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Frightening to Say the Least
Nutmeg
by NA
Citation:   NA. "Frightening to Say the Least: An Experience with Nutmeg (exp52691)". Erowid.org. Oct 1, 2008. erowid.org/exp/52691

 
DOSE:
2 Tbsp oral Nutmeg (ground / crushed)
BODY WEIGHT: 115 lb
I heard about nutmeg through the grapevine and I have to admit that I was curious to use it. It seemed that the worst side effects were just nausea and things like that and it seemed relatively safe considering that it's something that's in almost everyone's spice rack. How could something that my mother puts in her pumpkin pie hurt me seriously? I decided to try it even though my only experience with anything mind altering had involved alcohol. I took whole nutmegs and ground them up into a powder in a coffee grinder. I proceeded to have it with iced tea.

I have tried nutmeg on two occasions. The first time was a relatively small dose and it was fairly unremarkable other than the fact that the nutmeg tasted horrible and I felt like I had to vomit whenever I put it in my mouth. I will admit that for a day or two afterwards I felt slower in thinking and I felt fairly calm and happy but it wasn't anything to write home about.

The second time is what changed my life. I took about two tablespoons on a Tuesday night at around 10 or 11 PM. This time it seemed like I wasn't as nauseous when I ate the nutmeg this time, which was good. At around 2 or 3 AM I could feel my energy going up despite the fact that I had been awake for so long (I had woken up early in the morning) and I even proceeded to start a heated debate with my mother at about 3 AM. I felt warm all over, and I felt rather agitated and aggressive yet very energetic. I did not want to go to bed, but I did.

On Wednesday morning I woke up after about 4 hours of sleep, got out of bed, and walked to my bathroom to take a shower, as usual. My head felt a little heavy and I felt a bit out of it but I assumed that was because of the lack of sleep, I practically had forgotten that I had taken the nutmeg the night before. I was in the shower for about two or three minutes when all of a sudden my head started to feel very heavy, everything around me started moving in slow motion and although I was standing still, the room felt like it was shaking. I could hardly see and it felt that a very bright light was being shone straight into my eyes and my hearing started to diminish, instead, replaced with a very loud static noise in my ear, like I was standing right next to a TV with very bad reception. I don't remember much, but I do remember that I sat down in my shower for what felt like a few seconds (I'm not sure how long it actually was, but it was probably no longer than a minute) and then I proceeded, despite my lack of senses and my extreme dizziness, to try to step out of my shower.

I had one foot out of the shower when I just lost control and fell straight onto my bathroom floor. I was lucky that I didn't fall flat on my face and broken my nose, bruised my face, etc. I later found out that I somehow got from my bathroom onto my bed and started screaming for my mother. I have no recollection of my supposed journey to my bed. My mom came and told me to calm down because I was slowly starting to panic. My skin was starting to get cold and clammy and I was starting to sweat. What scared me the most was the fact that it was so difficult to breathe. I could literally feel my heart slowing down and I was probably taking only a few breaths a minute. I thought I was either having a heart attack or going into shock. Thankfully, neither of those things actually happened.

After my mother threw water in my face, held my hand and told me to calm down and not to panic, I started to feel better and my breathing started becoming more normal and after several spoonfuls of salt, my blood pressure was back to normal. I felt tired and fatigued, so I fell asleep. This was around 8 AM. While I was sleeping, several times I was half asleep, half awake and during those times I could hear my phone ringing. From the sound of it, it sounded like I had ten missed calls because I could hear my phone ringing over and over again although when I actually looked, I only had two missed calls. Also, we had workers coming into our home that day and I heard them ring the doorbell although it sounded like they rang it about ten times, as well. I later realized that these were auditory hallucinations, it felt as if my head would record a sound, such as the ring of my doorbell or the ring of my phone, and it would keep on playing it on repeat in my head.

Anyways, I woke up at around 12:30 PM and had to use the restroom. I got out of bed and felt alright so I proceeded to my bathroom, did my business, and as I was getting up from the commode, I started to hear the familiar static sound in my ears and all of a sudden the room got bright and faint in my eyes. I fainted again and although I don't remember much, I do remember trying to get up but I had no control over my muscles, it felt like they had a mind of their own, so whenever I tried to get up, my body would just fling itself in the opposite direction. I had totally lost control of my body. I called for my mother again and she ran upstairs and we yet again went through the same experience that I had gone through earlier that morning, very slow breathing rate, drop of blood pressure, sweating, sense of doom, etc. I will admit that this time it was not as bad, probably because I was not as frightened.

Unfortunately, this experience made me realize that I was unable to stand up, or even sit up, at all without passing out after about 30 seconds to one minute. It was as if the nutmeg had made my veins so loose that when I stood up, my brain just couldn't hold onto the blood that was there. For the whole day, I had to stay lying down, preferably with my eyes closed. If I wanted to move, I had to crawl very slowly (I had to constantly remain horizontal, I could not bring my head up vertically) and I had to stop every few seconds to lay down and bring some of the blood back to my brain.

During the day, my overall vision was acting as if I had drank heavily the night before (vision moving around and shaking, despite actually standing still). Colors seemed brighter and occasionally, I would see odd shapes. I felt pretty out of it mentally, I had bad short term memory and I felt disconnected yet connected to everything around me. Overall, I felt like I was in a dream, some sort of alternate reality. The feelings are kind of indescribable. I continued feeling fatigued and sleeping and I could also tell that I was retaining water. Even though I was drinking very large amounts of water (with sugar), I urinated only twice that day. I also had stomach cramps and various pains in my lower abdomen especially.

On Thursday, I decided to go to school for half of the day. I felt a lot better and I even took a shower on my own, although I moved slowly and kept the door of the bathroom open so my mom could hear me easily if I called for help. All was well and I felt pretty good, only slightly off center, kind of like after having about 3 drinks. I went to school and immediately was surrounded by my friends in the rather warm and loud cafeteria. I was very much frightened again about passing out because it suddenly felt like the people around me were shaking slightly and I got dizzy whenever I turned my head to look in a different direction. I went to lay down in the library and I took a short nap which made me feel much better. My mind was still not working very well for the remainder of the day, I felt very slow and kind of tipsy.

At about 3 PM I started feeling like I was getting worst and people seemed very odd from my perspective and I almost felt like I was hallucinating everything around me. I'm not sure if some of it actually was hallucinations. I remember looking at a picture of someone skydiving and I could close my eyes and feel like I was actually jumping out of the plane and quickly falling towards the ground. It was not a hallucination, but more like a very vivid dream. I took another brief nap and I actually felt as good as new once I woke up, colors weren't as bright and odd looking and people were not quite as frightening and suspicious anymore. For the remainder of the day, I felt calm, happy, and more like what a nutmeg high should be like. I felt that way for a few hours and once it got around dinner time, I started feeling withdrawal symptoms such as depression, sadness, and loneliness, the same withdrawal symptoms I have when I drink alcohol.

Overall, nutmeg was definitely not worth it and it should not be underestimated. It is very powerful, especially considering the fairly small amount that I took. Please just stay away from nutmeg.

Exp Year: 2006ExpID: 52691
Gender: Female 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Oct 1, 2008Views: 35,820
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Nutmeg (41) : General (1), Difficult Experiences (5), Bad Trips (6), Hangover / Days After (46), Multi-Day Experience (13), Health Problems (27), Alone (16)

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