It was a busy night out at Club Universe in San Francisco. The dance floor was packed and it felt even hotter than normal to me. I had taken one single dose of E (a double stack Mercedes that my friend had gotten through a reliable source – probably this one). Everyone had been raving about how great (strong) this pill was. I took my usual one pill dosage and joined my friends on the dance floor about 11pm.

About 45 minutes later, give or take a few songs, I started to feel hot. I took off my shirt, but was still feeling very inspired by the music and continued to dance fairly hard. A few minutes later I realized that the heat I was feeling wasn't quite the same as usual - my ears were BURNING and I was sweating way more than usual. I decided I should probably cool off a bit and get some water. I offered to bring back water to my two friends on the floor, but they declined. Just as I was about to walk away, they both decided to come with me.

My closest friend led the way to the bar. It was a long trip through a ton of people and seemed to take forever. As I was now walking, not dancing, I really started to feel the heat and become sweatier even still. I was walking slowly through the crowd, but my heart rate hadn't slowed at all and the heat felt like it was still growing inside me and all around me. Somehow suddenly stopping dancing didn't seem to relieve my overheating.

As we approached the bar, I started to feel sick to my stomach. By the time my friend finally reached the bar, I knew I was really not well. I told him so and he tried to order water as quickly as possible. Within a few more seconds, I knew I was in real trouble - I could sense that I was going to pass out. I yelled out at him that I felt 'REALLY SICK' and threw myself onto his back and tried to hold on. It felt like hot blood was filling my the back of my skull from the base up - and about half-way up, I passed out.

Since I had thrown myself on my friend and I had the other friend behind me, both of them managed to catch my fall. I was only out - unconscious and with no muscle tone - for a few seconds before returning to a sort of consciousness. I knew I had passed out and I could feel my friends lifting me and trying to talk to me. I was able to make sense of the whole situation, but I wasn't able to see a thing - my vision, eyes wide open, was completely black. (I now have a new appreciation for the term 'black out.')

After what seemed like forever, but what was probably only five or ten minutes at most, my vision began to return. It started with little round spots of light here and there and the spots gradually grew larger over the next few minutes until all the circles had merged and no blackness was left. I was pretty shaken up and decided to just stay on the barstool my friends had helped me walk to earlier (although I couldn't see, I was able to walk, with guidance, to the edge of the club on my own and remain sitting up without help.) I sipped at water for awhile and gradually started to feel better, though the evening was pretty much ruined for me at that point. I could still feel some amount of pleasantness from the E, but my experience had really sobered me up. I eventually went home, but was afraid to sleep for hours more - I had never before experienced 'blacking out' and it wasn't too fun.

This experience still affects my party habits to this day. I'm not a 'heavy' user, but when I do drop (maybe once a month), I only do a half and then I wait an hour before taking the other half. I'm also MUCH more conscious of heat-related issues - I usually dance nearer the edge of the dance floor at least at the start of the night. I make sure I have water from the outset and my friends and I don't stray from one another at least until after we have all 'peaked.'

I chalk up this experience to heatstroke, though it could have also had to do with serotonin syndrome possibly. My experience with blacking out has caused me to still feel very uneasy when I feel E very strongly, even when I'm not overheating. I don't know that I will ever get over this fear/tenseness.

So I take care to monitor my body when partying - to listen and look for the signs of heatstroke (and exhaustion in general). I stay prepared with water and keep friends nearby until the most potentially dangerous period is over (after 'peaking'). While I still party occasionally, this is an experience I could have done without and which affects me negatively to this day. Had I planned better (and maybe known the exact strength of what I was taking), the situation could have been avoided. I recommend everyone avoid it if at all possible.

Exp Year: 2000	ExpID: 33872
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Dec 20, 2006	Views: 12,437
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MDMA (3) : Club / Bar (25), Health Problems (27), Difficult Experiences (5)