# Cannabis/MDMA?



## Andrew K (Mar 27, 2006)

Is a good cure for severely chronic derealization, and over all unhappiness. Obsecive thoughts, no friends, anxiety, panic attacks, seclusion, severe anxiety disorder, isolation, drugged up my whole life, no hope at all. Medicines have not worked anything for me in the past 3 years. Can Cannabis (Marijuana), or MDMA (Ecstasy) help any of these?


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## Pablo (Sep 1, 2005)

MDMA can have an incredibly powerful effect on your mental health. For me it was like dynamite in my psyche and may have well ruined my life and perhaps given me life long symptoms on anxiety and dissociation.

Even though it has messed me up I am still not going to completely blow it out as I understand how it can have a profoundly postive effect on some people.

When you take MDMA what it does is it opens you up completely. The fear areas of your brain are turned down and your ego barriers are removed leaving you very vulnerable and open. For this reason it was used for psychotherapy and is used even now by the US government for cancer patients and PTSD victims.

For some people it can remove defence mechanisms but this is also where the danger comes in. Your defence mechanisms exist for a reason so some people on MDMA experience aspects of themselves which were kept protected abd repressed and like myself are traumatised by the experience.

What it does is it enhances your existing mental state so if you are down, anxious or depressed it will not help only make you worse. If you are feeling great, surrounded by people who care and will look after you then it can be a transforming experience. But unfortunately most people dont respect the drug and abuse it and end up with severe anxiety and panic attacks.


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## jeremy (Apr 28, 2006)

...


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## Pablo (Sep 1, 2005)

jeremy said:


> Im wondering if perhaps MDMA and drugs in general could bring up deep rooted emotions to the surface and that is why people get drug induced DP/DR? Just a thought...
> 
> Jeremy


This is what happened to me but I would say I was the exception rather than the norm. Also this effect is more specific to MDMA as other drugs like cannabis dont act in this way or cause DP in this way.


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## bro*dog (Aug 3, 2006)

Personally for me Smoking pot is what brought on my DP. I would strongly advise not to turn to that. Even when i sit around other people smoking pot it seems to make it worse.


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## bro*dog (Aug 3, 2006)

Personally for me Smoking pot is what brought on my DP. I would strongly advise not to turn to that. Even when i sit around other people smoking pot it seems to make it worse.


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## CECIL (Oct 3, 2004)

Pablo said:


> For some people it can remove defence mechanisms but this is also where the danger comes in. Your defence mechanisms exist for a reason so some people on MDMA experience aspects of themselves which were kept protected abd repressed and like myself are traumatised by the experience.


I never took MDMA while I was DP, but I have since. In my experience this drug could prove most beneficial, because it absolutely opens you to real experience and emotion. But like Pablo said, if you have a massive fear of this openness (i.e. DP) it could be quite traumatic and you might freak out.

If you're going to try it, I'd reccomend trying it with someone who you really trust. Also it would be a good idea to tell these people about your DP and/or depression before you start (like a few weeks before) and build up a trust about that.

When you are on psychedelics, you WILL have wierd thoughts. You WILL feel like having deep conversations with people and probably disclosing very personal things to them. If you are tripping and you try to hold back these thoughts like you normally do when you feel DP/depressed, you will more than likely have a bad trip. On the other hand if you open yourself and let it all flow, you'll probably have a great time.

As for pot, on the other hand, while its fun it always made my DP worse and even now leaves me feeling "off" for a day or two afterwards. So I can't really reccomend it.


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## CECIL (Oct 3, 2004)

jeremy said:


> Im wondering if perhaps MDMA and drugs in general could bring up deep rooted emotions to the surface and that is why people get drug induced DP/DR? Just a thought...
> 
> Jeremy


Absolutely. Anything you are trying to hide from yourself will come to the surface when you are on psychedelics. More importantly, if you try to surpress anything you are feeling while on Psychedelics, you will more than likely end up having a really bad time.

The rules for Psychedelics:

1. Set and setting - always do them in a comfortable place with people you are comfortable with and always in a good mindset (i.e. never when you feel down or wierd).
2. Anything that comes to mind or that you feel like doing, do or say it immediately (unless its gonna hurt you or someone else). If you try to surpress your feelings or try to control your behaviour you will most likely have a bad trip.
3. You won't die, you will come down, its just the trip, calm down.
4. You can always take more, but you can't take less.

Have fun


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## Andy (Aug 9, 2005)

CECIL said:


> The rules for Psychedelics:
> 
> 1. Set and setting - always do them in a comfortable place with people you are comfortable with and always in a good mindset (i.e. never when you feel down or wierd).
> 2. Anything that comes to mind or that you feel like doing, do or say it immediately (unless its gonna hurt you or someone else). If you try to surpress your feelings or try to control your behaviour you will most likely have a bad trip.
> ...


You have obviously never had a completely out of body mind blowing trip like the one that gave me DP/DR and HPPD.

When your body doesn't exist and all senses are intermingled so that colours have smells, thoughts have solid forms and words that you have known all your life suddenly have different meanings, rules like the above are completely meaningless.

There are no hard and fast rules that you can follow that will guarantee hallucinogens not to cause a bad trip, or even worse long term potentially irreversible adverse effects. I'm not saying 'don't do drugs' because I know people always will (I did). I'm just saying that if you do take hallucinogens you have to be aware that there is a real chance that you will never be the same again as long as you live. If you already have something like DP or DR and are thinking about trying to cure it with hallucinogens, please think again.

Andy


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## CECIL (Oct 3, 2004)

Andy - I didn't say if you follow those rules you won't have a bad trip. Just that if you don't follow those rules there's more chance to have a bad trip.

Nope I haven't ever tripped as hard as you described, that's pretty incredible.

All drugs are tranformative substances. You will never be the same after taking a drug. But you'll never be the same again after eating breakfast or taking a shower in the morning, either. The changes you experience on drugs are a lot more profound and potentially life changing, however.

While I agree that using drugs (even prescription medication IMO) is not a cure for "mental illness", you can learn a lot about yourself, the world and your mind by using pscyhedelic chemicals.

You just have to be willing to get a little more crazy than you think you are now


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## Pancthulhu (May 27, 2006)

*Clicky clicky* => http://www.erowid.org


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## widescreened (Jun 22, 2005)

I think we are in danger of glamourizing the use of drugs. They are all utterly useless. Dangerous for society. The abourigional people were able for trips because they dont think abstractly like westerners do. So western people should run a mile from drugs. I dont know about the brain damage aspect of it, but it definitely affects the mind psychologically.


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## Andrew K (Mar 27, 2006)

I believe that Psilocybin which is consequentlly, the active psycgoactive ingredient in Magic Mushrooms, could really help OCD, and DR/DP. Anxiety, could with out a doubt be enhanced, if one experienced a bad trip, but if in a controlled environment...I believe there is potential.


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## CECIL (Oct 3, 2004)

widescreened said:


> I think we are in danger of glamourizing the use of drugs. They are all utterly useless. Dangerous for society. The abourigional people were able for trips because they dont think abstractly like westerners do. So western people should run a mile from drugs. I dont know about the brain damage aspect of it, but it definitely affects the mind psychologically.


No offence, but this is the most misimformed post I've read so far.

First of all, Drugs aren't "utterly useless". For starters you have to include ALL drugs INCLUDING those used to treat mental illness. Secondly if used in the right context drugs can be very powerful and helpful (on a personal level in my experience), but also have the potential to do harm (Also from personal experience).

"The abourigional people were able for trips because they dont think abstractly like westerners do."

Again, just so wrong. The western mind is actually one of the LEAST abstractly thinking of all of the cultures on earth. We think objectively and very rationally, whereas other cultures, ESPECIALLY Australian Aboriginals and Native Americans have a mind-set that is completely different. Their very language is entirely engineered to deal with abstract concepts. If you want to use a metaphor their language/mind-set is more like quantum phsyics while the western mind is more like newton mechanics (which one is more advanced?).

"I dont know about the brain damage aspect of it, but it definitely affects the mind psychologically."

Used safely and appropriately (and assuming you actually know what's in your Drugs, which is a part of safety) there's really little evidence of brain damage. Usually physical problems happen when drugs are used irresponsibly.

Of course they affect you psychologically - that's the point. Again, they are transformative. You absolutely cannot go through this life without your mental/emotional/mental state changing. To resist this change only causes pain and further problems.


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## Pablo (Sep 1, 2005)

I think the problem is that most people dont have the emotional education or support structures to be able to use powerful drugs without a strong risk to their emotional health. If there was the right approach which effectively means that there was a therapuetic space where the person taking the drugs were encouraged to accept and express everything they experienced, then such drug experiences could possibly be one of the most valuable and transformative practises ever invented and could cure a large proportion of the neurosis in society. But in the wrong hands it could cause a mental meltdown.

In my own personal experience when I took ecstasy it removed nearly all of my psychic barriers and defence mechanisms and for the first time I could see all of the emotions and aspects of myself which I had denied and repressed. It would have taken a therapist years to do this if he could at all, but my problem is that I didn't have the education or support to accept and integrate the expereince so it severly traumatised me (which is why I am now a member of this site), but I see how drugs lke ecstasy can be very valuable which is why it is legally being used in the USA and Israel to treat terminal cancer patients and people with PTSD.


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