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Psychosis from Psychedelic Use

juniorcat

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 14, 2011
Messages
147
Can psychedelics cause permanent psychosis or one to turn into a paranoid schizophrenic?
 
I think it's generally agreed that they can catalyze the development of mental illnesses that would have developed anyway.
 
From what I remember when I used to do and research about psychedelics quite often they can not cause an illness to arise but they can bring out dormant mental illnesses and exacerbate ones that an individual is currently afflicted with. Of course there is a chance of having a psychotic episode while under the effects of certain substances but this will fade as the effect wear off.
 
I've experienced what I think could be defined as psychosis when I was on a combination of mxe and 2ct2, but when I came down I was perfectly fine.
 
I don't think occasional tripping would lead to many problems, unless you already had an underlying condition and the use of psychedelics brought it out. I think if someone abuses it and trips frequently, then they're more prone to developing psychosis.
 
I've also experienced psychosis DURING one trip, and that's fairly common even for people who don't otherwise have psychotic tendencies. As soon as I came back down, I was fine.

... I think?

Unless this whole world really WAS a trick to distract me from an unbearable solipsistic loneliness, and eating two grams of mushrooms really WAS what I needed to remember?!
 
I've also experienced psychosis DURING one trip, and that's fairly common even for people who don't otherwise have psychotic tendencies. As soon as I came back down, I was fine.

... I think?

Unless this whole world really WAS a trick to distract me from an unbearable solipsistic loneliness, and eating two grams of mushrooms really WAS what I needed to remember?!

You were tripping, thats not psychosis. If that lasted well beyond your trip and use of any other drugs you may be able to call it psychosis. I dont think psychedelics can cause permanent psychosis in healthy individuals. Its def possible to experience disconnect for a while after a bad trip. If you are healthy it wil not last forever. It can also bring out preexisting problems in people who are not mentally healthy from the beginning.

You can def lose your connection with reality from using psychedelics. It is only true psychosis when it doesn't do away even after stopping using drugs. From what i understand using strong stimulants in combination with psychedelics is a fast road to big problems of this sort.
 
The worst I've seen is two people get a "persisting" psychosis that lasted for about two weeks. Not sure how long it -would- have lasted, because both times they got sent to a psych ward and they were back to normal within 3 days, without requiring continued medication.
 
If you don't have a pre-existing condition, the risk of psychedelics alone producing psychosis is quite small. However if combined with sleep deprivation, dehydration and (especially) stimulants they can trigger a psychosis without a pre-existing condition or family history of schizophrenia or psychosis. These kinds of psychoses are almost never permanent though.

I suffer from some mental illnesses (mostly social anxiety which can get panicky) and psychedelics have helped me understanding some of the underlying reasons for them. They are no wondercure though.

Psychedelics and dissociatives can cause mental states that may seem psychotic by their nature but are not.
 
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You were tripping, thats not psychosis. If that lasted well beyond your trip and use of any other drugs you may be able to call it psychosis. I dont think psychedelics can cause permanent psychosis in healthy individuals. Its def possible to experience disconnect for a while after a bad trip. If you are healthy it wil not last forever. It can also bring out preexisting problems in people who are not mentally healthy from the beginning.

You can def lose your connection with reality from using psychedelics. It is only true psychosis when it doesn't do away even after stopping using drugs. From what i understand using strong stimulants in combination with psychedelics is a fast road to big problems of this sort.

Well psychosis is just a break from reality, and I certainly had that for the duration of the trip. What caused it was that I had an extremely intense moment (on just two grams!) that lasted who knows how long, in which I forgot who I was, and forgot literally everything about reality. As the effects wore off, I started to remember how to talk (though it was messed up for the first hour or so - "gredgits with the pointing and I can't quark whatsom strangling vling in that thing?") Slowly I came back to my senses, but as I pieced reality back together I had all sorts of essentially psychotic ideas - I thought I was God, I thought the entire universe was a figment of my imagination, I thought I was in a mental ward months after taking the mushrooms, I thought I was trapped in this room forever as punishment for my sins...

Though I suppose people have crazier thoughts on salvia and ketamine, but that's not considered psychosis, it's just part of the trip. And we don't consider dreaming to be a psychotic state. So I see your point actually...
 
Perhaps:

When people are exposed to experiences that they just cannot integrate into their idea of reality, they can either repress the experience ("it didn't happen!") or dismiss the experience ("it was just a drug trip, nothing more!"). Or they can focus on the new incomprehensible data until they ARE able to integrate it (only talking about 'far out' things for a long while), or they can completely abandon the hope of ever being able to make sense of anything (madness).
 
I think it's generally agreed that they can catalyze the development of mental illnesses that would have developed anyway.

Wow, way to be misleading.

Most psychedelics can catalyze development of mental illnesses that may or may not have developed anyway.

To put it another way, if you're predisposed to mental illness, drugs could easily put you over the edge when you might have been fine otherwise. But for most people, there isn't much to worry about. The danger is that you don't really have a way to know if you're at risk or not.
 
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