LSD stands for
its chemical name, lysergic acid diethylamide, and is commonly called ‘acid’.
It’s a powerful hallucinogenic drug – this means that users are likely to
experience a distorted view of objects and reality, including seeing and
sometimes hearing things that aren’t there (these are hallucinations). The
experience of taking LSD is known as a ‘trip’. Trips can be good or bad, but
until you take it you don’t know how it will affect you – and once it's started
you can't stop it.
The effects of
LSD are unpredictable. They depend on the amount taken, the person’s mood and
personality, and the surroundings in which the drug is used. It is a roll of
the dice—a racing, distorted high or a severe, paranoid1 low.
Normally, the
first effects of LSD are experienced thirty to ninety minutes after taking the
drug. Often, the pupils become dilated. The body temperature can become higher
or lower, while the blood pressure and heart rate either increase or decrease.
Sweating or chills are not uncommon.
LSD users often
experience loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth and tremors. Visual
changes are among the more common effects—the user can become fixated on the
intensity of certain colors.
Extreme changes
in mood, anywhere from a spaced-out “bliss” to intense terror, are also
experienced. The worst part is that the LSD user is unable to tell which
sensations are created by the drug and which are part of reality.
Some LSD users
experience an intense bliss they mistake for “enlightenment.”
Not only do
they disassociate from their usual activities in life, but they also feel the
urge to keep taking more of the drug in order to re-experience the same
sensation. Others experience severe, terrifying thoughts and feelings, fear of
losing control, fear of insanity and death, and despair while using LSD. Once
it starts, there is often no stopping a “bad trip,” which can go on for up to
twelve hours. In fact, some people never recover from an acid-induced
psychosis.
Taken in a
large enough dose, LSD produces delusions and visual hallucinations. The user’s
sense of time and self changes. Sizes and shapes of objects become distorted,
as do movements, colors and sounds. Even one’s sense of touch and the normal
bodily sensations turn into something strange and bizarre. Sensations may seem
to “cross over,” giving the user the feeling of hearing colors and seeing
sounds. These changes can be frightening and can cause panic.
The ability to
make sensible judgments and see common dangers is impaired. An LSD user might
try to step out a window to get a “closer look” at the ground. He might
consider it fun to admire the sunset, blissfully unaware that he is standing in
the middle of a busy intersection.
Many LSD users
experience flashbacks, or a recurrence of the LSD trip, often without warning,
long after taking LSD.
Bad trips and
flashbacks are only part of the risks of LSD use. LSD users may manifest
relatively long-lasting psychoses or severe depression.
Because LSD
accumulates in the body, users develop a tolerance for the drug. In other
words, some repeat users have to take it in increasingly higher doses to
achieve a “high.” This increases the physical effects and also the risk of a bad
trip that could cause psychosis.
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