• Members of the previous forum can retrieve their temporary password here, (login and check your PM).

Headache brainfoq from smoking lye?

foxwild

Rising Star
Hi, i think i accidently vaped a poluted batch in which the lye was mixed as it got contaminated with the heptane pulls

Now i have a headache and brainfoq alreadt dor several days including sometimes strange light flashes,

Can it be that the lye ph12 or so is slowely eating my brain?

Starting to get a bit worried here now
 
Hi, i think i accidently vaped a poluted batch in which the lye was mixed as it got contaminated with the heptane pulls

Now i have a headache and brainfoq alreadt dor several days including sometimes strange light flashes,

Can it be that the lye ph12 or so is slowely eating my brain?

Starting to get a bit worried here now
Absolutely not. Lye's not magic - it eventually (sooner rather than later) gets neutralised by acid substances in the body tissues. Fumes from burnt alkaline plant material might be unpleasant, though.

It's really easy to avoid base contamination by using a wash jug with a dash or so of sodium carbonate solution where the heptane/naphtha goes before transferring it to the crystallisation dish.

If you've missed out on that step and have base contamination in your crystals, you clean them up with a re-x (recrystallisation) from warm heptane, which is about the same as the freeze precipitation from the initial pulls, and you remove the heptane from the contaminants before allowing it to cool and crystallise.

These are basic steps that should be applied before consuming a home made substance.

Are you looking after other aspects of your life, like hydration, diet, exercise and getting enough sleep? There's always a chance that you've come down with some kind of virus, too.
 
a poluted batch in which the lye was mixed as it got contaminated with the heptane pulls
Are there signs of this having happened besides those symptoms you experience?

It's possible to get headaches with light flashes (particularly in a single eye) from trigger point activation in the sternocleidomastoid or the scalene (EDIT: actually splenius cervicis) muscles. That could easily happen during the experience, or even be due to an unrelated issue.
Where is your headache located? Do you have pain in the eye that seems to come as if from behind the eyeball?
 
Last edited:
According to benzyme, a full time employed bench chemist, NPS has great affinity for DMT but not for lye. One would have to work very hard to get lye in the final product. Like physically, intentionally, with evil intent, transfer some over.

So, let's say it's NOT lye. What is going on here?

Headaches happen. But it is worth noting that DMT causes a spike in both heart rate and blood pressure. Are you in good health on those fronts?

It is also worth noting that unless one perfectly and comfortably arranges one's body before launch, aches, cramps and cricks (as well as headaches from bad neck position) can occur in the aftermath.

Brain fogs happen. They can be the result of lack of sleep, poor nutrition, too much work, too many NON psychedelic (including prescription and alcohol) drugs and their aftermath/hangover.

DMT is so powerful it is easy to believe things that may or may not be true. I recall in my early days of vaping large doses fast and hard I would have horrible body shakes in the aftermath. I wondered, "Is this some sort of seizure?" but I looked up seizure and I wasn't coming back disoriented, I had not lost bladder control, etc. It was simply the off the scale intensity of the DMT experiences that were causing the shakes.

I know I don't actually have answers for you but I hope what I have written gives you some things to consider.
 
Last edited:
I have had headaches after vaping DMT(or taking other 5ht2a agonists) many times bad enough to need to take a painkiller.

Others have said that vaping DMT left them feeling exhausted and foggy similar to taking melatonin for the next day.
 
Wow thanks a lot for your kind and elobarate replies all! Thats very comforting.

Friday evening and day after it felt something in my forehead was 'burning' was very tired and slept all day,

ever since strange kind of pressure in my fore head with sometimes a zoom or light flash (that happend only once).

Overall brainfoq and missaligned / out of balance feeling with ongoing stinches mainly in my forehead as well

Still able to focus on work and think sharp but sometimes feel like i am bit in the 'twilight zone' still as well.

I think i pulled some naptha with some dark lye drops along with it, and freezed it all together without wash.

Also took some caapi for mao inhibition, perhaps that cost the issue or some other mhbr alkaloids?
 
Are you on any prescription medications that say you should not use an MAOI? You could read the 30 pages of micro print but generally a Google search will help.

You might want to take a long-term break to see if things clear.

You might want to extract a new batch being super careful and see if you get the same effect.

You might want to just get a check up to make sure that it's not some sort of weird coincidence where the use has crossed over with something real going on in your body. . .
 
Also took some caapi for mao inhibition, perhaps that cost the issue or some other mhbr alkaloids?
That's almost too crucial a detail to have omitted! While having effects days after a single dose is exceedingly unlikely, there are still parallels to be drawn with the light flashes and some aspects of the harmala experience.
Are you on any prescription medications that say you should not use an MAOI? You could read the 30 pages of micro print but generally a Google search will help.
We have a harmala risk disclaimer pinned at the top of several of the forums for this very reason.
You might want to just get a check up to make sure that it's not some sort of weird coincidence where the use has crossed over with something real going on in your body.
This is the most sound general advice - we can't diagnose, give medical advice or prescribe treatment here. There's every possibility you could have developed heightened awareness of a preexisting condition as well.
 
Thanks for the great advices again, aa doe the MAO it was like quarter of a tea spoon caapi paste, shortly after the first vape i puked. Everything out again including my dinner. Not on sri's or any other pharma so that cant be it, thinking hind sight i did drink coffee that day and also ate some which might have been the/a culprit.

Attached is an image of the yield, does this look normal? The bottom layer was extremely sticky
 

Attachments

  • 20250925_083810.jpg
    20250925_083810.jpg
    2 MB · Views: 13
It looks off to me, especially when looking at the unscraped stuff it looks chalky/muddy which is unusual, also the scrape residue lines are atypical. What was your yield %?
 
The material looks OK to me, but I'd need to see a few more pictures from various angles as well as close up to be certain.

Regarding the headaches, @Jamie01's observation regarding 5-HTR-mediation is on point. Post-shroom headaches are a notable phenomenon, so you may have an innately sensitive cerebrovascular configuration. In your position, I'd be taking a relaxed look at my medical history along with dietary and physical habits. It's also worth considering your dental health, allergies, and general condition of your sinuses, as part of a non-exhaustive list.

I hope your head's feeling better now. It's not at all unusual for harmala alkaloids to cause nausea and vomiting, especially in those unaccustomed to them. At least this indicates your material is likely to be reasonably potent - maybe you could try your hand at a harmala extraction :)
 
It looks off to me, especially when looking at the unscraped stuff it looks chalky/muddy which is unusual, also the scrape residue lines are atypical. What was your yield %?
Not sure about yield percentage but its abiut 1.5 gram from several teks
 
The material looks OK to me, but I'd need to see a few more pictures from various angles as well as close up to be certain.

Regarding the headaches, @Jamie01's observation regarding 5-HTR-mediation is on point. Post-shroom headaches are a notable phenomenon, so you may have an innately sensitive cerebrovascular configuration. In your position, I'd be taking a relaxed look at my medical history along with dietary and physical habits. It's also worth considering your dental health, allergies, and general condition of your sinuses, as part of a non-exhaustive list.

I hope your head's feeling better now. It's not at all unusual for harmala alkaloids to cause nausea and vomiting, especially in those unaccustomed to them. At least this indicates your material is likely to be reasonably potent - maybe you could try your hand at a harmala extraction :)
 

Attachments

  • 20250925_195036.jpg
    20250925_195036.jpg
    1.7 MB · Views: 8
  • 20250925_194937.jpg
    20250925_194937.jpg
    1.9 MB · Views: 7
  • 20250925_194855.jpg
    20250925_194855.jpg
    1.9 MB · Views: 5
  • 20250925_194838.jpg
    20250925_194838.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 5
  • 20250925_194828.jpg
    20250925_194828.jpg
    2 MB · Views: 5
  • 20250925_194831.jpg
    20250925_194831.jpg
    2.4 MB · Views: 6
  • 20250925_194814.jpg
    20250925_194814.jpg
    2 MB · Views: 8
Back
Top Bottom