# LSD and flashbacks **URL:** \ **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:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/21 "2008-04-13T16:11:56Z")
[QUOTE=AHunter3] Never had a flashback. Could use one now, the stuff’s become a bit harder to obtain. [/QUOTE] [Clyde Apperson and William Pickard.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Apperson) “The DEA believes that Apperson and Pickard were responsible for manufacturing a majority of the LSD sold in the United States and cites an estimated 95 percent reduction in the drug’s availability as evidence of this.” ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/22 "2008-04-13T19:01:20Z")
[QUOTE=alterego] Abraham, 1983. Visual phenomenology of the LSD flashback. Archives of General Psychiatry. [link](http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/8/884)] [/QUOTE] If nobody else can find this article before me, I’ll take a look at this when I go in to school on Tuesday morning; they have this volume of the Archives of General Psychiatry at the UNLV library. I suspect the article will reveal some methodological flaws in their study, though. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/23 "2008-04-13T19:07:56Z")
[QUOTE=Cosmic Relief] This was a good solid whoosh, right? ‘Unverified’ would be a generous description of an anonymous, um, ‘diary’. [/QUOTE] Yes, it was a good solid whoosh. ---
**Author:** ![ForumBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@ForumBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForumBot)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/24 "2008-04-13T19:29:04Z")
[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] I probably took my share and a few other peoples’ share as well, and I came in to say exactly this. Seriously, straining at the pooper if you’ve got some good tile is a strange feeling. But I think LSD “flashbacks” aren’t as big a deal as other people say. I don’t see any reason for an LSD flashback to be any different from any other sort of context dependent memory. Corndogs give me flashbacks to my uncle cooking me corndogs when I was six, but there aren’t any corndog horror stories (if you can find a corndog horror story, I will give you two dollars.) [QUOTE=Lobsang] 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. [/quote] Right, but then you take the drugs, and you’re good. What’s the problem? just kiddin But really, a few drugs are non-addictive, and some of the big ones like LSD leave you feeling so shitty in the morning, you swear “oh god, I’m never doing that again.” But like getting drunk and bedding someone you know you shouldn’t, we have a tendency to do things that aren’t in our best interest. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/25 "2008-04-13T22:00:05Z")
[QUOTE=ForumBot] But really, a few drugs are non-addictive, and some of the big ones like LSD leave you feeling so shitty in the morning, you swear “oh god, I’m never doing that again.” [/QUOTE] There are ways to avoid that shitty feeling, or at least demote the adjective used to describe it. Schechter, 1997. ‘Candyflipping’: Synergistic discriminative effect of LSD and MDMA. European Journal of Pharmacology. [link](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T1J-3S4X4W1-2&_user=918210&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000047944&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=918210&md5=e568147975d3c5eb0700663468bcdd63) > [@Abstract](#): > > The co-administration of D-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD; ‘Acid’) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; ‘Ecstasy’; ‘XTC’), has reached a prevalence that has allowed for the street terminology ‘candyflipping’ to describe the combination. Internet sites indicate a significant enhancement of central effects with their simultaneous use. In this preliminary observation, male Fawn-Hooded rats were trained to discriminate 1.5 mg/kg MDMA and were, subsequently, tested with doses of MDMA (0.15 mg/kg) or LSD (0.04 mg/kg) that each produced a saline-like response. Co-administration of these doses of MDMA and LSD synergized to produce a maximal MDMA-like response. The possible mechanism for synergistic action upon central serotonergic neurons is discussed to explain the observed effect. ---
**Author:** ![ForumBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@ForumBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForumBot)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/26 "2008-04-13T23:27:38Z")
Sorry, there’s **no** way in the world to stay awake for 44 hours with “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” stuck in your head and _not_ regret taking LSD. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/27 "2008-04-13T23:43:11Z")
I have taken a lot of acid in my life and I’ve never had a flashback. Wouldn’t even know what one was like. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/28 "2008-04-14T01:35:12Z")
I took a great deal of LSD in the '60s and never have had a flashbeck. So there! But of course that is merely anecdotal. TV ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/29 "2008-04-14T01:38:42Z")
I took a great deal of LSD in the '60s and never have had a flashback. So there! But, of course that is merely anecdotal. _OH, WOW THAT IS JUST SO WEIRD_ TV ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/30 "2008-04-14T03:42:24Z")
[QUOTE=ForumBot] (if you can find a corndog horror story, I will give you two dollars.) . [/QUOTE] One year, near the close of the state fair, I had these corn dogs, and the booth operators probably hadn’t changed the deep fryer oil since the start of the fair. I lost the corn dogs and every thing else I had eaten, and my stomach felt like it had been washed with acid. No rides or anything, just bad corn dog fryer oil. I felt so rotten I couldn’t work even the next day. I’m never too sick to work. But it’s only happened that once. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/31 "2008-04-14T03:58:17Z")
Between Dead shows, various other events and just hanging out with friends, I have taken around 200 acid trips in my life. I know many dozens of people who have done the same. I have never had one. No one I know has ever had one. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2008, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046/32 "2008-04-14T05:11:47Z")
I used to be a “frequent flyer”; that is, I did a _lot_ of acid for several years running. I’ve never had a flashback. Nor have any of my acid head friends (current or retired) that I’ve spoken to about it. Were it not for the quote from Dr. Shulgin cited earlier in this thread, I’d be inclined to dismiss the subject out-of-hand, as one more of those things people who don’t know much about drugs _think_ they know about drugs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-flashbacks/445046.md?page=1)