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Pay Attention, Damnit
GHB
Citation:   DoctorStrange. "Pay Attention, Damnit: An Experience with GHB (exp9524)". Erowid.org. May 26, 2004. erowid.org/exp/9524

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
4.0 g oral GHB (powder / crystals)
  T+ 1:30 2.0 g oral GHB (powder / crystals)
  T+ 5:00 2.0 g oral GHB (powder / crystals)
BODY WEIGHT: 260 lb
Several days after my first GHB experience (and second, and third), I told a friend about it, and he immediately decided he'd like to try some. I'd figured out the dosage for NaGHB powder through personal experimentation, and thought I now knew all there was to know... after the fact I browsed through several reports, and all the warnings were there, they just needed reading.

Keep in mind that I'm definitely a GHB fan - for a period there it was my 'escape of choice', replacing alcohol.

One of the first things to happen while using GHB (or most drugs for that matter) is that my common sense gets flushed down the toilet. I'm sure this effect is what causes so many of the overdose reports.

So, Wednesday night my friend 'B' comes over, and it turns out that we've both eaten recently. I myself had had a substantial sandwich and assorted snacks less than two hours ago, he'd had a large plate of pasta about 90 minutes ago. But, we decided to go for it anyway.

My roommate was out, so we had free run of the apartment. We settled down in front of the TV, put on 'The Boondock Saints', and proceeded to measure out doses. At 260lb, 4g is about right for me. 'B' is only 160lb, and he'd never tried this before, so I measured out 2g for him.

And nothing. 30 minutes after dosing, nothing. I thought maybe I'd made a dud batch somehow, that all we'd had was pure NaCl or something. However, just to be safe, I convinced him (and myself) to wait another 30 minutes.

And something. 60 minutes into it there wasn't much, but 'B' started to feel some effects, mild but pleasant. I myself felt like I'd had all of one drink, just barely perceptible.

T+01:30 I felt the same, but 'B' thought he was back at baseline, and wanted to try more. So I measured out another 2g for him, and another 2g for myself.

T+01:45 (15 minutes after our second dose) he started to slip rapidly into a GHB delerium. He said he felt wonderful, but he was only conscious half the time, a minute awake and talking, and a minute completely zonked out. It was like someone was flipping a switch back and forth. I finally started to feel the effects as well. The euphoria and feeling of at-peace-with-the-world arrived. The movie took on a whole new dimension.

T+02:00 'B' passed out completely. I noticed only because he'd stopped laughing during the funny/ironic scenes. Somewhat concerned, I checked his breathing and pulse. Breathing was not as deep as I would have liked but his pulse was about 70 and strong, so I stopped worrying. I repositioned him so he wouldn't get a stiff neck and if anything happened he wouldn't choke, and went back to watching the movie, checking him occasionally.

T+03:00 This is new to me - the peak seemed to stretch out into a plateau, I'm still feeling wonderful, no sign of coming down, but also no sign of getting 'worse'.

T+04:00 'B' starts to snore, and a few minutes later wakes up. He's groggy, unsteady, and feeling a little nauseous. He's also quite concerned that we appear to have finished the movie, he asks how long was he out, and upon hearing the answer 'two hours' he starts to panic. I calm him down, get him settled, and he rests for about 15 minutes. I'm starting to return to baseline.

T+04:15 'B' has suddenly become quite alert and talkative. We talk literally for hours, about many things, and in my condition it all seems very deep and important. My roommate comes home, and is somewhat amused at our state, until he realises that we intend to hog the TV all night. I buy him off with ice cream and oven fries.

T+05:00 Still talking, but I'm close to baseline and don't want to be. I take another 2g. This time it comes on within minutes, and I have great difficulty walking and standing, and this time I feel simply drunk, not euphoric. 'B' declines any additional GHB, and is apparently at baseline. We talk some more, but it is very late, and he goes home about an hour later.

T+06:00 I'm finding it difficult to stay awake, so I give up trying, and go to sleep. Unlike previous experiences, I don't snap back awake 4 or 5 hours later, instead I sleep like a log for about 10 hours, then wake up very gradually, feeling slightly hungover.

That afternoon (I woke up very late) and the rest of the day felt very surreal. I'm used to feeling 'slow' the next day, but I usually have mental energy to make up for that, this time I didn't. My mind was as slow as the rest of me. Unsettling. The next day I felt fine, however.

An obvious observation is that we both should have clicked within 90 minutes of dosing. Our doses were certainly large enough. Food must act as a very good buffer. I'm not sure if the food was holding onto most of the GHB and released it later, unfortunately as we took our second dose, or if the food simply acted to slow down the absorption. It could be due to the dose/response curve of GHB, but the second dose felt like double what it really was, I can't help wondering if the first dose was just getting through at the same time.

Lessons learned? Same as last time: don't double dose, even (or especially) if the first dose doesn't seem to be working. Also, don't eat anything prior to the experience! That really messed up the timetable... but this time in my case it actually enhanced the experience. Normally I peak about 45 minutes in and am already mostly down after 90 minutes, this time the peak lasted for *hours*.

But 'B' wasn't so lucky. He overdosed, and was left somewhat confused and concerned by the experience. My fault for indulging his desire for a second dose even though I knew better (or would have known better if sober). I'm just lucky nobody got sick and that at 4g it wasn't enough to require assistance. He called me 3 days later, and mentioned that he'd been having trouble sleeping and felt drained of energy since then, but some days after that I heard from him again and he was finally back to normal. He's definitely not trying it again. I'm going to continue to experiment, it's proving to be quite difficult finding the 'sweet spot'. After all this, GHB has fallen to second place, and alcohol is again my prime escape - tastes better, much easier to figure out dosage, and not as likely to go over the edge (at least for me).

Exp Year: 2001ExpID: 9524
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: May 26, 2004Views: 25,003
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GHB (25) : Small Group (2-9) (17), Hangover / Days After (46), Overdose (29), Difficult Experiences (5)

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