LSD acts on the mind and body of the user in considerably different ways than most other drugs. It is a hallucinogen, so the person who takes it loses his or her usual sense of reality and correct perception of the environment. The change can have a disastrous effect on some people who are not emotionally or mental stable enough to deal with this shift.
LSD’s effects are unpredictable for a single person as well. So a person may have a good experience (referred to as a “trip”) one time and a “bad trip” the next time. The same drug can affect different people in completely different ways as well. One person can have a good trip while another using the same batch of drug may have a very bad experience.
A person who has taken LSD is also prone to drug flashbacks, where he or she is suddenly and without warning having an LSD experience again. Flashbacks can appear years after the last time LSD was taken. These flashbacks can include distortions of space and shape and the appearance of trails attached to moving objects. Flashbacks can be severe enough and frequent enough to impair a person’s ability to study, work or interact socially.
When bad trips occur, the drug user may be so traumatized that he is left emotionally or mentally impaired from that point on. A person who is panicking over changed perceptions or reality due to LSD use may become paranoid, violent or aggressive. They may fear that someone is trying to harm them or that they are in danger of being killed. This can and has resulted in injury or even death of the drug user or someone in the environment. This type of bad trip is more likely when a person uses a large dose of LSD.
Some people who were using LSD have thought that they could jump off a tall building without being harmed. This type of false reality has resulted in some deaths.
LSD can have a damaging effect on some people’s mental stability, sometimes for years after they have stopped taking the drug. These people may experience an inability to recognize reality, think rationally or communicate with others, even when no history of these disabilities existed before the use of LSD.
Some people who were already susceptible to psychosis have suffered a precipitation of that condition that lasted long after the drug stopped being taken.
It does not appear that an LSD user becomes physically addicted to the drug, but it is possible to build up a tolerance so higher dosages of LSD are needed to trigger a trip. And those taking LSD can become psychologically dependent on the drug.
It has been found that after a person uses drugs or alcohol, residues from this drug use become lodged in the fatty tissues of the body. Then, when conditions are right, these residues can become activated and cause flashbacks or other lasting problems.
Most LSD users stop on their own but each year, nearly 2,000 are admitted to US rehabilitation centers so they get help getting off this drug. Most of them are under 21 and the vast majority are under 25.
When a person does stop using LSD, they are liable to suffer from prolonged depression and anxiety.
The Narconon program, available in some fifty centers across six continents, offers a sauna detoxification that can help the recovering LSD addict regain clarity of perception once again. This sauna program combines moderate daily exercise, generous nutritional supplementation on a strict schedule, and time in a low-heat sauna. At the end of a month or more, each person completing this step normally finds that cravings for drugs or alcohol are greatly lowered or gone, and that thinking and perceiving clearer are easier as a result of toxic residues being flushed out while in the sauna.
Seek help now for someone you care about who is dependent on LSD
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