LSD is a semi-synthetic, potent drug that causes hallucinations and distortions in the perception of surrounding reality. After its discovery at the beginning of the 20th century, the drug was used in medicine to study schizophrenia and other mental pathologies. It soon became clear that in addition to its therapeutic effects, LSD caused addiction and other abnormalities. This became the reason for its inclusion in the list of prohibited substances in many countries, including Russia. It was especially actively used in sects with a transcendental orientation.
Formula
C20H25N3O is the chemical formula of LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide). The psychoactive substance was synthesized by Albert Hofmann, a famous Swiss chemist. Chemical name of the hallucinogen: N,N-diethylysergoylamide. Conventional names: LSD; LSD-25.
LSD is one of the most popular psychedelic drugs used as a recreational drug. Previously used in psychiatry for the treatment of various pathologies, including schizophrenia.
What causes the narcotic effect of LSD?
The drug was found during experiments with ergot. From this parasitic fungus, the Swiss experimenter A. Hofmann isolated a substance called LSD-25.
Modern manufacturers of the drug produce it in the form:
- Multi-colored squares (stamps) containing the active ingredient.
- Gelatin pyramids.
- Tablets (20-500 mcg).
The mechanism of action of the drug on the human body is still under study. So far, it has been possible to identify its ability to have an exciting effect on the neuroreceptors of the central nervous system (dopamine, serotonin and adrenaline).
Effect
The effect of LSD is characterized by medical professionals as psychedelic with disturbances in the consciousness of the addict.
The most pronounced effect of LSD is the brightness and rich colors of the objects in vision
How does a person feel after a dose:
- Hallucinations occur, both visual, tactile and auditory
- There is derealization and depersonalization
- The so-called state of passion sets in
- Dysfunction of the brain, which is provoked by a violation of serotonergic nerve transmission.
After using LSD, the addict goes through several stages of intoxication
The initial phase, how it manifests itself
The first stage of intoxication occurs almost immediately after taking a dose, the following symptoms occur:
- Increased blood pressure
- Increased heart rate
- Fever
- Pupil dilation
- Tremor
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Impaired coordination of movements
- sometimes laughing, sometimes crying
The second phase, its signs
This phase begins approximately 20 minutes after taking the drug and is manifested by the following symptoms:
- Thinking disorder
- Sudden mood swings
- The person seems to fall out of the real world, it seems to him that he can fly
- Panic attacks
- Rave
- Aggression and irritability
The third phase, its symptoms
A couple of hours after consumption, the addict begins to hallucinate and confuse colors. Besides:
- Music and voices are heard in my head
- Concentration decreases
- Hot starts to seem cold
Phase four, return to reality
After 8-12 hours of taking the dose, the person returns to reality. The addict remembers with longing or admiration what he experienced. May fall into panic or joy. After the drug intoxication goes away, asthenia is observed.
Lack of Sleep
In English - Sleep Deprivation, deprivation again, only now sleep. Surely almost every person, after at least one sleepless night, already begins to feel somehow different. The fact is that many systems of our body are disrupted, which leads to a change in consciousness (4). Sleep deprivation is sometimes used to treat depression. In depression, as you know, everything is consistently bad, and sometimes such a shake-up of the brain and body allows, like a computer, in a sense, to restart itself. There is no guarantee that any depression will immediately go away, but there is that the state will be different after a sleepless night than in the morning of the previous day.
This method cannot be used often! Sleep is 1/3 of life and the other 2/3 of life directly depends on its quality. I have not found any data on safe sleep deprivation, let it be conditionally once every 3-4 weeks. And only if you sleep relatively steadily the rest of the time.
The longer there is no sleep, the more likely the occurrence of hallucinations and other health complications. My example: recently there was a period when I slept about 12 hours in 4 days. At the end of the last day, ripples appeared in my vision, and space was perceived more in 2D, slight memory lapses, no appetite, concentration on the current moment. I feel bad, to be honest. So it’s better not to sleep all night and only 1 day in a row than regular lack of sleep.
And in studies, the first changes occur at 24 hours, which means that if you wake up in the morning, don’t sleep at night and stay awake for another day, by the evening there will be a glitch.
Consequences of use
Photos before and after using LSD
Using the narcotic substance LSD is very dangerous for the human body.
The consequences of regular use can be very disastrous:
- Various mental disorders
- Schizophrenia
- Epilepsy
- Nervous breakdowns
A person, under the influence of a dose, is not aware of his actions; he is lost between reality and the fictional world. He may get into trouble or harm other people. Most LSD addicts die in accidents because they often do not understand what they are doing. Use in large doses can cause serious disorders; the addict ends up in a psychiatric clinic.
Taking the drug by pregnant women can lead to miscarriage due to contractions of the uterus.
Getting rid of psychological addiction
After addiction to LSD, there will be practically no need to eliminate the physical consequences; work will be carried out on the side effects that affect the psyche.
Treatment of drug addicts of this kind will be carried out with the help of psychologists and psychotherapists; if necessary, it is possible to instill thoughts of aversion to the drug through psychological coding.
At the Healthy Life Drug Treatment Center in Moscow, they will help you overcome the craving for this mind-destroying drug. Treatment is based on individual programs with a guarantee of anonymity for the patient.
Find out more by calling the free and anonymous phone “Narcological Center Healthy Life, Moscow, +7 (495) 152-29-88.
Overdose
An overdose of a narcotic substance negatively affects the functioning of the entire body as a whole.
In case of an overdose, the patient begins to behave like a hunted animal. He has tremors in his limbs, his pupils dilate to the maximum, and even his irises become invisible.
In addition, the following symptoms are observed:
- Animal fear arises
- Increased heart rate and respiration
- Blood pressure increases
- Severe headaches
- Fever
- Smooth muscle spasms
In some severe cases, foaming at the mouth and vomiting occur. Death is the most serious consequence of an overdose from LSD.
The lethal dose of the drug is only 0.0002 g per 1 kg of weight, that is, if a person’s body weight is 70 kg, then the lethal dosage is equal to 0.014 g.
If symptoms of overdose appear, it is important to seek emergency medical help as soon as possible.
Before medical staff arrive, the patient must be given first aid:
- Sedatives will help relieve aggression. But if it is not possible to give them to the patient, then he must be urgently isolated from others, locked in a room
- Carry out gastric lavage
- Laxatives and sorbents are also useful
- It is necessary to give the patient plenty of fluids to drink as often as possible
- If the patient has lost consciousness, he must be placed on his side to avoid choking on his own vomit.
- If there are no signs of life, it is important to carry out resuscitation measures
Until the ambulance arrives, relatives need to closely monitor the victim.
Observation
There are 2 ways to change consciousness.
The first one is even used in acting schools; the point is for 2 people to look into each other's eyes for 10-15 minutes. Usually it's a guy and a girl. It is very important not to make any jokes or otherwise relax the atmosphere. And your brain will try very hard to at least take your gaze away. Agree, it’s quite scary to just look into the eyes of another person, even for 10 seconds.
So in 2020 there was an experiment where 20 people looked into each other’s eyes in pairs for 10 minutes. The lighting was dim, but not dark. Eighteen people reported noticing the deformation of the opposite face, of which 10 people reported seeing some of their own facial features (9, 10). Yes, the sample is small. But they really use it in acting.
The second method is very similar to the first, only instead of a person - you look into your eyes in the mirror, completely alone, in dim light, 50-100 cm from the mirror. There is a lot of research here! An important condition is poor light. The brighter it is, the less likely changes in perception are, but you also don’t need to sit in complete darkness (11).
Another interesting point is that in people with depression, distortions occur on average 1 time per minute, in healthy people 5 times, and in schizophrenics all 11 times.
The main effects are no longer tied to hallucinations, but to dissociations, when you begin to perceive yourself in the reflection as another person. This may even have a therapeutic value in the treatment of some mental disorders, or it may aggravate it (12, 13, 14, 15). For example, if you have post-traumatic disorder, then you can transfer this condition to that person in the mirror, and you yourself will feel better (16).
Or you will start to panic if you are prone to schizophrenia. As was the case in a 2012 study among 16 patients with schizophrenia and 21 healthy people. Here, too, the faces of schizophrenics seemed more scary (17)
In a study from 2014, scientists even suggested that changing the shape of your face in the mirror resembles a visualization of your unconscious (18), some experience of yours that you have forgotten about.
How to remove LSD from the body
After removing the drug from the body, a person’s well-being improves significantly. A person can be considered to be on the mend if his appetite has improved. Frequent urination and sweating contribute to the rapid removal of the drug from the body. Therefore, these processes must be provoked, you should visit the bathhouse, drink plenty of fluids, and take diuretics. However, self-cleaning can only be done by those who have no contraindications to the above procedures. For drug addicts suffering from liver, kidney, and heart diseases, none of the above methods are suitable. It is worth considering that it will not be possible to quickly remove drug metabolites from the body at home. However, delay risks the toxic effects of prohibited substances. Therefore, it is more advisable to remove the drug from the body using drug detoxification. However, the procedure must be carried out under the supervision of a narcologist. In addition to detox therapy, drug removal from the body is carried out using:
- Hardware techniques (plasmapheresis, hemodialysis)
- Stimulating the urinary system with medications
- Enterosorption of the digestive system
Brand drug - what is it?
Initially, the product was developed for medical purposes. It made it possible to observe therapeutic work with schizophrenics. It quickly became clear that dependence on it develops almost from the first dose, provoking serious mental changes.
Attention! LSD is the most toxic synthetic mind-altering substance. It is made from lysergic acid.
The drug is artificially synthesized in crystalline form. For distribution purposes, psychedelic crystals are dissolved. The drug is sold in the form of tablets, capsules or liquid, which is taken orally and by injection.
Synonyms:
- acid, microdot;
- blotter;
- window frame;
- white lightning;
- superman etc.
Psychostimulants LSD are packaged in special perforated paper pieces illustrated with psychedelic pictures. The paper is soaked with a few drops of a narcotic solution. The dose for a single dose is one or 1/2 of this mark. It is divided into parts and eaten. The concentration of the substance in each brand may be different. The taste of the product depends on the solution contained in it. It may be sweetish, bitter, or have no taste at all.
Sometimes drug addicts use two or three doses at once. Stamps are often distributed and used in clubs and night parties. Those who have taken LSD call the enchanting sensation a “trip” (it lasts about half a day). Negatively colored reactions are called “bad trips.”
Prevention and rehabilitation
It is difficult to revert someone who has taken LSD in the past. But by talking with your child, you can prevent many troubles. We have extensive practical experience in drug addiction prevention and a good rehabilitation program with a high percentage of victory - giving up drugs for many years to come and the ability to live a happy life.
Our counselors can tell you how to talk to your child about drugs so that they decide not to take drugs. We have a lecture recorded on video that can be shown to children. This is a lecture on "The Truth About Drugs."
