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I read in a forum about psychedelics about a guy who had been carving up his whole arm while tripping on LSD. The response befuddled me and wasn't what I expect

I read in a forum about psychedelics about a guy who had been carving up his whole arm while tripping on LSD. The response befuddled me and wasn't what I expected: "Classic newbie mistake", "Your own fault for tripping alone", and "You should put knifes and weapons away when you trip." It made me realize these people are like adopters of niche programming languages. To outsiders they tell everyone how great their language is and how you'll become 10x more productive switching to it. Only on bug trackers will you find out about lack of tooling support, stochastic compiler bugs, and bad api designs.

Nursie 1y ago
I would have said that was both horrific and unusual, rather than ‘classic’. Let’s not pretend it’s perfectly safe (what is?) but this is hardly ‘normal’.
- bluGill 1y ago
  While it might not be normal, that type of thing is not unknown and alone is enough to mean everyone should avoid those drugs.
  - Nursie 1y ago
    I disagree, I think it is effectively unknown, vanishingly rare considering how many millions of doses have been consumed over decades. Let’s not pretend it’s 100% safe and foolproof, but that’s very far out of the ordinary.
  - e40 1y ago
    By your own logic you are fine with all alcohol being avoided, right? Psychedelics kill infinitely fewer people than alcohol, after all.
  - bregma 1y ago
    That kind of thing occurs far more often when someone has not used drugs. Logically, drug use should be mandatory to reduce the prevalence of such self-harm.
tasuki 1y ago
This should've been horrifying I guess, but I found it rather amusing. And as a niche-programming-language-enthusiast: well done with the analogy!
Mo3 1y ago
These are not normal reactions to being under the influence of psychedelics but latent mental illness being activated.
- fvdessen 1y ago
  That they can activate latent mental illnesses that wouldn't be activated otherwise is the main risk of psychedelics, and is absolutely a real problem
  - jasonwatkinspdx 1y ago
    It happened with someone I know. He tried psychedelics in a weekend at the beach house scenario for the first time as a middle aged man. He liked the experience and then started reading about LSD microdosing, so he decided to try that. Over the course of a few weeks he began to slide into what was clearly schizophrenic delusions. He became obsessed with what he presumed was a vast conspiracy to murder him and take his money, interpreting ordinary events like someone cutting him off on the highway as being part of this. Thankfully he's got a good partner and support network, got into therapy, and now is doing fine. I have a pretty live and let live attitude over psychedelics, but I do hate when aficionados pretend there aren't risks or downsides. On a less dramatic scale I know people who've tried it and hated it, and that's very much a possible outcome as well. It's crappy when aficionados flip that around into somehow being a square or whatever.
    - cess11 1y ago
      It is quite irresponsible to take a psychedelic drug and then drive a car. So called microdosing of psychedelics is generally rubbish, the way they're distributed means you have no idea whatsoever what dose you're actually taking and if you want to live with a 5-HT2a tolerance, just go on a trip dose and you're good for a few months. Edit: And with some of these substances one should expect cardiac toxicity if dosing every day, due to serotonin receptors in the heart.
  - dymk 1y ago
    Activating latent mental illness is a risk of psychedelics, and yet they are still safer in that regard than alcohol and cannabis. There is a lower rate of psychosis being triggered with LSD and psilocybin. This is an education problem: we are (at least sort of) taught in school the risks of drinking too much, and in younger generations, smoking too much weed, but we are taught nothing about when it's appropriate to take psychedelics. Some recent studies suggest that there is no increase in risk of psychosis from psychedelic use, and at worst, it causes symptoms which would have surfaced anyways to surface sooner. This isn't a reason to take psychedelics of course, it's better that one goes as long as they can without experiencing some sort of schizo-affective disorder. My point is that people are misunderstanding the risks when they look at psychedelics and go "No way I'm taking that, I don't want to make myself schizophrenic", and then don't bat an eye when they drink a glass (or two) of wine or smoke a joint.
stronglikedan 1y ago
> I read in a forum about... ...something that likely never happened (and if it did, it wasn't the LSD)
- mycodendral 1y ago
  People jump out of windows/off roofs all the time on psychedelics.
  - stickfigure 1y ago
    The AI overlords call bullshit on that. The nutshell quote: "Jumping from heights under psychedelics is possible but statistically extraordinary—orders of magnitude rarer than popular mythology suggests."
    - settsu 1y ago
      The chances of being struck by lightning are exceedingly slim. But if you're venturing out on a mountain top in early summer your odds skyrocket. So shouldn't we widely inform people who are doing so of the dangers and what to be aware of? https://www.cdc.gov/lightning/data-research/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/lightning/data-research/index.html
    - mycodendral 1y ago
      Maybe heights specifically, but hang out at the medical tent at any decent size music festival and tell me psychedelics are as harm-free as people suggest.
  - dymk 1y ago
    No they do not, the instances of this are incredibly small, and every one of them involved the use of alcohol or other drugs. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21256914/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21256914/
    - mycodendral 1y ago
      I don't buy it, personally. I used to be a big psych guy until I had multiple friends get in dangerous police situations because of them. And I've heard a lot more individual stories. Pretty much every psychedelic festival has people ending up in the security/medical tent. It's not as risk free as people will have you believe.
HocusLocus 1y ago
Bath Salts. If rabies was a medicine. LSD lets you keep your marbles, they just become more colorful and roll around for awhile. It is disassociative though in a way that pain can be experienced differently. Solitary is okay, but don't go into it alone with self-harm in your history. Ask your doctor if placebo is right for you.
m463 1y ago
Sounds like AI should guide us. (maybe an uncensored version)
RankingMember 1y ago
I see it as an unfortunate byproduct of the war on drugs forcing advocates to become boosters beyond what they otherwise would as a means to counteract the many years of bad-faith negative press. It was especially prevalent (still is to a certain extent) for weed, though I think that's dying down a bit now that it's been decriminalized in a lot of places.
gchamonlive 1y ago
Just be careful with metaphors. It's useful for conveying ideas, but it's easy to mistake the original idea by the substitution. Psychedelics are not programming languages. It doesn't matter if you or I write the same piece of code in gleam, they will work the same if the environment is the same. The same cannot be said by psychedelics.

Nursie 1y ago

I would have said that was both horrific and unusual, rather than ‘classic’. Let’s not pretend it’s perfectly safe (what is?) but this is hardly ‘normal’.

bluGill 1y ago
While it might not be normal, that type of thing is not unknown and alone is enough to mean everyone should avoid those drugs.
- Nursie 1y ago
  I disagree, I think it is effectively unknown, vanishingly rare considering how many millions of doses have been consumed over decades. Let’s not pretend it’s 100% safe and foolproof, but that’s very far out of the ordinary.
- e40 1y ago
  By your own logic you are fine with all alcohol being avoided, right? Psychedelics kill infinitely fewer people than alcohol, after all.
- bregma 1y ago
  That kind of thing occurs far more often when someone has not used drugs. Logically, drug use should be mandatory to reduce the prevalence of such self-harm.

tasuki 1y ago

This should've been horrifying I guess, but I found it rather amusing. And as a niche-programming-language-enthusiast: well done with the analogy!

Mo3 1y ago

These are not normal reactions to being under the influence of psychedelics but latent mental illness being activated.

fvdessen 1y ago
That they can activate latent mental illnesses that wouldn't be activated otherwise is the main risk of psychedelics, and is absolutely a real problem
- jasonwatkinspdx 1y ago
  It happened with someone I know. He tried psychedelics in a weekend at the beach house scenario for the first time as a middle aged man. He liked the experience and then started reading about LSD microdosing, so he decided to try that. Over the course of a few weeks he began to slide into what was clearly schizophrenic delusions. He became obsessed with what he presumed was a vast conspiracy to murder him and take his money, interpreting ordinary events like someone cutting him off on the highway as being part of this. Thankfully he's got a good partner and support network, got into therapy, and now is doing fine. I have a pretty live and let live attitude over psychedelics, but I do hate when aficionados pretend there aren't risks or downsides. On a less dramatic scale I know people who've tried it and hated it, and that's very much a possible outcome as well. It's crappy when aficionados flip that around into somehow being a square or whatever.
  - cess11 1y ago
    It is quite irresponsible to take a psychedelic drug and then drive a car. So called microdosing of psychedelics is generally rubbish, the way they're distributed means you have no idea whatsoever what dose you're actually taking and if you want to live with a 5-HT2a tolerance, just go on a trip dose and you're good for a few months. Edit: And with some of these substances one should expect cardiac toxicity if dosing every day, due to serotonin receptors in the heart.
- dymk 1y ago
  Activating latent mental illness is a risk of psychedelics, and yet they are still safer in that regard than alcohol and cannabis. There is a lower rate of psychosis being triggered with LSD and psilocybin. This is an education problem: we are (at least sort of) taught in school the risks of drinking too much, and in younger generations, smoking too much weed, but we are taught nothing about when it's appropriate to take psychedelics. Some recent studies suggest that there is no increase in risk of psychosis from psychedelic use, and at worst, it causes symptoms which would have surfaced anyways to surface sooner. This isn't a reason to take psychedelics of course, it's better that one goes as long as they can without experiencing some sort of schizo-affective disorder. My point is that people are misunderstanding the risks when they look at psychedelics and go "No way I'm taking that, I don't want to make myself schizophrenic", and then don't bat an eye when they drink a glass (or two) of wine or smoke a joint.

stronglikedan 1y ago

> I read in a forum about... ...something that likely never happened (and if it did, it wasn't the LSD)

mycodendral 1y ago
People jump out of windows/off roofs all the time on psychedelics.
- stickfigure 1y ago
  The AI overlords call bullshit on that. The nutshell quote: "Jumping from heights under psychedelics is possible but statistically extraordinary—orders of magnitude rarer than popular mythology suggests."
  - settsu 1y ago
    The chances of being struck by lightning are exceedingly slim. But if you're venturing out on a mountain top in early summer your odds skyrocket. So shouldn't we widely inform people who are doing so of the dangers and what to be aware of? https://www.cdc.gov/lightning/data-research/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/lightning/data-research/index.html
  - mycodendral 1y ago
    Maybe heights specifically, but hang out at the medical tent at any decent size music festival and tell me psychedelics are as harm-free as people suggest.
- dymk 1y ago
  No they do not, the instances of this are incredibly small, and every one of them involved the use of alcohol or other drugs. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21256914/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21256914/
  - mycodendral 1y ago
    I don't buy it, personally. I used to be a big psych guy until I had multiple friends get in dangerous police situations because of them. And I've heard a lot more individual stories. Pretty much every psychedelic festival has people ending up in the security/medical tent. It's not as risk free as people will have you believe.

HocusLocus 1y ago

Bath Salts. If rabies was a medicine. LSD lets you keep your marbles, they just become more colorful and roll around for awhile. It is disassociative though in a way that pain can be experienced differently. Solitary is okay, but don't go into it alone with self-harm in your history. Ask your doctor if placebo is right for you.

m463 1y ago

Sounds like AI should guide us. (maybe an uncensored version)

RankingMember 1y ago

I see it as an unfortunate byproduct of the war on drugs forcing advocates to become boosters beyond what they otherwise would as a means to counteract the many years of bad-faith negative press. It was especially prevalent (still is to a certain extent) for weed, though I think that's dying down a bit now that it's been decriminalized in a lot of places.

gchamonlive 1y ago

Just be careful with metaphors. It's useful for conveying ideas, but it's easy to mistake the original idea by the substitution. Psychedelics are not programming languages. It doesn't matter if you or I write the same piece of code in gleam, they will work the same if the environment is the same. The same cannot be said by psychedelics.