# LSD and flashbacks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 12, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046 "2008-04-12T16:19:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/1 "2008-04-12T16:19:47Z")
We were talking about drugs the other day and I noted that if it were legal I would be tempted to try LSD.
Someone else remarked that LSD is bad because it causes flashbacks.
I would have sworn that I read on the Dope that this has been shown to be false, but I couldn’t find it.
Does LSD cause flashbacks and can someone give me a reputable link?
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/2 "2008-04-12T16:24:40Z")
I don’t avoid drugs because of the legalities, I avoid them because if I had them I’d want to keep having them, and normal life would not be sustained any more.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/3 "2008-04-12T16:39:27Z")
ANECDOTAL: I was with a friend once who experienced one while I was with him and had to give me his car keys. He had stopped taking acid but had taken, by his own estimates, hundreds of trips in past years (the most recent a couple of years before this incident). According to him, it was like a very watered down version of an actual trip in that it did the same elements of time and space distortion but no vivid hallucinations and he knew exactly what was going on around him, and it was the first one he’d ever had. (No idea if he ever had any more.)
NOT ANECDOTAL: Timothy Leary claimed they weren’t real, though he did entitle his (quite good if self-exonerating) memoir _Flashbacks_.
[Dr. Alexander Shulgin](http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/shulgin/blg/shulginbio.htm), who got his Ph.D. from Berkeley and had a career in pharmaceutical research, academia, and law enforcement, says [this](http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/shulgin/adsarchive/lsdflashbacks.htm) about them:
> [@](#):
>
> The flashback phenomenon with LSD is rare but real. An auditory or visual clue can bring back a passing memory of an earlier experience. The residue of any tangible quantity of the chemical itself, in the brain or blood of the user after 24 hours, is, however, total nonsense.
From [The National Institute on Drug Abuse](http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/LSD.html) (a National Institutes of Health affiliate):
> [@](#):
>
> Many LSD users experience flashbacks, recurrence of certain aspects of a person’s experience, without the user having taken the drug again. A flashback occurs suddenly, often without warning, and may occur within a few days or more than a year after LSD use. Flashbacks usually occur in people who use hallucinogens chronically or have an underlying personality problem; however, otherwise healthy people who use LSD occasionally may also have flashbacks.
ETA:
P.S.- LSD is the drug I also would be most willing to try if I could do it under controlled and legal circumstances. I did once drink a beverage spiked (without my knowledge) with a hallucinogen of some sort and it wasn’t pleasant (I never found out who put it in the drink [though I’m pretty sure I know- it was either a co-worker named Tony or the 3 inch Nazi with moose-antlers dancing on my shoulder] but it was fascinating once friends calmed me down and between us we figured out what was happenign and why the wallpaper was making sounds. It lasted for several minutes (an hour?) with a several hour “not quite tripping but not quite right either” post-period.
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### Author:  [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/4 "2008-04-12T19:13:54Z")
I took at least my share of LSD in college and never did have one of those flashbacks they promised us. Well, the occasional visional distortion while straining at the stool, or staring at a wallpaper pattern too long, but nothing like being thrown headlong back into an acid trip.
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### Author:  [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/5 "2008-04-12T19:38:47Z")
I’m a Deadhead and I don’t know a single person who had a flashback.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2008, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/6 "2008-04-12T19:56:36Z")
Oh, Come On People. Didn’t you read “Go Ask Alice,” with the horrible descriptions about the horrible flashbacks that poor chick had after being slipped LSD?
You people make it sound like that book is a work of fiction. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/7 "2008-04-12T20:25:49Z")
Golly Gee Whiz, kids. I don’t see what all the fuss is about. TV shows and movies have flashbacks all the time! 😉
While I’ve never done acid, I had a couple of past friends who had done it on a semi-regular basis. None of them ever reported having any flashbacks.
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### Author:  [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/8 "2008-04-12T21:37:26Z")
I took LSD more than once in the 80’s. I had a few experiences that could be classified as flashbacks. They went something like this:
I suddenly felt disoriented, light headed and off balance and a sound had an echo or flange type of distortion. I thought “Am I tripping?” then a second later it was over, and I answered myself “No, I’m not”.
I don’t remember if I was hung over at the times of the ‘flashbacks’, as I was hung over much of the time then.
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### Author:  [@St\_Ides](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St_Ides)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/9 "2008-04-12T22:40:32Z")
[QUOTE=BMax]
I took LSD more than once in the 80’s. I had a few experiences that could be classified as flashbacks. They went something like this:
I suddenly felt disoriented, light headed and off balance and a sound had an echo or flange type of distortion. I thought “Am I tripping?” then a second later it was over, and I answered myself “No, I’m not”.
I don’t remember if I was hung over at the times of the ‘flashbacks’, as I was hung over much of the time then.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve never taken LSD at any point, and that happens to me quite often. (Once or twice a week, usually when I’m tired)
[QUOTE=The Sonoran Lizard King]
I took at least my share of LSD in college and never did have one of those flashbacks they promised us. Well, the occasional visional distortion while straining at the stool, or staring at a wallpaper pattern too long, but nothing like being thrown headlong back into an acid trip.
[/QUOTE]
That too.
I think it’s just a part of life.
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### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/10 "2008-04-12T22:53:53Z")
[QUOTE=BMax]
I took LSD more than once in the 80’s. I had a few experiences that could be classified as flashbacks. They went something like this:
I suddenly felt disoriented, light headed and off balance and a sound had an echo or flange type of distortion. I thought “Am I tripping?” then a second later it was over, and I answered myself “No, I’m not”.
I don’t remember if I was hung over at the times of the ‘flashbacks’, as I was hung over much of the time then.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, that’s what I call a flashback. (we did a lot in high school) It’s not like a full on trip, it’s just kinda like a weird feeling that’s kinda like how it felt when you were tripping. Not in any way dangerous, just strange.
Most people I’ve know who did acid have had the occasional flashback. They were more common when I was doing acid and for a couple of years after. I haven’t had one in years tho’ (it’s been over 20 years since I last did acid).
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### Author:  [@Kyrie\_Eleison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyrie_Eleison)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/11 "2008-04-13T01:55:16Z")
Like many of the responses so far, mine is a personal experience. I used LSD several times in the 80s and 90s. On a few occasions afterwards, I had very brief periods of disorientation that were vaguely reminiscent of the experience. Flashbacks? IMHO, no, I tend to think that they were normal experiences that I associated with my previous LSD use only because I had that previous experience to associate them with.
Has anyone ever proposed a biological mechanism to account for flashbacks? I’m very skeptical. In the unlikely case it’s not already obvious, I think “flashbacks” are nothing other than other than ordinary experiences that former LSD-users are prone to associate with prior experiences.
Before the inevitable edit: Man, did I use the word “experience” too much.
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### Author:  [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/12 "2008-04-13T01:55:22Z")
Never had a flashback and have done more than my share of LSD and other hallucinogens.
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### Author:  [@bat312](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bat312)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2008, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/13 "2008-04-13T02:22:26Z")
I never had a flash back but did quit because of a friend who had a bad trip.
Also had a friend, who did not quit until he blew his mind, got institutionalized and eventually killed himself.
It is always fun until someone gets hurt.
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### Author:  [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/14 "2008-04-13T03:51:29Z")
Abraham, 1983. Visual phenomenology of the LSD flashback. Archives of General Psychiatry. [link](http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/8/884)
> [@Abstract](#):
>
> One hundred twenty-three persons with a history of LSD use were studied for the presence of the LSD flashback phenomenon and compared with 40 control subjects. A syndrome emerged that included ten distance visual disturbances. It had lasted for five years in half of the population, was treatable with benzodiazepines, exacerbated by phenothiazines, and precipitated by 19 different stimuli, most commonly emergence into a dark environment. Sensitivity to LSD as determined by flashbacks appears to divide the study sample into three discrete subgroups. There may be a genetic basis to LSD sensitivity.
Markel et al., 1993. LSD flashback syndrome exacerbated by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants in adolescents. Journal of Pediatrics. [link](http://grande.nal.usda.gov/ibids/index.php?mode2=detail&origin=ibids_references&therow=141167)
> [@Abstract](#):
>
> Two adolescents with a long history of abuse of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and symptoms consistent with major depressive disorder, on initiation of antidepressant therapy with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor agents, had the new onset or worsening of LSD flashback syndrome. The similarity in neuroreceptor physiology for both LSD and serotonin suggests that the LSD flashback syndrome may be induced by these drugs in patients with a history of LSD abuse.
And you guys with your cute little five second flashbacks have a thing or two to learn from this guy..
Smith et al., 1980. LSD ‘flashback’ as a cause of diagnostic error. Postgraduate Medical Journal. [link](http://pmj.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/56/656/421)
> [@Abstract](#):
>
> An emaciated, but otherwise physically normal young man presented with an acute psychosis resembling hallucinogenic drug abuse. His behaviour was so strange that the underlying pathology of severe pyloric stenosis was only detected when a chance measurement of urea and electrolytes was made, revealing gross biochemical abnormalities. His abnormal mental state persisted for more than one week and an LSD ‘flashback’ was postulated as the cause of the prolonged psychosis.
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2008, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/15 "2008-04-13T04:01:20Z")
> [@abstract](#):
>
> One hundred twenty-three persons with a history of LSD use were studied for the presence of the LSD flashback phenomenon and compared with 40 control subjects. A syndrome emerged that included ten distance visual disturbances. It had lasted for five years in half of the population, was treatable with benzodiazepines, exacerbated by phenothiazines, and precipitated by 19 different stimuli, most commonly emergence into a dark environment. Sensitivity to LSD as determined by flashbacks appears to divide the study sample into three discrete subgroups. There may be a genetic basis to LSD sensitivity.
I don’t know about flashbacks, but this sentence seems to be saying: “We took 123 people with a history of LSD use and 40 people as controls and plied them with various drugs and sensory environments until we identified some flashbacks.” However, I can’t make any sense out of the part of that sentence that says “It had lasted for five years in half the population.”
Yeah, I know, it’s only the abstract. How about something in the concrete?
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### Author:  [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2008, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/16 "2008-04-13T04:10:36Z")
[QUOTE=Hilarity N. Suze]
I don’t know about flashbacks, but this sentence seems to be saying: “We took 123 people with a history of LSD use and 40 people as controls and plied them with various drugs and sensory environments until we identified some flashbacks.” However, I can’t make any sense out of the part of that sentence that says “It had lasted for five years in half the population.”
Yeah, I know, it’s only the abstract. How about something in the concrete?
[/QUOTE]
None of these articles are available online, unfortunately. At any rate, they are saying that half of the 123 subjects reported having LSD flashbacks for at least five years prior to the study.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2008, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/17 "2008-04-13T05:01:40Z")
Did my share of tripping in the last 70s, 80s and early 90s.
Never had a flashback. Could use one now, the stuff’s become a bit harder to obtain.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2008, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/18 "2008-04-13T13:06:11Z")
People may often refer to [HPDD (hallucinogen persisting perception disorder)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_perception_disorder) as ‘flashbacks’. In the strict sense they aren’t the same thing… a flashback is transient and not necessarily drug-related, while HPDD is persistent and depends on previous drug use for a diagnosis.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2008, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/19 "2008-04-13T13:12:31Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas]
Oh, Come On People. Didn’t you read “Go Ask Alice,” with the horrible descriptions about the horrible flashbacks that poor chick had after being slipped LSD?
You people make it sound like that book is a work of fiction. :rolleyes:
[/QUOTE]
This was a good solid whoosh, right? ‘Unverified’ would be a generous description of an anonymous, um, ‘diary’.
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### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/20 "2008-04-13T13:50:51Z")
I took LSD regularly over a period of some three years from 1966-1969, tripping usually at least once a week, more often in the summers. Never had a flashback in my life, never known a friend who’s experienced one.
I’m highly skeptical that they exist at all.
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