So... is it true about the possible long-term side effects?

I'm a bit scared of trying acid for this reason.

Things like flashbacks, "acid tragedies" and so on.

Opinions?

 

Even with real, old time acid they wereway over hyped. They are mid and brief when they occur at all.

 

Yeah the "flash back" is not what is portrayed in the media. You are never going to randomly start tripping. If you use allot you may see faint halos around things or something minor like that. But even then if you didn't use for a while it would get better. Some people get these effects more then others. I have taken psychedelics many times and don't have any issue.

 

Long term negative effects associated with with LSD are possible but rare occurrences, not something to be too concerned with if you don't have a history of mental illness in your family and feel like a stable individual, although flashbacks seem to be reported in relatively healthy individuals sometimes. In cases of Acid Casualties, there are usually other factors at work as well, so it may not necessarily be a direct cause of LSD but LSD may accelerate the process of mental deterioration in susceptible individuals.


This question topic and perhaps unfocusedanakin's signature, made me think about this passsage from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas:

In hindsight seems like a slightly knee jerk reaction, but it was written as the counterculture was unraveling and perhaps there are some words to heed.

 

Yeah to be honest I didn't like that bit... it kinda really felt like propaganda to me

It was a cool film but... it seemed weirdly pro-drugs at the beginning and then anti-drugs by the end.

I like Tim Leary

Ok he wasn't perfect but... at least he enjoyed and embraced something new!

Also, peace and love/understanding realistically has absolutely nothing to do with LSD!

 

Yes, that's the crucial point: "The student is most earnestly cautioned against believeing any of this" - keep the grape and spit the seed...

 

I guess so.

Maybe I just prefer more positive movies like Up In Smoke that's all!

But I understand that's a stylistic preference!

The first... like... maybe 45 minutes of Fear and Loathing were absolutely great and I found them very funny and entertaining ^_^

I guess I'm just not so keen on dark stuff...

 

If you can't handle reality then don't trip. Everything you think will be magnified to the tenth power. Fear, "ickiness", sadness, anger - if you aren't strong and basically happy stay away from it. Negativity is the poison that gets ya.

 

I love that part as well, I didn't saw it as pro or anti drugs at all... But I think the writer was really sharing his serious thoughts there and he worded it very well.
I also remember the first time I saw Fear and loathing after I had tripped (on shrooms), I saw it a few times before and although you don't have to be a genius to 'get' all those under the influence scenes and how they think and act, I really saw it with different eyes after I tripped myself. It somehow felt even more realistic/in touch, an even better understanding what they were doing and how they behaved in the different circumstances

 

Same thing happened to me. Until you have tripped allot of the movie makes no sense.

I agree that Tim Learry never discused the possibility of a bad trip. He advertised acid as guaranteed enlightenment and didn't really want to discuss the dark but rare side of it.

Hunter Thompson said this quote was the best thing he ever wrote and I think it sums up the whole message of Fear and Loathing well. The movie is about the death of an innocent time. He is now looking at Las Vegas, the epitome of capitalist greed. Everything about the 60's is gone and he can see it. The world has gone back to the way it was, nothing changed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUgs2O7Okqc"]Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (7/10) Movie CLIP - The High Water Mark (1998) HD - YouTube

 

I think he was spot-on and it still applies a lot today.
We see it here in these forums regularly.


Concerning long-term effects, they are very rare and usually only present when there are already pre-existing conditions, as GB pointed out.
Flashbacks should be thought of more like a post traumatic stress disorder episode. That is what they most often present as and in understsanding that, can be easier to deal with if they do manifest. But one way to preemptively avoid flashbacks is to do your due diligence in ensuring as controlled and positive set and setting possible for the experience.
Most who have issues with flashbacks had a "bad trip" or some emotionally stressing event happened when tripping, and that is often the source of future flashbacks. It is not a fast rule, but the trend.

The only other long term effect is HPPD, and you can find lot's of info on it online and even here.

 

Timothy Leary discussed the possibility of a bad trip...

~1:35

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT5sJHphTSA"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT5sJHphTSA

Quite contradictory to 'a generation of permanent cripples.'

I enjoy the Fear and Loathing film and I think 'the wave speech' which unfocusedanakin posted is an amazing mononlogue as well as most the movie. It's hard for me to feel that last speech from Gonzo in the movie as much as some of the others, as we've watched him go through the film indulging in a plethora of drugs, in not ideal settings and then go on placing blame on the tenants of the acid culture.

 

Well... in his opinion anyway!

I always take everything as opinion. No matter how big the movie is... it's still just an opinion.

haha my thoughts exactly!!

I see this same rationale used quite often actually.

 

Study was publsihed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology they have found no link between the use of LSD, psilocybin and mescaline and an increased risk of mental illness

Source: PLOS ONE: Psychedelics and Mental Health: A Population Study

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Iirpg40Eno"]LSD, Shrooms, And Peyote Are Perfectly Safe, Do Them All You Want - YouTube

 

Since I believe in and have seen-- 'the bad always drives out the good', I wouldn't trust anything sold today. I read a few years back that there is a place to have 'substances' checked for content--with no legal repercussions. It may have been Oregon State in Corvallis. Maybe. But since I'm past doing anything psychedelic these days, I can't really say if there is anything like the WINDOWPANE I took back in the day. I doubt it. Just be careful and use a guide if you decide to take a shot at it.

Ask shameless heifer about 'the bad and the good. She has seen it.

As far as flashbacks, I had one only. Me and an elevator full of tourists in Waikiki blabbing--blabbing-they turned into weird lizard looking suckers like a Ralph Steadman drawing.I actually enjoyed it.

 

Well, that's complete bullshit because I have seen schizophrenic breakdowns happen from trips more than once. I don't think everybody would buy that. They must have ignored the cases that have manifested when they were studyin'....

I read that. They say in their short study that people who did not have mh problems did not gain them and that psychedelics do not cause brain damage. That may be for the most part true, but they use the slippery term "long term mh problems" to skate around the exacerbations they can cause in susceptible people.
So indeed partly true, but more misleading than not in title and abstract.

 

Also... sorry if I sound harsh on Fear and Loathing. I guess in some ways it really agreed with me and in some ways it didn't.

Quite common I suppose - not everything can agree with everyone.

As I say though, when I did enjoy the film I REALLY enjoyed it!

"We can't stop here. This is bat country." just cracked me up xD

 

you ended the quote too soon;

a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the acid culture.
To me he is speaking more to a crippled ideal, an ideal promoted and fostered by the psychedelic lifestyle and "insights", yet unable to stand up to the rigors of everyday survival, not literal, physiologically crippled.

 

He identifies with the ideal during the movie but he doesn't live by it, he goes on to ingest substantial amounts of alcohol, cocaine, poppers, ether, etc. So the addition of that is irrelevant or if anything even further validates the point I'm making of misplacing the blame on the acid culture.

I think there are good words to heed in that passage as most people today who use drugs are poly drugs users but given the context, or how it's phrased I don't really feel it.

 

Yeah, I honestly think it's pretty silly to mix and match and abuse drugs, and then claim that drugs are bad.

Fear and Loathing blew drug taking into that realm, and it was so crazy and over-the-top I think they should have just kept it playful. I mean... what percentage of people really take that many drugs at once? I don't know if it's realistic enough to start making serious points based on it