Hello, all. I thought that I might try to interact here on The Dark Side a bit. I had been primarily obsessed, from the age of 24 to 26, with research chemicals (RCs), primarily psychedelics, as well as cannabis, LSD, mescaline, and mushrooms. I thought that these substances would grant me insight, enlightenment, and understanding.
The only positive thing that I can take away from my short period of experimenting is that recreational drugs are really not worth using. The only thing my heavy use of psychedelics and marijuana did for me was bring out my Bipolar type I disorder, launching it into full swing.
Just after my 26th birthday this June, I found myself feeling somehow different. Looking back, I can see that I began to ramp up into mania from late May through the end of June. By the time July 6th hit, I was getting special messages from the television, from my music, reading into everything that my friends said, thinking that I was the messiah, or the reincarnation of the apostle Luke, the Buddha, an FBI agent, and the President of the United States of America.
I was completely gone and I wasn't on anything, no drugs in my body that day, although I did consume a hash cookie the evening before. This all came out of nowhere, and I was lucky to come back into my own head in such a short amount of time.
Fortunately, the hospital I went to actually helped me and found the perfect combination of meds for me: Seroquel and Trileptal, and I am walking about as my "normal" self, moods all in check, no more thinking that we're on planet mars and that I created everything in the world. Back to myself!
Unfortunately, my girlfriend of four years left me when I was in the hospital, and I had to go through absolute hell in the hospitals, and must attend an intensive partial hospitalization program 5 days out of the week. My psychiatrist has cleared me to return to my college courses in the next month or so and I will only need to go to that program twice weekly.
I'm happy that a place like "The Dark Side" exists. I was quite unhappy and confused when I returned to some of the forums that I used to post on in order to tell people what drug use will lead to, what bad things can really, seriously happen, to try to warn them and be helpful. I'd still rather tell someone how to dose properly so as not to kill themselves rather than just say "Don't do it". It's depressing that I can't go back to a lot of people and tell them that, if they continue doing what they are doing, this stuff could happen to them, too.
It stinks that everyone from before just calls me a liar, a hypocrite, and an ass. Better not to talk to them, anyway.
NA has helped me out a bit, but honestly it's been quite easy for me to stay clean on my own without working the program. Not everyone can do that, and I really think NA is a wonderful thing. It's motivation enough for me to stay away from drugs to know that, if I ever use them again, I will most likely go manic again and never be able to come back to being me.
Thanks for bearing with me with the long introductory post.