Psychosis, alcoholism, anxiety: What happens when LSD never wears off?

You might have experienced ‘a bad trip’ and a certain audience will be familiar with flashbacks. Yet for some people the effects of these drugs never went away. Ed Prideaux reports on the rise of psychedelics as healing treatments and urges caution

Visual disturbance is the most common hangover of hallucinogens (Getty/iStock)

When most of us look around a room, nothing much seems to happen. The walls will look like walls; the computer like a computer; and unless you’ve had a few coffees or too much wine, you’ll likely feel fairly ordinary, too. But some of us aren’t so lucky. Jay is based in Bewdley, a small riverside town just outside of Birmingham. He works as a programmer. He’s reluctant to communicate on Skype or Zoom, but agrees to use email.

“Looking up at a wall, I see dark lines from the text I’ve been reading. My entire visual field is covered in snow and strobe flashing persists. Large green and blue geometric patterns dance around the white wall.

“As I look at the top of the TV, I see what I can only describe as vortexes: little green tornado-like visuals that move around and merge into each other. And looking at the wooden table, the patterns begin to breathe and warp, but only if I stare in the same place.”