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suzzer99 ◴[] No.44408657[source]
I've lost one of my best friends to what I think is schizophrenia. We don't know because she's cut off all contact with friends and family and refuses to see a doctor. It's definitely psychosis. She thinks she's in some kind of Truman show that she calls "the game". Since none of her friends or family are willing to admit to it, then we must be in on it.

We don't know her full family medical history because her dad was adopted. I do know that she was "microdosing" and macro-dosing hallucinogens for years. Mostly acid and shrooms as far as I know. She followed the band Phish around with a group of friends. I can't imagine most of those shows were sober.

We've also seen a few incidents of paranoia when she was under the influence of drugs/alcohol going back decades. So it feels like this was always there in some form, but maybe the estrogen was holding it back before menopause hit. I read an article about women who get schizophrenia after menopause that suggested this could be the case.

Anyway, whenever I see wellness healers and the like extolling the virtues of psilocybin, I want to point out that there could be a downside. We don't know that all of her hallucinogen use over the years contributed to this. But it's certainly a possibility.

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winrid ◴[] No.44408738[source]
If you have a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia it's starting to seem like drugs that seem harmless like marijuana (specifically THC?) can definitely bring it out. At least, that's what seemed to happen to my mother and another friend.
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1. crtified ◴[] No.44409003[source]
I wonder if alcohol is one of the seemingly harmless drugs whose abuse catalyzes such conditions in susceptible people.

Because, if so, then alcohol's ubiquity in society would imply that it is probably responsible (in the sense that substances are responsible) for most such conversions.

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2. jamal-kumar ◴[] No.44410141[source]
It's kind of worse with alcohol because the psychosis associated with that as an exacerbating factor is more related to alcoholic encephalopathy, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome etc... much of which can be brought on with self medicating with alcohol. Definitely a component but more like psychosis and mania drive you to drink because these experiences are awful more than a causative factor that's been proven

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459134/

3. FollowingTheDao ◴[] No.44410488[source]
The aldehydes that are produced from drinking alcohol heighten the risk for schizophrenia if you carry certain genetics.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26941382/

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4. colechristensen ◴[] No.44410769[source]
Even peculiarly stressful life events can trigger onset
5. amy214 ◴[] No.44413499[source]
Complicated interaction.

Schizos may take alcohol or cigarettes to calm down, a form of self medication. On the long term these may worsen, in the immediate they help. Why do you think they smoke a lot?!? To treat. If you smoke or drink, what do you do after a tough day - smoke or drink, to relax, feels great. Schizos may have a tough day , but not from external stimuli, but from internal stimuli

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6. Melatonic ◴[] No.44415947[source]
Alcohol is pretty bad for your brain so I would not be surprised. And while it's not really a hallucinogen itself (comparatively) I've heard some pretty hellish stories of severe alcohol withdrawals. Just going without sleep (completely) for several days can cause hallucinations and stress - and this is a common symptom of more serious withdrawal.

I would imagine other drugs which produce severe (and stressful) withdrawal could also trigger this. The stress alone cannot be good.

7. Melatonic ◴[] No.44415951[source]
Interesting - we've known these are very bad for you for years but I had not heard of a direct link
8. astrange ◴[] No.44416578[source]
Nicotine is a more effective schizophrenia treatment than the actual medications, which is why over 80% of them smoke.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2613326/

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9. poulpy123 ◴[] No.44421419[source]
Nobody serious believe that alcohol is harmless. There are many anti-alcohol campaign and laws always running around. It's just that alcohol has been part of our culture for thousands of year, that we monstly manage it. It's not the case of cannabis, psilocybin and even less LSD (even if you can find historic usage for the not man made ones)
10. mzs ◴[] No.44426500{3}[source]
That study might say that there is promise in further research instead of better, but yes a lot of smokers.