Just between us; my intro essay.

[EntreNous]

Friends, freaks, freethinkers.

This is version 3.0 or something so it should be nice and concise. We will see.

I joined a "similar" site and disliked the moderation structure and polarized membership (drama) immediately. The content, the equanimity of the contributors and the professional standards of DMT Nexus plus the gratitude I feel convinced me that this site was different and well worth joining.

As briefly as I can, here is my thanks.

I have this thing that messes with my bones and autoimmune system, had it since the 90's. I spent a third of my life on prescription opiates then one day I was done and walked away from the pain management clinic in disgust. I burned through my savings on street opiates then went into debt buying pods and seeds for teas. The whole time I was looking for a way out. I have been in withdrawal too many times for a day or two. The thought of weeks of misery and Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome was a constant weight. I was miserable. I've had more joint replacements than Willie Nelson's roachclip. Between the prospect of opiate withdrawal and the full force of unmitigated pain I wasn't thrilled with my future.

I found out about loperimide. Completely swapped a huge active opiate load for an inactive one. Then I started microdosing ground up Morning Glory and slowly tapered the lope to 2mg. I'm not about to admit what my max doseage was.

There's been some bad press about lope for opiate withdrawal but the fact is there are thousands of deaths yearly from nsaids in the US alone and less than 200 non lethal hospitalizations and a handful of rather dubious deaths involving lope and antidepressants worldwide since it's first sales decades ago (citations on request). Do your own research. It was the right thing at the right time for me.

Two mg was the knife edge for me. I was fairly miserable constantly but not in full blown withdrawal. There are plenty of horror stories about lope withdrawal. I've been in withdrawal from almost every opiate around. Loperimide is hands down the meanest. Worse than pod tea.

After some careful consideration I took a 900 seed dose of Morning Glory. Gentle and sublime psychedelics, agonizing bodyload. After 30 some odd hours of hang time in low earth orbit I was down to .5mg. I figured just a few more days microdosing and I would be done with opiates. Wrong. I had built up a toxic load from the MG seed and even light doses of clean MG seed extract felt like drinking cyanide.

Serendipity, I had been learning all I could about DMT right here, every day for weeks. Then suddenly, unexpectedly, I had some starter material and activator. I made a tea and did an extraction that yielded mostly red jungle spice oil.

I dosed 5 gm bark and 4 gm rue, didn't purge. Watched my life flash before my eyes for 4 hours or so. That's the best I can describe it. In the days following, I took occasional puffs of the red oil.

It was a almost a week later that I suddenly realized I hadn't even thought about opiates since the Tea.

So that's about it. I wouldn't be here now, happy and free without the help of DMT Nexus and it's incredible brain trust.
Thanks again to all the contributors and staff.

EntreNous.

 

[Sunnyside]

I don't know anything about anything, and I don't generally have much to say.

I'm real happy that you are finding some relief, I'm real happy for you.

My thoughts are with you.

 

[AcidShard]

Welcome,

Good to hear that you are finally getting some relief. I have been on opiates for about ten years now and it's a hard one to kick.
It was always prescribed for pain, but it's impossible not to get addicted.
You need to want to quit to get clean, and it's hard to want to stop doing something that feels great.
Kudos to you, it's a huge accomplishment.

I haven't heard about loperimide, but I am on buprenorphine now and starting to ween down.
It helps to get out of the habit of getting high daily, at least. It's a start.
Unfortunately, suboxone is contraindicated with MAOI's, or I would try using ayahuasca to see if it could help me as well.

What kind of doses were you doing with the occasional puffs of spice?
Do you feel that smoking it helped with getting clean as well, or do you think that the brew had the most effect?

Take care

 

[EntreNous]

Thanks for the positivity Acidshard and Sunnyside!
Awesome to hear from 2 such beings on my first day as a member.

As to Acidshards Q's:
Dosage is problematic with the oil I got from the extraction. I basically dabbed a BB sized (.177cm)hemisphere on the sidewall of my oil burner and got 2 smallish puffs out of it. I only took one or at max 2 puffs a day.

I can speculate that the tea did the bulk of the work, whatever work that was, and the smoalk sort of reinforced the effects of the tea. It all went down basically without my being aware of it until days later. I have no clue what the mechanism was and hesitate to speculate more than I already have.

I should add this very subjective note. The first time I smoked the red oil after the tea (my first smoked DMT ever) I took two huge hits. It came on gently and lovingly and then hundreds of brightly colored wriggling tentacle like "things" entered my skull (or a huge dark hollow sphere with my brain suspended in the middle to be more accurate) and caressed my brain all over. This seemed to go on forever and then I was back to this realm. It was actually just over 30 minutes. I had noticeable intermittent OEV's for the rest of the day. This seems like an unusual Time profile but there it is.

Best wishes with your Buprenorphine. I'd love to stay in touch. You too Sunnyside!

EntreNous.

 

[nonononono]

I am glad that you were able to find relief in this natural remedy. I recently learned that the founder of AA was a proponent of LSD for treatment of Alcoholism, and yet Alcohol is still legal and LSD was made illegal shortly thereafter. It boggles the mind :|

 

[EntreNous]

Yes, I recently learned about "the thirteenth step" myself. It puts the term "higher power" into a whole new context. I think AA is currently operating at about a 5% success rate. I hear of success rates of up to 80% in hallucinogen based addiction programs. Indeed, mind boggling is the only description for the reasoning behind LSD's legal status.

Thanks for commenting nonononono. Still opiate free and feeling great.

 

[vert green]

I'll offer my experience here, for what it's worth. I have a number of years experience in the A.A. fellowship, but far fewer of those years actually working the program of recovery.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a 12-step program, started in 1920's, codified in the 1930s.
Since 1934, it has been a very successful program in helping the true alcoholic to achieve long-term sobriety. Worldwide, there's some millions of alcoholics who have been become useful individuals once again, through "applying these principles in all their affairs."
In other words, the ones who are successful in the AA program are those who follow-through to actually work the program.
The AA program NOW, currently, works in 5-8% of the time, not because of a flaw in the program. The AA program helps all those who work the program.
Yet, in a society where "you all are winners", where people like to cut corners and often act selfishly; where people want to think of themself as god, etc., etc...(as addicts are wont to do) then it is not surprising that the program works in 5% of the cases.
When the true alcoholic works the program, he will recover, and he will not want to drink again. It's that simple.
Yet, doing this easy-yet-difficult program can be problematic for the individual not-yet convinced that s/he is an addict/has an addiction, that s/he has an allergy to alcohol. Taking the steps of recovery can be difficult for those who think that they got it all figured-out, that s/he just needs to cut down their drinking, rather than stop entirely.
The program is not successful for those who can NOT adopt a Higher Power of some sort. This Higher Power only need be the experience of the group (Group Of Drunks), and the confidence that if they can do it, any one can.
For the bulk of the 95% who have not been successful; were one to ask those people what the condition of their daily spiritual life is, they will largely say "it's ok," and yet on closer examination, one finds their spiritual life is in shambles.

The SAME EXACT THING is relevant to taking the vegetal (hoasca tea), or taking a ride on the DMT flash, or on any other entheogenic substance. If one undertakes a "voyage to knowledge," without the correct, proper spiritual mindset, and without doing some spiritual/emotional preparations beforehand, then results are disasterous.
Nothing is automatic.
This statistic of "success rates of up to 80% in hallucinogen based addiction programs" is based on a much, much, much smaller sample population. In early days of AA. the success rate of the program was much closer to 100%, because people did the work and applied the program to their own lives. Any program where folks have a sense they need to do the actual work, will lead to a high success rate.
I personally am of the opinion that an entheogenic-based sacrament can lead to spiritual development, but the one needs to WANT to have a spiritual experience. If the one is not interested in a spiritual experience, and a spiritual way of life as the potential solution, then in these cases, there will be no success.
Nothing is automatic.
There is no progress in addiction without work, and without sacrifice of some sort.
For me, alcohol mainly, as well as other substances, substituted for a spiritual life, for spiritual development. I personally don't find noteable spiritual development without work attached to it.
This is not the problem with the Universe, but with the human. For the sake of the human, it needs to do the actual work of work, to reap the spiritual benefits.
So whether we apply this to do the program of recovery, or working the program of Extraction, or working a spiritual path of learning to live without opiates and common pain meds, the analysis ends with the same product: work in equals spiritual benefit out.
On the so-called 13th Step.
There are those who are "dually diagnosed"; who have an addiction, compounded by mental health issues. I'll categorize myself in this fashion. I go to regular meetings throughout the week, and would not wish to change this. There is a strong program of recovery, with many people supportive to this life of recovery. The program works very well, for those who do the work. Yet, I have substantial "mental health issues," which the program doesn't venture into, and gives me the directive to "seek professional help" for the depression.
Enter the vegetal.
After years, and years of mental health counseling, I arrived at a few unsavory conclusions.
The first conclusion is that if I don't know what's wrong, and can't tell it to the doctor because maybe I don't have words for what the problem is, then my issue gets misdiagnosed.
This is followed by the conclusion that speaking in words to any given doctor is going to result in a misdiagnosis of my "condition."
An important conclusion is that doctors are unable to supply a spiritual resolution to any issue brought before him.
At one point I presented the idea that my depression was the result of my heart not producing a particular enzyme. The doctor thought this absolutely absurd, and prescribed Depakote. As a result, I came to the conclusion that only what is patented, and only what can be packaged by the pharmaceuticals industry, is what Western medicine will perscribe to the patient.
The vegetal tea does alot to help with this depression, and other "ailments."
More importantly, the vegetal tea shows that these "ailments" are quirks of personality necessary for the work I need to do in this ailing, sick society. Part of the sickness itself, is a product of society which is a material-based, consuming, commodity-driven oasis. If one looks at all the crap of society, and takes it on as his own issue, then only depression and illness will ensue.
Society makes its adherents sick, so that they will support the sickness of society. A spiritual path (of recovery) is the resolution for society's illness.