MDMA is commonly known as ecstasy, and is a psychoactive drug – which just means it affects your mind, stimulating your central nervous system and speeding it up. It increases the activity of three neurotransmitters; serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. It acts as a presynaptic releasing agent, and acts as a monoamine transporter substrate which produces competitive reuptake inhibition at neuronal membrane transporters. This means it competes with naturally occurring chemicals to be reabsorbed after it has done its job. This leaves “extra chemicals” at the receiver. When taken orally, effects usually begin between 15 minutes and an hour, and can last between 3 to 6 hours.
Serotonin contributes to feelings of well-being and happiness; dopamine affects your sense of reward and pleasure, and norepinephrine is associated with the “fight or flight” response, making your body ready for action. MDMA affects serotonin the most, but the combination of these three accumulating in your brain makes you feel euphoric and energetic.
However, while this is all happening, your body is trying to create more neurotransmitters to reabsorb all of the chemicals that are making you feel so good. This means that when you return to your pre-MDMA levels of serotonin, there are extra transmitters reabsorbing it, and less cells producing it – this means you feel sad, irritable, you have difficulty focusing, low libido, low appetite, low self-esteem, and you feel really tired. These effects can happen for days after you’ve taken the drug, and if you mixed with other things (like alcohol, other recreational drugs or substances commonly found mixed in MDMA pills and capsules) you can feel even worse. Your tolerance will also go up, which means that if you take MDMA more than once a month, you won’t feel the positive effects as well.
Some people think MDMA can cause brain damage… read more about that here and what to do if you get caught by authorities with illicit substances here.
HIGH RISK 