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Immune Disorder and Psychedelics
I'm posting this in the LSD forum because it concerns this substance to a large degree, but it also concerns the use of several other substances to be mentioned later. Anyway, here's the story, it's long but please bear with me because i think the details are important. It's very important to swim because it concerns his physical health so he hopes people will actually read through it all...
Swim is a pretty big stoner was interested in psychedelics (especially for their potential therapeutic value) for many years before finally having the chance to take some mushrooms twice last summer. He found the experience to be very awe inspiring with a very slight but persistent anxiety. He has since found that he almost always rubs his fingers together and grinds his teeth without noticing when he trips. After this introduction, healthy spaced out use of psychedelics occurred for the next several months, including one other mushroom trip, one experience with MDMA and one light acid trip. Around december, though, he purchased a large quantity of acid and has several trips through late december and mid january, increasing dosage from half a tab finally up to two tabs. These experiences were mostly good but some were significantly less euphoric than previous experiences and he noticed some strange "bubbling" sensations in his head that would return later when he got really stoned. Later in january he took an 8th of very strong mushrooms and had a pretty bad trip. He felt he deserved this because one of the reasons he is interested in psychedelics is to face his inner demons. The general mood of the trip was an overwhelming anxiety which set in after maybe an hour of having a good time. The anxiety diminished as he came down and spent some time with people who were becoming very good friends of his. Later on, maybe in february, he had two experiences with 2c-e at 15 and 17 mgs. Both were extremely physically uncomfortable including some very strange sensations of numbness in the upper lip and nose. He had the second experience about a week after the first despite the fact that he didn't have a very good time at all. Again, he felt it would be good for him in the long run and felt he deserved all the negative sensations. He has since come to realize that this is due to an underlying desire for self-destruction which drugs have helped him realize but only he himself can ultimately deal with. He also thinks this is why he smoked such an excessive amount of pot. At this point in the year his psychological state began to decline due to some stressful relationships and increasing awareness on the state of his social life. He started smoking more and more pot and generally engaging in pleasure seeking. Sex, eating, etc. Nothing that works too well but anything to distract him from the here and now.
It is also around this time that he got very sick. Bad fever, swollen tonsil and lymph nodes, sore throat, extreme fatigue. This did not help matters. He recovered from the fever after about a week, but the swollen tonsil and lymph nodes as well as occasional sore throat and fatigue have continued to this day. During this time he occasionally tried to smoke less pot, but without much success. He also continued to use psychedelics. A couple weeks after getting sick he had a light acid trip. One pretty weak tab. It was kind of fun (he was in yosemite valley so it was very beautiful) but negative physical sensations overshadowed any good time he had. Over the next few months, he also had several light mushroom trips (1 gram or less), one experience with AET, one heavy acid trip (to commemorate bicycle day on april 19th), and one experience with MDMA. Some of the experiences were very interesting and enjoyable but always with negative physical sensations, with the exception of the empathogen experiences which he felt were significantly lighter on his body. After the majority of these experiences and several trips to the doctor's office, he was told "You've apparently had mono sometime within the last three months." Clearly this was the time he got very sick with a fever and everything.
Swim then came home from college for the summer and decided he better pull himself together. After a few weeks he essentially quite smoking pot and found that when he does smoke it makes his throat much more sore and seems to make his swollen tonsil worse. He then eats a lot of shit he shouldn't and goes to sleep, waking up not very refreshed. He started to become more aware of what he eats, which he has never done in his life. He started taking vitamins and exercising regularly. This he has also never done. He came to the conclusion that he has never actually been fully physically healthy in his life and if he keeps going on this path his body will simply continue to degrade into a likely early death (he is very thin but heart disease runs in the family). He has also recently started doing yoga to become aware of and improve his physical state.
Anyway, here comes my question. Thank you so much if you've read up to this point. Swim has been sick now for over 4 months. After doing some reading on mono i've heard of similar cases where people have had symptoms for months after being sick, but i can't help but make a few speculations and have a few worries. He feels like his body is incapable of dealing with the infection in my tonsil. He also has an increasing problem with warts, which get worse when the immune system is depressed. Another strange thing is he's noticed sensations in his upper lip and nose at times that are similar to the sensations he experienced on 2c-e though not as intense. His father in older age (50s) has developed several problems stemming from an "auto-immune disorder". These problems include, rheumatoid arthritis, an eye condition called ocular gravis, and occasional unexplainable hives and swelling in the face. His father took LSD several times in college and has expressed the concern that his current physical state could have something to do with those experiences. Swim thinks this is definitely jumping to conclusions since he took LSD no more than 6 times over 30 years ago and swim's personal opinion is that the condition is worsened by poor physical health (his father works an office job and gets no exercise) and is possibly exacerbated by stress he experiences at work and in his marriage. Swim wonders, though, if the condition isn't perhaps genetic in some way and if psychedelics (especially abuse of psychedelics) couldn't potentially bring out underlying physical disorders in a similar way to bringing out underlying schizophrenia or other mental disorders. Especially if the disorder is somehow stress related as the anxiety he experiences on psychedelics would suggest it is a very stressful experience for his body. If anyone has any thoughts on his situation or tips to possibly speed up his body's recovery he would love to hear them. Again, thanks if you've read all this, i know it was drawn out and possibly fairly boring, but swim will really appreciate hearing comments.
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27-07-2008, 20:57
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