If anyone with mental health issues is considering psychedelics on their own, outside a clinical setting: please be careful and do your research beforehand. They nearly completely ruined my life. Definitely do not do them if you are on an SSRI.
I am bipolar but was diagnosed incorrectly with depression and OCD, taking an SSRI. I was a regular marijuana smoker and took DMT which resulted in acute psychosis that lasted months. I'd had what I now recognized as hypomanic episodes before, but nothing this bad.
I will not get into details for privacy reasons but had to take months off of work or school. I alternately thought I was famous, being followed, could control cameras that were following me at all times - the works. I had visual and auditory hallucinations days after the DMT experience, auditory weeks to months later. I told friends strange things about my mental health history that were misperceived. It is a bit of a blur.
About a week after taking DMT, I was involuntarily hospitalized and only sent home with family supervision. They put me on strong antipsychotics with nasty side effects. They didn't help at all. I only got better months later, after I got off of all psychiatric drugs, and realized when talking with a friend that I was not famous. I then entered into a nearly year long depression and perceived that I had lost almost all my friends, although I now think that was not the case.
Now, I've been stable for almost 10 years, and am married with a great career. We have a dog, a house, and are looking to have kids soon. I'm incredibly happy and only recovered with the support of family, friends, and great doctors. I've been taking lamotrigine daily for bipolar. For me, it is a wonder drug. Bipolar is incredibly hard for psychiatrists to diagnose. It took them years to identify it.
Another friend of mine had acute psychosis due to another psychedelic drug and had a similar experience to mine with a hospitalization.
If you have any family history of schizophrenia or bipolar or are on psychiatric drugs, please really carefully consider the possible consequences of using psychedelics.
I am bipolar but was diagnosed incorrectly with depression and OCD, taking an SSRI. I was a regular marijuana smoker and took DMT which resulted in acute psychosis that lasted months. I'd had what I now recognized as hypomanic episodes before, but nothing this bad.
I will not get into details for privacy reasons but had to take months off of work or school. I alternately thought I was famous, being followed, could control cameras that were following me at all times - the works. I had visual and auditory hallucinations days after the DMT experience, auditory weeks to months later. I told friends strange things about my mental health history that were misperceived. It is a bit of a blur.
About a week after taking DMT, I was involuntarily hospitalized and only sent home with family supervision. They put me on strong antipsychotics with nasty side effects. They didn't help at all. I only got better months later, after I got off of all psychiatric drugs, and realized when talking with a friend that I was not famous. I then entered into a nearly year long depression and perceived that I had lost almost all my friends, although I now think that was not the case.
Now, I've been stable for almost 10 years, and am married with a great career. We have a dog, a house, and are looking to have kids soon. I'm incredibly happy and only recovered with the support of family, friends, and great doctors. I've been taking lamotrigine daily for bipolar. For me, it is a wonder drug. Bipolar is incredibly hard for psychiatrists to diagnose. It took them years to identify it.
Another friend of mine had acute psychosis due to another psychedelic drug and had a similar experience to mine with a hospitalization.
If you have any family history of schizophrenia or bipolar or are on psychiatric drugs, please really carefully consider the possible consequences of using psychedelics.