171–180 of 208 posts
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How could one possibly harm their reputation by using a legal medication
It’s legal to insult someone, that doesn’t mean your reputation remains untarnished. Reputation has little to do with legality.
Psilocybin, for me, was like taking the red pill. It was the first time something had ever pushed me up out of my deep depression. Like suddenly breaking through to the surface of my emotions. It led to ketamine therapy (nasal spray) which saved my life, and gave me a whole new lease on it.
I see quite a number of comments making some very wildly inaccurate statements about the pharmacological safety of MDMA. There have been a number of studies conducted about the health impact of MDMA. In monkeys, it has been shown to leave behind long-term brain damage, serotonin receptor damage for at least 7 years, etc. Personally, back at University I had some acquaintances who got quite addicted to them and appear…
How the hell do you even dare to lob MDMA in the same category as Oxycontin? I have seen pretty much every substance abused daily (amphetamines, different types of legal medication, alcohol, marihuana, heroin) by people I knew, but I have never met anybody that took MDMA on a daily basis or had a strong dependency on it. Medics pretty much agree everywhere that MDMA is less addictive than alcohol which is in turn muc…
> Long-term exposure to MDMA in humans has been shown to produce marked neurodegeneration in striatal, hippocampal, prefrontal, and occipital serotonergic axon terminals.[64][67] Neurotoxic damage to serotonergic axon terminals has been shown to persist for more than two years
> Impairments in multiple aspects of cognition, including attention, learning, memory, visual processing, and sleep have been found in regular MDMA users
> Serotonin depletion following MDMA use can cause depression in subsequent days. In some cases, depressive symptoms persist for longer periods.[7] Some studies indicate repeated recreational use of ecstasy is associated with depression and anxiety, even after quitting the drug.
There is more but anybody can just visit the link. LSD seems like a much safer option.
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Not arguing that caution shouldn’t be applied but I think it’s a bit more subtle than that. MDMA is prone to abuse in the recreational use sense, but it’s not really habit forming in the same way other drugs are. Sure, you can always find edge cases but compared to many other drugs (including alcohol) you’re unlikely to meet many daily users.
You moved the goalposts by switching from “abuse” to “daily habit forming”. Abuse doesn’t require daily or even regular use.
"The use of illegal drugs or the use of prescription or over-the-counter drugs for purposes other than those for which they are meant to be used, or in excessive amounts."
"Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is a patterned use of a drug in which the user consumes the substance in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others, and is a form of substance related disorder. "
The first definition will vary based on your local laws, which as we have seen, are also subject to change. So if that's the meaning of the term 'drug abuse' it's not particularly useful to discuss since it's a technicality.
The common factor between the two definitions (excessive, harmful consumption) might be more useful to discuss. Which was why I chose to talk about that (rate of consumption, risk of addiction) specifically.
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5 grams? Most people would absolutely lose their shit on that. Even an eighth of good mushrooms is enough to obliterate most people. Like complete ego death. How long do these sessions last? What are the logistics? I’m very curious.
5 grams is the idiotic recommendation from Terence McKenna that people blindly follow because he was a good writer and had an almost psychedelic stand up routine with public speaking. He was basically a type of cult leader. It is absolutely terrible advice. The advice should be "less is more" not this McKenna "heroic dose" bullshit like some kind of dosage sport.
The research backed advice is that set and setting are what really influences the experience.
The dose varies by person, tolerance, genetics of the fungi, and how deep one wants to go in the experience.
Taking 5 grams is not something to do in a whim, for pride or ego, or to keep up with anyone else. Better to ease into a bigger dose over time and not rush the experience.
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Benzos are actually quite safe if you don't take them with anything else, and they're not very addictive. I've been taking them off and on for 15 years for panic disorder and never became dependent.
Benzos not being addictive is the most false thing I've ever read. You can get addicted in 3 days and then die from withdrawals but ok.
What a puzzling set of priorities for a nation to just casually accept.
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Hasn’t been my personal, or my friends experience. Got some source ?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071023/ > Although initially it proved difficult to find any cognitive sequelae that correlated with these changes,11 recent animal studies have shown subtle, but lasting, deficits in cognitive behaviorsthat do correlate with the levels of damage to 5-HT systems in the hippocampus. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2015.0044... > In this study, we found a…
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071023/ > Although initially it proved difficult to find any cognitive sequelae that correlated with these changes,11 recent animal studies have shown subtle, but lasting, deficits in cognitive behaviorsthat do correlate with the levels of damage to 5-HT systems in the hippocampus. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2015.0044... > In this study, we found a…
Do you know any ways to reverse the damage or desensitization?
Living the healthiest lifestyle possible would definitely have a great impact, but that has an impact on anyone who doesn't already live it: Food, nutrition, working out, cardio, meditation, sleep, avoiding negative emotions.