“Lucy in the sky with diamonds.” This Beatles lyric carelessly and dangerously glamorizes the use of LSD, a known hallucinogen.
Unfortunately, many people don’t understand the risks and harmful effects of hallucinogenic drugs like LSD, PCP, and mushrooms. But what are hallucinogenic drugs exactly?
Hallucinogens are drugs that disrupt your brain’s neurotransmitters. This causes powerful altered perceptions of sight, sound, and touch called hallucinations. Up is down, black is white, even your own identity can be twisted and leave you questioning yourself.
This is part of the reason why they’re so dangerous. While under the influence of hallucinogens, people see and feel crazy things. That makes them DO irrational things that they normally wouldn’t do!
Here are five little-known facts about hallucinogenic drugs that you should be aware of.
1. Nightmare Hallucinations
Maybe you’re tempted by the idea of having wild hallucinations. It’s true that some hallucinations are euphoric and deliver a high. Hence why they were so popular in the 60’s.
But hallucinations can go either way. By using a hallucinogen, you’re risking a NIGHTMARE experience.
Hallucinations can be horrifying, gruesome, paralyzing psychedelic scenes. Imagine blood dripping from the sky, bugs falling out of your mouth and crawling under your skin, masked people chasing you. How terrifying to experience, even though it’s not real!
And unlike a dream, there’s no escaping it until the effects of the drug wear off. In fact, the effects of acid last six to twelve hours!
These experiences aren’t pleasant, in fact they can be extremely traumatizing. If you abuse hallucinogens and want help ridding yourself of these terrible experiences, check out the Drug Detox Center at the Discovery House.
2. Dangerous Acid Trips
Nightmare hallucinations have led and continue to lead users to exhibit irrational, uncharacteristic behavior. They jump out of moving cars, purposely hurt themselves, attempt to fly, strip naked, everything indecent you could possibly name.
On a bad acid “trip,” the negative hallucinations are so powerful that users can lose understanding of hallucination vs. reality. This leads to the psychotic, desperate thoughts, words, and decisions.
If you’re still tempted, read this article. It details five TRUE, terrifying stories of people abusing hallucinogenic drugs.
Beware: there are some grisly details in the article. But they are part of the awful reality of hallucinogens.
3. Long-Term Mental Effects
Did you know that taking hallucinogens can result in long-term, even permanent mental effects? The acid trip doesn’t always end when the drug wears off!
These drugs mess with your MIND. Your mind controls everything in your body, including your thoughts, feelings, and memories. So it makes sense that your body and mind remain severely impacted by psychedelic experiences.
Here are some possible long-term effects from using hallucinogenic drugs:
- Panic attacks
- Severe depression
- Severe psychosis
- Vivid flashbacks of the “trip,” which can occur long after administration of the drug
- Sweating, chills, and tremors
- Distortion of your perception of time, surroundings, depth, and body image
Don’t want to commit to any of these side effects long-term? There’s one solution: don’t mess with hallucinogenic drugs.
Or STOP messing with them. Recovery and healing are available for you.
4. Man-Made & Natural Types
When most people think of a “drug,” they usually imagine a pill or joint. A little-known fact about hallucinogenic drugs is that some are man-made and others are natural.
Man-made hallucinogens come in powder, pill, and injectable form. They include the following types:
- LSD, the most commonly used hallucinogen
- PCP, a dissociative drug originally used as an anesthetic
- Ketamine, a common date rape drug because it paralyzes the user
- Bath Salts, cheap and dangerous (often fatal!) substitutes for Meth and Cocaine
Natural hallucinogens come from plants, tea, and even inside the human body. They include the following:
- Mescaline, found in Peyote
- Psilocybin, chemical found in certain mushrooms
- DMT, white crystal powder found in plants used for “true” hallucinations
- Salvia Divinorum, South American plant that creates a flying sensation
- GHB, found in human cells and synthesized to recreate euphoria
5. Recovery IS Possible
Considering the nightmare hallucinations, dangerous trips, long-term mental health effects, and the many different forms and uses of hallucinogens, addiction recovery may seem out of reach.
Perhaps the little-known fact about hallucinogens that is the LEAST known is that recovery is possible. We’re here to tell you that you’re not too far gone!
Our rehab and detox centers use tried and tested methods to help you get clean. Our staff is trained, experienced, and willing to help you with every step down your path to sobriety.
We’re a Joint Commission Accredited facility, with the Joint Commission Gold Seal of Approval. We use the ASAM Continuum of Care, starting with early intervention and ending with medically managed intensive inpatient services. This means you can trust that your treatment will be the best of the best!
If you’ve experienced scary, unsettling things due to your drug addiction and want OUT, understanding how drug rehab program works is your lifeline. Recovery IS possible.
The Little-Known Facts About Hallucinogenic Drugs That Could Alter Your Life
Destructive. Harmful. Risky. Even fatal. Are these the words you associate with the use of hallucinogens? They should be.
Most people know that hallucinogenic drugs make people see and do weird, out of the ordinary things. But this view is over-simplified and dangerously euphemized.
Did you know hallucinations can be terrifying and traumatizing? That psychedelic experiences can lead you to do irrational, even fatal things? That there are long-term negative mental effects that don’t go away when the drug wears off?
These are the little-known facts about hallucinogenic drugs that YOU need to know. It’s not just about one “trip,” they could alter your entire life!
All drugs and alcohol have scary, long-term effects that you must understand. Addiction is no joke. Don’t risk permanent damage to your body or brain.
Fortunately, rehab is just as capable of altering your life. But this time for the better!
If you or a loved one struggle with addiction, don’t hesitate to contact us. Check out our site and find substance abuse rehab programs that work to start your path to safety and sobriety TODAY.