From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Mon Sep 09 2002 - 05:41:48 MDT
On Tuesday 10 September 2002 00:13, Ben wrote: (apparently responding to
Justin)
> Hi Justin,
> > The negative side affects of LSD (other than inspiring irrational
> > behavior and beliefs, bad-trip nightmares, self-mutilation, and
> > dangerous behavior) lie in the fact that it functions both as a
> > serotonin re-uptake inhibitor like many drugs, and is
> > psychologically addictive.
>
Having taken LSD perhaps 100 times myself in my youth and having
studied the literature (mainstream, medical and counter-culture) and having
worked at drug clinics and crisis intervention centers, I think I can speak
pretty reasonably about LSD.
I had precisely one "bad trip". It was not particularly nightmarish but
did have frightening content that played on underlying guilt structures in
a way that was definitely a "bummer" - to say the least. But it was not
that difficult to handle by myself. I have seen some freak-outs in my time
from acid. But I have never seen very few where the person needed
restraint or to be medically brought down. The worse freak-outs were from
people who had strong fears of the drug and/or had it slipped to them
unawares. Understandably, they thought they were losing their mind.
I have seen only one incident of self-mutilation and that was from someone
who was overly fascinated with the surgical details beneath the skin of his
hand. He was also on a mixture of drugs. I have seen some people who are
already diagnosed with various mental conditions have more bad trips or do
dangerous things. But generally not much worse than without LSD. Most of the
problems I have seen otherwise from acid were acid
adulterated with speed or strychnine. I saw far crazier people and
people in far more danger and requiring much stronger intervention
on booze, speed, downers, STP, PCP and so on. LSD is not
psychologically addictive. As a contrast, pot is somewhat psychologically
addictive. People are much more likely to self-medicate with pot than LSD.
- samantha
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