LSD use in the long term

so after dosing up for the last few years lsd doesn't really do that much for me anymore. really most hallucinogens don't. like, when i first started dosing i used to get profound realisations and be in awe of life. but now when i dose it just gives me a nice high. the magic of the psychedelic experience doesn't really account for anything that i can't account for while i'm sober. kinda disapointing, because i really love lsd. but i can't help but feel like when i dose nowadays that it's not going to give me the kind of mind expansion that i experienced initially.

this last time that i tripped on mushrooms me and my friend couldn't really help but get a feeling of 'yea, been there done that' underlying the trip.

maybe i need to dose less often and start eating ten strips?

is long-term lsd use really that healthy? how much can this chemical really teach us after the initial realisations that it gives us? when does lsd use stop being beneficial to realisation and exploration and cross over the line into abuse?

how should lsd be used in the long run?

 

I felt that way in 2008 after having a heavy 9 month festival season. Half the trips were pretty lethargic, uneventful, eye-candy type trips. Although there was the occasional gem. After that the hppd symptoms got too heavy and I was just starting a in a new school so I took a long break. Ive only tripped like 3 times in the last 2.5 years. But all the trips in the last 2.5 years have been pure life altering gold. Its been 9 months since my last trip, I'm going to give it another month before I drop again(I cant believe I've been sitting on a 10strip for almost a year).
Time heals.

 

This tends to happen with psychedelics, the initial novelty wears off and the trips don't feel as meaningful maybe as they once were. I don't know how frequently you dose but dosing less frequently is an obvious answer and higher doses. With LSD there is always variation in purity so that's a possible explanation but it doesn't really sound that way to me from what you're saying.

You can try combining it with other psychedelics or taking it new settings or utilizing it in various new ways.

Well I don't think it's 'healthy' but from the long time users on here it seems like it's not terribly bad for you either. I have heard some people get slightly off from too much acid but you seem to have surpassed that stage already.

Those last two questions depend on many factors and variables that vary between individuals. I've heard many say that they find LSD more beneficial in their 30's and 40's than they did in their teens/20's so it's not something that necessarily loses it's benefits when used responsibly.

 

When you get to the other side of the river leave the boat behind don't carry it with you.

It seems like you are ready for bigger and better things and LSD has enhanced your life to where you don't need it for the time being. Maybe you can space out your doses by several months or years? Save a stash and it will be there for you like an old friend you can revisit cherished memories with.

As for long-term LSD use... Some folks seemed to get by just fine in the long run, but there are acid casualties out there that for whatever reason didn't make the cut. Every body's different and not everyone can go 15-20 years eating acid without some type of cognitive or psychological impairment. Some people, amazingly, can get away with this.

 

LSD never really did much for me after the first few trips. Only a few profound jawns during my 11 years of on and off use.
Mushrooms however... lol. Every time I go back it keeps getting weirder.

 

Time is the solution here. Lay off for a year or two, gain life experiences, then the next trip will have all new content to work with.
You can never "be done with" or "get all I can from it" when it comes to psychedelics.
Since YOU are the source of trip content, as you grow and change, so will the content and lessons psychedelics can impart to you.

 

Could you perhaps take a break, or try some other psychedelics, or combinations?

As for abuse... As tolerance is built up so quickly, generally you can't dose within 2 weeks of eachother, and as for harmful, yeah it can screw you up mentally a bit, but physically it's completely nonetoxic.

 

ever tried DMT?

first post ftw

 

That was a solid first post, worth quoting!

 

hahaha wast that a fuck the world at the end there?

 

Maybe your profound realizations were nothing more than very intensified emotions caused by LSD. I mean what could you have possibly realized if whatever it was is already nonexistent in every day life? If this expansion can only be temporarily experienced through a chemical then what good is it in your case as far as spiritual endeavors go? If you simply want to enjoy LSD I can't really see any harm in that, you do not have to have an agenda to take any chemical. Perhaps the "realizations" you're chasing would come back with a good long break.

 

Yeah those profound moments on LSD are really sneakyy as fuck. Like someone on here once said, I feel like I know the most secret thing in the world, like the answer to the universe or some shit, but then afterwards, you are like what was so amazing exactly?? Well FUCK I knew what it was when it was happening!! Yes LSD is very very sneaky my friend.

 

I don't find many aspects of LSD very secretive at all. Perhaps some of the deeper abstract mental musings but alot of the obvious effects such as synesthesia, music appreciation, regressive thoughts, the color enhancement, in the now feeling are right in front of your eyes if you pay attention to it.

Your priorities may be changing desos and perhaps LSD is not as compatible with your priorities and goals at this juncture in your life as it was before.

 

I hate to say it, but LSD makes everything more meaningful even, especially music, nature, etc. Its all what I'm talking about, its like you found a way to exist that is superior to others that don't know about it. Hard to explain.

 

yea i havn't dosed up in about four months so maybe next time will be better. i ended up dosing alot towards the end of last year, so that probably played a part.

i just kinda feel like without integrating everything i have learned from lsd i shouldn't really dose again, but that i have reached a point where i can never integrate it all.

it also made me wonder. seems like lsd is great to help people realise some things initially, but after the lightbulb goes on in your mind you don't need to turn it on again.

 

Very typical and common with drugs, especially psychedelics. It's known as "state specific knowledge". That means that there are ideas or concepts that are really only accessible while under the influence of a substance and often it is possible to return to that "knowledge" with a subsequent experience with the same substance.

This isn't some quasi-mystical, esoteric mumbo-jumbo, it is a well documented phenomena that occurs with all different types of substances, from alcohol to weed to LSD.:afro:

 

It's actually caused by the very simple process of raising dopamine levels in the brain; the same process that makes someone with schizophrenia yell at the grass. They have higher dopamine levels, and to them, the grass holds much more "personally relevant meaning", so you see them talking to it and being emotionally involved with it. Same thing happens on LSD, it raises dopamine levels.

 

desos, i experienced something quite similar with psychedelics in general when i was dosing like twice per month. now that i make sure to keep AT LEAST a month between trips, i find that some of the "novelty" has returned.

but it's never gonna be like your first trips. they were the most profound because you had never experienced it before. so yeah, the initial lightbulb has gone off, and you don't need to keep turning it on, but i think that as you grow and mature you will be able to take away different, maybe "smaller" lessons from tripping. i would suggest taking 6 months or a year off from tripping, and then take a decent sized dose.

 

"delusions of grandeur"? It means you're fucking nuts

About a state of specific knowledge, whatever it may be CALLED, it's more a state of specific emotions. You KNOW the same things, they just mean something different to you, because LSD unlocks emotions that most (sane) people can't feel, or can't feel in anywhere near the same excess as while under the influence of LSD.

 

Because of my experience, porkstock, I must disagree with this sentiment entirely. In fact, I've found the exact reverse to be the case. 12 years ago when I started experimenting with psychedelics, I was 14 years old, and the vast majority of what occured in my consciousness between the ages of 14 and 22 (in which the bulk of my trips occured) I found to be either terribly confusing or, upon reflection, to have not been fully appreciated due to an inability to relate what I was experiencing to anything.
It wasn't until I was 22 years old and after my first child was born that psychedelic experiences became radically profound mind altering 'spiritual' (for lack of any other word) awakenings. Having grown up a bit, become a parent, having had much more experience in confronting the uncomfortable and the unknown while trying to find my place in the world, along with efforts in striving for both erudition and meditative wisdom in repose, seemed to intensify my ability to cling brier-like and to examine these cognitive anomalies.
Beyond the memories in deeper meaning I've since retained, I've also seem to have become hyper sensitive to the physical effects of these substances, including vasoconstriction, acute visual magnification, severe Paraesthesia, synaesthetic disorientation, and so on. Not to say that this has totally dissuaded my desire to continue taking any psychedelics, but it has forced a sense of gratitude and humble respect upon my regarding them.
For example, during my first mushroom trip at 14 (and indeed my first trip on any drug) I had an experience within the first few minutes, before the visals began, where I suddenly felt as if I "knew" every single person and animal I came across intimately, everyone was not just familiar, but known by me on a such an amazing level that I couldn't make any sense out of it. It was more then just a feeling of "Oh wow, it feels like this stranger is my sister" or that I had known them since childhood; I felt like I had known everyone since the beginning of time, in fact, even before that! I laughed it off after it passed and marvelled at what had happened the next day. Considering that back then I had no internet access, this forum (if it was even created at that time) had no member sign up lol, I knew absolutely nothing about these drugs and thought that eating mushrooms might be a bit like smoking pot with some cartoon like hallucinations.
Come to find out 8 years later that what had happened to my little kid mind was that I had my first brahmanic experience in atma jnana; literally self-knowledge. The knowledge of oneness, which considered sober, at first seems liberating, and later is almost shameful!
Anyway I'm of the opinion here that pychedelics are very unpredictable and any period of stagnant mediocrity is simply a phase to be surpassed after personal growth.