Club Drug Withdrawal Symptoms

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Club drug withdrawal symptoms, timeline, treatment, and effects all vary based on the specific type of club drug taken.

Club Drugs

Club drugs are a group of psychoactive drugs that teenagers and young adults generally use at bars, nightclubs, concerts, and parties. They act on a person’s central nervous system and alter their mood, awareness, and behavior. These drugs often include GHB, Rohypnol, ketamine, MDMA (Ecstasy), methamphetamine, and LSD (acid).

GHB is a central nervous system depressant. It acts on the brain and can result in people feeling sleepy. Positive effects of GHB are feeling euphoria, increased sex drive, and tranquility. Negative effects include sweating, loss of consciousness, nausea, hallucination, and amnesia. If too much is taken it can result in coma or even death.

Rohypnol is a depressant and benzodiazepine. It works like amnesia, which can make people not remember events they experienced while using the drug. It causes drowsiness, amnesia, sleep, slurred speech, loss of coordination, impaired mental function, and confusion.

Ketamine is an anesthetic. It works by distorting people’s perceptions of sight and sound. It produces feelings of detachment from the environment and self. Low doses of this drug can result in impaired attention, learning ability, and memory. Higher doses can result in hallucinations, being in a dreamlike state, delirium, and amnesia. If too much is taken it can result in impaired motor function, high blood pressure, and fatal respiratory problems.

MDMA (Ecstasy) is a drug that alters a person’s mood and perception. It is similar to stimulants and hallucinogens because it produces feelings of increased energy. Pleasure, emotional warmth, and distorted sensory and time perceptions.

Methamphetamine belongs to a family of drugs known as stimulants that speed up a body’s system. This can lead to increased heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and respiratory rate. Prolonged use of meth can lead to mood swings, delusions, anxiety, insomnia, paranoia, confusion, aggression, and visual and auditory hallucinations.

LDS (acid) belongs to a family of drugs known as hallucinogens and affects the serotonin receptors in the brain. The effects of this drug include hallucinations, distorted visual perceptions, altered sounds, anxiety and depression, flashbacks or “trip” experience days or months later, rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, and dilated pupils.

Club Drug Withdrawal Symptoms

Club drug withdrawal varies because club drugs include a wide range of different drugs that have different effects on the body. Thus resulting in unique effects, withdrawal symptoms, timeline, and treatments depending on the specific drug used. Below is a list of each of the most common club drugs used and their unique withdrawal symptoms.

GHB

GHB withdrawal symptoms include seizures, shakiness, anxiety, agitation, insomnia, overactive reflexes, increased heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature, sweating, hallucinations, and severe cravings.

Rohypnol

Withdrawal from Rohypnol may include nausea, headaches, rebound anxiety and insomnia, dizziness, blurred vision, confusion, delusions, paranoia, diarrhea, nightmares, poor memory, appetite loss, irritability, restlessness, depressed mood, muscle aches, tiredness, blood pressure changes, rapid heart rate, tremors, delirium, sweating, coma, or death.

Ketamine

Withdrawal can occur after chronic use of ketamine. Withdrawal symptoms include chills, swears, excitation, hallucinations, teary eyes, and drug cravings.

MDMA

The effects of MDMA’s last about 3 to 6 hours. After about a week of use, withdrawal symptoms may include irritability, depression, aggression, muscle cramps, difficulty sleeping, anxiety, memory deficits, loss of attention, nausea, and loss of interest in sex.

Methamphetamine

Meth withdrawal symptoms often include fatigue, severe depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, psychosis, and intense meth cravings. Additional withdrawal symptoms can include paranoia, red/itchy eyes, difficulty sleeping, lack of motivation, lack of energy, increased appetite.

LSD

According to the Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology, people who use LSD do not experience withdrawal symptoms, but the general criteria for substance use disorder and dependence otherwise apply to this drug.

How Long Do Club Drugs Withdrawal Last?

The length of time withdrawal from club drugs lasts depends on the specific drug taken by the user. Each club drug has a different withdrawal timeline.

GHB

According to the Annals of Emergency Medicine, early withdrawal symptoms occur 1 to 24 hours after heavy use and include insomnia, tremors, confusion, nausea, and vomiting. Over the next 2 to 3 days the withdrawal symptoms progress and can include hypertension, hallucinations, anxiety, tremors, and sweating. Additionally, confusion, disorientation, and delirium with agitation occur as withdrawal progresses further over the next few days. Withdrawal symptoms typically resolve after 14 days of discontinued use of the drug.

Rohypnol

The Rohypnol withdrawal timeline starts with acute withdrawal symptoms starting 1 to 4 days after the last dose of the medication was taken and ends within 14 days. However, 10 to 15 percent of people will experience symptoms that can last years. This phase is known as protracted withdrawal and involves a slow reversal of the changes the medication made to the brain. Withdrawal symptoms in this stage include anxiety, insomnia, muscle spasms, cognitive impairment, tingling or numbness in limbs, and depression.

Ketamine

There is no official timeline for withdrawal from ketamine due to the number of factors involved with coming from ketamine. The withdrawal timeline can range from a few days, to a week, or even longer.

MDMA

Just like with Ketamine, there is no official timeline for coming down from MDMA. However, as the MDMA dose wears off, a person may experience withdrawal symptoms within 3 to 6 hours after use. The withdrawal timeline can range anywhere from a few days, to a week, or even longer.

Methamphetamine

A recent study published in Addictions Journal stated that meth withdrawal happens in three phases. The first withdrawal phase is the crash. During day 1 and day 2 of quitting meth, a person will experience a crash or comedown. During this period a person will experience fatigue, sleepiness, and hunger as their body tries to recover from not having the drug.

The second phase is the acute phase. This stage usually lasts 7 to 10 days. During this period people typically experience cravings and depression. Depression can cause a person to experience suicidal thoughts. The severity of this stage tends to go down after the first 24 hours of stopping meth use.

The third and final phase is known as the subacute phase. This stage happens at the end of the acute phase and usually lasts another 2 to 3 weeks. During this stage, symptoms are generally mild and remain stable for 2 weeks. Withdrawal symptoms tend to go away after 2 weeks of abstinence from meth.

LSD

The Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology also mentioned that once the acute symptoms of LSD wear off, usually within 24 hours, there is no further withdrawal timeline.

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Club Drug Treatment

There is not much information available about treatments for club drug addiction. However, each club drug is different and therefore will follow a unique treatment schedule.

GHB

There is little information about treatment options for people addicted to GHB. However, if a person is not physically dependent on the drug they can be treated in an outpatient setting. Chronic use that results in withdrawal symptoms when detoxing may require close medical supervision and support.

Rohypnol

Typically, treatment for Rohypnol addiction involves the use of medications and psychotherapies. Treatment for this drug involves a taper schedule to slowly wear a person off the medication to reduce the severity of withdrawal symptoms during treatment.

Ketamine

There are no specific treatments for Ketamine addiction. However, a person can receive treatment to help them detox as well as therapy to help them get to the root of their addiction and work to overcome it.

MDMA

Just like with Ketamine, there are no specific treatments for MDMA addiction. However, a person can receive treatment to help them detox and receive therapy to help them get to the root of their addiction and work to overcome it.

Methamphetamine

Typically drug dependence treatment involves medications. However, there are no known medications that have been proven in treating meth dependence. Therefore, the long-term treatment options that are available for meth users are inpatient hospitalization for serious cases of long-term meth addiction and outpatient clinics that use behavioral therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy, contingency management, and the matrix model.

LSD

The Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology stated that standard treatments such as motivational interviewing, relapse prevention, outpatient counseling, participation in self-help groups, and family therapy can all prove beneficial in helping a person overcome their LSD addiction.

Final Thoughts

In general, the effects of taking a club drug will vary depending on the specific drug taken. Additionally, since club drugs range from hallucinogens to depressants and stimulants there is no one group of withdrawal symptoms that fits all drugs. For example, LSD has no known withdrawal symptoms.

The club drug withdrawal schedule also varies widely depending on the specific club drug taken. The withdrawal timeline can range anywhere from no time at all to 2 weeks or more.

Therefore, club drug treatment will vary greatly depending on the type of drug taken. There is little information available on club drug treatments. However, a person who took LSD may not need as much treatment compared to someone who has taken methamphetamine and needs extensive treatment to overcome their addiction.

If you are wondering how to quit club drugs, with the right treatment plan recovery is possible. If you or someone you know is suffering from a club drug addiction finding a high-quality rehabilitation clinic can help. No one should tackle this monster alone.

References

Medical disclaimer:

Sunshine Behavioral Health strives to help people who are facing substance abuse, addiction, mental health disorders, or a combination of these conditions. It does this by providing compassionate care and evidence-based content that addresses health, treatment, and recovery.

Licensed medical professionals review material we publish on our site. The material is not a substitute for qualified medical diagnoses, treatment, or advice. It should not be used to replace the suggestions of your personal physician or other health care professionals.

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