MDMA releases serotonin and dopamine, along with a little adrenaline.
- If your serotonin levels and your dopamine levels are good then you will have an experience that oscillates from eyes rolling back, knees wobbly, and warm fuzzies (high serotonin) to superman energy, sociability, and confidence (dopamine).
- If your serotonin reserves are low then your experience will be mostly hyperactive euphoria (dopamine & a little adrenaline).
- If your dopamine levels are low then you will have a very sedate 'smacky' experience with lots of eyes rolling back and inability to stand up - you might also be more withdrawn and less sociable (serotonin).
- If your dopamine AND serotonin levels are very low then you will get none of the nice dopamine and serotonin effect and your experience will primarily focus on the adrenaline response. In effect you will have a very messy anxiety attack. Although, there are many shades of this and they can range from just being very messy and irritable to being emotionally empty and of low selfesteem, right across to full blown paranoid delusions that can last for days afterwards.
A change in transmitter levels from one week (or month) to the next can be all it takes to provide a totally different experience to exactly the same drug. In most cases the progression is from having enjoyable experiences to suddenly or gradually having yucky experiences, but the reverse also happens (for obvious reasons this is not reported as frequently).
Add to that the confusion over whether the pill was actually MDMA and things become impossible to map.
As for the difference between MDA and MDMA, the former has a slightly higher dopamine response than MDMA, but other than that (and the slightly longer duration) they are pretty much the same. Imagine an 'e' that still lets you have sex (ie really really really makes you want to have sex and actually allows you to perform, not just desire) and you have MDA.
og...
well, according to the story i read, the girl's original experiences would mostly fall into the last category (only the comedown though) and the more recent into the first.
If only the comedown is afected in that way then this usually means the reserves of the relevant transmitter have run out. In fact, that's what all come downs are. Hence, the use of lower doses and lower frequency can make a big difference for people who have nasty comedowns.
This issue of comedowns was my main research field while taking copious quantities of drugs. I had made it my mission to take any party powder in any quantity and manage the comedown so it would be pleasant. It's possible as long as you don't wear yourself out physically (ie 10 hours of dancing will leave you sore no matter what your neurochemistry does). Our little rave group did not have comedowns for a long time. Funny enough even thoughm most people in our group knew how to prevent them, many chose not to after a while. It was a weird phenomenon, but I think ravers need a come down to validate their experience rolleyes.gif More on that some other time.
Still, her companions told her that the pills were pretty ordinary by their standards...after about the fiftieth time she'd said...'wow, this really is wonderful stuff'....
the eye rolling thing only happened on one pill though."Wonderful" usually equates to euphoria, which is the effect of lots of dopamine. If she had somewhat low serotonin still, but hjad a robust dopamine supply then she would be euphoric, but no wobbly knees and no eyes rolling back.
the low dopamine/'smacky' thing is news to me...I always knew there was no heroin in E (some people are like a dog with a bone with that one), but had suspected ketamine/speed mix of some kind.Ananlysis results indicate that there is no smack in pills. Anyway, that idea started at a time when smack was $100 a pop, so it was completely ludicrous. I've mentioned this before, but my pet theory on smacky e's is as follows.
In the 80's and most of the 90's MDMA was made by a method (Leuckart reaction with impure N-methylformamide) that would invariably produce a small amount of MDA. MDA has more of a dopamine character and hence would be more uplifting. Pure MDMA however can be very sedating at times to certain individuals. Only very little MDMA was made by methods that were free of MDA. Once most MDMA was made via nitromethane rather than the formamide, the result was a product that did not contain any MDA. Hence smacky e's became a lot less prevalent (ie the ratio between the two shifted and hence the eprception shifted).
Also, most pills these days contain some caffeine. The extra adrenal kick from the caffein is probably also enough to prevent smacky e syndrome
allrighty then...say one wanted to maximise the chances of a good time, and hence healthy levels of Dop. & 5HT...how could one prepare? What could one avoid?Boosting the dopamine is easy and can be done in as little as 20 mins before it runs out. As a general rule it is a good idea to predose with some tyrosine before taking the pill, and then take more AS SOON AS you start to feel it running out (usually accompanied by sigheing a lot).
Ensuring his serotonin is MUCH more problematic. Absorption takes longer and is not as complete, so predosing with tryptophan and various diet changes are required even days before the pill if possible. Taking some 5HTP or tryptophan during the peak will help too, but it is shortlived.
The biggest problem is that the supplements on empty tummy will cause gas discomfort if taken in excess. Hence predosing the days before is a better option than chowing them down after the pill has kicked in. 1000-1500mg of amino acids should not cause any problems, but more than this will cause bloating.
Would/does a womans menstrual cycle have any bearing here?Most definitely. Women have very labile serotonin reserves during PMT. This would not be a good time to take a pill.
Is it true that on good qual pills there is no comedown?No. It is definitely piossible to have a clean pill and not have a comedown, but this is not the norm. There are many contributing factors though. A single pill taken in a relaxed situation (ie not a rave) is more likely to have no detrimental effects. Physical exertion from dancing, crap food and excessive sex can contribute to a comedown.
The comedown is really your body telling you that it has run out of neurotransmitters to shoot into the synapse. There are only three ways to deal with this.
1- add more building blocks and hope they get converted to transmitters
2- go to sleep quickly (ie via benzo)
3- have robust neurotransmitter reserves in the first place
If you are lucky enough to comply with #3 then you are one of the lucky peope who can say a clean pill has no comedown. Most of us don't fit #3 so we need to deal with the other two.
In any case, what could one do to alleviate and post-E blergyness?The real post e problem is actually not the come down, but the 'wednesday blues'. After a big weekend you usually still have residual effet on mondays, you are tired on tuesdays and on wednesday you become an emotional wreck. If these midweek moodswings apply to you then you have a problem as your reserves are obviously not robust. This can lead to long term problems and should be addressed by supplementation.