Ecstacy OD?

[childofthetao]

Hi, I'm not entirely sure this is in the correct section as it is only indirectly related addiction.

I used to take a lot of ecstasy pills, all the time, often on a daily basis. My question concerns something that happened to me on a day that I too eight of them (they were strong pills, and they definitely contained ecstasy).

It's like a part of my brain shut down. I could not think not pay attention to anything I was simply aware of my body, the visual information I was seeing and hearing. People would talk to me and I would hear them but be able to respond meaning fully, I simply could not focus on them with my eyes. It's like I was looking out into the distance and couldn't bring my focus in. I felt like I was in a kind of waking coma although I could walk around normally.

Do you have any idea what happened that day and could it still be affecting me now in some small way (I think  it could be slightly and this happened about four or five years ago).

Please shed some light on this for me.

Thank you.

[Julia M Aharonov, DO]

You may feel that this is not a correct forum for this question, because you do not believe that you have an addiction.  However, even though ecstasy is not technically an addictive substance, what you are engaging in is a repeatedly self-harmful behavior, that can eventually cause long lasting harm.
Let’s talk about ecstasy in simple terms: it is a neurologically active substance that was at first thought to be useful in psychotherapy, because it lessened fear, anxiety and dis-inhibited patients in both individual and group settings.
With longer study of the drug it was found that it causes long lasting and sometimes permanent changes to the actual neurological receptors on the brain of a specific neurotransmitter called serotonin. This serotonin has a lot to do with our mood regulation.  The more of it we have available to serotonin specific receptors, the happier we are.  What you experienced with your overdose is a serotonin high.
Ecstasy (MDMA) causes a reduction in the concentration of serotonin transporters (SERTs) in the brain which in turn causes more serotonin to stay floating around. That, in turn causes down-regulation, or the actual amount of the serotonin receptors to go down.
In simple terms again, when you stop using ecstasy it will cause you to be depressed until your body is able if at all to rebuild the amount of the receptors again.
Now, this buildup of serotonin in your brain while overdosing on Ecstasy (like you did) can cause you to have "serotonin syndrome", which can potentially be life threatening.
I fully understand that you have had pleasant experiences with Ecstasy, but you are asking me a question because you know that what you are doing is becoming wrong. Everything in this world can be used for good or for evil, knowing where that thin line of separation is, is the most difficult thing to do for most of us. You have just come to that line.
What you are doing is not beneficial in any way. You have no way of telling what other substances are in those pills.  Ecstasy interacts very poorly with many medications and you can unknowingly cause even more damage to yourself.
So, did you really want to know what happened to you or did you want a reason to stop using?  Please take care of yourself.  Best wishes to you.

[childofthetao]

Thanks. I stopped using it years ago, I then moved on to a few years of amphetamine abuse, and now I only smoke marijuana, which is harder than both ecsasy and amphetamine to quit, I managed those two but am still smoking weed!

I just wanted to know what that particular "waking coma-like" state was because I feared I might have done something to my brain that was affecting me to this day.

Thank you.
Calvin