Poison
LSD & Sertraline
Citation:   Mad Dog. "Poison: An Experience with LSD & Sertraline (exp8134)". Erowid.org. Jul 28, 2004. erowid.org/exp/8134

 
DOSE:
2 hits oral LSD (blotter / tab)
  400 mg oral Pharms - Sertraline (pill / tablet)
BODY WEIGHT: 170 lb
Here is a good example and lesson on the dangers of drug interactions.

I arrived at T's house early in the evening. Her mother had asked me to housesit, as the house has been subject to previous burglaries. Other friends, R and P, came with me. R cooked some chicken soup, as i decided to consume four 100mg Zoloft tablets (I later learned from the PDR that in no circumstances should any patient take more than 200mg of Zoloft per day.) I am also not a depressed person. Shortly thereafter I took two hits of LSD, forgetting about the Zoloft. I do not recall my exact motives for taking Zoloft, and so much of it. In about 20 minutes, I quickly felt the acid hit and was unable to eat any chicken soup, though I enjoyed standing next to the pot and smelling it. I was experiencing a rather pronounced case of synesthesia, as all of my senses seemed to be rather pronounced and indistinguishable from others. Primarily, I felt smells and associated them with warmth. I left the kitchen in order to take a shower, and began to feel extremely intoxicated, and not feeling quite so well.

I attributed it to not being near the pleasant smell of chicken soup, and being in a bright bathroom. I was able to take a shower, though I had to constantly tell myself to remain calm, since I was starting to have rather strong visual and audio hallucinations, and my mind was racing and overflowing with senseless thoughts. Upon leaving the bathroom, I laid down in a bedroom and listened to DJ Spooky's album Songs of a Dead Dreamer, which somehow invoked terror in me. At this point, I was no longer able to think in English, but all my thoughts either manifested in a weird musical language or in some horrible gibberish. I began to get feelings that everyone hated me. I was not too concerned, and just figured the acid wasn't all that great, however it was much stronger than I had expected, or at least others having taken the same stuff told me it was sort of weak. I later learned that Zoloft works by increasing serotonin levels, while LSD, amongst other things, depresses them. This must have led to an intensification of LSD's effects, as well as some other bad interactions. Looking for some encouragement, I went into the living room where everyone was watching The Jungle Book movie and smoking weed.

I felt a bit better, since it's a pretty much happy movie, and it boosted my spirits. At this point I believe things turned for the worse, since I am not sure of the exact course of events, but at some point I was unable to properly focus my eyes or see anything but a blend of colors and sounds. I somehow sensed that I was beginning to vomit, and i looked for a place to vomit, but could find none, eventually finding a toilet. I'm not sure how I found the bathroom, since I couldn't really see properly, but I found it all right. Anticipating future vomiting, I sat on a picnic table outside. People were concerned, so they came outside, brought me water and asked if I was ok. I couldn't really speak, but I drank some fluids, then vomited some more. In a bit, P suggested I go on a walk with him, to speed things up and ease the scattered thoughts. This helped, but I began to feel a feeling of rather intense sickness spread over my body. I thought that I might have food poisoning, and was convinced of the fact for quite some time.

I came back to the house, and said I felt better, but then I felt much worse. R and T went to buy cigarettes, though I didn't want them to leave, thinking I might need to go to the hospital for food poisoning. I had eaten some old chicken earlier in the day, so this wasn't really a bad hypothesis. After they left I realized I would have to keep myself from passing out or dying until they got back, so this improved my mood, and I quit worrying about dying. A short few minutes later, I once again lost focus in my eyes, and began staggering about and trembling rather severely. I felt very hot and sweaty and took my shirt off. My vision became a total blackout in a bit, and i hunched over, but did not fall on the ground, fearing i might not get up. I lost consciousness for a brief second, then found myself still standing, but sweating so profusely that it was dripping off of my body very quickly. I felt very sick and weak, and P suggested I sit down, which I hadn't considered before. I laid on the hood of a car and let sweat evaporate. It felt very good and I was thankful for my body's natural cooling system. R and T came back, and I informed them that I would not die, and that I would be fine as long as I kept my morale up. I felt this information to be important.

After a while I felt very cold, then went inside to take a shower to warm myself up. Once I was in the shower I realized that heat would be transferred to my body by the hot water much slower than it would be released by the water evaporating from my skin. By the time I realized this I was very cold, shivering uncontrollable, and felt gripped by hypothermia. At this time I was still tripping as hard as ever, so this did not improve things at all. I put clothes on, then jumped into a bed and bundled up, but I was unable to recover my body warmth, even though P and R had put all the blankets in the house over me. I began to lose consciousness and feel myself sink into a coma or something of the sorts where I had foreign and reptilian thoughts. I snapped out of it and looked up at friends for help. R decided she would lie in the bed with me for a while. After a few minutes of this, I was still very cold, but did not feel myself on the verge of losing consciousness, then was glad again for not dying. After a while I felt warm again. I kept drinking fluids and lying down, but realized my body had become very weak, and my jaw ached from shivering so much.

After a while, I became very hot and realized I had somewhat of a fever. Being so weak, it was a great chore to stand up and walk to the bathroom, which I had to do a couple of times. The LSD had worn down some, but I still had terrifying closed eye visuals whenever I tried to rest my eyes. It was also difficult to lift water to my lips to drink. I began to think of the luxuries a hospital could afford me, but decided against it, since it would be so expensive. P brought me some broth and water for the protein and fluids, as well as some tylenol for the fever. I had become delirious and noticed myself mumbling and growling in attempts to ward off the sickness. After a while I felt I could safely fall asleep and rest and remain breathing. I had trouble breathing the whole night, and often found myself taking huge breaths and gasping to get more and more oxygen in.

An annoyance was that I was unable to sleep due to the acid. What bad luck. I had noticed R was vomiting in the bathroom earlier, and I met her in the hallway for some reason, and she said she also felt very sick, and I realized it was the Zoloft making us sick, since she had taken 300mg herself. Acid having almost worn away, and confident I would not die if i fell asleep, I got a good six or seven hours of sleep. I woke up in the morning feeling burnt out, weak and sick, but I was extremely glad not to be dead. T later made me a little card that said 'Best Housesitter Ever.' What I learned: Zoloft is worse than I thought. I had actually thought of taking a lot more, say seven or eight pills, but for some reason decided against it. I'm quite sure I'd be dead if I did. Maybe this story can discourage someone from overdosing on Zoloft while tripping. Peace.

Exp Year: 2001ExpID: 8134
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 28, 2004Views: 30,962
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Pharms - Sertraline (88), LSD (2) : Overdose (29), Health Problems (27), Difficult Experiences (5), Combinations (3), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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