The Ecstasy and Agony of Ecstasy

"I just love it," says Jane Mahoney*, a senior at Boston College. "You can feel the music throbbing inside of you, and everything just seems so amazing," she says of ecstasy. "E" has skyrocketed onto the club scene, with millions of pills taken annually. But is it harmless fun or a oneway trip to the ER? Ecstasy is popular in nightclubs and raves. It makes users feel like they're free of inhibitions when dancing, and it seems to increase users' awareness of sights and sounds. "Everything just becomes more intense — it's like an orgasm. You can just go crazy on the dance floor, and even have fun dancing by yourself," Jane says. People feel as if they can dance all night while high. Many users describe an intense urge to stretch their limbs, like their muscles will seize up if they don't release the energy. When taken at parties or social events, E makes many users feel like they're more friendly and can chat with peers who they wouldn't otherwise approach. Whereas alcohol can cause slurring and unintelligent babble, people on ecstasy generally seem coherent, and can usually find composure during an emergency. People sometimes take Ecstasy before sex, which is supposed to make the experience seem like a surreal wrestling match. Besides its use as a party drug, psychologists use some forms of ecstasy to help patients discuss sensitive topics. Jane says, "When you're on E, it can be like a truth serum, where you can just talk about anything. You're just like 'Oh, I love you so much,' and if you've been in a fight with someone, you're like, 'Oh I'm sorry; I didn't mean to fight with you.'" If E feels so great, then why is everyone condemning it? The reality is that ecstasy is a potent substance, treated the same legally as crack or heroin. Many people think that ecstasy is a mixture of many drugs, but it is actually just one drug, MDMA, or Methylenedioxymethamphetamine. It works by triggering a massive release of serotonin (the neurotransmitter that helps control bodily functions like mood, sleep, memory, temperature regulation, and heart rate) in the brain, making you feel euphoric and carefree — for a short time. But when you take E, you're using up your brain's supply of serotonin, and until it can be replaced, many of your body's functions will work improperly. It's not yet known how long the effects of ecstasy last in your body, but a recent study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse showed conclusively that serotonin levels in a postecstasy brain are significantly lower than normal. That deficiency can lead to severe longterm depression, or at least several days of feeling pretty shitty. "Sometimes the comedown is really bad, and your body can feel all fucked up," says Marshall Hall, a junior at Tufts University. "Usually I just smoke up to relax when the E's wearing off." There are, of course, more acute health risks to taking ecstasy. One of the drug's immediate side effects is that it dehydrates the body. The dehydration can be exacerbated by intense dancing or failing to drink water regularly. In fact, if users don't drink enough water, their bodies can undergo severe dehydration, leading to coma, convulsions, and eventually death. At the other extreme, in rare instances ecstasy causes people to drink water compulsively. Too much water can lead to hyponatremia, a potentially fatal condition in which sodium levels become dangerously low. With so many millions of ecstasy pills on the streets, it's hard to know which are tainted or likely to cause a bad reaction. It's common knowledge that drug dealers often push impure tabs, tainted with heroin, aspirin, or even baking soda. Don't ever take ecstasy obtained from an unreliable dealer or in a venue where no one can help you if something goes wrong. Although ecstasy is not physically addictive, users often grow to crave the sensation and can develop a psychological addiction. An E high usually lasts about eight hours, and users might resort to other drugs to get through the depressing comedown period. People who have been drinking alcohol might be tempted in their drunkenness to try ecstasy, unaware that combining alcohol and E can lead to serious dehydration. It's true that people on ecstasy don't always swagger like they're drunk or space out like potheads. But don't let that lull you into a false sense that ecstasy is a safe weekend drug. It can have serious — even deadly — side effects, some of which probably aren't yet known. You need to be prepared to handle the consequences. *Names have been changed.