Foreigner
Bluelight Crew
I'm a lay person when it comes to neuroscience so if I'm posting this in the wrong forum feel free to move it.
I'm noticing in myself that after years of high levels of psychedelic use that my neurophysiology has become way, way more sensitive to being altered. This even includes cannabis. It used to be a regular thing for me and now even a single toke leaves me in a brain fog the following day. Intense stimulation of any kind in my day to day life leaves me feeling a bit tired, not in my body but in my mind. A friend and colleague recently remarked that perhaps it's not due to drug use, but my current state of depression. That could be true, but I don't think that's all there is to it. Mind altering has deleterious effects on me now. It's like my brain is "weaker" or something.
I'm not that old, so I'm wondering if the brain is sort of like a carpet that you can only rail on so many times before it finally tears, or its fabric becomes so thin that it is susceptible to intrusions with weaker stimulation. I know that the brain is highly adaptable, but I also pause to consider that it is only built to take so much before disorder develops. I assumed, perhaps naively, that with healthy lifestyle I could recover from intense drug use, but maybe I was wrong? Maybe there is incremental damage each time that is cumulative, regardless of how much you take care of yourself in the aftermath. After all, these substances are not exactly naturally occurring in the body and, from a purely biological perspective, they are introducing some degree of (productive) trauma into the system, no? I've read studies that show as people reach middle age, if they do LSD or other psychedelics, it reinforces neurophysiology as to prevent dementia and other mental health problems. On the flipside, I'm wondering if anyone who uses psychedelics excessively when they are younger is more prone to dementia later from the neural stress suffered earlier in life?
Even after taking a break from LSD for about a year now, there are always minor distortion effects. I don't relate to HPPD and prefer not to frame it that way, nonetheless if these psychedelic remnants in my perception are lingering, then what has drug use in general done to my brain that is irreversible and perhaps pathological? I mean, can anyone who has done drugs for years really say that their new configuration is without flaws or drawbacks?
Just to be clear, I don't regret my use over the years. It has taught me so much that I can never summarize it all. I'm just wondering if this "fast track" to learning has left me with a screw loose that I might not be fully aware of, and I can't help but reflect on the person I might've been had I not taken anything from day one. I suppose my questions are therefore as philosophical as they are scientific.
I'm noticing in myself that after years of high levels of psychedelic use that my neurophysiology has become way, way more sensitive to being altered. This even includes cannabis. It used to be a regular thing for me and now even a single toke leaves me in a brain fog the following day. Intense stimulation of any kind in my day to day life leaves me feeling a bit tired, not in my body but in my mind. A friend and colleague recently remarked that perhaps it's not due to drug use, but my current state of depression. That could be true, but I don't think that's all there is to it. Mind altering has deleterious effects on me now. It's like my brain is "weaker" or something.
I'm not that old, so I'm wondering if the brain is sort of like a carpet that you can only rail on so many times before it finally tears, or its fabric becomes so thin that it is susceptible to intrusions with weaker stimulation. I know that the brain is highly adaptable, but I also pause to consider that it is only built to take so much before disorder develops. I assumed, perhaps naively, that with healthy lifestyle I could recover from intense drug use, but maybe I was wrong? Maybe there is incremental damage each time that is cumulative, regardless of how much you take care of yourself in the aftermath. After all, these substances are not exactly naturally occurring in the body and, from a purely biological perspective, they are introducing some degree of (productive) trauma into the system, no? I've read studies that show as people reach middle age, if they do LSD or other psychedelics, it reinforces neurophysiology as to prevent dementia and other mental health problems. On the flipside, I'm wondering if anyone who uses psychedelics excessively when they are younger is more prone to dementia later from the neural stress suffered earlier in life?
Even after taking a break from LSD for about a year now, there are always minor distortion effects. I don't relate to HPPD and prefer not to frame it that way, nonetheless if these psychedelic remnants in my perception are lingering, then what has drug use in general done to my brain that is irreversible and perhaps pathological? I mean, can anyone who has done drugs for years really say that their new configuration is without flaws or drawbacks?
Just to be clear, I don't regret my use over the years. It has taught me so much that I can never summarize it all. I'm just wondering if this "fast track" to learning has left me with a screw loose that I might not be fully aware of, and I can't help but reflect on the person I might've been had I not taken anything from day one. I suppose my questions are therefore as philosophical as they are scientific.
