LSD (‘acid, ‘trips’) is the most often used form of hallucinogen. In its pure form LSD is a white, odourless powder. This pure form is very strong, so LSD is usually mixed with other things to make the dose large enough to take. LSD comes in the form as liquids, tablets, capsules or squares of gelatine or blotting paper.

Psilocybin

• how much you take

• your height and weight

• your general health

• your mood

• your past experience with hallucinogens

• whether you use hallucinogens on their own or with other drugs

• whether you use alone or with others, at home or at a party, etc.

• seeing, hearing, touching or smelling things in a distorted way or that don’t exist (you usually know that what you are sensing is not real);

• intense sensory experiences (e.g. colours become very bright, sounds become sharper);

• mixing of the senses (e.g. you ‘hear’ colours or ‘see’ sounds);

• changed sense of time (e.g. minutes can seem as slow as hours, or you can ‘re-live’ something that happened a long time ago);

• space becomes distorted strange bodily sensations (e.g. as though you are floating or being pulled down by gravity, or that you are becoming part of another object);

• changed and intense thoughts emotional swings (e.g. change from intense happiness to deep sadness).

• your muscles twitch

• you feel weak

• you feel numb

• your pupils get bigger

• you shake

• you feel sick or vomit

• your heart beats faster

• your blood pressure rises

• you breathe faster and deeper than normal

• your coordination is poor.

• extreme anxiety or fear

• frightening hallucinations (e.g spiders crawling on the skin)

• panic, leading to taking risks (e.g. running across a busy street)

• feelings of ‘losing control’ or ‘going mad’

• paranoia (feeling that other people want to harm you)

• suicide or violence (rare).