DOSE:		oral	LSD	(blotter / tab)
	repeated	oral	MDMA	(powder / crystals)

BODY WEIGHT:

150 lb

This report is not so much about an experience whilst high, but rather about an intense hangover/comedown from a high dose of MDMA.

For some context: I am an experienced recreational drug user, of multiple substances, and particularly MDMA. I have taken fairly massive doses before, including on consecutive days (for example at music festivals) without any seriously negative after effects except for tiredness and some standard low-serotonin blues. In the few years immediately prior to the incident in question, however, I had seriously tapered off my use, and had only been using (any substance) on an average of about one or two occasions a year.

So: I went to a music festival, which was over three days. I hadn’t been to a festival or partied with this group of friends for a couple of years, so it was going to be a special occasion and I was planning on going all out. I had white, powdered MDMA, most of which I had packed into the small size gel capsule pills. I did not weigh it out, but I would estimate that each capsule would have between 100-125mg. I had done one capsule of MDMA from this same source several months previously and had been absolutely flying, and was excited to do it again. I am confident it is fairly pure, as I was purchasing it from a dealer well known to me who was purchasing directly from the ‘manufacturer,’ and my prior experience with it hadn’t felt ‘speedy.’

The first night, I started with half a pill. I didn’t feel much, and after about 45 minutes I did the second half, and bumped a little bit. I was feeling pretty good after that, but was also super tired and sleepy so decided to go to bed by about 2 am to rest up for the next couple of days.

The second day I did half a tab of acid, which had me feeling happy and seeing some nice chill visuals, but nothing intense. In the evening I did a full pill of MDMA, but after about an hour I still wasn’t feeling much again, so did some finger dips of loose powder in the baggie. I did this a few times over the next couple of hours, and definitely felt high but still not ‘flying.’ I probably did a total of about 2 pills this night. I managed to stay up til sunrise but I was still really tired and it was a bit of a slog.

The third and final day, I did a full tab of acid but had fewer effects and visuals than the previous day, as often happens with hallucinogens the second day in a row. I was also drinking alcohol moderately throughout the day. Although I was having a really good time partying and hanging out with my friends, by this time I was definitely feeling a bit disappointed in the highs (or lack thereof) I had been experiencing so far that weekend, and decided to basically go all in on the last night.

I started that night with some MDMA I got from a friend, it was brown and crystalline, and we had to break it up. I did a solid finger full of it, again hard to estimate but probably at least 125mg, perhaps up to 150mg. About 45 minutes later, I shared another half capsule dissolved in some juice, with a friend (so, another about 50 mg). After this I still was not feeling the high I was looking for, and did several more finger dips of my own MDMA, over the course of the next hour-at least another 100-150mg. At this point I started absolutely flying. I went on to have a fabulous fucking night, dancing with my tits out until sunrise, doing another couple finger dips at about 2 am, and then a final (very unnecessary) bump of half a pill at 5 in the morning, for some reason, because it was offered. It is very hard to estimate how much MDMA I did this evening as it was all loose powder, but I would say at least 300mg and up to 500mg.

The final (Sunday) night of the festival, I slept for a couple of hours, then woke up and packed up to leave. I was definitely still high and buzzing when I woke up. For the rest of that day, Monday, I mainly felt super exhausted (and I had chewed up my tongue from clenching my jaw like crazy the night before) but apart from that I was pretty ok, and I basically went to sleep as soon as I got home.
That’s when it got brutal.

When I woke up the next day, Tuesday, I felt absolutely terrible. I was incredibly dizzy and light headed. When I went to sit up from bed or stand up, my vision would black out, like from low blood pressure. My ears were ringing really loudly (I think this could also have been partly related to hearing damage from the bass, although I did wear earplugs close to the speakers). I also felt very nauseous, and threw up a few times: whenever I tried to get out of bed to stand up, I would feel off balance and stumble and get a wave of intense nausea, a lot like having vertigo. My head felt super thick and like I couldn’t think straight, and I felt completely drained and exhausted. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep, but the intense ringing in my ears and dizzy/buzzing sensation in my brain made me feel so ill I couldn’t sleep. I did manage to get up to shower and eat some food, but didn’t really have any appetite at all. I also found myself uncontrollably crying at a few points on this day.

On Wednesday, it actually got worse. I was incredibly nauseous all day, and I couldn’t get out of bed at all. When I tried to stand up, my vision would black out and I would feel so off balance I would almost immediately throw up, which happened multiple times throughout the day. I couldn’t eat anything all day. I was getting cold sweats. The ringing in my ears felt like it was consuming me and I couldn’t escape it. For a while I even curled up in the shower because it felt cool and I could throw up in there without moving far. It was absolutely fucking miserable. The dizziness and lightheadedness was worse as well-even lying down on my bed, I felt like the whole world was spinning and all I could do was lie there with my eyes closed and try to concentrate on breathing. Any sort of sharp noise was unbearable and made my ears and head ring-even the keyboard tapping or door closing. I noticed that the symptoms were worse when I moved or turned my head, so I tried to stay still-otherwise I would get an intense wave, or ‘zap’ of dizziness through my head. It felt quite similar to what I had experienced several years previously when I was withdrawing from antidepressents (Effexor), but was much more intense. At this point I was getting seriously concerned I had done something to permanently damage my brain.

On Thursday, my symptoms started to marginally improve, although I had a new weird headache far back in my head behind both ears. I managed to leave the house for a short while to pick up some 5 HTP, Magnesium, and some Vitamin C, which I immediately started taking (200 mg of 5 HTP). I was still feeling exceptionally dizzy/had the intense brain zap effect whenever I tried to move too quickly, and l had the ringing in my ears, but was feeling less nauseous. I still felt extremely tired and was out of breath just from walking around the store. I still spent most of this day in bed as well.

Over the next three days, my symptoms incrementally improved each day. By the following Monday, a full week afterwards, I finally woke up and noticed the ringing in my ears was mostly gone, my dizziness was almost not noticeable, and I actually felt able to finally leave the house and go to a coffee shop to meet a friend for the first time. However, even for about a full ten days after that, I would get the occasional wave of unusual intense dizziness-usually when standing up from sitting, or when turning my head quickly.

All in all, I was basically debilitated for an entire week by this experience, and it was definitely pretty scary at points, feeling like perhaps I had done some irreversible damage to myself. Being able to read online other people’s similar experiences with this, and that they did recover from it, definitely helped to reassure me that I was eventually going to be ok.

I think what happened was a massive serotonin deficit, which is why it had felt so similar to the experience of withdrawing from antidepressants. The fact I had done MDMA several days in a row, and then such a huge dose on the final night, definitely compounded this. I am not sure why I was so affected on this particular occasion, when I had done similar quantities in the past with no ill effects, but it may be related to my older age (I’m in my early 30s now, whereas most of my heavier drug use was in my early/mid twenties) and the fact I hadn’t been doing substances regularly at all in the years preceding it. What I have learned from this is that I am going to refrain from doing MDMA multiple nights in a row from now on , and I am going to have more restraint in terms of redosing throughout a night-I definitely, definitely, didn’t need those extra finger dips or bumps I took after midnight, I was just doing it because it was there and offered to me.

I had always regarded MDMA as a pretty harmless drug, and more or less impossible to actually overdose on (pure MDMA, anyway). This has really been a wake up call to me that MDMA is indeed a very powerful chemical that alters your brain chemistry, and needs to be treated with serious care and respect.

Exp Year: 2016	ExpID: 112228
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 34
Published: Sep 5, 2018	Views: 1,153
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MDMA (3) : Festival / Lg. Crowd (24), Multi-Day Experience (13), Hangover / Days After (46), Health Problems (27), General (1)