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I think I am in need of help. Please take a minute to read my story

Barabula

Greenlighter
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
9
Hello everyone, it is a pleasure meeting you all, and as many have said before me, it is unfortunate that many of us introduce ourselves here when experiencing troubled times.


To start with a bit of a history of myself, I am a 24 year old male, 1,84 metres in height, about 90 kg mass and I have been an on and off drinker since I was about 16, having my first alcohol related condition when I was 17 (gastritis). Please bare with me on this, as my questions at the end will make this piece of information relevant. About three years ago I started losing more of my time to alcohol and occasionally used amphetamines, cocaine and weed. Recently, my average alcohol consumption was ranging from 80 to 100+ units of alcohol per week. That is when I have decided that I need to stop drinking, thinking about my young daughter and my studies. About 6 weeks ago, on Saturday, one of my friends had some MDMA, crystal form, brownish from a really reliable source. I had never tried the substance before so I decided I will give it a try and then leave all my party days and binge drinking behind. So we went on and had about 600 mg each over the course of about 7 hours, which was a ridiculous amount, I am aware, especially for a first time. But I knew I had quite a bit of tolerance to amphetamines so I thought I will be fine. We also had about five cans of beer each and some Lucozade. It was a fantastic night, walked around town like crazy, felt amazing, I remember most of the night with the exception of maybe 20 minutes when it hit us the hardest, but overall we had a fantastic night and I was absolutely positive I have found my new favourite recreational substance. It all ended about 5.00 am and I went home. On my way home, I've noticed I started having some mild hallucinations, visual mostly but also some auditory ones. I remember urinating and sweating a lot that night. Got home eventually, slept for about 5 hours, still sweating a lot.
Woke up the following day, feeling very relaxed, still reminiscing about the night before. Same for the following day, two days after ingestion, basically. Had some muscle twitches and weird dreams but my sleep patterns weren't exactly perfect before, having experienced plenty of sleep paralysis episodes in the past. Felt a bit more depressed throughout the week but I have read that this is something to be expected so I went along with it. By the time it got to being Friday, I was feeling slightly better, and started thinking I was starting to get back to normal. My mind was far from clear at this point but I kept telling myself that this is something normal that would eventually wear off. I also started taking vitamin C, multiminerals and magnesium to try and accelerate my recovery, and I have been taking them since. On Friday, I went out with some friends and got drunk again on beer and wine. At this point I decided it would be the last time I drink, and I haven't been drinking since, about 5 weeks ago.
The following week took a turn to the worse and I started feeling very anxious, depressed, crying each evening and started feeling hypochondriac. Midweek, second week after ingestion basically, I experienced shakes, insomnia, sweating, ear pressure, dizziness and a weird feeling to what it felt like the behind of my eyes and felt generally very bad. At this point my mind became very preoccupied with thoughts of worry about my physical and mental health, and I could not think or focus on anything else.
Some of the feelings have receded since then but the anxiety and depression don't seem to go away and it makes it impossible to focus on my studies or even day to day activities and this adds to the stress and I find myself thinking about my mental health constantly.
I am nearing my sixth week since ingestion and I cannot seem to free my mind of these thoughts and I have no idea what to do to find some relief. I feel very humble, and cannot find pleasure in the things I used to. Sex has been affected, but I have been able to have intercourse.
My life is being affected and I am absolutely terrified that I will harm or push my family away. I feel like I am going absolutely mad, I find myself thinking constantly if I will ever be able to think straight, if I will ever be able to lead a normal life and enjoy life as I used to. The quality of my life is decreasing gradually and I feel hopeless and unable to break away from this downward spiral.


I started reading extensively on the forum about the various after effects and became familiar with the vast work of some of the members on here, the likes of First Bad Comedown, which in my opinion could challenge even some proper medial research done on the subject.
I am very confused right now and utterly scared for my life. Many questions are going through my mind right now and I hope some of the members here could help me shed some light on some of them.


Firstly, is this a possible after effect from the MDMA, or is there a chance I am feeling this from alcohol withdrawal or perhaps a combination of both? As mentioned above, reading through some of the other threads, I came across the issue of Serotonin Syndrome, which I think and I hope, does not apply to me as I had a great time on the night without any bad effects. (I feel very sympathetic for the ones that have experienced this traumatic episode of SS.)
Secondly, the question that consumes my whole being right now is how long will this actually last or if I will end up going crazy before I get the chance to get back to normal? As I said before, I am dreading the consequences this will have on my studies, in the short term, and on my life and my abilities as a human being and family person, in the long run. Please, any comment/help would prove invaluable and I wish to thank you in advance for any help.
Thirdly, is there anything I can do to get some relief from all of this? I try exercising as much as I can, but at the moment my life is hectic and I can only exercise three times a week, tops. Also, I really avoid seeing a doctor as I do not want to disclose this kind of past behaviour out of fear of reducing my career prospects for the future. I know, i should have thought of all of this before but it is a bit too late for that now.


Please ask me if you need any additional information or if there is any other detail I should have mentioned. Thank you very much to everyone on the forum, and it is a pleasure to meet you all!


Kind regards.
 
there's no possibility that you had/have serotonin syndrome.

it's probably a combination of alcohol withdrawal and overdoing mdma with the main thing being alcohol. mdma can definitely increase your susceptibility to any kind of anxiety in the days (or weeks) following use, you did a lot in that night and the combination with alcohol withdrawal certainly isn't a good thing (but getting off alcohol surely is!). your symptoms aren't typical for the so called "long term comedown" like for instance shakes or sweating but typical for alcohol withdrawal. anxiety and depression can be caused by both.
the good news is that nothing of this is permanent. for mdma you'd normally be looking at a duration of days to few weeks (an in very rare cases months), while post-acute-withdrawal syndrome for alochol (which apparently is something 75% of people withdrawing from alcohol get; though i don't know where that statistic comes from and for what kind of drinking behaviour...) typically lasts for several months (to years in some cases, probably not your case since you didn't even need medical assistance). of course both will gradually become better over time.
one thing you can influence a lot is anxiety. once you start to accept your current state, manage to somehow chill out and stop reading on the internet you can feel a lot better. at least for mdma that is in almost all cases enough to cure any symptoms.

but really, the best thing in your situation would obviously be to consult a doctor. they have drugs that can be effective for paws and also psychotherapy can be beneficial...
 
Hello, Black. Thank you very much for the response. I know it is a bit of a long post but I wanted to fit in as much info as could and remember. I know there might be some inconsistencies throughout my story and I apologise for that.


I am very relieved to hear that it doesn't sound like I have or had Serotonin Syndrome, and I wish all the best in the world for the ones that are recovering from this serious condition. I have been reading about it and it sounds very dreadful.


Secondly, I wish to thank you for the heads up, and I do hope you are right. I hope all this nightmare will come to an end as right now I am scared for my life and my mental health and integrity. I think about it all the time, I wake up and it's there. I find myself just sitting around trying to see if I can perceive the world the way I used to, and I am paranoid that I will start hearing or seeing things that I shouldn't. It is absolutely debilitating and I hope it will go away.
Any ideas why such psychological issues persist in my 6th week now?


Please help!


Thank you!
 
Hey Barabula,

I have almost nothing to add except for: don't hope Black is right, he is right, you didn't suffer serotonin syndrome. Apart from that he answered perfectly so I have nothing more to add, just wanted to reassure you a bit more. I wish you all the best, don't worry this will pass in time. The after effects of MDMA abuse can sometimes linger for a while, it's normal, you just overdid it and these are the (temporary) consequences


Welcome to bluelight!
 
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Thank you very much, BlueBull! It is reassuring to see the support of members on here. It can go a really long way.

All I'm hoping now is for this psychological tantrum to fade away.
 
Also another question I stumbled upon when constantly worrying about my health and panicking, is anyone familiar with this feeling of being very very humble, like everything could harm me and scare me. Im not thinking about it in the sense that people want to harm me but more like I feel very vulnerable and frail. Is this something that will go away? Will I start feeling more confident?
 
Hello Strangestuff, and thanks for taking the time to add a reply.
No, I haven't checked any of those. How could I do that? Just ask the doctor to check all of those? Like I said before, I avoid seeing the doctor because I fear I will ruin my medical record.

thanks
 
Please, anyone else, any advice especially on the psychological side. I just went out to see a couple of friends had a laugh and all of a sudden I started feeling like absolute shit, I had to leave. Now I'm home, panicking again, I don't think I will ever get out if this state. I've ruined my life, Im starting to feel sure about it, I cant snap out of it. please anyone, I need someone to help me!
 
Hey! Dont worry. This will pass. I have had exactly the same thing when i over did it. Give it a week or to more. In those weeks, take som walks in quiet places and breath with your stomach and nose :) I was very emotinal and unstable mood. It felt almost like a cleansing. Its good to cry. Its healing. Eat good and rest. The more you think that it is fucking you the more it is. The power of tought. Take a walk, just let the the toughts be and breath. Sry my english sucks. Hope u feel better soon
 
Please, anyone else, any advice especially on the psychological side. I just went out to see a couple of friends had a laugh and all of a sudden I started feeling like absolute shit, I had to leave. Now I'm home, panicking again, I don't think I will ever get out if this state. I've ruined my life, Im starting to feel sure about it, I cant snap out of it. please anyone, I need someone to help me!

that's just panic attacks. having them is pretty normal in your situation brought about by drug use/withdrawal. they will definitely go away, and you have not ruined your life! you're even in a comparatively "lucky" situation with them being caused by a temporary imbalance in your brain chemistry, others (like me) have a genetic predisposition and get them from time to time without ever touching drugs.
i know you feel horrible right now, but really it will pass. and it will pass quicker if you can keep your mind away from the fear. what helps me (apart from benzodiazepines; but you probably won't have access to those without a visit to the doctor and you'd have to be very careful with them if you don't want to switch one addiction for another) is doing something that can capture my attention for prolonged peroids of time. that might be video games, solving riddles, doing sports or whatever you're into. some people also recommend focusing on your breathing (breathing slowly and deeply), but i haven't had much success with this.
and if you've got some hyochondriac ideas, don't read up on them on the internet (at least if you don't already know that what you'll read will say that it's all completely harmless)!
avoid stressful activities for some time (like working too much, doing exams you can do later, going to a party if you don't feel like it...), but keep yourself occupied with unhurried, fun activities. try to ignore the spiral of fear as best as you can and you will soon notice that you already feel a lot better.

anyway, that's what helps me, i hope you'll find something useful and wish you a quick recovery.

btw, you could also try seeing out a psychotherapist. i don't know how it's like in your country, but over here it will not show up in your medical record.
 
It was so bad last night I couldn't believe how fast it all went south. I keep trying to tell myself that it will pass, it will go eventually, but my mind just does not want to believe. I did try that windblower actually, the breathing thing, I usually do it before bed and it does help a bit. And thanks again for replying Black. Where do you live by the way? I live in the UK.
 
Another question, for anyone that has experienced (or still experiencing) tinnitus during their recovery.
basically, my left ear has a constant ring now, and has been ringing since about the second week after ingestion and my right ear has this constant pressure inside it which sometimes spans through my entire head and makes me hear like I have a factory in my head. Its that machinery noise you usually hear around big plants or something like that. Has anyone had this before and will it get any better?
 
Also another question I stumbled upon when constantly worrying about my health and panicking, is anyone familiar with this feeling of being very very humble, like everything could harm me and scare me. Im not thinking about it in the sense that people want to harm me but more like I feel very vulnerable and frail. Is this something that will go away? Will I start feeling more confident?

I know that feeling. I had quite forgotten about it, but I can relate to what you are describing. I think you've been scared into an acceptance/surrender/helplessness phase. Come visit us in the Recovery forums of Bluelight. I think you'll get a lot from it.
 
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