# Can a person get high on almonds **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 23, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-get-high-on-almonds/270710 "2004-10-23T01:08:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-get-high-on-almonds/270710/1 "2004-10-23T01:08:05Z")
I have had a very weird day today. When I woke up I felt like something was really wrong and I didn’t know what. While I was in school I kept feeling like I should go home, I even called home to make sure everything was ok. I felt like something was really wrong all day and I didn’t know what. Around 4pm I ate the first thing I’ve eaten today, about 3oz of almonds. Around 430 I started to get nauseated, which I attributed to motion sickness as I was in a car. Then things got really weird. I started feeling like I was guaranteed to die, I got cold chills, I had a minor out of body experience and I felt like I was almost able to communicate with the dead. I also felt a mixture of pure peace and euphoria along with my terror over my feeling of impending death. This started around 430 and ended at about 630. Oddly I think the feeling like ‘something is wrong’ I have had all day is gone now that I have recovered from this experience. I assume the 2 were tied in together. what is really odd is that I have taken a drug called DXM (dextromethorphan) a couple of times before and the experience was almost identical. Also a feeling that ‘something is wrong’ (sometimes called ‘feelings of impending doom’) are common on DXM. Here is a list of symptoms on both the drug and what I felt today that are similiar borderline out of body experiences severe nausea cold chills it only lasts a few hours feeling pure peace and euphoria A total lack of inhibitions Inability to communicate or interact competently Feeling like I ‘truly’ understand myself What the hell happened to me? I hope I didn’t brain my damage. I have looked up almonds and they say they have alot of tryptophan. I don’t know if that is related but DXM supposedly works by flooding the brain with serotonin and since tryptophan is a percursor of serotonin ‘maybe’ the almonds pushed me into serotonin overload. As a guess. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-get-high-on-almonds/270710/2 "2004-10-23T01:53:50Z")
Sounds like a possible food alergy. I strongly encourage you to see a doctor before you eat almonds again. Food alergies can be deadly. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-get-high-on-almonds/270710/3 "2004-10-23T01:57:39Z")
[Cecil sez](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_212.html) > [@](#): > > Fruits of the rose family–including cherries, apples, plums, almonds, peaches, apricots, and crabapples–contain in their seeds substances known as cyanogenetic glycosides, which on ingestion release hydrogen cyanide gas through an enzymatic reaction. They can most certainly do you in. Since 1957, Turkey–a big apricot country–has reported nine cases of lethal poisoning from apricot seeds. Unfortunately, victims of such poisonings have a habit of kicking the bucket before doctors have a chance to ask them how many seeds they’ve eaten; in addition, the amount of amygdalin–the most important cyanogenetic glycoside–varies from species to species, and since the poisoning does not involve a direct transfer of cyanide from one place to another, “lethal dosages” of these various seeds are hard to pin down. Use the following as guidelines: (1) **bitter almonds contain by far the greatest amount of amygdalin, and it takes 50-70 of them to kill an adult, 7-10 to kill a child**. (2) Ingestion of about a cupful of any of the above seeds is pushing things a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-get-high-on-almonds/270710/4 "2004-10-23T02:24:26Z")
Thanks Garfield226. I was wondering if it was cyanide poisoning. My symptoms were pretty similiar to cyanide poisoning, but maybe that is just a coincidence. Rapid (fast) breathing. Restlessness and decreased ability to settle down to tasks like watching TV or reading. Dizziness. Weakness. Headache. Eye irritation (itching, burning). Nausea (feeling sick to your stomach) and vomiting (throwing up). Rapid heartbeat. I had all of these except eye irritation. Khadaji, I’m 90% sure its not a food allergy as i’ve eaten almonds before and never had this happen. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-get-high-on-almonds/270710/5 "2004-10-23T02:43:47Z")
I bought a 10oz can of almonds on monday and ate all of them between monday and today. I assume that ‘maybe’ it is cyanide poisoning. I was just looking up the symptoms of cyanide poisoning and ‘an impending sense of doom’ is one of them. Many of the other symptoms I’ve had were listed too. Shit, no more almonds for me, I hope I haven’t done any permanent damage. If it was cyanide poisoning and not something else that is. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-get-high-on-almonds/270710/6 "2004-10-23T03:23:09Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#): > > \Khadaji, I’m 90% sure its not a food allergy as i’ve eaten almonds before and never had this happen. I’ve eaten shrimp for the better part of my life, but last year I developed an alergey. Alergies can develop at any time. Unless you simply can’t afford it, why risk it? Go and be checked. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-get-high-on-almonds/270710/7 "2004-10-23T03:28:14Z")
the doctor said I might have brain damage dad what’s the point of this story I like stories