Why do chemicals effect my friend for so long?

[MarsKid]

My friend Luke, who definitely isn't me, posted this question to some other groups a while ago... Could anyone help him?


Hello,

My name is Luke. I am very fascinated by drugs, specifically psychedelics. I am very interested in experimenting with their effects and believe they are extremely useful in teaching or guiding us in certain ways. Anyways, the reason I say this is to avoid any talk about my motive for consuming drugs or the inherent danger of a substance. I have done a lot of research and take these drugs very responsibly in a safe environment. Please suspend all judgement and former ideas you have had about these substances and please stick to information that is going to help my specific problem.

Anyways, now getting to the actual question:

Why do drugs seem to influence me A LOT longer and even harder than the average person; before I explain though, allow me to tell you some things about myself.

I am twenty years old and weigh roughly 145 lbs. I am for the most part very healthy; not taking any medications, exercise daily, my diet is healthier than a lot of people you know, I meditate, and overall make sure I practice a healthy lifestyle. The only thing I have wrong with me right now that I could link to my question is a 'sluggish liver.' I grew up with an eating disorder and ate extremely large amounts of food to cope with stress; because of this, I developed what I believe to be a sluggish liver along with all the accompanying symptoms including a permanently bloated lower abdomen.

I can't remember the last time I drank alcohol... But I can remember that the reason I never do is because I can't take more than a shot without feeling very very nauseated. I get violently sick from alcohol before I can even feel any impairment or other effect from it.

When consuming Cannabis, there will be times, usually after a prolonged period of not smoking, where I go to take a hit and it KKIILLSS me... Like one hit feels like LSD for about 60 seconds until it kind of tones down into a more cannabis like high... I have lots of friends who smoke and no one else experiences this... At least not to the extent I do...

I had surgery on my knee when I was in high school and I remember my mom explaining to the doctors how 'every time I take anesthetics from the dentist or doctor they give me too much..' Even still, I wasn't allowed to leave the hospital for two days all for what was suppose to be a few hour surgery. I just remember sitting in the hospital bed more than 24 hours from my surgery in a half dazed coma, wondering if something was wrong with me as I knew I shouldn't still be feeling this tired.

Lastly, drugs like psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, mescaline, and others effect me for A LOT longer than they do anyone else. I once did LSD and was still experiencing a very powerful trip two days later, even though all my friends who did the same batch were coming down less than 14 hours after ingesting it. Although it's very common for mescaline to stay around in your body for a while; I recall one evening about 7 days after I had taken mescaline I went to take a hit of Cannabis and upon exhalation I began tripping very hard on mescaline... I could tell you very similar stories about mushrooms, MDMA, and other drugs... They all seem to stay around A LOT longer than anyone I have ever met. If I had some scientist or maybe a shaman tell me this is normal, I'd be perfectly fine with it; however, something tells me that this is correlated to my liver problems and the health of my lower gestational track, specially the alcohol part... That doesn't seem right.

I've been doing some research into this the past couple days but couldn't find anything that took the topic seriously or really related to what I'm asking here... The closest information I found was an article on how drugs move through the bloodstream and are absorbed by fat cells... It stated that people who detox YEARS after taking drugs have been known to start feeling those drugs again due to a release of the chemical stored in their fat.... I am naturally very skinny and don't have much fat on me... I have a very high metabolic rate in case that info helps someone make a conclusion here.

So there you have it... A question I have been dying to know for a long time now. -Please, please, if you know anything that could help me out let me know; even if you can just point me in the direction of an article or website you think might help.

Thank you all so much for your time! I really appreciate you!

Sincerely,
Luke

 

[badilo]

i seen to get stronger effects from drugs and sometimes longer duration than my friends but not to the extent that your friend has. not sure if there is many people on here that will be able to help, has you friend spoke to a doctor?

 

[MarsKid]

i seen to get stronger effects from drugs and sometimes longer duration than my friends but not to the extent that your friend has. not sure if there is many people on here that will be able to help, has you friend spoke to a doctor?

He has not spoken to a doctor about this specifically.... Think that is what needs to happen. I am stunned at the lack of information on this type of thing... I mean I thought I was going to get bombarded with answers... Perhaps it's because I seem to be asking a lot of communities focused on the substance itself and like you said I need to talk to some medical professionals.

 

[Tuesday Afternoon]

The only time I had problems with taking drugs (MD**) was when I was doing the aforementioned with alcohol too many times (on average once every 5 days and the dose of MD** would be about 400 mg throughout the course of each night). The vertigo wouldn't go away for about 3 months. I probably mixed up some nasty methyl ethyl compounds in my liver that caused this.Now I just dream a regular dose (about 125mg) once a week and everything is fine. No probs whatsoever.
It obviously has something to do with your liver. I know that MD** is excreted through the kidneys but it must make a pitstop in the liver. I couldn't even smoke MJ without nauseating effects when I was combining the 2 substances in excess (in my dreams of course).I took a 22 day break from MD** and everything was better after that. No more vertigo.
I stopped drinking alcohol and I couldn't be happier. Let's face it, ethyl alcohol doesn't even come close to MD** so why bother with the former if it prevents me from taking the latter?:grin:

Sluggish liver...? I wouldn't imbibe at all. Not judging, just my .02

 

[legendary]

Evaluation of Commercial Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays to Identify Psychedelic Phenethylamines

Short answer...he should probably get a liver panel done, consult a psychiatrist and get an fMRI.

I'm too lazy to paraphrase at the moment, but if it's a real concern i'd suggset research on: The blood-brain-barrier, Na-K+ mechanism neurochemistry (ok this ill explain a bit.. basically how fast you neurons can fire.. also related, Ca-Cl neuron relation; my thought without going into a long explanation and within layman terms...If he lacks the enzymes, the substances will stay in his system longer, thus slow break down. By staying in the blood stream longer, assuming what he is taking is fat soluable (such as THC), he will have particularly slow absorption and experience effects much longer than most people. It could be a receptor issue as well, maybe he has too many/too little receptor sites for the related neurotransmitters.

Erowid LSD (Acid) Vault : Myth about Permanent Presence (LSD stays in your body/spine/brain forever)
Animation: How the Sodium Potassium Pump Works
Serotonin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia look at section 4.1
Absorption (pharmacokinetics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

that's the tip of the iceberg... so SO much more that should be addressed over that 1 question.

 

[NancyWelch]

It also depends upon the way body reacts to the chemicals. Sometimes the reactions are favorable and sometimes they are not.

 

[FannieBouchard]

what you have quoted regarding the effect of chemicals may vary as per the bodies seems quite right but a proper care and treatment may change the scene

 

[John Corkery]

It might that your friend may metabolise the drugs at a different rate to other individuals. For example, some ethnic groups are slow metabolisers of methadone, and are therefore at greater risk of overdosing. There can be also some idiosyncratic reactions to some substances.