'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism 'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism

[Monk-Eye]

"'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism"

Tripping Your Way to Sobriety By MIKE LEE and APARNAA SESHADRI Oct. 16, 2006
.....
Erika Dyck, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta, Canada, researches and teaches the history of medicine.

She raised the issue after studying a series of LSD tests of alcohol-addicted patients carried out in the 1960s in Saskatchewan. The tests were done by British psychiatrists Humphrey Osmond and John Smythies.

She tells ABC News that two-thirds of the alcoholics stopped drinking for at least 18 months after receiving one dose of LSD, compared to 25 percent who stopped after group therapy, and 12 percent after individual therapy.

According to Dyck, even Alcoholics Anonymous endorses the LSD research.
.....
Ironically, if LSD had stayed in the controlled environment of research labs in the '60s — and never hit the streets and mixed into the social cauldron that was swirling out of control in places like San Francisco — the drug might have evolved as a responsible medical treatment for alcoholism and psychiatric illnesses.

It is an intriguing medical issue that scientists can resume work on only if and when governments are ready to view acid as a potential solution, not just an old problem.
....

On which side of the counter counter culture would you stand in the medical use of LSD in the cure for alcholism?

 

[ngdawg]

Re: 'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism

Just about every illegal drug has a legitimate medicinal use (don't know if the younger people here know this, but codeine was a major component of cough syrup until it was found you could get a quick, albeit sickening high off it-it was removed from the OTC medicines around the early 70's).
If LSD could be used in the treatment of alcoholism as a prescribed medication, hell, go for it. It was used in the 50's and early 60's in attempting to help schizophrenia, among other serious psychiatric illnesses.
I should think the problem would be dosage-it doesn't take much acid to start seeing things that aren't there, which begs the questions: Did the alcoholics just like that buzz better? What happens after 18 months? And, did they experience 'flashbacks'?

 

[FallingPianos]

Re: 'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism

(don't know if the younger people here know this, but codeine was a major component of cough syrup until it was found you could get a quick, albeit sickening high off it-it was removed from the OTC medicines around the early 70's).

heh, in oregon it just got removed from OTC sales this last summer.

 

[Monk-Eye]

Persecution Of Whiches

"Persecution Of Whiches"

I should think the problem would be dosage-it doesn't take much acid to start seeing things that aren't there, which begs the questions: Did the alcoholics just like that buzz better? What happens after 18 months? And, did they experience 'flashbacks'?

LSD does not produce hallucinations in the strict sense but instead illusions and vivid daydream-like fantasies, in which ordinary objects and experiences can take on entirely different appearances or meanings.

One study concluded, "The root of the therapeutic value of the LSD experience is its potential for producing self-acceptance and self-surrender,"[22] presumably by forcing the user to face issues and problems in that individual's psyche. Many believe that, in contrast, other drugs (such as alcohol, heroin, and cocaine) are used to escape from reality.

Many users experience a dissolution between themselves and the "outside world": cognitive differences between subject ("I") and object ("me", "you", "it") break down or seem absurd.[20]

There is flashback information under -Flashbacks And HPPD.

Flashbacks are likely briefer and milder. People do not like unpredictable residual effects of medication at which point they would be considered abnormal. The majority of the issue is scare tactics from the hyperethical community.

A primary issue of flashback effects is whether they are unacceptable, such as unsafe and unmanageable, and then evaluate them relative to the benefit of avoiding the dysfunctional effects of alcholism such as DWI, cirrhosis, etc.

 

[Gardener]

Re: 'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism

So THAT's why I'm not an alchohlic.


I've long wondered.

 

[ngdawg]

Re: Persecution Of Whiches

"Persecution Of Whiches"

LSD does not produce hallucinations in the strict sense but instead illusions and vivid daydream-like fantasies, in which ordinary objects and experiences can take on entirely different appearances or meanings.

One study concluded, "The root of the therapeutic value of the LSD experience is its potential for producing self-acceptance and self-surrender,"[22] presumably by forcing the user to face issues and problems in that individual's psyche. Many believe that, in contrast, other drugs (such as alcohol, heroin, and cocaine) are used to escape from reality.

Many users experience a dissolution between themselves and the "outside world": cognitive differences between subject ("I") and object ("me", "you", "it") break down or seem absurd.[20]

There is flashback information under -Flashbacks And HPPD.

Flashbacks are likely briefer and milder. People do not like unpredictable residual effects of medication at which point they would be considered abnormal. The majority of the issue is scare tactics from the hyperethical community.

A primary issue of flashback effects is whether they are unacceptable, such as unsafe and unmanageable, and then evaluate them relative to the benefit of avoiding the dysfunctional effects of alcholism such as DWI, cirrhosis, etc.

I don't know that I'd take something from Wikipedia as gospel, knowing what I do about LSD....seeing a dead friend jump out of the center of a turntable and running against the spin of an LP during an acid trip would definitely be an hallucination...:mrgreen: (not me, spouse had that happen) Seeing someone jump out of a tv covered in bright colors and begin talking to you is not exactly a mere 'illusion'. Then again, I would suspect that the doses given in regards to therapeutic uses wouldn't be as intense and verbal therapy would have to be mandatory during its use.

 

[Gardener]

Re: Persecution Of Whiches

I don't know that I'd take something from Wikipedia as gospel, knowing what I do about LSD....seeing a dead friend jump out of the center of a turntable and running against the spin of an LP during an acid trip would definitely be an hallucination...:mrgreen: (not me, spouse had that happen) Seeing someone jump out of a tv covered in bright colors and begin talking to you is not exactly a mere 'illusion'. Then again, I would suspect that the doses given in regards to therapeutic uses wouldn't be as intense and verbal therapy would have to be mandatory during its use.

I once had a small pantheon of Greek gods peel off the ceiling of my room and peer down at me while arguing about the fate of man in a language I did not understand. I assumed at the time it must have been ancient Greek, but one really never knows about such things.


I also had my mother's face melt away one time until all that was left was a skeleton chewing me out for being home so late whilst dangling a cigarette from her bony jaw.


I'm comforted today by the knowlege that these were not hallucinations.

 

[Monk-Eye]

Kissing A Booboo

"Kissing A Booboo"

I once had a small pantheon of Greek gods peel off the ceiling of my room and peer down at me while arguing about the fate of man in a language I did not understand. I assumed at the time it must have been ancient Greek, but one really never knows about such things.
I also had my mother's face melt away one time until all that was left was a skeleton chewing me out for being home so late whilst dangling a cigarette from her bony jaw.
I'm comforted today by the knowlege that these were not hallucinations.

I am skeptical of any source but, the accuracy of wikipedia has been measured as reliable as the average encyclopedia for scientific information.

Thus, wikipedia states specifically that they are not hallucinations in the strict sense and references the hallucination link for an explanation where it states, "An hallucination is a sensory perception experienced in the absence of an external stimulus, as distinct from an illusion, which is a misperception of an external stimulus." and "For this reason, a hallucination may also be classified as an anomalous phenomenon, when no suitable scientific explanation is verified."

LSD is a scientific explanation so it does not fit the scientific definition of an hallucination, thus, the scientifically the effects are an illusion.

More importantly, are you an alcoholic?
Did LSD in particular traumatize and disabled your life?
Many find salvation in a gutter and consider any and all escape moral turpitude.
It seems things depend on context.

Yet,
LSD is considered an entheogen because it often catalyzes intense spiritual experiences where users feel they have come into contact with a greater spiritual or cosmic order. It is common for users to achieve insights into the way the mind works and some users experience permanent or long-lasting changes in their life perspective. Some users consider LSD a religious sacrament, or a powerful tool for access to the divine. Many books have been written comparing the LSD trip to the state of enlightenment of eastern philosophy.


In a broader sense, the word "entheogen" refers to artificial as well as natural substances that induce alterations of consciousness similar to those documented for ritual ingestion of traditional shamanic inebriants, even if it is used in a secular context.

The word entheogen is a modern term derived from two Ancient Greek words, ἔνθεος (entheos) and γενέσθαι (genesthai). Entheos literally means "god (theos) within", more freely translated "inspired". The Greeks used it as a term of praise for poets and other artists. Genesthai means "to cause to be" or becoming. So an entheogen is "that which causes God (or godly inspiration) to be within a person".


Lastly, here is a link to manna (flesh of god) which some suggest to be psilocybe mushrooms.

 

[Gardener]

Re: Kissing A Booboo

"
More importantly, are you an alcoholic?
Did LSD in particular traumatize and disabled your life?

No, I am not an alchoholic. I do enjoy my Belgian Ales now and then, but never to excess.

Did LSD traumatize and disable my life? In what way?

A time or two in highschool it might have been better not to have droped at lunchtime, but I only did that when I didn't have P.E. so it wasn't traumatic. As to disabling my life, I suppose I'd say that after some of the windowpane, the next day I wasn't good for much.

It's not like I dropped all the time or anything, but I did try all sorts of drugs between the ages of 15 and 20 or so, and so it is difficult to determine the effects of any one independant of the others. I imagine I have probably sacrificed a neuron or two to the stuff, but I managed to keep enough of them so I don't slobber too much.

Well, except when I uncork one of my favorite Belgian Ale's, in which case the conditioned response turns me into a veritable Pavlov's pup.

 

[Monk-Eye]

At Issue

"At Issue"

No, I am not an alchoholic. I do enjoy my Belgian Ales now and then, but never to excess.
Did LSD traumatize and disable my life? In what way?
I imagine I have probably sacrificed a neuron or two to the stuff, but I managed to keep enough of them so I don't slobber too much.
Well, except when I uncork one of my favorite Belgian Ale's, in which case the conditioned response turns me into a veritable Pavlov's pup.

:smile:
The testimonials are helpful. Thanks.

It is odd that a statistically significant method to treat alcoholism should be such a condemned scourge.

The negative associations of drugs with promiscuity and dysfunction largely stem from alcohol insobriety.

IMO society has generalized too much.

If my memory serves correctly, at one time it was a disqualifier for military service to admit having taken LSD.

 

[ngdawg]

Re: 'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism

It was also a disqualifier to show up for a military physical in ladies' underwear....
The US has an extremely close-minded, archaic opinion of (now) illegal drugs, which we are all aware of. Even hemp, an industrialized version/brother of cannabis that can be used for hundreds of things, is illegal(supposedly made thusly by the political influence of the DuPont empire).
I don't think it would matter if 500 people stood on the steps of the Capitol and gave testimony to how LSD got them off the booze....the damage was done with Dr. Leary's introduction to the emerging counterculture of the 60's to the mind-altering effects of 'acid'.

 

[Saboteur]

Re: 'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism'Acid' as a Cure for Alcoholism

I once took 2 hits of Blue Unicorn and drank a case of beer by myself. I didn't get drunk. But a little while later I smoked a couple joints and I was on another planet...

It's been years and years and years since I took LSD or smoked pot but I still drink a 12 pack pretty much every week end.

Sometimes I think I took too much LSD all those years ago...