I was hanging out with just plain abandoned me. f*d up, eh? Well, that's my $0.02 I guess.
 
Yeah, Nick44 is probably right. Actually I've seen a couple people have this reaction, and I'm convinced they are both CYP2D6 enzyme deficient. The first guy tripped for about 3 solid days, lucky for him it was a weekend! The next girl, who apparently isn't quite as bad, just had a pretty intense reaction to a relatively moderate dose (maybe 350mg) and the next day her pupils were still huge.
I don't know how safe this is, but the girl has done it a few times afterwards, and it seems like if she takes Tussin rather than DXM powder it's not as bad for her. The guy, I know has done it a couple more times and each time he still tripped for a solid 3 days, which he said really wasn't a lot of fun (no doubt!).
So the stuff you took only had DXM in it? If so this is probably the case. If you are really still interested in DXM I would recommend taking a very small amount and working up. But it sounds like it might not be the drug for you =)
peace
 
Yeah, only time ive had a bad trip was DXM.
mega vomiting and bad paranoia/cold.
Nothing like this dudes report though, Thats just hellish.
any idea what % are CYP2D6 enzyme deficient or how one tests this. I dont think i am, but sounds a risk for others.
I mean what does regular doeses of cough mixture do to you when you drink it to treat a cold treasonatsea ?
 
In regular doses of cough medicine you would probably not be using something with dextromorphen (DXM) in it. Most of the stuff around is harmless in the right dosages, its when you crank it up it becomes a problem.
Robotussin DX has the only ingredient of DXM and the rest I think is just filler stuff so you can ingest it.
Testing for CYP2D6 enzyme deficienty would have to be something that only a blood test could find (correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think the best way is to chug some DXM and see).
 
The first time I took 3 tablespoons of robo max, 90mg just in case. The maximum safe first time dosage is 100mg, just in case you lack a certain enzume which I didnt, since I got a light, brief buzz. took 360 then 630 the 3rd time. found out my tolerance is higher than average, probably applys for shrooms too :( but my alcohol tolerance is ****, I can take a third as much as a female weighing less than me and get wasted
 
Please note I am not the author of this trip report. I was posting it on behalf of the poster known as "treasonatsea" and cannot answer questions about the experience. :)
 
One more reason why I won't ever try DXM to get high. Just ain't gonna take any chances. For dissociation, ketamine is prefered. To the inner universe and back in less than an hour. Can't beat that. And no real comedown either. Too many nightmare stories of DXM for me to even consider going there. It does help my cough though.
 
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