The World Health Organization defines sobriety as “a continued abstinence from alcohol and psychoactive drug use.” Lebanon Valley College has designated October 3-6 as Sobriety Awareness Week. Various events are planned to promote discussions on sobriety. Click HERE for those events.
Mike Fry’s FYE class is studying addiction. Students were asked to write a story about something or someone who helped shaped one’s attitudes toward alcohol or drugs.
La Vie is posting the stories of six students, who all agreed to the publication of their submission. These writings are unedited. They appear as how they were submitted for the class assignment.
Day 5: My experiences
By: an anonymous student
I live in an area where drugs are a huge part of the social culture. The majority of my friends smoke and drink. However, there are some of these friends that like to do harder drugs. During high school, I would always drink and smoke pot. I never thought that I would do anything else besides that until my junior year of high school. Before this, I really never thought about what doing a harder drug was like. One of the drugs that my friends kept wanting me to try was LSD. I obviously knew what LSD was and what it did to you. Acid has been a very common drug in our society. All of these factors went into my decision of wanting to try acid. Some other influences other than my friends included Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd is one of my favorite bands and definitely had an influence in my decision making.
When I decided that I wanted to try acid, my friends were very supportive of this decision. I planned out the day that I wanted to do it and who I was going to do it with. When you take the drug acid, one needs a game plan. This is because the drug lasts up to twelve hours and can also make you go a little insane if you have a bad trip. Once I figured the time out who I was going to do it with, I began to prepare myself mentally to take the drug. I decided that I would trip on a Saturday with my friends.
When Saturday rolled around, I was read to go. I met my friends at a park called Valley Green Park. When I got there my friends gave me the tabs of acid and explained to me the proper way to take the drug. After I took the drug, the wait began. When you take acid, the drug takes a full hour for it to kick in. At this point, I was not too sure of what to expect. Unlike other drugs like weed and alcohol, there is no come up. When you smoke or drink you can feel your self working up to that buzz. When you do acid it hits you all at once. One second you are completely fine and normal. The next second your whole reality just changes. I remember when the drug hit me, I felt like my eyes weighed 800 pounds and one side of my face was dropping. The other side of my face felt like it was rising. When I picked up my head and looked around, everything was different. The first thing that caught my attention was the leaves. The leaves on the trees were vibrating and a shade of green that never appeared to be as bright as it was then. My whole reality changed as well. I felt different and thought in ways that I never thought before. During my trip, I was very happy and had a lot of giggles. I also was very cautious and had a keen sense of where I was. All of my senses were enhanced and I felt very weird about that. Overall my trip was a good one. However, acid can be a very dangerous drug and if used should be used with caution. I believe that the people I grew up with and the friends in my life shaped the way that I feel about drugs and alcohol.