Ltd Ed 'Solve et Elucido' Art Giclee
This reverberating psychedelic giclee print is a gift for a
$500 donation to Erowid. 12" x 12", stretched on canvas, the
image wraps around the sides of the 1" thick piece. Signed
by artist Vibrata, and Erowid founders Earth & Fire.
Drastic Reaction
Nutmeg & Alcohol
Citation:   Juona. "Drastic Reaction: An Experience with Nutmeg & Alcohol (exp11667)". Erowid.org. Jan 28, 2005. erowid.org/exp/11667

 
DOSE:
2 oz oral Nutmeg (ground / crushed)
    oral Alcohol (liquid)
BODY WEIGHT: 115 lb
After having exhausted the possibility of acquiring the more common hallucinogens, I decided nutmeg to be a viable alternative. I remembered reading about the psychoactive properties of nutmeg before. So on November 28th me and a friend ventured out and got a large amount of nutmeg, maybe 6 or more ounces. At this point I was elated at the possibility of finding a substance that would provide me with an altered mindset, and a substance that’s far more available than the usual hallucinogen. So that night I went back to verify the dosage, I remembered it being something like 2 tablespoons. And when I got to the page on nutmeg I forgot to look for the dosage information and instead looked at the preparations methods. So later on I remembered that I forgot to look and asked one of my friends if she remembered the dose. She said it was around 2 ounces, and I mentioned I thought it was more like tablespoons, but I trusted her reading comprehension far more than mine. That and I read a few pieces on nutmeg, and an article said something like “stoned like effects”, so I thought, how could too much nutmeg be devastating in any way.

So at around 7 pm we made nutmeg margaritas, with around 2 ounces of nutmeg in each. I’d say it was the worst taste I’ve ever experienced, and it probably took me around half an hour to finish. My two friends couldn’t finish all of theirs. So we got in my friends car to drive back to school and I lay down in the back. No more than half an hour after I’d finished the nutmeg margarita, I felt something strange in terms of the placement of my organs and limbs. Every time we turned in the car we were all shocked, as if turning a corner was highly unusual. I felt like my body were a puddle in the back seat and at every turn the puddle dripped to one end and then back again. So finally I sat up, still feeling like I was dripping and started panicking some, because my lungs felt as if they were going to melt away at any moment. And now I’m not sure the exact sequence of things, but I remember seeing some of my other friends and they looked at me as if I were carrying a human head in my arms, and asked me what I had taken. I told them nutmeg, and they all sort of chuckled and told me I smelled of it. So then I believe I went to my room with my other friends. But I still was having an excessive amount of trouble breathing. And my thought processes were being dissected until the ends replaced the middles.

I could feel my heart rate quicken, but I looked at my other 2 friends who had consumed nutmeg, and they were incredibly calm, speaking in rational tones, saying what seemed to me rational things. Their thought processes never seeming to flicker. They had the exact reactions I had read about before. But while they were telling me that it was all right and that things were fine, all I could think about were macaroni noodles, because they were flying around the room. I started screaming about how Kraft puts an addictive ingredient into their macaroni and cheese, and that ingredient is what’s making me go insane. And my two friends would be discussing something and then come to a conclusion about whatever they were discussing and I would start panicking that I couldn’t figure out what they were discussing, and then I would yell that that proves I’m even further insane. And all I could focus on was macaroni noodles. One of my friends was feeling pretty unstable in the stomach so she was going to throw up, and she suggested that I do the same, to get the remaining nutmeg out of my system so I don’t misplace my trains of thoughts further.

But when I tried throwing up, my hallucinations increased, lights streamed across my visions and my eyes were watering. It made me feel like my head was going to explode. So I ran downstairs, to see some of my other friends to make sure that they hadn’t turned against me. I seriously believed that everyone was gradually turning against me and that I had to convince everyone to not. So I went into my friend’s room, and four of my friends were there and they all sort of laughed and said “she ate nutmeg”. I’m sure they weren’t maliciously laughing at me, but that’s how I perceived the laughing at that point. And then I exploded into tears and everyone ran over to comfort me. But when people ran towards me I just began to sob with even more intensity. So they sat me down and tried to calm me down and talk to me. But whatever anyone said, my mind interpreted it as something plotting against me. Someone would put their arms around me, and then I would try to break free. One of my friends went to call someone and I yelled “nono!” because I thought maybe they were calling the police on me. Which none of them would of done in that situation of course. So for maybe 20 minutes this went on, with my sobbing increasing every minute. I would think to myself and try to find a reason to not cry, but I couldn’t find one.

I demanded that my other friend who ingested nutmeg come down to the room, so someone called her and she did. And she came in even calmer seeming than before and said “I think there’s something about me that makes you upset, maybe I shouldn’t be around.” And that made my state even worse, and I insisted that it wasn’t her and that she should please stay. So then she took me back to my room. And at that point I just tried to block everything out so I wouldn’t completely displace every train of thought. But then a resident director came in and told me that he heard that I had taken a substance, and that I wasn’t handling it too well. So he wanted to call poison control to make sure I hadn’t taken too much. And he called, and those jerks wouldn’t tell him anything unless I gave my name, so he told them. And poison control said I had far exceeded the toxic dosage (whatever that means) and that I had to go to the emergency room. And at that point my perceptions of time melted into each other. After that I remember being in the ER and the doctors wouldn’t talk to me, and I was hooked up to one of those machines that measures heart rate. And about 4 doctors were rushing around seeming panicked while they were on the phone to other hospitals, asking them about the procedure in the case of a nutmeg overdose.

And I could hear the beeping from my heart rate machine, and it sounded like one note. So I kept asking if I was going to die, and they told me to shut up. I was shaking profusely, and then they all huddled around me, one mumbling to another “cardiac arrest” while they hooked me to something. And then one of those machines that send electric impulses into people was used on me. I don’t know what they’re called. But the doctors would say “clear!” and they would shock me and I would jump. And finally one of the doctors told me condescendingly that I had taken way beyond the lethal dosage. And I asked him what the lethal dosage was, because that’s important for me to tell other people about after this sort of thing happens, and the doctor replied “WHAT, so you can do it again?!” So the next thing I recall was being forced to drink liquid charcoal, and that tasted almost as bad as the nutmeg. And I couldn’t down it, so they shoved a tube up my nose and down my throat and pumped charcoal into me, while I was throwing up. And random i.v.’s were hooked into me; I think about three different i.v.’s. And I couldn’t urinate at all, so I had to have a catheter.

Next thing I recall is waking up, barely able to comprehend anything, about a day later when they took out the catheter. Now the hospital won’t give me any details about what happened, because I have to sign a release to get my records, and I can’t do that because I can’t get to that hospital. The only thing that one of the nurses told me was that my kidneys almost shut down, and if I hadn’t come to the hospital, I would of died. But that’s probably incorrect being that most doctors don’t know nearly as much as they should about certain hallucinogens and their reactions. At the time I wasn’t taking any medication, and the only other substance I had had was the small amount of alcohol in the margarita. My other friends who took the nutmeg had none of the effects I did, nothing even close. But I’m glad this happened to me, because I bet there were people around me who would of tried nutmeg too, and maybe as much as we took. So it’s good that I ‘overdosed’ so others can know about what can potentially happen.

I’ve had unusual reactions to some substances before, but nothing this drastic. And there wasn’t anything that would of given me a panic attack or made me anxious because prior to this incident, I was in a state of mind where I could just let anything happen, and I wouldn’t be upset. Oh yes, and I exuded the scent of nutmeg for about three days.

Exp Year: 2001ExpID: 11667
Gender: Female 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jan 28, 2005Views: 33,006
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Nutmeg (41) : Hospital (36), Health Problems (27), Overdose (29)

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