Flashbacks? what causes them?

[tat2dretard]

yesterday i think alcohol may have casued a flashback of mine from a bad trip i had on shrooms about a few months ago? any one ever hear of this or maybe experienced this?

[Bodhisattva500]

From my experience flashbacks are something made up by the media to scare people. ive never experienced one and ive done a lot of hallucinogens.In "Cant find my Way Home" by Martin Torgoff(great book!!)Alexander Shulgin explains, "in 1992 The dea hosted a meeting on lsd in San Francisco due to increased interest in the drug. Here are a few of the examples of the facts being presented:LSD is a drug so potent that just taking it once will leave residual molecules in the body, stored in the frontal lobes of the brain, and they may be there for twenty years until some trauma brings them out in flashbacks and drives a person psychotic--one of the greatest myths about it, but presented as a fact in front of the law enforcement community.This went on for two days and they dont need any statistics because these are accepted facts adn presented as such, and the academic communtiyt was stone quiet."&nbsp ;&nbsp ;

[Bodhisattva500]

Placebo is a very potent drug as well


I once actually thought(along with scores ofother people) that ifelt the effectsof red rock opium. i found out later it was dryed tree sap.

[P!MPJU!C3]

Flashbacks r real

Ive experienced them on a variety of occasions. There really clear. They give me visuels and sounds. But it may just work 4 certain people. Ive got lots of that brain shit: Deja vu's, flashbacks and luciddreams.
I got it all. I dunno, it can be anything but i cant really point at something in particular.

[Bodhisattva500]

Deja vu is when a situation occurs exactyly like it did the first time off in space, you just realize it for a second

[enquirewithin]

Certain objects or feelings can vividly bring back to me an altered
state, but I can get that with 'ordinary' memories too. I agree that
flashbacks are really media/ government hype.



How is deja-vu related?

[Dualpower]

Flashbacks occur naturally in people, usually relating to intense
emotional experiences. The mechanism for their occurance in non-drug
using people isn't well understood. In the case of people who use
drugs, the obvious candidate for their cause is the drug itself, but it
could just as well be that a drug created intense emotional conditions
that foster normal flashbacks.

[thydarkprevails]

hmm..the other day i was in the shower, i had not yet applied soap or shampoo, and i closed my eyes, opened them, and saw thousands of bubbles floating around, i rubbed and cleared my eyes, and they were still there for about 10 seconds..they than disappeared into thin air..they did not fall or anything, they were suspended the whole time..


flashback ya think?

[HippieD9]

Here's what my old psychology prof told me about "flashbacks": they happen because of overstimulation of the brain. When all the pathways are being used, the brain creates new ones. This can take a while, and the feeling being sent through that pathway will hit you whenever it is finally finished making itself. Think of it as a car driving on a road that is still being built.





Peace,


D.

[Undergradu8]

Having never had a flashback i am in no way an expert or any such on this subject, however, my view on them is that the brain, being the infinitely powerful thing it is, stores a memory of every single thing it ever sense's, percieves etc (you get the point).


Now, part way through a trip something striking is percieved by the brain,perhaps a rapid red-blue-green light flash, or a smiley face on a crisp (potato chip for the americans) packet that blows past (it could equally be another stimulus, a certain frequency sound, or a distinctive smell etc). the brain works best at memorising things by association, and so, in the mind that trip is associated with that light flash, or packet etc,


Bad trips are often stronger in feeling and emotion that pleasant ones, and so the memory is stronger and thus more easily recalled.


later on in life, the same stimulus (light flash, packet etc) is percieved (i say percievedbecause it matters not what yoursenses detect but how your brain interprets, ie. percieves, them) and this brings back the memories of that trip in the past.





could all be billy bollocks, butit makes sense to me.

[Alfa]

I experience this the same and it also makes pharmacological sense to me. i.e. if an event affects the brain in a simular way as it has during a psychedelic state, this may trigger the brain to react in a simular way as during the original experience. Smells, colors, taste, sounds, feelings, anything might trigger this. I find it possible to enter a state that triggers a flashback or do the opposite by going away form such states and stopping a flashback. If you can go one into it, you can go out of it as well.

[antigenesis]

I read somewhere that flashbacks are Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or whatever its called...

[happatai]

i've definatley had flashbacks before. i remember laying down to sleep,
i close my eyes, and 5 seconds later a crystal clear voice says my
name, i open my eyes and stare at a blanket on the ground and watch it
transform into various things. corpse, giant worm, octopus, mini-mt.
everest, etc... then i snapped back into reality and went to sleep. i
wasnt dreaming either, i was wide awake.

[enquirewithin]

Is that a flashback or a new phenomenom?
Edited by: enquirewithin

[happatai]

pretty sure it was a flashback. i wasn't making myself think i was seeing things, i was just laying there like 'what the fuck'

[Mezza]

Flashbacks definitely occur. I've had them when I've not wantedthem (suddenly being thrown back into the exact same state of consciousness as a bad trip from months previously), and when I have (being in club without access to MDMA, and using the lights and music to induce an MDMA roll identical in all respects to if I'd actually consumed a (fairly weak) pill).


My personal belief is that certain drugs don't actually cause trips themselves, but trigger the brain to behave in such a way as to produce it's own altered state of consciousness, which we perceive as a trip. So once the brain has done that a few times it can then 'remember'how to induce that experience without needing the initial trigger chemical to be present.

[miffy]

Hi!



I've had them, too. When I'm completely straight, and haven't taken
psychotropics for ages - it's a couple of years since I last tripped,
for example.



Still, even so, I was walking down a hill one day about six months ago,
bright, clear morning, hadn't even had a drink. . . I crossed over a
side-street, and looked to my left to check for traffic - and the road
to my left stretched off to infinity. Came as quite a surprise to me -
infinity, right there, down the road.



I messed around with it for a bit. Walked down the street towards it,
thinking 'what the hell is this' - squinting my eyes, trying to work
out if it was a trick of the light, or something. When I got half-way
down the street - which was one I knew, and was only about 500m long -
infinity disappeared, and I could see the end of the road again. Turned
back the way I'd come, and there it was, behind me.



This strange effect continued for about 10 mins. I wasn't on anything,
as I said, not even booze. The effect was purely visual, and didn't
include any of the confusing "I can't remember who I am!" type effects
that sometimes come with acid.



When it was gone, I shrugged, put it down as one of those things, walked off.

[Caliform]

I experience this the same and it also makes
pharmacological sense to me. i.e. if an event affects the brain in a
simular way as it has during a psychedelic state, this may trigger the
brain to react in a simular way as during the original experience.
Smells, colors, taste, sounds, feelings, anything might trigger this. I
find it possible to enter a state that triggers a flashback or do the
opposite by going away form such states and stopping a flashback. If
you can go one into it, you can go out of it as well.



That's it. It's simply a reliving of a mental process you had in the trip that was imprinted.

[pabel_giboon]

I agree with the idea flashbacks are "playbacks" of the brain structure when doped. That is a weir idea since it happens spontaneously, but... could thatbe achieved at will? I mean, it would be great to be tripping just at will without spending a penny and taking fewer risks, wouldn’t it? Has anybody heard of something like this?<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

[oldman]

flashbacks exist they just are not caused by any lingering drug matter in the brain. no drug has the capacity to stay active in the brain or body months or years later.

[meemeemee]

Is it possible for fat-soluble chemicals to be stored in the fat of the body, and perhaps travel to the brain to trigger a flashback? It might sound stupid, but I've heard that before. Take it with a grain of salt though, not sure how realistic it is!

[moracca]

Pretty sure thats some lingering DEA nonsense.

[Dr.Feelgood]

Flashbacks are real, but im not sure what seems to cause them. The
whole spinal fluid thing is nonsence. Things like THC are stored in the
fat but its not true of most chemicals. (Whi TCH stays around longer) I
do have a story though. A friend did a pure MDMA captual and then a few
days after rolling he was at work serveing some people. He suddely felt
a wave of heat come over him and the people at his table asked him what
was wrong. He excused him self and went to the bathroom and his
pupliels where the size of dinner plates! He then began to roll for the
next few minutes. If not for the eyes I would say that most flashbacks
are simpley in the mind, espelly something like XTC that presents such
a unique and good feeling that the mind would natualy want to re
experence.

[polloloco001]

I have never done LSD, but I have met many people who have experienced
acid flashbacks. It is not nonsense, it just doesnt always happen. It
is not the drug lingering in your system, it is because LSD premanently
changes your brain chemistry. This is undisputably true, how else would
people manage to become fried on acid? And people definitely get fried.
I think if you do enough acid your brain can actually get so tweeked
that you are constantly mildly tripping, of course you would have to do
a lot</span> of acid, but some people really did go nuts with it in the 60s.

[pabel_giboon]

Quoted without permission from 'Licit and Illicit Drugs,' written by Edward M. Brecher and the editors of Consumer Reports. ISBN: 0-316-15340-0


A simple explanation of LSD flashbacks, and of their changed character after 1967, is available. According to this theory, almost everybody suffers flashbacks with or without LSD. Any intense emotional experience--the death of a loved one, the moment of discovery that one is in love, the moment of an automobile smashup or of a narrow escape from a smashup--may subsequently and unexpectedly return vividly to consciousness weeks or months later. Since the LSD trip is often an intense emotional experience, it is hardly surprising that it may similarly "flash back."


"Post-traumatic stress disorder has been commonly associated with war veterans, but it also affects victims of disasters and violence... Experts estimate that 1% of the population suffers from the disorder."
---LA Times, Feb 18 1992, p A3, "Journey For Better Life Hell For Some Women."

[AcmeSewageCo]

Pretty sure thats some lingering DEA nonsense.


Indeed... Flashbacks I feel caused by drugs are non-existant... Flashbacks are real of course... But are caused by chemical reactions naturally in the brain... After using psychedelic chemicals for nearly 30 or so years... I still have yet to have a flashback... Many a times... My friends would call me up in a panic... Claiming they had experienced a flashback from frequent LSD use... But I helped them discover within weeks... That they had just been fools and had taken acid earlier that day and forgotten... Sometimes that is also a cause of these so called flashbacks people not knowing that they had partook in psychedelic chemicals that day... Of course there is always logical explinations... For those who experience true flashbacks without frequent or no drug use these people have experienced extreme trauma and such in previous years... Perhaps just... Perhaps... There is a possibility that a horrible psychedelic trip that you experienced could trigger a flashback... But not caused by chemicals...


Example: Take frequent 400 or so ug trips on acid at least five times a week (chronic heavy uses in high doses)... You've been doing it for 10 or so years non-stop with just this chemical and never experienced a bad enough trip to cause you to stop... You have the worst trip in your life one day in 1990 and for some reason you can remember melting walls and a gigantic doxan dog... Attacking you... You never take acid or any other psychedelic againbecause of that trip...Fast forward to 2005... For some reason you visit your neighbors house just for a local game of... Scrabble and what not... ... And he or she has a doxan dog... It triggers the memory of that horrible trip into your brain... Thus causing a flashback or trama... End example...


This is the most logical explanation I can think of... Trauma from dramatic memories from previous trips can trigger flashbacks... But I do not believe that this is caused from the actual LSD you took... But an imprint left into your memory... From your horrible experiances... This is my soul opinion... There is no evidence of flashbacks caused by psychedelic chemicals... As the person I quoted... It is just a bunch of DEA bull shit... Another myth to scare the masses... They have been known to do that... We all watch the news I assume... It's much like the whole... "blue star tattoo" inncodents... Rofl... Yeah... Those were quite true? DEA and government have a tendency to lie... So let them do as they will... If you are taking LSD and other psychedelic chemicals and any chemicals... You are already putting your life on the line... So why worry about flashbacks? Just be happy and stand tall with pride that you have not succumb to death!http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/smileys/smiley4.gifTheseare just my theories...Edited by: AcmeSewageCo