Although an old topic, I wanted to chime in with my experience on this as I find the content (besides the arguments which were utterly useless) very relevant / interesteing.
A little background:
Heathy male in mid 20's.
Took lab tested MDMA pills (The red round Bugatti's, not oval shaped ones) once every 3 months (2 occasions at 6 week intervals at one point) for about 2 years. I used to crush them up and weigh out half each (they were reportedly 200mg pills) so the assumption was 100mg doses. Used all the supplements and guidelines on rollsafe. I also trained 5-6 days a week lifting weights at the gym.
Mid 2015:
Took 3 x 100mg doses over the course of a day at a festival. 2 weeks later injured what appeared to be an adductor muscle (felt like I'd torn something) at the gym and within 2 weeks of that developed agonising constant pain where the bicep tendon runs into the shoulder (both shoulders). Also had an emotional breakdown shortly after that which included lasting depression. At this point I stopped using MDMA or training at the gym, and I don't use any other drugs, or drink alcohol. I'd call this a traumatic event and it's where my life crashed basically.
Fast forward to Jan 2019, the depression lifted after about 12-18 months of the initial trauma. I was still left with the pain in my groin area from the suspected adductor injury and the unexplained pain in my shoulders. A lot of clicking from my hips when moving around, and genrally felt like I had constant tension throughout my muscular system. Doctors were just presribing pain killers. I'd been to see multiple phsysio therapists since having the initial problems but none of them really seemed to help much despite manual soft tissue work, looking at bicep tendonitis etc.
I also suffered from seriously bad constant chronic fatigue. I'd wake up in the morning and sometimes feel "ok" for about half an hour but then waves of fatigue (physical and mental) for the rest of the day with me having to lie down for a couple of hours at least, sometimes drifting into what felt like half-unconciousness - but never sleep. I also couldnt think straight or carry out professional work due to brain fog or not being able to think straight. I was always hungry, cravings for sugar and sometimes couldnt sleep in the evenings despite being exhaused. Cortisol showed as elevated in the evening on a saliva test but was normal besides that (i.e not low). Had a shed load of other blood / hormone tests done which all came back as normal. Tried every supplement known to man which didn't show any improvement in my fatigue symptoms.
Started seeing a Chiropractor back in January this year on a weekly basis. As the sessions progressed he got to know my body better and I asked him for some feedback on my overall condition, he basically said he's never seen anything like it in terms of the widespread trigger point severity. Basically from head to toe, any trigger point he went near was a 10/10 (trust me I was in agony nearly passing out a few times or being sick) and this is based on him hardly applying any pressure at all in some instances. My body was a train wreck basically. He's seen a 10/10 at one or two points on people, or a 4 or 5/10 on say 6 or 7 points, but never 10/10 everywhere. After each session I'd be wiped out for days in terms of fatigue, but 6 months of work later things did start to improve. What I also found was although I was focused on the pain in my shoulders and leg (adductor), I had a lot of other muscular problems going on elsewhere causing pain. It was only when someone (i.e my Chiropractor) went near them to test for tenderness that we found a problem. Also as we turned down the volume (reduced the pain and inflammation) from my shoulders and groin injury, I started to feel the pain from the other areas I wasn't aware of previously.
What's actually worked well for me over the last 2 months is LLLT (Low Level Laser Therapy) - the laser being the important bit (tried the LED stuff which didnt do anything). This has massively helped with all the muscular issues (trigger points?) I have all over my body. Still working through them at the moment but I've had an improvement in energy levels so far with the odd occasion feeling normal or even excellent (I'd almost forgotten what normal energy levels felt like since before taking MDMA). One thing I will point out, muscles that tighten with stress (psoas, pec minor, scalene & traps are just some examples) have been found on me to be chronically tight to the point where I had tendonitis in the insertion points. I've been off the gym for about 3 months now (was training on and off since about 18 months after the incident) but I'm planning to go back shortly with low intensity to be on the safe side, but certainly feel like I can handle it now.
In conclsion, looking back and based on the fact that LLLT has shown massive improvements for me, I'd say I've had chronic widespread (systemic?) inflammation in my body from stress. This has caused a vicious cycle in that it was also disrupting my sleep (was getting 8-10 hours but kept waking up needing the toilet multiple times etc.). MDMA (800% cortisol spike remember) + training at the gym was burning the candle at both ends, the traumatic experience I had was just the culmination of all this. Seems to be well known that stress causes inflammation, and as I've been working to reduce that recently, my energy and ability to function is returning.
So in short, I lost 4 years of my life to MDMA. I had plans to move on from contracting at the time and start a technology business, which all went out the window due to the fact I've not been able to function properly. My social life has pretty much been non-existent due to never having the energy to be around people. I'm certainly going nowhere near MDMA or any other drugs - learned my lesson the hard way. I think the inflammation, either as a direct result of MDMA itself or from the stress it causes on the body, is a bigger factor than the information that's out there on the risks of MDMA would lead you to think, though I accept this can vary from person to person based on the fact we are all unique both mentally and physically.
Hope this helps shed some light. Feel free to ask any questions. Mods I am happy for you to move this post if you think it would be more useful to people elsewhere.
A little background:
Heathy male in mid 20's.
Took lab tested MDMA pills (The red round Bugatti's, not oval shaped ones) once every 3 months (2 occasions at 6 week intervals at one point) for about 2 years. I used to crush them up and weigh out half each (they were reportedly 200mg pills) so the assumption was 100mg doses. Used all the supplements and guidelines on rollsafe. I also trained 5-6 days a week lifting weights at the gym.
Mid 2015:
Took 3 x 100mg doses over the course of a day at a festival. 2 weeks later injured what appeared to be an adductor muscle (felt like I'd torn something) at the gym and within 2 weeks of that developed agonising constant pain where the bicep tendon runs into the shoulder (both shoulders). Also had an emotional breakdown shortly after that which included lasting depression. At this point I stopped using MDMA or training at the gym, and I don't use any other drugs, or drink alcohol. I'd call this a traumatic event and it's where my life crashed basically.
Fast forward to Jan 2019, the depression lifted after about 12-18 months of the initial trauma. I was still left with the pain in my groin area from the suspected adductor injury and the unexplained pain in my shoulders. A lot of clicking from my hips when moving around, and genrally felt like I had constant tension throughout my muscular system. Doctors were just presribing pain killers. I'd been to see multiple phsysio therapists since having the initial problems but none of them really seemed to help much despite manual soft tissue work, looking at bicep tendonitis etc.
I also suffered from seriously bad constant chronic fatigue. I'd wake up in the morning and sometimes feel "ok" for about half an hour but then waves of fatigue (physical and mental) for the rest of the day with me having to lie down for a couple of hours at least, sometimes drifting into what felt like half-unconciousness - but never sleep. I also couldnt think straight or carry out professional work due to brain fog or not being able to think straight. I was always hungry, cravings for sugar and sometimes couldnt sleep in the evenings despite being exhaused. Cortisol showed as elevated in the evening on a saliva test but was normal besides that (i.e not low). Had a shed load of other blood / hormone tests done which all came back as normal. Tried every supplement known to man which didn't show any improvement in my fatigue symptoms.
Started seeing a Chiropractor back in January this year on a weekly basis. As the sessions progressed he got to know my body better and I asked him for some feedback on my overall condition, he basically said he's never seen anything like it in terms of the widespread trigger point severity. Basically from head to toe, any trigger point he went near was a 10/10 (trust me I was in agony nearly passing out a few times or being sick) and this is based on him hardly applying any pressure at all in some instances. My body was a train wreck basically. He's seen a 10/10 at one or two points on people, or a 4 or 5/10 on say 6 or 7 points, but never 10/10 everywhere. After each session I'd be wiped out for days in terms of fatigue, but 6 months of work later things did start to improve. What I also found was although I was focused on the pain in my shoulders and leg (adductor), I had a lot of other muscular problems going on elsewhere causing pain. It was only when someone (i.e my Chiropractor) went near them to test for tenderness that we found a problem. Also as we turned down the volume (reduced the pain and inflammation) from my shoulders and groin injury, I started to feel the pain from the other areas I wasn't aware of previously.
What's actually worked well for me over the last 2 months is LLLT (Low Level Laser Therapy) - the laser being the important bit (tried the LED stuff which didnt do anything). This has massively helped with all the muscular issues (trigger points?) I have all over my body. Still working through them at the moment but I've had an improvement in energy levels so far with the odd occasion feeling normal or even excellent (I'd almost forgotten what normal energy levels felt like since before taking MDMA). One thing I will point out, muscles that tighten with stress (psoas, pec minor, scalene & traps are just some examples) have been found on me to be chronically tight to the point where I had tendonitis in the insertion points. I've been off the gym for about 3 months now (was training on and off since about 18 months after the incident) but I'm planning to go back shortly with low intensity to be on the safe side, but certainly feel like I can handle it now.
In conclsion, looking back and based on the fact that LLLT has shown massive improvements for me, I'd say I've had chronic widespread (systemic?) inflammation in my body from stress. This has caused a vicious cycle in that it was also disrupting my sleep (was getting 8-10 hours but kept waking up needing the toilet multiple times etc.). MDMA (800% cortisol spike remember) + training at the gym was burning the candle at both ends, the traumatic experience I had was just the culmination of all this. Seems to be well known that stress causes inflammation, and as I've been working to reduce that recently, my energy and ability to function is returning.
So in short, I lost 4 years of my life to MDMA. I had plans to move on from contracting at the time and start a technology business, which all went out the window due to the fact I've not been able to function properly. My social life has pretty much been non-existent due to never having the energy to be around people. I'm certainly going nowhere near MDMA or any other drugs - learned my lesson the hard way. I think the inflammation, either as a direct result of MDMA itself or from the stress it causes on the body, is a bigger factor than the information that's out there on the risks of MDMA would lead you to think, though I accept this can vary from person to person based on the fact we are all unique both mentally and physically.
Hope this helps shed some light. Feel free to ask any questions. Mods I am happy for you to move this post if you think it would be more useful to people elsewhere.
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