Respectfully, I think you were playing with fire and got lucky. You have to treat bipolar disorder very differently than unipolar depression. I don't know any doctor who would recommend or even consider using LSD to treat bipolar disorder. Many of the treatments that work for unipolar depression are terrible for bipolar disorder because they can instigate manic or hypomanic phases, if not outright psychosis. I feel happy when reading that you kept bipolar depression at bay (that's really, really good) but I want to caution the readers on this website from using LSD if they have bipolar disorder.
What's your experience with Lamotrigine? Don't know if this is the right place to ask, but I take that for anti-seizure and I'm wondering if that affects my thoughts and feelings in a different way because it's used for a case like your mentioned bipolar depression.
Basically, lamotrigine (100 mg/day) seems to keep my mood even. I mostly complain about depression. And I've never experienced hypomania. Except when some idiot GP put me on Paxil.
But with lamotrigine alone, I'm too "flat". I have no interest in doing anything. No energy. Not depressed, but just sort of "dead". So I take that at night.
And the modafinil (usually 100 mg/day) makes me interested in doing stuff. Mentally alive, full of ideas and solutions. So I take that in the morning.
Lamotrigine works for most bipolar people for at least a few years. It's used as a first resort since it has typically no side effects. It quit working for me after four years of use, so I switched to lithium. I don't know much about how lamotrigine affects the mood of normal people, but I do know that if you give lithium to normal people it doesn't affect their psyche in any measurable way.
I have taken gabapentin (which is similar) but for visual snow. While I'm not diagnosed as bipolar, I have noticed that gabapentin does level out your emotions some. I've considered trying lamotrigine but have been scared of the allergic reactions it can cause. Gabapentin may work as an alternative.
I didn't have that side effect on Lamotrigine. That was my 4th drug for no seizures. I'm on 300mg/day with it. Was at 400mg, but if I take too much I get hit with something I'd call total body dull pain where I can't do much other than sit there in a ball and wait for my body to get rid of enough of it. Based on the other comments, that's a lot more than for bipolar doses.
Have you tried seroquel? I’ve found even a small dose at night both helps me sleep and keeps me “normal” during the day. I take modafinil (in the morning) and seroquel (at night) and find it works well
For me. I’m BP type 2 so it might be different for you though. Even though the seroquel isn’t XR I have definitely noticed a reduction in me.. jumping on tables or screaming at people. Anyways, just a thought!
I loved peaking. That is, total ego death. Just being there. And the visuals, of course. Totally internal, with the external world just gone. It was like dreaming, except far more intense.
I would typically trip when the moon was full. I'd start in the late evening, with my usual beer or two and some marijuana. And then, just before falling asleep, I'd eat the LSD.
So I'd wake up peaking. And then spend a few hours in bed, "meditating". Eventually, I'd come down enough to shower and dress. Have a mug of ginger tea. Maybe a snack.
And then, a couple hours before dawn, I'd set out on my bicycle. Typically riding toward the setting Moon. I'd often end up at a small park on the west end of a large lake. So I could watch the Sun come up across the lake. Distant flocks of ducks made a trippy sight, skimming across the water.
Then I'd come home, eat, and sleep for maybe 15 hours.
A more detailed look: Most Buddhist traditions frown upon personal demonstrations of achievements and frown upon talking about personal achievements openly without a good reason.
Giving a closer look, a Theravada teacher might talk about their achievements to let students know if they have questions about those topics they have someone they can go to and ask for help.
But eg, on the Zen side of things, it's unheard of for teachers to talk about achievements.
On the other hand, Buddhism openly gives names for states and achievements, so people privately can talk about it and get help from teachers. This vocabulary is explained in detail, and can be used to give you an idea of what the experiences while meditating are like.
Brain scans today show that magic mushrooms and jhanic meditation both light up the brain in nearly identical ways. This implies heightened meditative states are closer to magic mushrooms than lsd.
The book The Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau contains anecdotes of zen practitioners, including himself, and their experiences of Kenshō https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensh%C5%8D
It's not an uncommon dose for experienced psychonauts. Perhaps not monthly, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone with a lot of LSD experience that hasn't done that at least once with many doing that several times.
You also have to factor in that street drugs are all over the charts as far as consistency in the dosing and the person you replied to may have been consuming a fraction of what they thought they were (even humidity and handling can reduce what is there).
But I had a steady high-volume supplier, and bought for resale. So I'd carefully test stuff before buying. I'd start with half the recommended dose. Then, a week later, a full dose. And then, a week later, 2-3 doses.
So what gave me a "standard trip" I considered 0.1-0.2 mg. And when I say 0.5 mg, I mean 3-4 times that.
I worked in a biochem lab, and so stored my LSD under vacuum at -70 deg C.
During my 20s-30s, I tripped with about 0.5 mg LSD more or less once month. It at least kept bipolar depression at bay.
But now I use lamotrigine/modafinil. Which is less fun, but also more effective and less disruptive.