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LSD Addiction Treatment

If you use LSD, there are LSD addiction treatment centers ready to help you NOW. Your LSD addiction is slowly destroying your body and mind. You need help for your addiction to LSD, which is taking over your life, hurting those closest to you and stealing your dreams. You have tried to stop using LSD, but can't stop. You have always returned, worse than before. We know, we've been there and couldn't do it by ourselves either. Call Recovery Connection NOW for help. Call 1-800-99-DETOX.

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is a major hallucinogen drug that causes LSD addiction. It was discovered in 1938 and is considered one of the most potent mood-changing chemicals around. It is manufactured from lysergic acid, which is found in ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and other grains. LSD, commonly referred to as "acid", is sold on the street in tablets, capsules, and, occasionally, liquid form. It is odorless, colorless, and has a slightly bitter taste, usually taken by mouth. Often LSD is added to absorbent paper, such as blotter paper, and divided into small decorated squares, with each square representing one dose.

The Drug Enforcement Administration reports that the strength of LSD samples currently obtained from illicit sources ranges from 20 to 80 micrograms of LSD per dose. This is considerably less than the levels reported during the 1960s and early 1970s, when the dosage ranged from 100 to 200 micrograms, or higher, per unit.

Because of its structural similarity to a chemical present in the brain and its similarity in effects to certain aspects of psychosis, LSD was used as a research tool to study mental illness. The average effective oral dose is from 20 to 80 micrograms with the effects of higher doses lasting for 10 to 12 hours.

The Effects of LSD

What are LSD Hallucinations?

During the first hour after LSD ingestion, the user may experience visual changes with extreme changes in mood. In the hallucinatory state, the user may experience the following:

When using LSD, sensations and feelings change much more dramatically than the physical signs. The LSD user may feel several different emotions at once or swing rapidly from one emotion to another. If taken in a large enough dose, the drug produces delusions and visual hallucinations (the user's sense of time and self changes). Sensations may seem to "cross over", giving the user the feeling of hearing colors and seeing sounds. These changes can be frightening and can cause panic.

Users refer to their experience with LSD as a "trip.” Acute adverse reactions are considered "bad trips." These experiences are long; typically they begin to clear after about 12 hours.

Some LSD users might go in search of LSD addiction treatment after they experience severe, terrifying thoughts and feelings, fear of losing control, fear of insanity and death, and despair while using LSD. Some fatal accidents have occurred during states of LSD intoxication. Many LSD users experience flashbacks, recurrence of certain aspects of a person's experience, without the user having taken the drug again. A flashback occurs suddenly, often without warning, and may occur within a few days or more than a year after LSD use. Flashbacks usually occur in people who use hallucinogens chronically or have an underlying personality problem; however, otherwise healthy people who use LSD occasionally (not experiencing LSD addiction) may also have flashbacks. Bad trips and flashbacks are only part of the risks of LSD use. LSD users may manifest relatively long-lasting psychoses, such as schizophrenia or severe depression. It is difficult to determine the extent and mechanism of the LSD involvement in these illnesses.

Health Hazards Associated with LSD Addiction-like Behavior

The effects of LSD are unpredictable. They depend on the amount taken; the user's personality, mood, and expectations; as well as the surroundings in which the drug is used. Usually, the user feels the first effects of the drug 30 to 90 minutes after taking it.

Most users of LSD voluntarily decrease or stop using it over time, without seeking LSD addiction treatment. The fact is, LSD addiction is not something that actually occurs, even though LSD use may be repetitive. This drug is not considered physically addictive since it does not produce compulsive drug-seeking behavior, as do cocaine, amphetamine, heroin, alcohol, and nicotine. However, like many of the addictive drugs, LSD produces tolerance, so some users who take LSD repeatedly must take progressively higher doses to achieve the state of intoxication that they had previously achieved. This is an extremely dangerous practice, given the unpredictability of the drug.

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