Learn more about lysergic acid diethylamide (aka LSD or acid) before you take the plunge.

Quick Summary 

It usually takes 20 to 90 minutes for one tab of acid to have any effect on you. After you start feeling the effects of the tab of acid, your acid trip can last anywhere from 6 to 15 hours. After that, you’re probably going to feel the afterglow of your acid trip for about another 6 hours. All in all, the acid trip and the comedown from the acid trip should take about 24 hours.

What will you learn about acid after reading this whole article? 

• How long an acid trip lasts.
• What acid is.
• How acid affects you and your brain.
• What usually happens on an acid trip.
• The risks of dropping acid.
• The looks, smell and taste of acid.
• How much acid you should be taking.
• How long LSD is detectable in your body.

How long will your acid trip last?

A typical acid trip will last anywhere from 6 to 15 hours while the after-effects of an acid trip can last for up to 9 hours after that. Your acid trip from beginning to after the afterglow of your acid trip wears off will last about 24 hours. 

This doesn’t count the time it takes for you to feel the effects after dropping a tab of acid. That can take anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes.

What exactly is acid?

Acid is “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide” which is also known as LSD. Acid is the most popular and well-known psychoactive drug. It’s a potent and long-lasting man-made drug that’s partly derived from a type of fungus grown on rye or other types of grains.

The drug was first synthesized in 1938 by chemist Albert Hofmann, and it soon became associated with the counterculture of the 1960s.

How does acid work?

LSD is a man-made, synthetic drug that has a chemical structure similar to serotonin which is the “feel-good” chemical in your brain.

LSD molecules will land on your serotonin receptors when you drop acid. You’ll then go on an acid trip and experience all the colour distortions, psychedelic effects as well as hallucinations that acid is famous for triggering.

The effects of acid only fade away after the LSD molecules that landed on your serotonin receptors come off or are knocked off. This usually takes anywhere from 6 to 24 hours. 

What’s going to happen to you on your acid trip?

Acid is probably the most well-known psychoactive drug. LSD alters your perception of your surrounding environment, your mood and even your inner thoughts. The line between imagination and reality becomes incredibly blurred when you’re on an acid trip. 

Acid affects both your body and your brain. During an acid trip, your senses are going to be heightened and your surrounding environment will feel amplified in a way that you’ve probably never experienced before.

The effects of an acid trip can vary wildly from person to person. We’ll list out the most common experiences and sights that people normally report when taking acid.

• Shapes that rapidly change from one form to another.
• Bright and shining colours. Some people also describe these colours as “noisy”.
• Trails that appear behind other objects.
• Strange and artistic looking patterns.

Taking acid amplifies your mood. However, this is a double-edged sword. 

Going on an acid trip when you’re in a good mood can make you feel extremely happy, relaxed and joyful. You can become extremely excited and content with your life on a good acid trip.

However, if you take acid while you’re angry or in a bad mood, you’re liable to become even more upset and frustrated than you were before your acid trip. You’re also more likely to go through a bad trip this way.

As mentioned earlier, taking acid also affects your body. When you’re on an acid trip, you might:

• Experience increased blood pressure.
• Get a sharp increase in body temperature.
• Experience a sped up heart rate.
• Feel nauseous.
• Get a dried up mouth.
• Become unbalanced and shaky.
• Go through insomnia.

PS: All these symptoms usually go away after about 24 hours. 

What are the risks of taking acid?

Death from taking acid is rare but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any risks to consider when taking LSD. Here are some of the risks you need to consider when you decide to purchase and ingest acid:

• You might face problems with the law if you purchase acid. In many countries, LSD is considered an illegal substance and you might be fined or imprisoned if you get caught with it.
• You run the risk of going through a “bad trip” if you take acid. Bad trips usually happen when you take too much acid at once but can also happen when you take small doses as well. Bad acid trips are like nightmares that leave you feeling scared, sad, confused or all of those things at once. Bad trips last as long as good trips and there’s no way to stop them once they start.
• If you take acid regularly, your tolerance towards the substance will build up quickly. Taking acid repeatedly during a short period of time will make you need to take higher and higher doses every time you take it. This tolerance can be easily solved by taking a break from dropping acid for a while.
• You might experience what’s known as “hallucinogen persisting perception disorder” if you take acid. This disorder causes you to go through flashbacks of your acid trip days, weeks or even months after you last dropped acid. This disorder is rare but it’s still worth mentioning.
• If you’re predisposed to schizophrenia, taking LSD might trigger it. The connection between LSD and schizophrenia still requires further study. 
• This last point is not a risk of acid or LSD itself but a risk of obtaining the drug illegally. If you get your acid from a sketchy source, you have no idea what other harmful substances might be mixed into your acid.  

What does acid look, smell and taste like?

Acid usually comes in the form of an odourless and colourless liquid. This liquid is then dripped onto blotter papers. These blotter papers are absorbent and colourful paper squares that can hold a few tabs of acid. 

LSD can also come in the form of pills, capsules or even sugar cubes. The potency and dilution of each of these different LSD products varies.

How much LSD should you be taking?

A dose of 1 to 3 micrograms for every kilogram of your bodyweight is the recommended dosage to give you a decent acid trip. Micrograms have been highlighted because many people mistake the 1 to 3 microgram dosage as milligrams. Please don’t make that mistake and take your dosage of LSD in micrograms.

If you haven’t taken LSD before, starting with a smaller dosage is recommended to gauge how well your body handles acid. Taking a heavy dose of LSD when you’re not experienced with acid trips is a recipe for disaster. 

LSD is widely considered to be a safe drug to take as long as you’re taking it at standard doses. Death from taking too much LSD is rare but taking too much acid at once will more than likely give you an extremely intense and unpleasant “bad trip”.

How long will acid be detectable in your body?

Traces of acid or its byproducts can be detected in your urine during an LSD screening or drug test for 1 to 5 days. Blood tests have a shorter detection window compared to other tests. 

LSD is quickly metabolised in your liver compared to other substances like cannabis or cocaine which affects its detectability during drug tests. This combined with the fact that you’d usually only take a small amount of LSD makes detecting acid during a drug test quite difficult.

FAQs 

• What’s acid?

Acid is another name for lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and is a popular psychedelic. Acid is a man-made substance that’s found in ergot, which is a type of fungus. 

• How long do I have to wait after I take a tab of acid before I feel its effects?

You usually have to wait 20 to 90 minutes before you feel the effects of a tab of acid

• How long does an acid trip last?

An acid trip can last anywhere from 6 to 24 hours depending on you and the acid you’re taking.

Conclusion 

To wrap up this article, we’d like to remind you that you should know the potential risks and rewards of taking LSD before you take any. While some people take acid trips well, others have less than pleasant experiences when they drop that first tab of acid. 

Make sure that you’re being responsible if you’re going to take acid and make sure that it doesn’t interfere with any of your prescription drugs. Have a (sober) friend available to check up on you to make sure that you’re safe during your trip.