ON MDMA
MDMA has a psychedelic side, not in terms of visuals but in terms of lowering your default mode network and being an appropriate tool for self exploration and transformation, but unlike other substances that are likely to bring transformation even when you are just looking for fun, MDMA is very much at the service of your intention. If you just want to get wasted mdma will help you get wasted, if you just want to have fun you will have fun, if you want to heal trauma mdma will help you with that, if you want to do something that scares you (e.g. socializing as a shy and or socially anxious person). Also you have to be very deliberate with creating your set and setting for growth and you follow up is very important (well, this is actually relevant to psychedelics in general).
Also, it does have a potential for addiction and hurting your brain if you use too much or too frequently. Read about dosage and frequency. Dosage is weight dependent (although people of the same weight might have differences in tolerance). For frequency try to wait at least 3 months but if you can wait more it's even better because even with proper use you will eventually lose the magic and by distancing mdma sessions you have more time for integration between uses and you can use it in different stages of your life.
MDMA is quite useful for people with trauma and for socially anxious people.
Recommendation for socially anxious people: spend the month before the trip(or more) trying to socialize as much as possible. It will probably be uncomfortable, you might not feel the progress but still do it. Take notes after returning home. Read your notes throughout the week before the mdma trip. Take your dose and go to a social setting, ideally an activity where you can find both people you know and people you don't know and that is moments for socializing, ideally an activity you like for example a concert or party with your kind of music. Socialize, take notes the days afterward. Reflect on the experience throughout the next days and try to go to social events sober again to integrate the process.
The point of socializing on MDMA is not to depend on the MDMA but to carry the lessons to the next social events to integrate them and not lose them.
By the way, you might still feel social anxiety during a social event if you are socially anxious... and this is actually good, this allows mdma to teach you better ways to handle that anxiety. What often happens if you feel the anxiety then the euphoria kind of pushes and fights the anxiety and you can sort of learn by "muscle" memory (emotional memory? brain usage memory? meta memory?) how to partially replicate that mental/emotional movement.
Dont forget safety practices:
-drinking appropiate amounts of water
- eating and sleeping as well as possible the days before and after
- Avoiding heat excess
-Testing your substance with a reagent kit (if it's not mdma send it to the trash)
- Counterintuitive: weed after the trip seems to be neuroprotective... but use strains that have more CBD than THC