Does anyone know what the odds are of getting flashbacks from 1 time using LSD? what about chronic use?
It all depends on the person. You can get it from one psychadelic trip, or do it for years and not get it. look on erowid.org for info on it if you want a better idea.
Though it's probably very unlikely that one would get it from a single use, it would be ignorant and foolish to assume you wouldn't. I've only done lsd, and mushrooms once and I have a mild case of it...though I have done other things.
Chances of flashbacks after frying for the first time? Slim to nill; unless you have an underlying mental disorder (schizophrenia, check your family tree for that), you shouldn't have to worry about any flashbacks. I, for one, have had one flashback since tried LSD for the first time; it wasn't anything bad, but the air just gained an added fraigrance and the other stuff I experienced while on the stuff were suddenly there. I was listening to the album I had listened to when I was peaking, maybe that had some corrilation...
between 0-5 percent maybe? I've had 2, one was pretty mild but the other was a full blown level 2 experience with mild oev's. I've tripped more than once though.
Quote: I've only done lsd, and mushrooms once and I have a mild case of it...though I have done other things. You must be sort of a pussy then ( ), I tripped maybe 100 times between the ages of 17 and 22 and never had a flashback.
i get flashbacks all the time 100's a day tho not as intense as when i first starting doing acid (unfortunitly) but most people think that all flashbacks are you being 'back in a trip' or whatnot.. but in the majority of flashbacks are split second flashes of light and whatnot in your sight. I get these all day long although they arent as clear and colorful as they once were. theres also the mood flashback where I get that feeling.. idk the words.. sorta like esctatic happiness at peace with the universe infinite love & unity. music that had a key role during an experience usually does the mood thing. but usually I get the strongest of my flashbacks when i sit in my room (which is where 99% of my sessions have taken place) and about 75% of the time (especially at night) the posters and the walls and shit all sorta flow or breathe... especially when unfocusing my eyes and dilating them. i havent had any bad flashbacks...some that werent the most beautiful things i've seen but nothing bad.. i enjoy it all tho. and if I really try.. or should i say not try.. and i turn off my mind.. meditation comes so easily when i'm already vibrating at a somewhat expanded frequency if that makes any sense
This issue has bugged me for decades. I've yet to see any evidence that LSD ever causes flashbacks. EVER. In the 70s, practically everyone did acid and I never encountered anyone that ever had any kind of serious side-effect of any sort. That was around the time The Exorcist came out, and the rite of passage was to drop five or ten hits and go to the movie. I saw a few stressed-looking people at Grateful Dead shows in the early 90s, but I still never met anyone- not once ever- who'd ever had a flashback. John Lennon, in an interview, once commented about that. He said that he was totally immersed in the acid world for years, and had never known anyone EVER had a flashback, and that it was totally a myth, period. Given how well the media disseminated the myth over the last few decades, I guess it's not surprising that people start imagining things. Or maybe what's going around nowadays isn't LSD. Or maybe it's only if used at too young an age. Something. If they exist at all, they must occur only in the most extremely rare conditions. That's not to say LSD is harmless, it's not. But I'm very convinced that LSD does not cause flashbacks. Call me the most extreme skeptic. the majority of flashbacks are split second flashes of light and whatnot in your sight All healthy humans have those at least occasionally. Many people just don't notice them. There are a number of optical illusions and such that can be used to convince someone that it's a "flashback" (example: press hard on your eyes in a dark room with your eyes closed and you'll see all sorts of flashes). All this just my experience, I don't mean to imply anyone is being deceptive. I'm just THAT skeptical on the matter.
Just in case anyone is confused about just exactly what a flashback is or doubts the presence of the phenomena The clinical term for flashbacks is Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder ...brief, recurrent, and reversible occurrences in which the past hallucinogen user experiences an aspect of the psychedelic trip. These occurrences are often viewed by the person as a benign experience; sometimes they are even considered a "free trip". However, these flashbacks can be accompanied by panic, severe anxiety, and fear. **note: This is from the HPPD website. It is resouceful and has a bb for guests and members.** http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_info3.shtml http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_journal5.shtml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashback PDF File: Flashbacks in Theory and Practice *This is an exceptional site! There's even a link to download Hoffman's 'LSD, My Problem Child'*VVV http://www.xs4all.nl/~4david/lsd.html How common flashbacks are said to be depends on how they are defined....probably a quarter or more of all psychedelic drug users have experienced them. A questionnaire survey of 2,256 soldiers (Stanton and Bardoni 1972), leaving the definition to the respondents, revealed that 23 percent of the men who used LSD had flashbacks. In a 1972 survey of 235 LSD users, Murray P. Naditch and Sheridan Fenwick found that 28 percent had flashbacks. Eleven percent of this group (seven men in all) called them very frightening, 32 percent called them somewhat frightening, 36 percent called them pleasant, and 21 percent called them very pleasant. Sixty-four percent said that their flashbacks did not disrupt their lives in any way; 16 percent (4 percent of the whole LSD-using group) had sought psychiatric help for them (Naditch and Fenwick 1977). In a study of 247 subjects who had taken LSD in psychotherapy, William H. McGlothlin and David O. Arnold found 36 cases of flashbacks, only one of which was seriously disturbing (McGlothlin and Arnold 1971)....(McGlothlin 1974b, p. 291), estimates that 5 percent of habitual psychedelic users have experienced them.
If one-fourth of LSD users had flashbacks, I would know lots of people who have had them. I still think that "flashbacks" fall into the "existential fallacy" category. You can describe something, paint a graphic picture of it, give it a name, advertise it world-wide for decades until it everyone knows what it is. But that doesn't mean that it actually exists. 23 percent of the men who used LSD had flashbacks "...Stanton and Bardoni's research can be questioned in that whilst they carried out an anonymous questionnaire to enlisted males under 25 years of age in Vietnam, they left the respondent to define 'flashback' for themselves." "... explanatory approaches within a physiological approach are either scientifically outdated, falsified by research or the research itself may be considered methodologically unreliable. "...Wesson and Smith (1976) have also called this a 'self fulfilling prophecy' approach. Such 'adverse' reactions could be generated by the negative publicity given to LSD by the media, doctors and psychiatrists which brings about an expectation of such bad reactions." "...As an adverse effect of the use of LSD, research suggests that flashbacks have a very tenuous relationship with the chemical itself. Not only do most users claim not to have flashbacks, but also less than 10% of those who do report flashbacks report them as being unpleasant. The explanatory models used to explain them rely on individual characteristics, such as suggestibility, role play and the noticing of naturally occurring phenomena which had previously been disregarded, rather than suggesting a pathology. Indeed it could be argued that even the activating of unconscious material can be seen in a favourable light, as the individual can begin working with it." (SOURCE: "A Critical Review of Theories and Research Concerning Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) and Mental Health, David Abrahart, University of Portsmouth, March 1998, online at http://www.maps.org/research/abrahart.html ) Again, that's not to say it's harmless. I do know one person who had a panic attack while tripping and required an ER visit and sedation. I know others that have had unpleasant times, in those cases, it was always due to some outside circumstance, such as not realizing the duration of a trip and having obligations at work/school/etc. But the dangers of LSD have been so grossly exaggerated as to be laughably ridiculous to anyone that's been around it much.
I've had 2 flashbacks. It's not really important if you believe me but for the sake of spreading correct information, there is such an occurance. It wasn't anything bad, just a couple of free trips. Those numbers are referring to heavy lsd users too.
