novapsyche | The thing that changed my mind about DXM.

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The thing that changed my mind about DXM.

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/dxm_health1.shtml

After reading all I have about neuroscience during this last month, I could not ignore what this document said.

So, as I told F, I have decided to discontinue my DXM use. ("Forever, or just for a while?" he asked. "The first one, most probably," I replied.)

I haven't tried to meditate or trance since my last DXM dose (Thanksgiving night). But I have started taking a multivitamin, and capsules of spirulina/blue-green algae. Because I want to take care of my health. I want to take care of myself.

So this is not to say that I have renounced all of my previously held ideas. I'm saying that I do not need to kill myself, or individual parts of myself, in order to trance. I am all the more stunned that lysergic acid--one of the most physically benign substances on the planet--is listed as Schedule I in this country, but DXM HBr--which may affect the brain by straining and/or fundamentally disturbing cellular processes--is readily available in cough medicine, which is sold over-the-counter.

I'm not calling for the restriction of cough syrup. I'm wondering why the government refuses to make available safer alternatives.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

mind if i add?

No, not at all. :) Feel free.

what is this dxm stuff anyway? all this talk about it makes me want to try it. is it expensive? i've never done acid. never done shrooms. did ketamine once. did ecstasy once. smoked shitloads of pot. i'm open to drugs but i don't do the big stuff very often. and anything that puts me into a trance is good in my book - except that i can do that without drugs and often with pot. blah.

ok
k

DXM HBr (hydrobromide) is an additive to nearly all over-the-counter cough syrups and other cough suppressants. Its tranquilizing effects make it an ideal additive for cough syrups, as it relaxes the muscles in the throat.

I first heard about DXM at http://www.erowid.com/; their information is top-notch, and I highly recommend reading the FAQ and user comments if one were to start this drug. Information never hurt anyone, and I always advocate knowing what you're about to put your body through.

The effects are as extraordinary as acid, but I say that having only used pot, acid, DXM, opium, and ecstasy. DXM is in the same family of drugs as is ketamine. Some people describe it as "poor man's acid", but ketamine users say it's like a dirty version of K. DXM and K are also in the family of drugs that includes PCP (PCP has some side effects all its own, however).

To describe the effects... hmm. Marijuana, my first 'psychotropic', brought me to the door of transcendence; DXM pushed me through and I rode it like a wild stallion while only having its mane to hold onto. My first word to describe it was "bizarre". The first time I used it, I became enough afraid of the changes going on in my system that I laid down for a nap, preferring to sleep away the performance's peak. I can't tell you why I did it a second, or even a third time. I guess I figured it was like pot. It took me four separate times to get that right.

What propelled me into the state I describe above were Coriciden tablets. You can buy them over the counter at any drugstore. These are, incidentally, the most dangerous form of DXM available. But Coriciden was the only thing that drove me to trance. Trance, I discovered, was just as compelling, if not more so, than sex. (I felt this way probably because I've been sexually active for over half my life; and because DXM dampens the libido.)

DXM is moderately addictive. People say you shouldn't do it more than once or twice a month, depending on dosage. During my most active time, I dosed twice, thrice, or four times a week.

The insights I gained from my trips were, and are, indispensible to me. As a result of my use, I admitted to myself what I really want to do with the rest of my life. I subsequently became more committed to my spirituality. I saw a new vibrance in life.

Acid set the stage. I did acid about three months before I did DXM. In fact, I came to DXM because I could not, and cannot, get my hands on any acid at all. Our old contact got arrested, and someone else who we'd hoped would become a contact ripped us off for a very large sum of money. So. I went to what was available and cheap.

Many people say, if you've got acid or K, skip DXM altogether. I'd be inclined to agree. K is much safer than DXM, and apparently the K-hole is a much better place than where DXM can send you.

I'm not discouraging you from trying DXM. I learned a lot. But check out erowid, for sure. It's a clearinghouse of drug information of all types. It is truly a technoshaman's resource.

http://www.erowid.org/

The previous link is wrong; use this one. (The problems with a marijuana-addled mind.... *smile*)

Oh! So when you say that you do DXM you are really saying that you're using coricidin? I've done that maybe four or five times. It's crazy stuff - as you know. I did ketamine once and I loved it. It was one of those experiences where I really understood what it was like to experience a new consciousness and to really look at my hand and say "is this real? are these walls real?"

i've had two or three really great trips on coricidin. i haven't done it, though, since February. I decided that the last time I did it was so awful - it took like four hours for it to set in and when it did - it didn't last very long. Plus I get queasy. But there were some moments during my second trip with my brother Jonathan where I felt like we were glowing pure light. It was on coricidin that I felt, for the first time, what it feels like to be sitting in the godhead, and to be sharing an exchange of energy through my hands. I always feel like a buddha for a while when i'm on coricidin - i start writing usually too and it's crazy crazy stuff. But basically - I've learned how to have experiences like that with just pot and sometimes without any drugs at all - just by meditation and going into a deep trance - and right now I think that doing it without drugs is the biggest challenge of all. I'm working vigilantly at figuring out how to Astral Project. I read a number of books this summer about OBE's and other things (especially Robert Monroe and Barbara Brennan - to add more books to your to-read list - i know what that's like - by the way - my to-read list is soooo long.) hmmm.... by the way, you mentioned you are contemplating the unthinkable. what is this unthinkable? you said you are being cryptic. even though i just met you - might i ask - does this have anything to do with F?

k

The cryptic only slightly has to do with F. It's nothing bad or drastic (i.e., I'm not suicidal; I'm not dumping him; etc.).

It has to do with a chapter of my life that I thought I'd closed off for the entirety of my future. It's nothing bad, like I say, but it is something I don't want to announce until I'm absolutely sure that's the direction in which I want to go. I've made several now-false announcements in the past few months as to what I'm going to be doing in the near future. The option I'm entertaining at the moment might actually do myself and my SO a lot of good. I don't want to jinx it by blabbing about it and then doing nothing about it (one of my largest flaws)....

Well, I also got my DXM from syrups, which is the main vehicle for most people. Syrups are harder on your liver, but Coriciden is harder on your brain. So, with DXM, you're kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't....

In fact, I used to do both in one sitting. I did this so I didn't do an overly dangerous amount of Coriciden, and didn't have to drink so much syrup that I'd become nauseated. In the six months I did DXM, I didn't get physically ill once. For that, I can only give thanks to GOD.

I'll not lie--only Coriciden seemed that have that "extra something" that really made DXM trips worthwhile. I went for C+C+C every time, even though I knew it had an ingredient that was toxic to the system. Now, I read that Coriciden is much more likely than any other form of DXM to cause seizures, particularly of certain lobes in the brain. I wonder now if I was only inducing seizures in myself, and confusing them with an ability to astrally project.... Scary thought.

Still, I'm not saying all this to actively discourage anyone from doing anything he or she would like. I loved the insights and thrills I received from my DXM use. But I've always had the sneaking suspicion that I would probably much rather enjoy ketamine... and all things considered, I believe that wholeheartedly, now.

I'd love to read any of your Coriciden-induced writing, if you would ever share. Most of my written journal entries have been made under the influence of DXM, and most of it would sound stark raving crazy to a clinical psychiatrist, I'm sure. Yet I find the most interesting hidden nuggets of truth in those nearly indecipherable, incomprehensible scribbles. Do you feel this way, too?

Something a friend told me that is a common quote about X:
X opens the door, but you only open it once.

I always assumed it meant that X opens your eyes to a lot of things, but if you keep using it, it will eventually fry your brain. Maybe that applies here.

YMMV.

I have to wonder how many times your friend who quotes the above did X before he heard that statement.... :)

I've done E three times. It seems that the first time on each of my preferred substances have precipitated serious soul-searching and contemplation. On E, I was shocked to find that my body could physically produce such happiness, such raw and unadulterated happiness. That was well worth the jaw clenching and dehydration. It made me reconsider whether or not I should be on anti-depressants. It made me put in perspective what I normally called "happy".

I now have a different worldview than I did then; I'm not sure if I need anti-depressants now, because I am more reconciled with the universe as to its modus operandi. I am content, and that is a blessed state.

I could not have come to this worldview (or, it would have taken a long time without an outside influence) if I did not go down the path of the psycheshaman. I can point to DXM and say, "This caused an indeliable change in my way of thought."

So, now, I have this want-to-love/cannot-love relationship with DXM. I'm disappointed, even though I don't experience sensations of disappointment, waves of disappointment. The six months I had with DXM helped me to formulate, for me, what the world meant to me and vice-versa. I owe it a lot.

Another random thing I want to say is, sometimes a substance has more than one door to offer.

By the way, "fry your brain" is way, way too amorphous a concept to have any real meaning. You say Leary "fried his brain" on LSD; you're wondering if I've "fried my brain" on DXM; and you're bringing in E as an example thereof. They all affect the brain differently: different lobes/areas, different neurotransmitters. The description you give is, I feel, categorical and evaluative--that is, leading one to make a judgment call, not a logical deduction.

The description you give is, I feel, categorical and evaluative--that is, leading one to make a judgment call, not a logical deduction.

Yes, in fact, it is.

The description you give is, I feel, categorical and evaluative--that is, leading one to make a judgment call, not a logical deduction.

I've been skeptical about research that shows that marijuana "damages" your brain for exactly this sort of reason. There is evidence that pot affects your brain functioning WHILE you're high (I have trouble reading when high, but can do creative writing fairly well when high) and evidence that long-term use can re-wire your brain somewhat. But whether that re-wiring is "damage" is somewhat subjective and not entirely understood yet.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The thing that changed my mind about DXM.

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