Hello everyone, I am just super nervous for my open-heart surgery and would love some advice to not get depressed and super anxious. This will be my last open heart-surgery.

##Really. I promise.

When it comes to addiction, a lot of the time people always try to only focus on positivity (of sobriety).

• "I don't let drugs beat me!"
• "I won't let addiction keep me from doing what I love!"
• "I'll fight hard every day!"

There's definitely a core of truth to maintaining a positive attitude throughout this disease, but I also find that too often, it comes at the expense of not allowing yourself to feel the bad parts. Because sometimes, acknowledging that you're not okay when it comes to drugs/addiction feels like a huge personal failure. Like you weren't trying hard enough. Like you should have known and done better. Because how can you keep up with being positive if you let the negative interfere?

I want you all to know that it's so very much okay to not be okay. You're allowed to feel frustrated, stressed, and tired. You're allowed to be fed up with this shit. You're allowed to curse at drugs and the ignorance spread about our condition.

We're finite and we're human. This shit wears us down, addiction is really hard, and that's okay. It would be weird if this stuff didn't negatively impact us.

Don't get caught in the positivity trap, where you only allow yourself to feel positive things because you have to 'or else'. You don't have to be positive all the time. It's super important for us to feel these frustrations and all the other bullshit so we can process them rather than push them aside and bottle them up until they cave in on us. Doing so is known to help prevent burnout and makes for happier, healthier people.

Give yourself the space and time to feel the bad stuff. Be sad, cry, punch things at the gym, go for a long and lonely walk. Yell, play violent games, listen to heavy metal, bitch at friends! Do all these things so you don't get stuck pent up in the background and unable to move forward.

You'll feel so much better if you give yourself permission to feel these things. Take a nap or go to bed for the night afterward, and when you wake up, reflect and plan.

Why were you feeling this way? Can you trace it back to one specific event, or does it feel like an accumulation of many things? Are you setting reasonable expectations for yourself, or are you holding yourself to a really high standard that is setting you up for failure?

Be honest with yourself and your expectations. Once you have answered these kinds of questions, you have to:

• Processed the emotions attached to the situation, at least partially

• A better understanding of what's going on to make you feel this way, or clues to follow up on in the next step to figure that out

• The ability to start planning on ways to make things easier for you.

Remember to take it one step at a time. Focus on what you can do. Be kind to yourself, you deserve it.

It's okay to not have the answer to fix your most pressing issues. What's important is to make a list and go down it, and deal with each item one piece at a time. Can you delegate x obligation that's stressing you out? Do it! Can you skip or reassign chores to make things fairer and less burdensome? Do it! Can you set reminders on your phone to remember your meds? Do it! One thing at a time.

As important as it is to acknowledge the bad, please also celebrate your accomplishments. Even if it's just a small thing that 'everyone else does all the time', if you struggled with it but you did it anyway, you should be proud of that achievement. Don't measure yourself by what others do, drug dependence (like chronic illness) is about you. Nobody else. You are your own standard, you do what you can without hurting yourself, and that is at all times excellent. It's important to understand that trying our best is all we can ask from ourselves and that trying your best doesn't mean you have to break yourself in the process.

You're valuable, you're capable, you've got this. Even when things are bad, you're no less worthy of love, support, and care. It's okay to not be okay.

Note: This post is slightly altered but mostly adopted from this post on /r/diabetes. The first time I read it hit hard with me (I'm a T1). I believe that in some ways drug dependence can be just like it. Just wanted to share this to send a positive message to anyone struggling with drugs, addiction, sickness, or something else.
All credit for this story goes to /u/Lausannea. I hope she's okay with me adopting it for this sub.

If you want to talk to someone find a subreddit you need in the related drugs subreddits wiki

Dear people, young group of researchers have conducted a study to examine mediation of set and setting in psychedelic experience. If you had a psychedelic experience in the past year, please fill out our research and pass it on: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdqLaqTLpCE2tWoJPtcX8jJvttP6yDVpLv4RBfBU-YUWE95cA/viewform
Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone, here to ask this community for help and suggestions.

You may know Croatia as a Balkan country with a beautiful coastline. Unfortunately, it is not known for its scientific perspective on the topic of psychedelics, which is still dominated by stereotypes in the public as well as academic spheres in this regard. However, there is an non-profit organization called "Unpopular Psychology" that is determined to change that perception.

Therefore, we are organizing the first ever conference in Croatia on the topic of science of psychedelics in practice. Since it is difficult to find sponsors for this project in Croatia, we are turning to a crowdfunding campaign. We kindly ask you to consider supporting this idea according to your capabilities. It would mean a lot if you can share it anywhere you find appropriate. Additionally, if you have any suggestions on finding sponsors or effective channels to share our story, we are open to hearing them!

You can see our full story and donate here: https://www.mightycause.com/story/Croatia-Goes-Psychedelic

Thank you for taking the time to read this post! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me via email or leave a comment below. Much love to all of you! 🙂 🍄!

Hello, I have had good experiences with the drug-related subs I have visited. I always find support and help when I need it and try to provide the same for others.

I hope I did this correctly! Thank you

There was recently a post on r/lsd that led me here

(This is more me asking for advice) I 15M went to a juvenile correctional facility at the age of 12 (4 months before 13) now for the first 3 months I speny time in "ER" while I was being fond a room in one of the houses. I spent my Christmas Day and my youngest siblings birthday in Er, in my year and a bit there I was in fights and was moved also had jobs and friends one way or another I was respected by both the staff and the other kids. When I came back home it was basically my happily ever after, but all good things must come to an end eventually I was back at school and was doing chores (which is perfectly fine I'm not too lazy). I started to find everyone incredibly annoying and dumb at first it was little things like people talking a certain way but now I'm over thinking everything around me I find myself fed up with everyone all the time, because "there acting childish" I find it nearly impossible to do anything or even have fun. I find it's making me a asshole and incredibly hard to be around, so much so I have started pushing myself away from my closest friends.

Any help/advice would be much apparently
                                                        Best regards 
                                                       moonwatcher

I popped three 250 pills very quickly in 4 hours but Idk which interval. Whenever I misjudged that it was past peak I'd pop one, but I defo was not. I'm scared of ending up with dementia and serious brain damage. I dont know what was in the pills, I can tell it was not ecstasy only and it's pretty damn shitty pills. That was two days ago. Like two months ago I also took another super toxic dose of them pills of 500 mg, and only started having random flashes of memory coming back to me fairly recently. I also took that dose very soon after just a 250 mg dose, I think a week or two but cant remember. I am an absolute idiot and cant control impulses when I'm having mental breakdown and fucked myself over.

Right now I cant sleep more than a couple of hours, I'm heavily anxious about my health to the point I kinda convinced myself I was having a heart attack, I burst out in tears from everything and cant be happy. Thats not as concerning as issues with memory though, I cant grasp a SINGLE memory, everything is slipping away from me and its like I know what happened but I cant remember a single flash of memory from that moment, if that makes sense. I'm scared of cognitive decline which is a thing I can't judge but considering the dose there's probably quite serious decline.

I know that this dose was highly toxic and will cause some permanent issues. Is there anything I can do or take to detox ASAP, prevent those issues, anything specific I need to ask the doctor to check?

I wrote a list of almost every supplement r/mdma reddit recommends and will take that ASAP, hopefully today but idk. The list is recommending stuff to take before, during and straight after though so Idk if that will help. I also thought of eating some activating carbon to clear myself out, will that be a good idea? Obviously I will call the doctor but I'm not quite sure how to go around...explaining this...and what help to ask for, since this is the NHS and if you dont push your way through they will NOT give a crap about you. Is there any way I can save myself?

I got banned yesterday on an account I won’t mention on the mdma sub and if it wasn’t for the comments l probs would’ve died, (please don’t ban for ban evasion this is a harm reduction post so people don’t do what I did, this is the only post I will make.) I still took way too much and ended up with enough MDA to enter what I Can only call “euphoric delirium” hallucinations that weren’t psychedelic like and I’ve tried every psychedelic (when I was a heroin addict I use too chain trip dmt ffs) they where real Interactive things like you hear about on dph or datura except I was euphoric, I also had the most severe nystagmus (fast jittering eyes) I’ve ever had. I have lost most memory shortly after the hallucinations started. I did message friends for about an hour after that (no memory and the messages where fucked up nonsense. One was me taking a ss of a friends chat then sending it to her (same friend) and then I said “why are they saying this” all she said was “hmm” in response to me saying word for word “all I can see in be tmbmmm as a a a a. I keep ring in in a friend are us not guns mmmjind m. Mm.” “ You’re sccharedteir was just using ykmghita until o guess in ur frlbmbyrigmmmi here onikmmkmu” after that silence. No memory until I woke up. Did I pass out? (amphetamines slow my heart and chill me out idk why. (If anyone knows please tell me) ). Did I have a seizure? Was I awake and delirious the whole time and snapped out of it thinking I just woke up? Impossible to know. But lesson learned (hopefully, 4 months ago I took 5 Es along with ket and hallucinated for 2 or 3 days) next time i do it I will wait longer than an hour and a half to redose (I took the right dose for my weight nothing happened took a second bigger dose started sniffing big lines) and very quickly peaked (probably from the first dose) then a few hours later delirium (probs from the second and around this time I started sniffing big amounts). Now I still have about 2 grams left and I am struggling to stay away from it because I have damaged my brain enough with my reaallllly bad poly addiction and my very very overdosed MDMA rolls. Rn I still have some slight Text hallucinations and ear ringing and an urge to roll tonight sigh, the unfortunate curse of of substance use disorder, I recommend to only by the amount you need for 1 and a half rolls (might wanna redose x2 (bad) but better than doing it multiple times a week).

#It's okay to not be okay

Really. I promise.

When it comes to addiction, a lot of the time people always try to only focus on positivity (of sobriety)..

"I don't let drugs beat me!"
"I won't let addiction keep me from doing what I love!"
"I'll fight hard every day!"

There's definitely a core of truth to maintaining a positive attitude throughout this disease, but I also find that too often, it comes at the expense of not allowing yourself to feel the bad parts. Because sometimes, acknowledging that you're not okay when it comes to drugs/addiction feels like a huge personal failure. Like you weren't trying hard enough. Like you should have known and done better. Because how can you keep up with being positive if you let the negative interfere?

I want you all to know that it's so very much okay to not be okay. You're allowed to feel frustrated, stressed and tired. You're allowed to be fed up with this shit. You're allowed to curse at drugs and the ignorance spread about our condition.

We're finite and we're human. This shit wears us down, addiction is really hard, and that's okay. It would be weird if this stuff didn't negatively impact us.

Don't get caught in the positivity trap, where you only allow yourself to feel positive things because you have to 'or else'. You don't have to be positive all the time. It's super important for us to feel these frustrations and all the other bullshit so we can process them rather than push them aside and bottle them up until they cave in on us. Doing so is known to help prevent burnout and makes for happier, healthier people.

Give yourself the space and time to feel the bad stuff. Be sad, cry, punch things at the gym, go for a long and lonely walk. Yell, play violent games, listen to heavy metal, bitch at friends! Do all these things so you don't get stuck pent up in the background and unable to move forward.

You'll feel so much better if you give yourself permission to feel these things. Take a nap or go to bed for the night afterwards, and when you wake up, reflect and plan.

Why were you feeling this way? Can you trace it back to one specific event, or does it feel like an accumulation of many things? Are you setting reasonable expectations for yourself, or are you holding yourself to a really high standard that is setting you up for failure?

Be honest with yourself and your expectations. Once you have answered these kind of questions, you have:

- Processed the emotions attached to the situation, at least partially

- A better understanding of what's going on to make you feel this way, or clues to follow up on in the next step to figure that out

- The ability to start planning on ways to make things easier for you.

Remember to take it one step at a time. Focus on what you can do. Be kind to yourself, you deserve it.

It's okay to not have the answer to fix your most pressing issues. What's important is to make a list and go down it, and deal with each item one piece at a time. Can you delegate x obligation that's stressing you out? Do it! Can you skip or reassign chores to make things fairer and less burdensome? Do it! Can you set reminders on your phone to remember your meds? Do it! One thing at a time.

As important as it is to acknowledge the bad, please also celebrate your accomplishments. Even if it's just a small thing that 'everyone else does all the time', if you struggled with it but you did it anyway, you should be proud of that achievement. Don't measure yourself by what others do, drug dependence (like chronic illness) is about you. Nobody else. You are your own standard, you do what you can without hurting yourself, and that is at all times excellent. It's important to understand that trying our best is all we can ask from ourselves, and that trying your best doesn't mean you have to break yourself in the process.

You're valuable, you're capable, you've got this. Even when things are bad, you're no less worthy of love, support and care. It's okay to not be okay.

Note: This post is slightly altered but mostly adopted from this post on /r/diabetes. First time reading it hit hard with me (I' a T1). I believe that in some ways drug dependence can be just like it. Just wanted to share this to send a positive message to the anyone struggling with drugs, addiction, sickness, or something else.
All credit to this story goes to /u/Lausannea. I hope she's okay with me adopting it for this sub.

If you want to talk to someone check out the rDrugs Discord server or find a subreddit you need in the related drugs subreddits wiki

Recently there's been an influx of media reports framing psychedelics as exceptional. Free from harm. Drop your SSRI's, take psychedelics instead. ABC's Four Corners episode 'Psyched Up' was necessary in critiquing some of the misinformation present. But where was the rest of the psychedelic community? Is it not in the publics interest to promote drug reform?

https://www.aodmediawatch.com.au/false-balance-and-psychedelic-exceptionalism/

​

P.S - If you haven't seen the episode, it's worth a watch!

Hey! A lady friend of mine tried MDMA the first time about three weeks ago, together with me and another friend. As I know I come up very quickly, I waited 30mins after they dropped to drop myself. I also had an empty stomach and used some Omeprazol. I came up super fast (15min max), while my other friends (who've had eaten before) didn't come up. My guy friend came up hours later after dropping the redose (half of initial) because he hadn't felt anything prior. My lady friend did the same. She felt nothing at all. I weigh 100 kg and took 150 mg + 75 mg, my guy friend weighs 80 and took 120 + 60 mg, and my lady friend weighs 50kg and took 80 mg + 40 mg. I assume the 80 mg were just not enough to get her there? My question being - should she also wait 3 months to try again (I'd suggest 100 mg + 50 mg redose), or can she try it again earlier, as she hasn't felt an effect?

At first I was around a 5-6 cig a day smoker and then I heard about vaping and then I kept asking questions on r/vaping, and they were so helpful with everything I asked giving me tons of help and information! Now I’ve been smoke free for nearly a year or maybe a little more!

From what I can gleen (and I've thoroughly investigated the issue for over 10 minutes), a site with attentative moderators that set in place and enforce strict harm reduction rules, can make all the difference into keeping these sites active.

#Official list?

I can’t seem to find any information anywhere. r/DrugStashes took a hit a long time ago, then more recently r/OpiateChruch and then even more recently r/PressedOpiateChurch. I know I’m forgetting some, but even counting the ones I’m forgetting I feel like there has been more.

Anyone got more info? Thanks 😊

#Known list

r/StashPics

r/OpiateChruch

r/PressedOpiateChurch

r/MDA

r/RandomActsOfDrugs

r/DrugStashes

r/2c_G_5

r/BOOFDATSHIT

r/RCsources

r/NotHowDrugsWork (Recently, mid July)

#Other (Not banned)

r/Drugs: Deemed NSFW

r/SporeTraders: https://www.reddit.com/r/shrooms/comments/x1psh6/rip_rsporetraders_news_and_rule_clarifications/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

r/CanadianMOMs (Banned in Canada)

I cannot fathom the amount of harm that will come from deleting drug based subreddits. Nearly every person comes into contact with drugs at some point in their lives. Whether it's from friends, or prescribed by medical personnel.

People in general, and especially young people need to have access to resources that either teach about responsible use, active harm reduction, quitting help, or experience sharing. Removing the shame and stigma surrounding drugs saves lives.

This saves lives.

This saves families.

It’s obvious that these valuable drug subreddits give life-saving harm reduction info. Keep Reddit a safe place to learn that valuable information. Make this information more accessible for anyone who needs it by removing the NSFW designation. On mobile, if you attempt to access NSFW content in your web browser it won't let you read it. It forces you to use the app. This may seem trivial but every bit of resistance added when looking for harm reduction makes it more likely that people just won't bother looking. They'll still use drugs though, because...

Its well-known prohibition doesn’t work. Look at the history of alcohol in the United States for proof. Drugs can be very dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing with them. Or they can be relatively safe when you’re informed about how they kill people and what went wrong.

Harm reduction saves lives. Here’s a psychology today article explaining how. Here’s how harm reduction successfully saved lives in Portugal

u/spez , feel free to stop reading here, but please consider the results of marking harm reduction content as NSFW.

Below is my story of how drug reddits have kept me safe by providing me with essential harm reduction knowledge. I owe my life and health to the kind Redditors that made druggit what it is today.

I am Autistic. From childhood, I've always loved science and learning. Drugs have been my main special interest since I was about 12 years old. I was initially intrigued by watching science YouTubers that provided unbiased views about what drugs do to your brain. The good & bad.

Eventually, I watched just about everything YouTube had to offer about the chemistry & neuroscience of drugs. I started reading online articles until I eventually landed on Reddit. No other place online has as much consolidated information on drugs as Reddit does.

Information about how cannabis affected brain development helped me to wait on trying it until I was out of High School. Thank you r/trees and r/drugs

Knowledge of how Nitrous Oxide (commonly known as whip its or nangs) can lead to B12 deficiency and nerve damage with long-term abuse saved me from permanent damage. The community also supported me when I found myself addicted to them. I’ve successfully quit them and thanks to careful supplementing throughout my entire addiction spiral I got out with minimal damage that healed with abstinence. They also helped me not get brain damage by reminding me to breathe oxygen between the nitrous hits. $20k down the drain and I never fished out, had a seizure, or got nerve damage. Thank you r/nitrousoxide and r/drugs. Your advice & support probably saved my life.

Knowledge of the safety profile of LSD & Mushrooms has helped me not waste ER resources on bad trips. They’ve also taught me how to reduce the likelihood of a bad trip and reminded me that psychedelics are best when used with intention and enjoyed only a few times per year. I credit mushrooms with saving my life when I was severely depressed after being disowned by my Christian family. They gave me an entirely new perspective on life and helped me stop and appreciate the beauty of the world around me. Thank you r/LSD & r/mushrooms

Knowledge of how to dose MDMA safely and of serotonin syndrome prevented me from acquiring permanent brain damage. I learned that I only need to take 80mg to roll based on my body weight and that ecstasy pills are a dangerous gamble at best. They taught me to reagent test (which saved me from accidentally ingesting PMA once). They taught me that rolling more than once every few months can burn out my serotonin receptors and cause depression. They taught me to be aware of my body temperature & water intake to prevent damage due to oxidative stress and not get hyponatremia. They taught me that some meds can interact with MDMA causing serotonin syndrome which can be fatal. This knowledge helped me know not to take MDMA when I started on antidepressants. I learned MDMA is in phase 3 clinical trials for PTSD. I’ve had safe rolls that have helped me heal and grow as a person thanks to harm reduction I found on Reddit. Thank you r/MDMA and r/drugs.

My name is Kevin and I’m 29 I lost my phone and this phone is linked to my son‘s account I am not a child I will create my own reddit account and I am sorry if I bothered you but you may not know this but there are many RCs out there with shorter half-life that with pregablin and other medications that I have known several people to come off of heroin I am sorry I will never mention about that again and I am not trying to disrespect any rules whatsoever sorry for the inconvenience what I’d verification I have tried to cro time I am looking for something that will not have such as serious withdraw as such as the boxing heroin because the heroin is not the hard part is this a box and I have gone three weeks and still have not relief from Suboxone symptom getting on it was the worst decision of my wife and now Octar is so it’s black to her in that I just needed some help if you guys know some drugs that are not drugs that will completely take away my withdraw and I make me owe the function and a 60 hour week job please let me know because I have a family of five to support thank you very much for your time

Used drugs on and off for years. Harm reduction is why I have no abscesses from years of injection use, harm reduction is why my nerve damage was able to recover, harm reduction is why I didn’t overdose on opioids, harm reduction is why, harm reduction is how I was able to stop using most drugs. I primarily got all my information from online drug forums and places like r/Drugs are invaluable resources for young drug users to receive both information and support. We live in a world that pushes people who use drugs to isolation and suicide, we NEED places like r/Drugs or I wouldn’t be here today.

For anyone interested in some theory reading I highly recommend two pieces: Harm Reduction as Anarchist Praxis, which is about how the harm reduction movement is deeply tied to anarchist modes of thought and organizing: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09581596.2011.611487?journalCode=ccph20

And “Harm Reduction as Pleasure Activism” in the Anthology Queering Anarchism: http://www.mediafire.com/file/jvdt0nboqqaywnj/Queering_Anarchism%252C_Essays_on_Gender.pdf/file

These subreddits are a great help to so many people and promote safe substance use. Banning these is actually going to make things so much worse. People come here to feel understood and not get judged or to not feel lonely, and many other extremely valid reasons. By taking those away, you create more reasons to abuse instead of use. The people in power are trying to control to "fix" the people, but they just keep making these dumb decisions that make things worse for everyone. They couldn't care less, though, since their pockets are well filled.

​

I hope you all have a fantastic day.

Before mixing any substances, I always check r/drugs to find out any possible interactions, and dosing suggestions. It’s saved me from potentially hurting myself, or worse. Also, it’s helped to calm my nerves when I have accidentally mixed things I shouldn’t have. It’s good to have a resource like r/drugs, and I’m scared of a world without it.

Yes, it is because a few months ago I ended up in r/Drugs and r/ResearchChemicals that I am here telling this story.

It is understandable the preoccupation these subs can cause, but also believe the world is a different place than the one that started this cancel culture about drugs and in general substance abuse.

The addiction I knew before r/Drugs and r/ResearchChemicals was just being alone in my depression while numbing my mind with everything I can afford. On one side I see hardcore drug users that I dont want to mingle with.. and on the other side I see rehab centers that no average income kid can pay for. At this point it's easy to give up, trust me.

The reality I know now is a wonderful community made out of people like me that help me everyday without any judgment. They would support me in harm reduction when I showed no intention of quitting. Now I have a place where I can vent if I need to. Where I can get precious advice on keeping up with this recovery process. I have a place where I can share my story to help people.. and accept the fact that some of them dont want my help.

I can call friends some people in this community and chat with other 30-somethings with addiction. I can share stories about living in a society that pretends we dont exist because either you die or you happily exit the drug-curious phase. I feel less alone and I see an end to my drug related problems.

Do you really want kids to loose this extra chance at recovery?

Do you really want to educate another generation of young adults that overdose and die in clubs because of the wrong pill?

Do you want people to keep developing proper addictions on ADHD medications? (Cause a prescription drug can't be THAT bad, right?)

I could go on for days with examples of what changed since the 'Just say no' campaign and its stereotyped heroin users also and mainly because of places like r/Drugs.

I dont think you want all of this.

Hope this helps. (And thank you for reading it all)