I have so many questions!

[neon_kittens]

Hello everyone. I am excited to meet you all. I am a 2* year old female from California, USA. I was diagnosed bi-polar when 13 and also suffer from PTSD. I take Wellbutrin, Depakote and Cymbalta. I am enganged to my lovely fiance who helps me through my issues but I am still struggling. I also smoke weed heavily and cannot go a few hours without it or I my mind races and I am not productive- I just sit there. I am also a self confessed work-a-holic / artist. I am constantly working on my art thriving to make it better. My art is everything to me and I cannot stop working on it. Sometimes it drives me crazy.

I have never done DMT but I am driven to this forum because everyone seems so wise. I have a wise side to me but then there is my ego that keeps getting me down. I am curious if DMT could help me with my chemical dependency issues. I don't want to smoke or take pills. I don't want to be a slave. My mind is a tornado. I've tried meditation but my mind is too chaotic. I just sit there dreaming of my next creations...

I would like to be enlightened more than anything. I know I live in a distorted perspective but still can't escape. I've gotten better by far but then I haven't. I believe that I could handle DMT but I am pretty sure one of my medications would interact with it. I really hope not.

Please give any insight or advice. I appreciate your time.

 

[Ancotar]

Hello and welcome to the community!

Please take some time to read through the experience sections of the forum to see if this is something you can benefit from! Also check out the Health & Safety section if you have any questions about those topics! If you have any questions after that, feel free to give us a jingle

Again, welcome to the community and we look forward to hearing more from you! :thumb_up:

EDIT: I almost forgot, don't forget the Wiki!

 

[ouro]

Hello neon kittens - welcome

first the technical things:

someone else around here probably knows more about the wellbutrin and depakote interactions and whether those are safe to combine with psychadelics. But, cymbalta is a ssri and can make psychadelics drugs extremely weak. Generally the combination is not recommended, but I don't think there are any health hazards. However, combining cymbalta and harmalas can be fatal.

Second: are you happy with your current medications? If you think they are helping you improve your quality of life and are satisfied with them, you should probably just stick with those. If you want to change them in order to appreciate psychadelics you need to make the pretty serious decision of ceasing ssri - this can take a long time and involve unpleasant withdrawl effects. There are a lot of ways to change your life to deal with psychological issues: diet, excersize, yoga/spiritual practice, therapy, time, etc and you are the one who will make the decision.

ps: what are your questions?

 

[InMotion]

It is not safe to combine SSRI's with MAO inhibitors such as the plants used in ayahuasca. Wellbutrin will also interact: Error 500. It's also in general not reccomended to use psychedelics with Bi-polar disorder. Psychedelics are known to induce mania in many people diagnosed with this disorder. It's definitely not recommended to go off your medications to take a psychedelics. They can also make these disorders a lot worse. They can be beneficial for PTSD but its likely not worth the risk.

If your mind isn't stable enough for daily life be warned about what may happen after psychedelics. I'm a diagnosed schizophrenic and have given up psychedelics and cannabis to stabilize my mind. So I can feel for you.

Are you a type 1 bipolar? Do you ever have hallucinations/delusions? I do, hehehe. I guess what I'm trying to get at is, you may already have access to these altered states with-in you. Not that people like us(if you do) should give into delusions and hallucinations but we can find ways to understand them to understand our minds and then to consciousness itself.

Propanolol treatment + therapy has shown a lot of promise for PTSD however. Be weary of people claiming to cure all mental illness with psychedelics. It's plain and simply not true.

Much love to you, I still hope you participate in the forum! Just because you can't or don't do dmt now doesn't mean you won't fit into this community and share/learn a lot .

 

[neon_kittens]

Thank you to everyone for your replies. I look to get off of most my medications in the future. As a teen I got into a lot of trouble and was forced onto several medications and have been on them ever since. I used to be on 3 times as many but over time quit taking them and have been feeling more and more stable as I get off these pills. I exercise, do yoga and have tried many many types of therapy. I think I was misdiagnosed bi-polar as I was given several SSRI medications at such a young age I think it was a reaction to the pills and emotions from PTSD. I have had a few major traumas in my life including finding my brother over 2 years ago. I came home nearly seconds after he shot himself in the head with a shotgun. I do not feel unstable so much anymore as just a prisoner to the chemical dependency. I also suffer from chronic back pain from a pinched nerve and use marijuana for that but want to use it very very rarely at most. I have been diagnosed with several different things since then but I don't think that the Dr.s that see me for 15 minutes once a year really know what's going on. I do not hallucinate my main thing is just getting down on myself or just super agitated. I also run my own business so that definitely doesn't help with my my mind feeling chaotic- as I do everything myself. I currently have 3 different web shops open. There always seems to be something I forgot to do or need to do!

 

[neon_kittens]

Also, I recently tried mushrooms for the first time in years a few months ago and I was genuinely relaxed for the first time in months! Yummy mushroom tea. I lost track of time for hours which is hard for me to do when I am at home as I work at home so it is hard to get away from it. I felt at peace with everything and had a really nice body high.

 

[InMotion]

Ah, the teen years are always confusing and hard. When trauma gets mixed into things diagnosis get more and more abstract. Well, if you did well on mushrooms I think those would be an excellent launch pad until you get off your current medication regiment. Mushrooms can go just as far as Ayahuasca although the experiences are quiet different.

You said you were from california right? I'd really recommend looking for high CBD and low THC strains. Such as low-rider or other-wise. Though I don't personally have experience with them there is promising information(from studies) that CBD can help with psychosis as well as things like bipolar disorder and of course pain management. THC on the other hand not so much. When I move to a medical state I plan on solely using this plant for a medication.

I feel for what you've gone through, though I cannot relate directly I've been hit really hard by life several times as well.*big hug* It's kind of my safety reflex to say bipolar people shouldn't do psychedelics. Truly manic depressives and schizoaffectives are a very different story then someone who deals with mood swings(especially suffering from trauma). For example someone who has been hospitalized for mania is probably not in safe shape to take psychedelics and certainly not frequently. Though someone who has ups and downs but is managing and functioning fine in life could and likely should explore. For early journeys its best to have a trip sitter, just someone you genuinely trust and enjoy to be able to talk you down in-case things get too heavy. Preferably someone respectful and experienced but other substitutes will suffice .

Personally, I never found smoked DMT to help me too much psychologically, although it certainly is enlightening(whatever that word really means hahaha). It often spun me out. Though we are two different people with two different lives I really would like to recommend lower end dosages of longer acting psychedelics. Mushrooms especially. Mushrooms let me forgive a person who took advantage of me when I was drunk/passed out and helped me realize a lot of the processes in my head and negative patterns in my life. Which has given me a lot of ground to grow from, still learning every day and its been months since the last visit.

Ayahuasca really helped me to get some work done, so did pharmahuasca but your medication regiment shouldn't include these plants(yet). When you get off of them though and make some more progress toward recovery I'd really recommend the experience .

These plant teachers and active compounds can help us find things with-in ourselves to help ourselves. It is a relationship that requires work and the experience really reflects who we are and just what the extent of that is or may be. It's all about finding our allies and learning/experiencing ourselves(in my opinion). Everyone reacts differently to different situations, methods, and substances.

edit- also I recommend not reading too many trip reports because they will influence your trips!

I am hoping the best for you, I think you are in the right place and at the right time. There's no rush though, go with what you feel is right and find your own pace :thumb_up: .