Silk Road forums
Discussion => Drug safety => Topic started by: raveyote69 on March 10, 2012, 06:14 pm
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How would a bipolar (manic depressive) person go about preventing acute mania while enjoying the bliss and empathy that mdma offers?
This also applies to LSD, shrooms, MXE, weed etc.
Is there a way to prevent manic psychosis, while enjoying a good roll that products from SR provide?
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Mere knowledgeable users- please jump on me if I am wrong here.
My intuition says that stimulants in general not going to be good for someone with bipolar... I'm sure you saw that response coming.
Aside from that...
I would say taking a GABA enhancer may be of benefit. A benzo such as lorazepam has a pretty appropriate duration for your application. Probably ~45min before dosing.
GABA slows down how fast your neurons fire and should prevent emotional extremes. I'm guessing that some of the psychedelic effect could be diminished because of this however. Start small with maybe 1mg.
Taking stimulants and depressants at the same time probably isn't uber good for you either - just my two cents. Can anyone comment on this?
Finally: benzo tolerance builds quickly and withdrawals are some of the worst known for those who make it a habit. GABA enhancers could very well seem like the magic cure to bipolar disorder but it will be a ruthlessly quick fix if you let yourself slide down the wrong road. Sorry to lecture.
Happy travels!
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Oops - just saw you had MXE listed too. Don't use benzos with dissociatives. Its a recipe for cardiac arrest.
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I feel like I should know a lot more about this than I do, however I myself am a light bipolar type II, and have not experienced any significant mood shifts for more than a year, even when not taking a mood stabiliser. Amphetamines, supposedly something to which bipolars are sensitive, has not greatly affected my mood states. I cannot seem to induce hypomania by my own efforts, but I have only had the diagnosis for a few years now. The one time I have taken LSD it went very well, despite the somewhat reckless and cavalier manner under which it happened. I had been at a plateau regarding my mental depression (lucidity and overall function mainly, not a lot of feeling) for some 8 months by this stage, and while I could not sensibly attribute any causal relationship, it seems remarkable that over the next week my mental faculties and curiosity became gradually enlivened, until I reached what I regarded as complete wellness. The first hypomania happened some months down the track.
I was very much at the top of my hypomanic game when trying mushrooms, which some hours in had me pacing quickly around in the lounge room in circles for at least an hour, being engaged in more or less continuous walking dreams of great excitement and imagination. It was a blissful hybrid between the world of dreams, the movement of ideas and creative planning and awakened lucidity, where I would be simultaneously walking with energy and living out these directed fantasies. On reflection I can say it was probably the most magical and joyous moment of my life, but I never really learned anything about myself or felt changed by it. For a type I bipolar, susceptible to capital m Mania, and possibly rapid shifts in state, I can only venture that the psychedelic world would be fraught with peril. I am only now in a position to try and re-engage with those experiences myself, in what will be my 3rd trip, and will most certainly have my Seroquel on hand, so as to put down any depressive minefields I may encounter. Your own precautions, should you choose to undertake any such adventures I hope would be more extensive.
MDMA I myself am now only just anticipating first time usage in the near future, and hope that we can perhaps compare notes. You in particular will need to pay very close attention to dosage, set and setting, as for a psychedelic, since much of the power of MDMA is amplified by the users' external stimulus and own excitability. Things like Lithium will probably hamstring it, ordinary antidepressants tend to reduce its effects (at least in some areas) and in particular MAOI's can lead to serotonergic overload, worstcase serotonin syndrome but you probably already knew that.
I cannot actually answer your questions directly, both from lack of experience and the fact that pharmacologically speaking they are extremely complex and at least partially individual. Whirlwind may well be onto something with the GABA, supplements for it are supposed to sensitise neurons in what stimulus they will fire from, and promote a relaxed state of being overall, something which MDMA will probably help facillitate, though higher dosages tend toward more speediness. It may be most prudent to focus on harm reduction and control mechanisms for whatever you take, taking magnesium, 5htp & L-Tyrosine before sleeping on the comedown will probably prove beneficial in alleviating possible depressive crashes afterwards (piracetam may also help, come to think of it, during).
Ultimately if you are liable to enter Manic states where you may lose control of yourself, if you cannot put yourself in protective company and circumstances to undertake considered experimentation, it most probably isn't worth the risk.
These substances can be a great boon, but for many people the dangers are too great.
Take care of yourself, and I hope you are able to make successful voyages.