I would prefer something which promotes neural plasticity without showy side effects.
Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity
121–130 of 154 posts
Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do they know if what they’ve taken is actually LSD-25, and not some research chemical? Research chemicals pawned off as LSD is more common than ever. They are dangerous psychotic inducing deugs.
I heard LSD is rarely synthesized now and instead people end up with research chemicals (now scheduled) like 2C-B instead. Do you know if this is true?
It's not. There are reliable LSD vendors on the dark markets.
Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity
#123Psychedelics such as LSD, Psilocybin and Mescaline has the ability to treat long term depression. They seem to allow you to step out of the box in other words get you a truly new perspective on the world. From what I can understand these drugs alter the brain area responsible for emotions the amygdala. I would go as far as to say people with long term depression needs reprogramming of their brain and one way to accom…
> For those who tried above substances did it change your brain for the better?
That's a tough question to answer, but I can share my story and maybe you can glean from it. The truth is, drugs can do incredible things for the mind, body and soul, but the person must be able to handle the intensity, and their own craving.
My upbringing was pretty rough: parents divorced when I was young and I was raised by my southern-Christian grandparents since I was five. My parents were very poor and my grandparents had already raised two kids on low income. I was fairly depressed growing up for many reasons related to my natural life. I'm first generation in my family to graduate University, let alone with a STEM degree, and my career provides a better salary than anyone in my family has ever had. It was a pleasant surprise for my family, and you'll understand after the next couple of paragraphs.
I had stated smoking pot in middle School, alcohol came next, then ecstacy, codeine, mushrooms, and Acid, all before I graduated high school. College had shown me MDMA, DMT, cocaine, various opiates, and some research chemicals my friend kept around. Recently (late twenties) I had experimented with ketamine for the first time.
In high school, when some friends and I started getting into ecstacy, it didn't take long before some of them became habitual users. At one point my friends would be taking it at school. I took this as a cautionary red flag, and reigned in my ecstasy use at the time. Sure enough, those friends became addicted to the sensations, and took life paths that would lead them to misery. This was a vital learning moment in my life.
Around that same time in high school, I had arranged with other friends to take mushrooms together at their house. I ended up taking about 7 grams, which is -plenty-, and about twice as much as the most I've ever taken. The effects were good when they were good, but really bad when they were bad. Most of the time I couldn't arrange proper sentences, regular body functions seemed like foreign operations within myself, and everything I looked at had a Kaleidoscope-esque effect on it. At one point I summersaulted into my friends wall on the way to the bathroom, where I proceeded to fail to remember how bathrooms work, and pee all over myself. This experience has since kept me distant from mushrooms.
Right into college, I had joined a political activist group and started making friends. While driving together to an overnight rally at the neighbor University, some friends in the group revealed to me that they regularly consume large amounts of psilocybin mushrooms. I didn't end up getting to know them well, but they seemed like nice and well-intended hippy-types attending college.
A month ago, I went to an epic-level music festival where the only thing more prolific than music and water were drugs. While walking to find a restroom at sunrise, I came across a guy hanging in his campsite mumbling to himself. We started some conversion and he came back to our camp to hang. Later he revealed to us that he was coming down off a twenty strip (20 hits of LSD). That guy made for some interesting conversation.
For me, more than any other type of drug I've tried, psychedelics do best at opening my mind. Other drugs have their purposes, but from these drugs, the effects are truly interesting. I feel like I'm able break down mental structures that exist in my mind, and recreate them in different ways, either for a real goal (relief from depression), or just for fun (hallucination, creative outlet). Once I found my footing with psychedelics, my experience became centered around allowing weird and non-conventional thoughts to take over my mind, until I I'm rethinking how everything workes and why things operate in today's life the way they do, and how with some wild creatively, we could have an entirely different reality that's more beneficial to us all. That, and dancing.
Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
What advices would you give yourself, if you tried it again in the present time ? First time product, dosage, aquisition method and protocol ? Anything to read or other things to know ?
The first time I tried it was with a musician buddy. We met in jazz band. He was a transfer spring senior year, and we hit it off, and instead of playing with the band, we jammed out in the band closet and talked life and music theory. While he was no guru, he had some experience, and he was one of the few and first people that had access to real LSD-25 (he was from a hippy town in CO). At the time, I was extremely i…
Thanks
Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if that person would not have taken LSD and would have had a psychotic episode 5 years later due to the underlying issue, that's still 5 years of good health lost because of LSD.
Or it’s 5 years less of post-treatment life. We can make random guesses all day about what’s a good outcome but how about we leave it to medical researchers to actually figure out what’s safe and beneficial?
It seems pretty delusional to just say these people would have spontaneously lost their minds even if they didn't do extremely powerful mind altering drugs.
Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity
#126Counterpoint for shrooms 1. I took magic mushrooms (well truffles, Amsterdam, sold in smartshops, i.e. legal) and I felt a bit uncomfortable in my body and I felt like a kid. 2. I took magic truffles again (again Amsterdam) and I felt a lot uncomfortable in my body and was contemplating suicide. Fortunately I had on gray brain cell left that said "you can kill yourself, but only if you agree on it when you're sober a…
I can echo this sentiment, as a normally soft-spoken guy who was arrested while completely out of his mind on psilocybin. My perception of reality was utterly shattered; I thought I had died and that my mind was transported into a realm of eternal torture. I'll never forget the dread I experienced while being forced to the asphalt and handcuffed by police officers on the side of the road. They took me to a hospital w…
Sounds like it was a fake LSD, more like dxm or something
Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do they know if what they’ve taken is actually LSD-25, and not some research chemical? Research chemicals pawned off as LSD is more common than ever. They are dangerous psychotic inducing deugs.
I heard LSD is rarely synthesized now and instead people end up with research chemicals (now scheduled) like 2C-B instead. Do you know if this is true?
True. In fact chances you're buying LSD nowadays is almost zero. And I suspect this is the reason of many bad experiences described in this topic
Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any tips for approaching such experimentation in a relatively controlled manner? (I've always been keen to try, but have avoided so far due to an unpleasant childhood experience when administered an opiate painkiller, which resulted in nightmares with conscious flashbacks for months.)
This resource: Maps.org https://www.maps.org/resources/responding_to_difficult_psych... It’s all about mindset and setting. We could discuss what that entails, but that’s a long conversation. Good attitude, good vibes, safe setting, comfortable and familiar. In your home. In familiar nature. I’d avoid public places and people. And it’s preferable for the first number of trips to have a safe and understanding “sitter”…
> What you don’t do is resist thoughts or feelings or experiences. That only causes more problems.
IMO MAPS are irresponsible promoters of psychedelics.
If you are on a high-dose trip, you lose much control of your thoughts. I have read that some medical experts administer high doses in the hope to avoid bad trips often encountered with low doses.
What if your unwanted thoughts and tendencies must be resisted to prevent further misery ?
Examples:
- Try to stay calm and refuse to succumb to overwhelming terror and panic as reported on this web page.
- Try to stay calm and refuse suicide as reported on this web page.
- Try to stay calm and refuse thoughts about murder as reported here: http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/29599/1/a...
Do not use psychedelics to solve problems on your own. https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Set_and_setting
Let medical experts (therapists) use psychedelics as medicine as they see fit.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-ps...
https://www.livescience.com/16287-mushrooms-alter-personalit...
Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
You literally lose brain activity and effectively intelligence/IQ when you get PTSD. You can slowly train your brains with mindfulness, getting in the diffused mode of thinking. The trick is to focus on small victories. Learn different meditation techniques and try them out. You'll get your favourite ones eventually. FWIW, I can highly recommend going to a mindfulness course. Guided with audio, a decent book, and a (…
In my case it seems it was more due to cardiovascular problems than to PTSD or 'brain self-harm' if I may say so. But anyway, I do try to have deep slowing moment[1], aiming at stable relaxation. But I'm never sure what to expect from meditation. Give me your favorite books. [1] a side effect of fubared cardiovascular system is that I had to monitor my breathing and heart a lot so I would naturally have sessions of c…
Mind Illuminated by Culadasa has been recommended here before. It gives a path to advance and helped people with years of experience in meditation to become unstuck.
Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity
#130I am overall pro psychedelics but I have seen them harm people first hand as well. They should be treated with a lot of caution and respect. I totally understand the urge to evangelise them but keep in mind that you're taking on a lot of responsibility when you encourage people to experiment with their brain chemistry.
I hear ya. I’ve yet to see it negatively effect anyone other than a bad trip, which, seen in the right light, can be a therapeutic experience. But I know they need to be respected and understood. I also realize that some people with a family history of mental disorders like schizophrenia, would be better off staying away. Like, some people have used psychedelics, and they go crazy. But how many of those people were c…
Real LSD is not that rare. You know, people can and many do have their stuff tested. There was a bit of a dry season in the early 2000s but not anymore. This is variation of the stupid old "clean" vs "dirty" acid myth.
Anyway, you're probably right in the sense that there are only a handful of original sources for it. But once you get the production going, you quickly end up with a crapload of doses.