# Ask the \[former\] acidhead\* **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 15, 2009, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943 "2009-02-15T12:27:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/41 "2009-02-20T00:16:05Z")
Late to the thread, but if you’re still reading, and if it’s not too nosy: Did the drug use have an effect on your personal relationships with other people? Were you able to maintain intimate relationships? Was there any trauma in your personal history that you believe contributed to your entry into the psychonaut life? Did you stop on your own, or via some sort of recovery program? If any of this is too personal, please say so, and I’ll back off. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/42 "2009-02-20T02:05:33Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Late to the thread, but if you’re still reading, and if it’s not too nosy: > > Did the drug use have an effect on your personal relationships with other people? Were you able to maintain intimate relationships? > > Was there any trauma in your personal history that you believe contributed to your entry into the psychonaut life? > > Did you stop on your own, or via some sort of recovery program? > > If any of this is too personal, please say so, and I’ll back off. 1. No, and yes. 2, No. 2. On my own . ---
**Author:** ![XaMcQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/f9ae1b/32.png) [@XaMcQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XaMcQ)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/43 "2009-02-20T04:11:13Z")
> [@Black\_Sunshine](#): > > I have a question, but it might be too vague to get a good answer. > > What sorts of things, if any, can you really do to avoid a “bad trip?” How much control over this do you have? Do you have more control with lighter drugs? > > I’d really like to try some form of hallucinogen at some point in the near future. I’m what most people would describe as a “sunny” person. I don’t have any issues with depression or paranoia, etc., nor have I had any really traumatic events (so far) in my life. What I _do_ have is a very active imagination, and the tendency to spook myself out if I get to thinking too much about freaky stuff. I guess I’m just concerned that instead of happy talking flowers, I’d get the floating head of death and spend the whole time pissing myself. > > Any advice, or is it something you can’t really know will happen until it’s happened? A few tips from my not-too misspent youth. 1. Make sure you’re going to be in a place you feel safe, with people you trust. Don’t take it alone the first time. Try to take it with someone who is experienced and not likely to play head games, freak out or abandon you. 2. Bring toys, good music, and nifty things to look at. Lava lamps, xmas lights, snow globes, etc. If you are artistically inclined, take art materials like sketch pads, crayons, yarn, beads, paints, etc. If you play an instrument, even a little, play with that. 3. Avoid mirrors, at least the first time. 4. Turn off your phone, try to arrange not to be disturbed. Having to deal with people who don’t know your mental state can be scary, and lead to a paranoid meltdown. 5. Avoid dangerous situations where misperceptions or inattention could get you hurt. Don’t light candles, try to cook, or drive. Also watch out for showers and baths, since you might find temperature hard to judge. 🙂 Enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![Karyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/fbc32d/32.png) [@Karyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karyn)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/44 "2009-02-20T13:40:33Z")
One more thing about bad trips - don’t do it if you have a lot of problems on your mind, are in some sort of emotional turmoil about something or just generally are in a space of being down on yourself. If you’re really scared you should probably skip it. It lasts a long time and there’s no way to come down from it if you change your mind. Go for the beautiful place, good friends, music you love and limit contact with uncontrollable situations like crowds. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/45 "2009-02-20T15:51:11Z")
> [@DLuxN8R-13](#): > > 1. No, and yes. > 2, No. > 2. On my own . That’s good to hear. A lot of what one reads about drug use makes it seem that the answers must inevitably be otherwise, and it’s informative to have a different perspective. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/46 "2009-02-21T15:47:01Z")
> [@XaMcQ](#): > > A few tips from my not-too misspent youth. > > 1. Make sure you’re going to be in a place you feel safe, with people you trust. Don’t take it alone the first time. Try to take it with someone who is experienced and not likely to play head games, freak out or abandon you. > > 2. Bring toys, good music, and nifty things to look at. Lava lamps, xmas lights, snow globes, etc. If you are artistically inclined, take art materials like sketch pads, crayons, yarn, beads, paints, etc. If you play an instrument, even a little, play with that. > > 3. Avoid mirrors, at least the first time. > > 4. Turn off your phone, try to arrange not to be disturbed. Having to deal with people who don’t know your mental state can be scary, and lead to a paranoid meltdown. > > 5. Avoid dangerous situations where misperceptions or inattention could get you hurt. Don’t light candles, try to cook, or drive. Also watch out for showers and baths, since you might find temperature hard to judge. > > 🙂 Enjoy! What she said, both in this post and the following. “Set and setting”, like the ol’ Mad Professor used to say. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/47 "2009-02-21T15:59:35Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > Do you know any “burnouts”? I knew a guy in college who was really bright - our freshman year he was in all honors classes - but was also a full-time druggie. I bumped into him our senior year and he was a shell of his former self. That was a very sad sight, even though the guy was often a huge jerk. I’ve known a few people who could be described thus; the problem is, “burnout” is a word that can mean something different to different folks. For instance, I’ve heard the tem thrown dismissively at the sort of person who is just really into smoking reefer and so becomes kinda lazyand a little simple. The ones who seem to have gotten permanently weirded out via psyche usage – whether through too much over an extended period of time, or maybe getting more of a load than they could handle – are actually fairly rare in my experience. That’s not to say I haven’t noticed a certain syndrome that seems identifiable amongst some of (for instance) those individuals who started dosing during the Haight Ashbury/East Village/ era and never let up: they get kind of, it’s hard to describe exactly, but _vague_ and _crumbly around the edges_, if you follow what I’m getting at, is about the best way I can describe it, and they seem to be more, well, suggestible than the run of people. TV cop shows and overdramatized ex-user testimony to the contrary, though, I don’t think that people actually go nuts from using unless they were already headed in that direction – witness the unfortunates who got hold of way too big a hit, like several thousand mikes, through mistake or overestimated abilityt to handle it. All the folks I knew who had that experience managed to come in for a landing eventually. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/48 "2009-02-21T16:11:47Z")
> [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > Without _endorsing_ the use of any illegal drugs, what have you observed about the influence of greater emotional context (i.e. what’s going on in the person’s life) for acute LSD and psilocybin use from a psychonautic perspective? I don’t understand what you mean, sorry. > [@](#): > > Also, could you comment on the CEV/OEV distinction re your personal experience? Okay. Psilocybin and mescaline = lots of CEV, as does high dosage cannabis intake. LSD - well probably, but from most of what I remember, I tended to keep my eyes pretty wide open when I was frying. Anything that has a strong visual component to the trip is gonna be visual whether your eyes are open or closed at the moment. > [@](#): > > Would you say that was pretty common in your circle? We in the DXM community call that “losing the magic”, and it definitely happened to me re DXM and nitrous a couple of years back, leading to me stopping all usage completely. I’ve lost touch with a lot of my tripping friends, but of the ones I still know of, yeah, the ones who stopped did so pretty much on their own for whatever reason and a sizable handful are still enthusiastic voyagers. I had stopped tripping by the time there started being any sort of DXM scene and have never touched the stuff, so I can’t say anything on the topic that would be informed or informative. > [@](#): > > I’ve heard that the key difference between datura (same plant as jimson weed, isn’t it, just a more technical name?)/nightshade/belladonna/etc. and other psychedelics like LSD/psilocybin is that the former category leave you with no ability to distinguish reality from the effects of the drug. Just to clarify what you said here, would you say that was true for you? For sure; that’s an elegant way of putting it. It’s all really happening while you’re under the influence, even the toilet bowls full of lava, the guy from high school who comes into the room to talk to you, turns into a rubber cow and then takes your cigarettes, and the plane you’ve got to land while all the dials are growing bug legs and crawling out the window. It’s the one psychoactive substance I know of which I would absolutely tell everyone in the world to leave the fuck alone. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/49 "2009-02-21T17:12:29Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > From what I’ve heard, it sounds like salvia is somewhat similar, but much shorter-lasting…? Salvia isn’t much like DMT in my experience The first time I tried it was with the natural untreated leaf – got some interesting effects but very minor, hardly worth sucking in all that vile tasting smoke. More recently,after reading online about all the excitement that it has generated in the last few years , I bought a packet of the 20X preparation at my local headshop and tried it out – twice. I’ve absolutely no desire to repeat **that** , let me tell you! For me it was a pretty negative trip, all confusion and Lovecraftian alarums and “what the fuck did I do **that** for?” I still have the rest of it kicking around in my stash box (I have a pretty big stash box, imagine _that_!:p), and coming from a career stoner like myself, that ought to just about say it all WRT salvia, don’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/50 "2009-02-21T22:31:59Z")
I have 2 questions for you… First, many people report in their first experiences that their perceptions are altered, that “everything changes”, they see so many new things, etc… was there ever a point when it was just the same ol’-same ol’ voyage to the prismatic neon factal cosmic fires of infinitate creation, no big whoop? Second, technical question. How does LSD compare to mushrooms? Always been very curious about LSD but never had an (easy) opportunity to try it. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/51 "2009-02-22T00:54:16Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > I have 2 questions for you… > > First, many people report in their first experiences that their perceptions are altered, that “everything changes”, they see so many new things, etc… was there ever a point when it was just the same ol’-same ol’ voyage to the prismatic neon factal cosmic fires of infinitate creation, no big whoop? Nope, can’t say that there was. > [@](#): > > Second, technical question. How does LSD compare to mushrooms? Always been very curious about LSD but never had an (easy) opportunity to try it. Well, it’s a lot stronger for one thing…we’re talking about something that’s measured out by **millionths** of a gram as opposed to something that you eat a half gram or so of just to achieve a recreational or “art museum” dose. In my experience,if you take a whopping big quantity of fungus (and I speak as one who has put away something like a half-z of dried Liberty Caps ( **p. semilanctea** , which isn’t usually something you can casually go get from your connection unless said connect lives in western Washington State, goes out wildcrafting a lot, and knows his fungi \*really \*well ) what you’ll get is a pretty noticeable body load --gastric action and some muscle cramps mainly – and a head trip involving just sitting there watching the gearworks of candy-colored god machines whiz about in some nova-warp zone for three or four hours. A big ol’ toothy dose of the “chymical sacrament”, on the other hand, will probably be more frenetic, inner-and outer-directed at the same time, and involve all sorts of cosmic mind games and slippery mysticisms and uneasy Zen quizzes. With colors and tracers and stuff melting and people starting to look more and more like various races of Fae folk or totem animals too, of course. And it can definitely possess some more or less stimulant-like side effects – you might want to be up and around doing stuff (or at least _trying_ to do stuff :p) on acid, for example, while mushrooms are more of a sit-around-and-groove-on-the-infinite high. * * * (( Let me stress once again that whatever comments I make in this thread of the above nature are strictly from my own subjective experiences – hallucinogenics can have _wildly_ differing results for the folks who take 'em.))\*\*\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/52 "2009-02-22T18:33:12Z")
> [@Karyn](#): > > Same here. Similar experience here, except to the extent that I occasionally now if I un-focus my eyes while looking at a complicated pattern, I’ll have a brief sense of the walls-breathing effect. Nothing more than a momentary “flash”, but I’ve always guessed that sensation was the source of the rumors. I also knew one guy who took acid on 12/31/89 and never came down (which is always the fear you have, I guess). I remeber the date because my first thought was he went out with the 80s. I only found out about it because after his friends got tired of handling him on Day 3, they brought him to me, ranting and raving about oranges and walking into traffic, etc, (him, not me) and I had to call his parents to get him medical attention. Years later he wore homemade dresses made out of sheets and sported a Manson-style shaved head. So even if the stories are 99.99% wrong, I can assure you there is grain of truth. And I too have few regrets. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/53 "2009-02-22T19:33:15Z")
> [@Flipshod](#): > > I only found out about it because after his friends got tired of handling him on Day 3, they brought him to me, ranting and raving about oranges and walking into traffic, etc, (him, not me) and I had to call his parents to get him medical attention. Why do these stories always involve [orange obsession?](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/orange.asp) I estimate that I’ve taken high doses of LSD over a thousand times, and don’t ever recall becoming fixated on citrus fruits for even a moment, but everyone seems to know that one guy who ended up thinking he was a Valencia for the rest of his life. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Karyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/fbc32d/32.png) [@Karyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karyn)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/54 "2009-02-22T20:23:15Z")
**Flipshod** , I’ve known a few people with pre-existing mental health conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder whose first serious episodes were triggered by a drug experience and they were never quite the same afterward. It was sad. Not that you can stop people from doing what they want, but everyone I knew tried to be responsible about who they gave it to. Like any drug, it’s definitely not for everyone. There were two times that I didn’t come down for a few days but I didn’t shave my head or dress in sheets afterward. I did dress pretty funny though. I never thought I was an orange either but I did drink a lot of OJ when I was tripping. Rumor had it that acid depleted the vitamin C in your system but I have no idea if it was true. It just tasted good. ---
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/55 "2009-02-23T17:17:27Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > Why do these stories always involve [orange obsession?](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/orange.asp) > > I estimate that I’ve taken high doses of LSD over a thousand times, and don’t ever recall becoming fixated on citrus fruits for even a moment, but everyone seems to know that one guy who ended up thinking he was a Valencia for the rest of his life. :dubious: This guy didn’t think he was orange juice. He was carrying an orange around and saying he could see God in the orange. That wasn’t the problem as much as the walking into traffic problem. ETA: Yeah this guy was probably already mentally ill and/or heading in that direction. I had only hung out with him a couple of times, and he seemed fairly “normal” before. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/56 "2009-02-23T17:41:04Z")
I did a fair bit of tripping in my time.\* No regrets here either. I’ve definitely seen (though thankfully not personally experienced) some nasty bad trips - usually caused by the following: 1. Having something really gnawing at one’s concience; and 2. Being abandoned by one’s so-called “friends” because you are getting annoying/bringing them down. If there was any single, universally applicable rule of having a good trip, it is this: _insofar as is possible, always, always do it with people and in situations you trust_. For me at least, tripping was serious business, more akin to a rite of passage than recreation - which is why I think that doing it a little bit and then not doing it again isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sort of like a mental Bar Mitzvah, once is good but why do it every year? 😉 You get what you get out of it. The “visuals” are really just side-effects, far as I was concerned - much more significant was the ways of thinking it introduced. Very much Plato’s Cave stuff - way I thought of it, we live our whole lives thinking of things in a certain way; take hallucinogens, for ten hours you will see things from a different angle - what use you make of it is then up to you. I second that it isn’t by any means for everyone. Edit: \* more than 20 years ago now, for me. ---
**Author:** ![Karyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/fbc32d/32.png) [@Karyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karyn)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/57 "2009-02-23T17:54:53Z")
> [@Flipshod](#): > > : Yeah this guy was probably already mentally ill and/or heading in that direction. I had only hung out with him a couple of times, and he seemed fairly “normal” before. I know a lot of people who tripped constantly for days and sometimes weeks at a time and for lack of a better term their brains turned to mush and all they could do was go on and on about cosmic babble bullshit that made no sense at all. It was probably more annoying to me as an atheist than it was to people with new age belief systems because it’s pretty much all nonsense to me anyway. The kind of thinking that it induced was the best part for me, but it never made me less of a skeptic. I wouldn’t discount that some people lose it from one trip, I’ve just never seen it outside of a mental health situation. ---
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/58 "2009-02-23T18:25:39Z")
Yeah for me, the hallucinations were a fun part of it, but the striking thing was the change in thought processes. An entirely different way of looking at the world. And it even seemed that whenever I’d trip, I’d immediately pick up where I last left off. But after awhile it gets old, and, though no regrets, haven’t had such inclinations for 20 odd years now. Oh and I was also they guy who had little patience for the new age culture, deadhead, rainbow gathering thing. Indeed even though I’m a musician, and have had great times combining drugs and music, with the heavy psychedelics, music seemed like a random series of pulses–just not interested. There were more important things to think about. ---
**Author:** ![Karyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/fbc32d/32.png) [@Karyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karyn)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/59 "2009-02-23T18:39:06Z")
> [@Flipshod](#): > > But after awhile it gets old, and, though no regrets, haven’t had such inclinations for 20 odd years now. > > Oh and I was also they guy who had little patience for the new age culture, deadhead, rainbow gathering thing. Indeed even though I’m a musician, and have had great times combining drugs and music, with the heavy psychedelics, music seemed like a random series of pulses–just not interested. There were more important things to think about. Yeah, over the years it became less interesting and too time-consuming. I went to 2 gatherings and had fun but the “welcome home” smarm level was too much for me and the new age stuff left me vaguely smiling, nodding and wandering away shaking my head a whole lot of the time. I would far rather have been hanging out with just my friends. I also hated being unexpectedly hugged by strangers, especially none-too-clean ones. I was always the one at dead shows sitting in a corner with friends during the break, giggling at the ohm (sp?) circles and watching dedicated little chanters peeking out from under their eyelids to see what everyone else was doing. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943/60 "2009-02-23T20:11:38Z")
> [@Flipshod](#): > > Oh and I was also they guy who had little patience for the new age culture, deadhead, rainbow gathering thing. Indeed even though I’m a musician, and have had great times combining drugs and music, with the heavy psychedelics, music seemed like a random series of pulses–just not interested. There were more important things to think about. My tolerance for “new age culture” was, if anything, less when on hallucinogens then when not. 😃 To my mind, hallucinogens were not an answer, they were just another way to ask questions. Pre-packaged “answers” seemed to me to be the wrong way to go. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-former-acidhead/485943.md?page=2)