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Comment by ippster | Hacker News Reader

I can say, hands down, MDMA cured me from all and any social anxiety, it showed me that no-one gives a fuck, everybody is just the same and wants to be heard.

Its so funny, every time links like this gets posted I just nod and think "Poor bastards, they haven't figured it out yet?"

It's been 8 years since I did MDMA, so far no negatives as far as I can tell. Obviously, as with any strong drug/psychedelic, you will be a different person after the trip, what you take from that, is up to you. It is not for everybody, and especially if you feel you are prone to something like schizophrenia do NOT do psychedelics.

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>> "I can say, hands down, MDMA cured me from all and any social anxiety, it showed me that no-one gives a fuck, everybody is just the same and wants to be heard.

I had the complete opposite experience. It took my social anxiety to another level after one use. Took about a year for me to get it back to where it was before (manageable).Obviously I can't say for sure it was the drugs fault but I'm convinced of it enough that there is no way I would try it again.

In other words people have different experiences with things like this. Just because it had such a good impact on you doesn't mean it won't have the complete opposite effect on someone else.

Counter anecdote: I did plenty of MDMA 10+ years ago and I have just as much social anxiety now as I did then. Yes, it is alleviated for the few hours you are inebriated, but alcohol mostly has the same effect for me, anxiety relief wise. No long term relief and a profound reversal the next day. The last times I did MDMA were so unpleasant by the end of the trip that I get anxiety thinking about doing it, a decade later.

I now also have generalized anxiety. While I doubt it has anything to do with MDMA, I would strongly caution people to not self administer substituted amphetamines for psychiatric disorders.

Right. Of course there might be a big difference between taking plenty of MDMA for recreational purposes and taking it under a controlled dosage and environment. Or maybe MDMA really isn't a viable treatment. Or maybe it just works for some people. It is impossible to know more without proper scientific research.

Anyone who studies the history of science should be worried by the amount of power that politicians currently have over what scientists can and cannot study. There was a time after the renaissance when universities in Europe where granted almost total independence from the state. My university had its own police force and jail, at one point. This was a time when civilization advanced rapidly, and many of the ideas that we take for granted now were explored.

Now universities are very much part of the system. I am afraid that we are entering the high-tech dark ages.

100% agreed that research access should be expanded, especially in light of the fact that these sort of drugs are unpredictable in their contents when obtained illicitly. Moving MDMA from schedule I to schedule II in the US would be a huge help. Despite my anecdotal warnings, its not a substance that doesnt merit further research.

Maybe I am overly sensitive to these things but I recall really embarrassing things people have done and have a hard time not associating those actions with the person.

I think the reason people are socially anxious is not because they think people 'give a fuck' but rather because they're confused by social signals / body language / verbal cues and that sort of thing. They don't know how to mesh and mingle properly with a crowd.

From what I read is that MDMA will help the autistic increase their emotional IQ and "fit in" better. Not because it will help them ignore what other people think of them.

There is no 'proper' way to mesh and mingle with a crowd.

There's a lot of improper ways.

From my experience, that is not exactly it. It's not confusion of social signals per say, rather it's the amplification of these signals that causes anxiety. It's the over analyzing and excessive processing the brain does that causes anxiety.

From my experience, MDMA eases the mind, and fills it with empathy, love and connectedness to others (or release the molecules necessary for this). Under this state, it's not hard to see how one could temporarily break free of their 'normal anxious' state.

First, are you saying you had social anxiety previously and that it was improved for the long term, without continued MDMA use?

Secondly, what evidence is there that psychedelics cause schizophrenia?

First, yes, I had lots of problems navigating the social sphere, it was like there was some minor detail I just didn't understand, but which was crucial, it felt like it made me look and feel like a idiot. MDMA took all that away, it showed me that no, no one cares, just do your thing and don't bother. I did MDMA a few times during a year period.

Second, NO, psychedelics absolutely do NOT cause schizophrenia in my opinion, BUT people who have underlying symptoms or are prone to it, for them it can very much act like a trigger.

What evidence is there that it can even be a trigger?

Not sure why you were downvoted. I haven't seen much research on any other drug other than cannabis. Correlation(not causation) between its overuse and psychosis has been documented on several occasions[1][2]. But its good evidence only for people with already some form of genetic predisposition to get diseases like schizophrenia. So its 'triggering' in that sense. Of course more work is needed on such an important topic because there are contradictory studies like this one[3].

[1]http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/09209964940...

[2]http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/17007222

[3]http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/38/2...

Note that [3] seems to be using historical data from patients correlating episodes with cannabis use (doesn't seem to include trials), so it's of course very susceptible to "correlation vs causaution" problems.

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