Shizophrania and drug use

[thepainwasenough]

There are many opinions about this I've seen. My cousin has shizophrania probably (everyone is hush hush about anything about him since he is mentally handicapped to begin with). This may be due to the large ammount of drugs they rotated him through but I doubt he has ever tried illegal drugs,etc. It seems like my grandfather from that same side of the family may also have been shizophranic towards the end of his life (maybe it was dementia).

I've read about marijuana causing people to become stupid,etc but in my case I have nothing to else to do but to become a guinea pig, trying antidepressant after antidepressant, anxiety drugs, etc. I feel like a person who is near sighted and needs glasses so maybe psychadelics are the answer.

I know of a guy that had schizophrenia on both sides of his family yet felt that psychedelics had increased the quality of his life.

Do psychadelics trigger these things? It seems just about everyone has someone in their extended family with mental illness of some sort (maybe not to a clinical degree)

I've already posted a post similar to this but felt this deserved a seperate piece to help with the reading load on the viewer.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Schizophrenia and psychedelics is a bad combination, even under medical supervision. Much more risky than doing psychedelics when you're depressed, neurotic, or have been diagnosed BPD, ADHD etc.

 

[Faust]

There's only some anecdotal evidence for it, which is hardly evidence at all.
'Drugs' could probably trigger people who are susceptible to schizophrenia. Same goes for stress though. It's probably best not to take the risk.

 

[Brugmansia]

Ketamine has taught me how difficult it is to handle an activated extended mind which has no identity that is seen as truly one's self. I'll never forget how my own mind got a temporarly split in where one piece got placed in a tomb under the ground in my garden, and the other half witnesses the world, known without me. Dissociatives are just too odd. Despersonalisation that is.

It's completely unpredictable, but I more or less guarantee you that if a sufferer of schizophrenia makes a trainwreck, the consequences are turning out into a shocking picture for the environment.

 

[thepainwasenough]

As it is now, I can honestly say, putting my ego and all aside that my life is not very much worth living. I am not desperately suicidal, just soberly cognizant of the fact.

The High Priest (Timothy Leary) of LSD led a pretty boring life after his wife died and he had to be a robot to society and feels that LSD freed him of that.

Would you guys consider Salvia to be a psychadelic? Pot?

Alchohol I think damages more than anything and I don't enjoy it.

I know you guys are psychonauts -- can you guys perhaps recommend me any drug that can make me feel relaxed and content?

I've tried heavy doses of benzos, only ending up in the middle of nowhere not remembering where I am. Alchohol just makes me barf and lose balance.


Thanks guys!

P.S. I'm looking at three K's : Kanna, Kava, Kratom. Recommendations or good sources (PM me)

 

[user_1919]

I really like the way Terence describes it.

peace & love

 

[restin]

I know you guys are psychonauts -- can you guys perhaps recommend me any drug that can make me feel relaxed and content?

morphines make you relaxed and content...although not meant to relax you after a hard day. I honestly enjoy some good snuff, it doesn't work too long, doesn't produce inconvenient side effects, isn't dangerous and doesn't make a psychedelic normal (like weed if you smoke it too often, it loses the psychedelic effect).

 

[Brugmansia]

Damn. Terence. :heart:

 

[user_1919]

^^ I love Terence!

I know you guys are psychonauts -- can you guys perhaps recommend me any drug that can make me feel relaxed and content?

Why don't you try some intense meditation right now? If I could recommend anything right now, it would be daily meditation for about an hour each morning.

peace & love

 

[FluidDruid]

If anything I would recommend Cannabis. It does not make you stupid, slow, unmotivated or any other drug war propaganda you have heard here in the states. Research has found that THC in Cannabis alleviates some symptoms of Schizophrenia. It acts as a neuro-protective agent, and can relive you from any Anxiety or Depression. As far as the psychedelic use of Cannabis, definitely. I smoke very high doses of it 3-4 times a week and have new meaningful experiences under the influence. Just don't smoke too much Kif and you'll be Ok.

 

[Forkbender]

can you guys perhaps recommend me any drug that can make me feel relaxed and content?

If you take drugs for this reason, you could end up addicting yourself. Please recognize that drugs alter the way you feel and experience the world, but don't take them to get a certain feeling, because the experience can change from one day to the next, and you don't want to take a drug just to feel good. Psychonautism is about exploring the mind, with an eye for what is happening to it, not just under the influence of drugs, but also sober. Be aware of the feelings, just be aware, don't judge.

That being said, I think kratom might be an option, but keep the above in mind.

 

[Forkbender]

I was just reading your other topic. Maybe a shamanic ayahuasca-journey would be for you. It could turn out to be a tough experience, but it has the power to heal you in many ways.

 

[JohnDoe_2012]

Cannabis and meditation are the easiest for most of us to recommend since a little of either on a semi-regular basis isn't likely to do anything overly drastic to you. You can kind of figure your way through it and gradually test the boundaries. Psychedelics are so variable, you never 100% know what is going to happen as far as I can tell. The problems come from those times you go 'too far' but not in a fun sense, unless that's happened to you it's hard to truly explain the impact of it. Imagine you saw something really horrific in your everyday life right there in front of your eyes, ACTUALLY happening around you. You only have to look at psychiatrist's patient lists around the world to see how many things can mess people up for extended periods of time.

Don't rush into any drugs, try and inform yourself as much as possible and always proceed with caution. I understand now why people say psychedelics take courage, it's not courage to rush into something when you don't really know what it can do to you or how it might affect you. The courage comes from when you have seen the bad things or the bad places inside yourself and you are trying to heal them or get to a place where those images don't haunt you.

Psychedelics can open up whatever is inside of you. Don't think of them like some really advanced video game where you're going to go off into a fantasy realm and have all these cool adventures and forget about the problems of your life. Maybe you will have experiences like that, chances are though these drugs are going to put you face to face with everything that is inside of you. So you need to ask yourself is that something you are prepared to experience? Do you understand that some things can't be unseen or unexperienced?

As psychonauts it can be difficult to give advice because there are really nice experiences you can have and really horrible experiences and anyone who has had both doesn't want to prod or lean on someone to take or not take these substances because we don't want to worry we're sending you off to a negative experience based on our advice. Also we don't want to prompt a bad experience by making you go into it thinking that is definitely going to happen. Do you see the dilemma?

The more in touch you are with yourself and the further you've gone in your life to exploring and healing your biggest inner problems the better your psychedelic experiences will be in my opinion. Some things you never really know until you reach that place where everything in your being knows them. You might think you have all your shit nailed down, have tried a million thought experiments across a myriad of philosophies, but until you're face to face with that experience you won't realize how unprepared it is possible to be.

My advice summed up would be:
* Don't ignore any inner problems you have, try and deal with them in your everyday life and perhaps through some form of psychotherapy (doesn't have to be medication, could try cognitive behavioural therapy or just someone to talk to)
* Be aware your mind has the power to take you to the highest and most pure experiences and the most appalling and horrific.
* Be cautious and respectful.
* Don't try too hard to go out there early on and get 'fuuuucked up man', these drugs have more than anyone can handle when they head in that direction.
* Try and cultivate your intuition and listen to it, when it suggests things you want to do and also when it tells you not to do things.

 

[Psychoid]

Cannabis and meditation are the easiest for most of us to recommend since a little of either on a semi-regular basis isn't likely to do anything overly drastic to you. You can kind of figure your way through it and gradually test the boundaries. Psychedelics are so variable, you never 100% know what is going to happen as far as I can tell. The problems come from those times you go 'too far' but not in a fun sense, unless that's happened to you it's hard to truly explain the impact of it. Imagine you saw something really horrific in your everyday life right there in front of your eyes, ACTUALLY happening around you. You only have to look at psychiatrist's patient lists around the world to see how many things can mess people up for extended periods of time.

Don't rush into any drugs, try and inform yourself as much as possible and always proceed with caution. I understand now why people say psychedelics take courage, it's not courage to rush into something when you don't really know what it can do to you or how it might affect you. The courage comes from when you have seen the bad things or the bad places inside yourself and you are trying to heal them or get to a place where those images don't haunt you.

Psychedelics can open up whatever is inside of you. Don't think of them like some really advanced video game where you're going to go off into a fantasy realm and have all these cool adventures and forget about the problems of your life. Maybe you will have experiences like that, chances are though these drugs are going to put you face to face with everything that is inside of you. So you need to ask yourself is that something you are prepared to experience? Do you understand that some things can't be unseen or unexperienced?

As psychonauts it can be difficult to give advice because there are really nice experiences you can have and really horrible experiences and anyone who has had both doesn't want to prod or lean on someone to take or not take these substances because we don't want to worry we're sending you off to a negative experience based on our advice. Also we don't want to prompt a bad experience by making you go into it thinking that is definitely going to happen. Do you see the dilemma?

The more in touch you are with yourself and the further you've gone in your life to exploring and healing your biggest inner problems the better your psychedelic experiences will be in my opinion. Some things you never really know until you reach that place where everything in your being knows them. You might think you have all your shit nailed down, have tried a million thought experiments across a myriad of philosophies, but until you're face to face with that experience you won't realize how unprepared it is possible to be.

My advice summed up would be:
* Don't ignore any inner problems you have, try and deal with them in your everyday life and perhaps through some form of psychotherapy (doesn't have to be medication, could try cognitive behavioural therapy or just someone to talk to)
* Be aware your mind has the power to take you to the highest and most pure experiences and the most appalling and horrific.
* Be cautious and respectful.
* Don't try too hard to go out there early on and get 'fuuuucked up man', these drugs have more than anyone can handle when they head in that direction.
* Try and cultivate your intuition and listen to it, when it suggests things you want to do and also when it tells you not to do things.

+1 :O nice post man

 

[thepainwasenough]

I like what you guys are saying about fixing things and becoming a well rounded person. It sounds so much like you guys have been helped by substances. I can relate in a way ever since my first experience.


I think I sort of had a minor psychadelic experience once with MJ. When I would close my eyes, I saw both a sad and touching hallucination. It did make me aware of the fact that I have a problem. It made me feel like I was going to cry because I was basically rexperiencing something. But now I realize that it means I have to do something about it, even if I think its hopeless. Btw, I didn't think I was high at any point -- I had been trying to get high and never got high in my life -- but I had a dry mouth and felt tired and I saw something when I would close my eyes so I guess I was technically high. I thought being high would be like being a completely different person -- happy or creative or just goofy... or that I would be cooler than I am now -- the neurotic part of me thought of all the horror stories I compulsively read about people becoming psychotic, etc.
I was feeling very down at this point in my life, being physically ill but not having any diagnosis and my friends were drifting further away. I sat there and thought about my mind. I didn't think I was high -- but I seemed to think more clearly. I normally think in obsessive and annoying ways and get stuck in patterns of thought. But here I was feeling like I was observing my mind objectively ... I was a witness and I thought to myself : I'm very different. Einstein was different and people are different in many ways. But I'm terribly different -- meaning in a way thats not good. And I didn't feel terrible about it. I just acknowledged it. I no longer felt at fault for everything that was different about me and what other people found strange. I realized that genetics and enviroment are playing a game and I don't have to feel guilty about something thats not my own fault. Its one thing to hear someone else say this but its a different thing to intuitively arrive at it by oneself.

A part of me thinks that this was all placebo or merely that I let myself be when I was doing what all the other kids are doing -- smoking pot together.

So you guys sort of use drugs like people interpret their dreams? Btw, I am very good at lucid dreaming -- anyone else like this? I have found lucid dreams to be helpful in self exploration and healing.

I had another experience, one with Salvia. I was alone and scared to go into a complete state of hallucination since I thought I might hurt myself so I didn't take a very large hit. My head sort of felt heavier and I was in my mind sort of in between states like between dreaming and being awake, but there was a third conciousness. It was one of seeing the fabric of life fit together. I realized that everything I do seems to fit a pattern -- that life is really just a serious of actions and things that definately fit some sort of archetype. For me, who has become so despondent being physically ill and basically homebound and isolated at 19 years old since I got Lyme disease 1 1/2 years ago this really helped. It may have even saved my life.

I've become more aware of my thought processes and I question them. Before I ever tried any drug I was always terrified and anxious about all the possibilities in life. Now I seem to just recognize that as a fact of life and not be anxious about these things.