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Chemistry

Hallucinogens can be swallowed, sniffed, injected, smoked, or absorbed through the skin or tongue. No matter how you use them, these drugs disrupt the communication system in your brain, causing your sense of reality to be distorted.

LSD, or acid, is the most commonly used hallucinogen. LSD activates serotonin receptors, causing sleeplessness, trembling, and high heart rate and blood pressure. LSD can trigger flashbacks, such as feelings of terror or a mixing up of senses, even days or months after one has used the drug.

Another hallucinogenic drug is ecstasy. Ecstasy causes neurons to release unnatural, high levels of serotonin, destroying nerve fibers of nerve cells that contain serotonin, which messes up your body's ability to regulate sleeping, emotions, and heart rate. Read on to see how hallucinogens affect the neurons in your brain.

All hallucinogens disrupt the actions of neurotransmitters. They overrelease serotonin, which overactivates serotonin receptors and causes damage to nerve fibers of neurons that contain serotonin. Or, like PCP, they prevent the actions normally caused when a neurotransmitter attaches to its receptor in the brain. This disrupts the communication vital to the health of your brain and body.

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