Slowly fizzing into the taste buds of the tongue, acid is about to take its full effect. The wall begins to blur with the chair creating a mouth. A light fixture splits into two separate lights creating eyes. Creating itself, a fuzzy brow emerges and shows itself above the eyes of light turning red. And the face of the wall begins to speak.

According to the DEA, Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a schedule I drug. Being a schedule I drug, LSD is considered one of the most dangerous drugs that a person could take; alongside cocaine and even Meth.

LSD finds the neurotransmitters of the brain and alter the perception of reality, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This causes the user to hallucinate or “trip.”

To protect the privacy of certain individuals the names and identifying details have been changed.

John, a student at Timber Creek, has had personal experience with the use of LSD and its effects that it can have on the brain.

The majority of the time the walls are talking to you and it’s great,” John said.

Data reported in the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse indicate that an estimated 20.2 million U.S. residents aged 12 and older used LSD at least once in their lifetime. The survey also revealed that many teenagers and young adults use LSD–742,000 individuals aged 12 to 17 and 4.5 million individuals aged 18 to 25 used the drug at least once.

Many youths in the Timber Creek community have found and used acid, but many, like John, have found that the trips that draw them to the drug are sometimes what pushed them away.

“The bad trips are what you hear on the talk shows, when they say, ‘oh,  I never want to do that again’,” John said, “It was like one of those life revelation moments where I never want to do it again”

He further explained the effect of the bad trips, and the interviewers became shocked with what he said.

John said, “Sometimes the walls are screaming at you to do something you shouldn’t.”

John went through a rough break up with his girlfriend. Emotionally overwhelmed, he took LSD in order to escape reality and every pain that it had to offer, but John just found himself in another reality where the pain was amplified.

“I was afraid,” John said, “everything just kept floating away and I saw her in the room with me and she just kept floating away and it was like she didn’t even care she was leaving.”

Every reality that is perceived when the drug is not in use, bends and twists itself to what the mind is going through, emotionally and physically, when the trip is in its full effect. It causes questioning of what life really is.

When John was asked if he was conscious of the fact that he was tripping when he did, he responded by saying that you are aware but at the same time the trips are so vivid that you believe that they are happening. At the moment, the trips are real to you and it’s hard to shake.

“There was this one bad trip where I was telling myself ‘it’s just a bad trip, it’s just a bad trip, it’ll pass.’ and then the realization hit me that, ya, it’s a bad trip but it’s also your own brain just going wild.” John said, “No matter if you’re off the acid, its still in your brain. And that messed me up.”

Read the introduction and other stories in our series “Hello, My Name is Drugs” at this link.