Small ecstasy use 'harms brain'

blah blah blah, we all luv e, we all try tell ourselves it causes no damage, we all know better, we r all fucking scientists. We also all know that nothing soooo good can leave us unscathed. law of indulgence No.1
 
I don't think its fair to just look at the organic effects of MDMA (or any drug for that matter) and draw conclusions about how "good" or "bad" it is for you. The ideas, attitudes, worldviews, etc. that are influenced by drug use is far more relevant IMO. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone who hasn't done these drugs will ever understand that. They'll still view drug use as inherently self-destructive :\
 
This topic has been a significant concern of mine ever since I started consuming MDMA. While occasionally I have noticed significant short-term memory problems and sometimes nauseating headaches for a day or two after taking MDMA, I have never experienced significant depression. In fact, I am very happy, in a great relationship, and I enjoy life 95% of the time (the other 5% is reserved for heavy downtown traffic).

Here are some facts:
I have taken somewhere around 200 pills in the past 7 years. (I know.. a LOT)
I am a male in my mid 20s, with no major medical problems
I have graduated with a BBA : Finance MAGNA CUM LAUDE
I am an executive at an international company

Like I said before, I have experienced short-term memory problems over the course of my MDMA usage. I have noticed, however, that the severity of my deficiency decreases significantly after taking breaks from MDMA. I can remember where I put my keys, people's names whom I've just met, phone numbers, etc. These problems promptly return for a short periods after each subsequent MDMA experience.

Does this mean that the damage is not permanent? I have no idea. I am a firm believer that everyone's brain is wired in it's own special way. Also, you have to remember that (excuse the cliche term) the brain is a "muscle". I've found that reading, doing puzzles, memory games, and even simply challenging myself mentally in day to day activities has kept my mind sharp and has improved my short-term memory. If you use mdma, drink alchohol, smoke marijuana, whatever, try to counteract some of the damage you do by eating healthy foods, taking vitamins, getting regular exercise, and ESPECIALLY READING.

This is by no means an argument for why you should start doing, or continue doing MDMA. However, I felt the need to share my personal experience with the drug and act as an illustration for being able to enjoy life and function normally after heavy MDMA usage.


Just my two cents.....
_lush
 
Last edited:
December 14, 2006. In response to the sensationalistic and inaccurate recent news coverage of prospective Ecstasy user studies by Dutch researcher Dr. Maartje M. de Win, MAPS President Rick Doblin, Ph.D. wrote this open letter to Dr. de Win voicing his concerns, and MAPS Clinical Research Associate Ilsa Jerome, Ph.D., wrote a special report evaluating the media's claims and how they relate (or not) to the actual data.

Link to this page and the open letter... http://www.maps.org/mdma/#news
 
quite frankly, this seems more to me like a scare tactic then anything. I wouldnt be too worried about brain damage doing 6 pills, cause i have and know many people who have done that many and are fine. When you should be worried about brain damage is if you start to abuse it, imo.
 
Neurotoxicity.....

How I think: Life is about stressors and rewards. Stressors, I think a case could be made, cause "brain damage" in the sense that depression and chronic-stress at least have been proven to be correlated to lower levels of certain neurotransmitters, lowered neurogenesis etc etc....

Some of you in this thread seem to think we MUST obsess about the minute changes that could be negative to our brain after taking a single MDMA pill. I think we need to take a step back and pragmatically look at how life, in general, can increase or decrease your brain's abilities.

And it's not just drugs I'm talking about. Sure, I would clearly admit that almost any stimulant has the potential to stress neurons and either kill or force it to mal-adapt in some way that is negative long-term.

But let's keep it real. This this life we're talking about, nobody gets out alive!

How long are you going to live for? 60? 80? 100? 120 if you're lucky? Let's say we all want to live, in good health, until we are 120 years old.

Ask yourself: "When I am 60, 80, or 100, what major life stressors, over time, have negatively effected my cognitive ability?"

I would highly doubt that moderate MDMA use would EVER rise to the #1 spot on that list.

My list, for discussion purposes, from highest to lowest risk of lifelong negative brain changes (damage):

1. Loss of loved ones (grievance)
2. Loss of physical abilities (depression, sedentary lifestyle, atrophy)
3. Poor diet and lack of exercise (sedentary lifestyle)
4. Retirement (depression, less use of cognitive functions, atrophy)
5. General aging mechanisms (free radical damage etc)
6. Social isolation
7. Loss of career

8. Long-term, heavy use of:alcohol, stimulant medication (ritalin/amph/meth/coke, take your pick), opiates, or just name your drug. Very few can be said to have zero long-term negative side-effects (including of course many prescription drugs).

9. Long-term moderate (let's call this recreational use levels): alcohol (for some), many harder stimulants such as amph, meth, coke, marijuana (the smoke, not the THC), MDMA

10. Long-term low dose/rate use: Who knows? Most likely drugs like cocaine or meth (sleep deprivation, vascocontriction, slow depletion of dopamine producing neurons). But for the rest.. I would bet that MDMA, mushrooms, benzo's, ritalin, even amphetamine, would show negligible effects even after 60 years of low use.

It is my firm belief that some drugs can be used in a responsible manner, which truly have no cummulative damage which are not offset by the positive changes which can occur with proper drug (recreational or therapeutic/prescription).

There are so many studies already showing how anxiety, chronic stress, bad diet, sedentary lifestyle, mood/mental disorders have LARGE negative effects on our brain.

So ask yourself: Why the obsession on MDMA? Why not fund other drug research on alcohol?

Or most importantly - Why not fund preventative treatment for MENTAL AND MOOD DISORDERS, which clearly, are the main factor for drug users who use drugs to temporarily escape from the life which is causing them pain? How many more studies do I have to read about huge correlations between child abuse, social isolation, poverty, violence and drug abuse? Most drug addicts do not wish to become addicts. There are underlying reasons why drug use becomes paramount in some people's lives.

Look at the last few article on MDMA released - Almost ALL of them are focusing on whether MDMA causes mood/mental disorders, or is MDMA simply the result of people self-medicating for these conditions? Or simply using MDMA for it's positive effects (not just the euphoria, but the introspection, the long-term personality changes which are so often reported).


(Ok, this may have been a little bit of a rant, but let's keep MDMA use in perspective with all the other activities/behaviours you are going to partake in during life)
 
Last edited:
How do we know that they're not gaining something from these structural changes (the sort of changes that can occur in motor neural structure for things like improvement in hand eye co-ordination after learning to play a musical instrument). Some people, well quite a few actually, undergo a psychological change after MDMA. Isn't there the possibility that changes in verbal acuity are paralleled by changes linking speech with emotional response for example - effectively that people 'feel' that they have a deeper understanding of what that word relates to (if you want, making the abstract less abstract!). Surely that's not neurotoxicity, it's altering the plasticity of the neural tissue.

Stick them in an fNMR and put them through a whole battery of skills/linking tests (asking them to assess how they feel emotionwise when they hear the word - the sort of thing you can do while remaining perfectly still). It could be producing a load of sensetive new poets - more likely people speaking bollocks though!

If it turns out that for low usage over a limited time there is some very mild changes that you have to really look for be able to distinguish them, what's all the panic about. The effect of living next to a main road when you're a kid would have more effect than that (back in the days when there was tetraethyl lead in petrol) - the other health benefits in terms of stress reduction that can come from MDMA may well heavily outway any very limited deficits. It's the way that the shortened reports are worded that make it seem like a single use is going to cause significant deteriation of performance. Life is neurotoxic and some foods might cause more damage then MDMA does. It's fucking politics getting into what should be unbiased scientific reporting. Wost thing in the world is letting spin monkeys loose on scientific reports; they have this habit of taking things out of context for their own purposes

It is widely accepted that depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders can have a negative impact on neurocognitive performance and that the successful resolution of these psychiatric disorders can lead to increases in neurocognitive performance.
Click to expand...

Good to see Dr. D isn't too slow on the wordspin either! (from an open letter to the head of the research from Dr Rick Doblin)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top