As the name implies, hallucinogens are types of illegal substances that cause users to have hallucinations. This means that users of these drugs can become wildly out of touch with reality while high and difficult to control or communicate with. Moreover, these drugs are addictive and can have a serious impact on the life of your or a loved one. There are different categories and types of hallucinogens. Learning about them and the ways in which they can affect the brain can be the first step toward getting help.
What are Hallucinogens?
Hallucinogens are a class of drugs that distort the perception of reality. Therefore, those abusing hallucinogens will often see, feel, or hear things that are not there. Some hallucinogens are found in naturally-existing mushrooms or plants. However, other types are man-made in a laboratory setting.
When you use hallucinogenic drugs repeatedly, you can begin to develop a tolerance. Soon, you’ll need to take more simply to experience the same high you used to. You might begin to crave the drug when you don’t have it or maybe you won’t even be able to function without it. This is what leads to addiction. Different hallucinogens can have different levels of addictiveness but this does not mean there are safe ones.
Hallucinogens affect the ways serotonin is processed in the brain. This neurotransmitter regulates a number of bodily functions, including muscle movement, sensory perception, emotional state, feelings of hunger, sex drive and even the ability to control one’s own behavior. Also involved in the responses to hallucinogenic drugs are the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine. Someone using these drugs might exhibit hallucinations and rapid changes in mood among other symptoms, depending on which drug they’re taking. Due to the wide range of effects on the brain’s function, it is difficult to gauge an individual’s exact reaction.
Categories of Hallucinogens
Three principal types of hallucinogenic drugs include psychedelics, dissociatives, and deliriants. Psychedelic drugs work by allowing the brain to process everything in an individual’s environment, rather than filtering it out. Drugs in this category are peyote, mescaline, magic mushrooms, and LSD. Dissociative drugs like PCP, ketamine, DXM, and salvia deprive the user of their sensory perceptions and cause them to have “out-of-body” type experiences. Finally, deliriants such as nightshade and jimson weed create false perceptions and confusions to a person’s reality. The trademarks of these classes of drugs are the changes to a person’s perception they cause in their users.
Side Effects of Hallucinogens Drugs
Hallucinogens can cause many side effects that can be disturbing for those abusing them. For example, consider the following list of effects that can occur with these drugs:
Disorientation and Confusion
Specifically, hallucinogens can cause extreme confusion. They may be unaware of important information such as their location, the present time, or who they are currently with.
Hallucinations
Hallucinations involve seeing, feeling, or hearing things that are not really there. Moreover, this can be extremely confusing for the person experiencing these effects.
Loss of Memory
Over time, those who abuse hallucinogens can experience a great degree of memory loss. Furthermore, the loss of important memory function can impact the person’s ability to carry out normal daily functions.
Anxiety or Paranoia
Mood changes are also a fairly common effect of all hallucinogenic drugs. Therefore, those abusing these drugs most often experience extreme paranoia or anxiety that worsens over time.
Nausea and Vomiting
Hallucinogens can also upset the digestive system. For example, digestive symptoms can include pain, cramping, nausea, or vomiting.
How Crest View Recovery Can Help
As you can see, the different types of hallucinogens each have their own various effects. The feeling can be quite freeing and pleasant, making these substances even more appealing. Despite that, they still lead to potentially serious legal and personal consequences. A professional facility like Crest View can provide services like substance abuse counseling and detox that can make getting clean less overwhelming.
Overcoming dependency on different types of hallucinogens is overwhelming on your own. Therefore, the staff has the know-how and the resources to make it seem more manageable. The road to recovery doesn’t have to be traveled alone. Please call us at 866-327-2505 to learn more about the ways in which our program can help.
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Our COVID-19 Protocols
First and foremost, we want to maintain a safe recovery environment and encourage and/or adopt practices protecting the health of patients, employees, visitors and others. We also want to ensure the continuity of providing our addiction recovery services in the face of this global pandemic as we remain open. Note, our staff is fully vaccinated.
The world health community continues to monitor closely the emergence of COVID-19. We want everyone to understand the exact precautions we are taking to address these concerns.
Effective Until Further Notice
ALL incoming clients are pre-screened and Crest view is utilizing the COVID-19 Rapid Test for all newly admitted patients to ensure a safe treatment environment.
No non-essential visitors
ALL clients will need to have their temperature taken daily and recorded. Any client with a temperature higher than 100.4 will be taken to an Urgent Care facility.
ALL Crest View Staff are being routinely tested for COVID.
ALL BHT staff will need to have their temperature taken at the start of their assigned shift. Any BHT staff member with a temperature of 100.4 or higher will be sent home in accordance with this policy.
ALL administrative staff and essential visitors will be required to enter the building upstairs and have their temperature taken with a temple thermometer. Any staff or essential visitor with a temperature higher than 100.4 will be denied entry and be sent home in accordance with this policy.
In accordance with the North Carolina State mandate, all staff, clients and essential visitors will be asked to wear a mask when they can not attain proper social distance.
Some off-site activities may be canceled due to state mandates.
Crest View Recovery Center will provide hand sanitizers throughout the workplace and in common areas. Cleaning sprays and wipes will also be provided to clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces such as telephones and keyboards.
We have required that employees experiencing any respiratory or flu like symptoms will stay home from work. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that employees remain at home until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100.4 degrees F or 37.8 degrees C) or signs of a fever without the use of fever-reducing medications.
If you have any questions regarding our COVID-19 protocols or the admissions process during this time, please give us a call directly at (866) 327-2505.
