Hallucinogens Addiction Treatment

What are hallucinations? They can include changes in colors and an altered perception of time. For others, flashbacks of past drug abuse are common hallucinations. In some cases, hallucinations can include seeing things or people that aren’t there, and dramatic changes in the colors and appearance of surroundings. When we imagine the effects of drug use, hallucinations are some of the more common. In truth, most of these symptoms occur when taking a specific class of drugs called hallucinogens.

There are many kinds of hallucinogens. They include synthetic drugs such as ecstasy (also known by other names, including MDMA, E, X, XTC, or Molly), ketamine (also known as special K), and dextromethorphan, a drug which goes by the names of DXM or Robo. Hallucinogens are also found in nature. Naturally occurring types of this drug include LSD (acid), peyote (mescaline), salvia, and DMT (Dimitri). Psilocybin is a popular type of hallucinogen found in some mushrooms. Its nicknames include mushrooms, magic mushrooms, and shrooms.

People take hallucinogens in a wide variety of ways. Users typically take ecstasy as a capsule or tablet. LSD is taken by placing small pieces of LSD-soaked paper known as blotters on their tongues. Taking LSD is commonly known as dropping acid. People eat mushrooms with psilocybin, while other hallucinogens can be ingested in the form of tea. This list shows just some of the variety of hallucinogens and how they’re consumed.

These drugs can cause you to hallucinate, or see or hear things that don’t exist. They can make you feel like you’re out of control. These perceptions and feelings mean that you’re not in touch with reality, which makes hallucinogen addiction dangerous. Luckily, there are ways to end a dependence on this type of drug and get in touch with reality again.

The U.S. Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health Services Administration found that 1.2 million Americans tried a hallucinogenic drug for the first time in 2019.

Hallucinogens Addiction and Abuse

If you are abusing hallucinogens, it may have affected the normal functioning of your life. You may have driven under the influence of hallucinogens and gotten into a car accident because they slowed down your reaction time. If you continue to abuse illicit drugs, you could become addicted. Addiction or dependence is a state in which your body physically becomes dependent on hallucinogens or other substances in order to function.

This is one reason why heavy hallucinogen users continue to use them despite the problems this use might cause. Their bodies actually crave hallucinogens and physically hurt when the drugs are absent. But because they are so accustomed to hallucinogens, the users have to use more and more drugs in order for them to feel the effects of the drugs, a condition known as drug tolerance.

While many people take hallucinogens because of an addiction, some use them occasionally to experience hallucinations. They also have other uses: Because of their mind-altering properties, people have been using them for religious rituals for hundreds of years. The medical field has also found some hallucinogens useful. Dextromethorphan can commonly be found in cough medications, while doctors use ketamine as an anesthetic when performing surgery on people and animals.

Side Effects of Hallucinogens

As their name indicates, hallucinogens make you hallucinate. They make you see things that aren’t there or change the appearance of things that are there, such as changing the colors of things. Some of them can make you feel that you’ve lost control or that you’re not connected to your body or the world around you. This is because hallucinogens affect the chemicals and functioning of your brain.

These changes in brain functioning are often known as trips. Bad trips are drug use experiences with negative side effects that can include extreme anxiety, panic, and terror. They can feel like nightmares and make people worry that they’re going to go crazy or die. Whether they’re good trips or bad trips, they usually take place within an hour and a half after taking a hallucinogen. The “high,” or effects, typically last from six to twelve hours afterward.

There are also some long-term side effects associated with hallucinogens. One is flashbacks, in which users re-experience incidents of their drug use. Flashbacks can usually occur a few days after using a hallucinogen, but they have been known to occur as much as a year after using hallucinogens.  If flashbacks continue and affect everyday life for users, they can lead to a condition known as hallucinogen persisting perceptual disorder (HPPD).

Overdose Symptoms of Hallucinogens

In addition to hallucinations, hallucinogens can cause a whole host of other side effects, such as nausea, dilated pupils, surges in energy, and a changed perception of time. As with other drugs, symptoms of a hallucinogen overdose include increased heart rate and blood pressure, an elevated body temperature, and an increased rate of breathing.

These symptoms are particularly dangerous because people using hallucinogens have distorted ideas about reality. They might be experiencing heightened feelings and feel really happy, but this happiness masks the fact that their hearts are racing and that they’re extremely hot. They could be having a heart attack or experiencing organ failure but might not know it because they don’t feel these conditions the same way they would if they were sober. Their minds are disconnected from what their bodies feel.

If you are ever with someone who is experiencing these symptoms you should call 911 immediately.

Hallucinogens Withdrawal and Detox

If you abuse hallucinogens in this way, it could lead to a very bad trip. When you’re high on anything, you don’t have the same way of thinking as you would if you were clean. You might also experience delayed reaction times, which can make operating a vehicle dangerous to you and others. In the case of hallucinogens and a “bad trip,” it is possible to lash out at your hallucinations in an attempt to protect yourself, but you could wind up hurting yourself or others. There are recorded cases of people killing themselves and others while using hallucinogens.

It is important, then, to remove hallucinogens and other harmful substances from your body. That’s the function of detoxing (or detoxifying). Medical professionals help users remove hallucinogens and other substances from their bodies. This process can occur at special centers dedicated to detox or occur at facilities within larger rehab facilities.

Detox is a medical process that addresses a specific condition, in this case, your addiction to hallucinogens. It is therefore important to find a rehab facility that will treat your specific medical detox needs. This tailored treatment will help ensure that the detox process removes the drugs from your system while helping preserve your general health.

Hallucinogenlcion Treatment and Rehab

Searching online is a good way to find the right detox and rehab centers to treat your hallucinogen addiction. Searching the Internet will give you the names and contact information of rehab placement agencies.

You might ask yourself if this is the right treatment facility for your needs. One way to determine this is to study what the rehab center treats. If it does, in fact, treat addictions to hallucinogens, that’s a good first step. You can also study whether a particular rehab facility treats specific types of people. If you are a woman and feel that your hallucinogen addiction relates to your relationships, you might find it more comfortable to seek treatment only in the presence of women. There are all-female rehab centers or rehab centers with separate male and female sections that could help you with this issue.

In short, there is an addiction rehab center out there that can help you examine and treat your addiction to hallucinogens.

You might say that you can drop acid, eat shrooms, or take E any time and can stop when you want. You might say that you don’t have a problem. But if your use of these drugs and other hallucinogens has caused you to hurt yourself or others, or if you can take large quantities of the drugs without feeling anything, you may be struggling with dependence or addiction.

Rehab Treatment Process

• Step 1: Intake – When you arrive at your facility you will be assessed by the medical professionals to determine your treatment through detox, as well as your rehabilitation program.
• Step 2: Detox – After your assessment or intake, you will be taken to your room where you can rest and be monitored while you go through the withdrawal of your drug use. Detox can range from 1 day to a week, depending on the drug of choice and the user.
• Step 3: Rehab – After you finish detox you will be ready to begin your addiction treatment, which can range from a variety of different options. This is when you will be able to meet others, attend lectures, participate in group or individual counseling, and learn the tools you need to stay clean.
• Step 4: Aftercare – When your time at the facility is over, you will have to go back to your life. This can be a challenge for a lot of people, but part of your treatment includes aftercare. This is usually outpatient counseling in a group or individualized setting, where you are slowly introduced back to your life and responsibilities.

The Bottom Line: You Can Beat Drug Addiction

If you’ve reached this point it is hard to deny the fact that you’re serious about beating your addiction, and that is something to have pride in. Your life matters and there is no reason why you should allow a drug to dictate the rest of your life when help is available.

Remember, choosing to go into a rehab treatment center for drug abuse will help you rid yourself of the horrible side effects you’ve had to endure, extend your life span, and most importantly place you on track towards regaining your own life. So don’t fight addiction alone. Instead, allow us to help you live the life you deserve to have.

Payment Options for Hallucinogens Abuse Treatment

While addictions to hallucinogens are common—and dangerous—they can be treated. Treatment can take the form of clinic programs, individual and group therapies, and outpatient and inpatient rehab.

Paying for this treatment shouldn’t be a concern. If you’re suffering from an addiction to hallucinogens, you have enough to worry about. Checking with your medical insurer could help you’ll discover what kinds of treatments your provider will cover. Since addiction is a medically recognized disease, your insurance may cover some portions of your treatment.