This post includes discussion about the use of psychoactive substances. Please do not take my statements on dosage, effect, benefits, or any other quality of a drug as directions or suggestions. The use of psychoactive substances presents immediate and long-term risks every time they are ingested.
This is an introduction to a series of posts I'm going to begin working on to help catalog my different experiences with drugs. Many of the reasons I'd like to do this are personal. I believe sitting down and writing out my thoughts will help me explore those spaces in my mind, especially because of the nature of drug use often being socially entwined. One passing moment in a conversation could spark a week's worth of deep introspection for someone, only to be glossed over at the turn of the topic moments later. Making a physical version such as this will allow people to pick and choose which parts of my experiences or thoughts they'd like to talk with me about and vice versa. At the end of the day, the "experience" of using a substance exists entirely in an individual's mind, and I believe one way to be constructive with one's personal experiences (in general) is to effectively communicate them to others in hopes that they can generate positive discussion. I'm also hoping to get a lot of these thoughts out of my head and saved somewhere in case my mental faculties begin to degrade at some point and I become unable to describe them as effectively.
I expect to be starting with describing my time using oral DMT. I want to get it out of the way first because it will probably be the hardest for me to put into words and has affected my life more than any other psychoactive substance, and I might return to it for another one of these posts. After that, there will be no specific order to which comes next, and I will make other posts in between these. I will certainly be doing ones on alcohol, cannabis, LSD, tobacco/nicotine, mushrooms, MDA, nitrous oxide, smoked DMT, DXM, some research chemicals, and more.
I know I wrote a warning at the top of this post, and will continue to, but I want to reinforce the fact that taking any of these substances presents at least some risks. Using drugs should always be a personal choice that one makes after careful consideration, and no one else should be responsible for what you choose to put into your body. Although I've had mostly great experiences with psychoactive substances, I consider myself lucky to have had the will and type of mind (neither being exceptional) that was able to make it through some extremely difficult experiences that I'm sure would have broken some people in some way. I also consider myself lucky for not being plagued with addiction (except maybe cannabis, but not much of a plague) or having other psychological or neurological issues that could have either made me unable to experiment or made it exceptionally dangerous to. I have made incredibly bad decisions that would have never happened if I didn't choose to experiment with drugs. Please make good choices, or at least make the best of a not-so-good choice any way you can, and be safe. It breaks my heart to hear about the terrible things that happen with psychoactive substances, from bad trips to the opioid epidemic that has hit me through family and friends.
In this series, I might say something like, "mushrooms are very helpful for getting in touch with your emotions, and has helped me and people I know with feelings of anxiety". This is not a doctor's prescription for you to go buy a few caps and treat your anxiety or emotional issues. This is a reflection of my experience, nothing more, nothing less. There are many places you can go read about "safety", and although I will discuss safety, it will not be the focus, and for the millionth time, I'm not a professional in anything related to this, and I am not making any type of suggestion. I'm not saying this for legal reasons or anything like that, I'm saying it because I genuinely care about people having safe and positive experiences.
Stay tuned if you're interested! I hope someone finds my times with different substances to be informative, interesting, or at least comedic. I've certainly spent a lot of time laughing!
I think that communication is what makes life so great, and when it has to do with how something has improved or even harmed our lives, it can be helpful for others to make decisions, but yes, ultimately your own research MUST be done before undertaking significant risk.
Always interesting to hear anecdotal experiences of others with psychoactive substances. I have dabbled in a few that you have listed so I am excited by the balance of novel and familiar topics you plan to discuss. I love to laugh :)
Communication is what makes us human, and brings depth to the human world. I've found that it can generally be most helpful to at least make attempts at meaningful communication. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to say the right thing the right way, which isn't a bad thing, but at one point it's better to just get it out. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy!
Communication may be be far more universal within organisms than just us humans, but I share a similar sentiment; I am very passionate about helping people regain their ability to send a message, even if that means it comes in a different mode.
I appreciate that internal struggle, but your approach sounds very healthy, being mindful while still decisive toward a clear goal.