Taking ecstasy can lead to overdose, especially if laced with substances like fentanyl. Symptoms include confusion, convulsions, and high body temperature. Risk increases with higher doses and impure pills.
Ecstasy, also known as E, MDMA or Molly, is a powerful drug packed into a tiny pill. It’s a popular party drug, especially in certain settings like raves, EDM shows, clubs, and music festivals. While most people who use Ecstasy take it for fun, the fun can come to a halt very quickly and dangerously if you overdose.
Each dose affects critical systems throughout your body, including those that regulate your body temperature and heartbeat. When you overdose, it can have a serious and potentially life-threatening impact on those body systems. To help you better understand the risks and what to do in an ecstasy overdose, let’s explore more about this drug and what an ecstasy overdose looks like.
Are you or someone you know struggling with addiction?
I may have a problem I am concerned for a loved onePeople can and do overdose on Ecstasy. The pills may look small, colorful, and harmless, but they cause large and unpleasant changes throughout your body.
Your body uses serotonin to regulate core functions, including your body temperature and heart rate. But Ecstasy causes a surge of serotonin, so if you take too much, you can get so hot that your organs fail or your heartbeat can become faster than your heart can handle. Without treatment, an Ecstasy overdose can be fatal.
It’s worth noting that Ecstasy has a higher rate of overdose and other serious health risks than some other drugs. For example, a 2020 study found that a severe health incident (including a fatal overdose in some cases) happened in about 1 in 900 pills. By comparison, the rate for cocaine was 1 in 1600 doses.
It’s nearly impossible to determine how much Ecstasy can make you overdose. Far too many factors are involved in how your body processes and eliminates the drug, risk factors from your medical history or medical conditions you might not know about, and more.
But sometimes, taking just one pill contaminated by something else could cause an overdose. These two examples demonstrate that risk:
Three high school students in Los Angeles bought drugs they thought were ecstasy. In reality, those pills contained fentanyl. All three were found unconscious, and one suffered a significant brain injury.
Officials in Florida warned that many drugs they seized, including MDMA, were contaminated with the synthetic drug eutylone. Researchers don’t know much about this substance, as it’s very new and relatively untested. But it’s strong enough to cause an overdose, and the damage caused could be significant.
Ultimately, there’s no safe dose of Ecstasy that can remove all overdose risks.
It’s easier to overdose on MDMA than you might think, even if you think you know your body’s limits, because you have no way of knowing exactly what or how much is in the pill you’re taking.
Dealers often pack their pills with other addictive drugs, such as methamphetamine, bath salts, or fentanyl. These additions lower their costs while ensuring customers buy a more addictive drug they’ll need more of.
Tainted drugs come with higher overdose risks, but understanding which pills are pure and which are not is impossible without a laboratory’s help. Because of this, an overdose after taking ecstasy pills is not uncommon.
A traditional ecstasy overdose involves the following symptoms:
Blurry vision
Confusion
Convulsions
Fainting
Inability to speak clearly
Muscle tremors
Nausea
Racing heart
Severe headaches
Vomiting
People experiencing an overdose caused by an added substance can have a variety of symptoms, depending on what’s in the dose they took. This is particularly dangerous because it can make it more difficult to spot an overdose, since you don’t know what to look for.
While anyone can experience a life-threatening reaction to ecstasy, it’s more common in people who share core characteristics.
Overdose is more common in people who do the following:
Take multiple doses in one sitting
Use the drug in party situations, losing track of their doses
Buy the drug from dealers
Use the drug in hot settings like a crowded rave, especially when they’re physically exerting themselves such as by dancing
Have underlying health conditions like high blood pressure, heart problems, or generally poor health
Using the drug in party situations is especially dangerous. When you’re in a hot and crowded room, you may write off overdose symptoms as poor air conditioning and you may add to the problem by being overheated and overexerted. You may not recognize the true cause of your discomfort until your symptoms are severe.
Every time you use Ecstasy, you have a risk of an overdose. If you’re using Ecstasy routinely and have developed an addiction, Boca Recovery Center can help.
Ecstasy works on the body’s serotonin system, which regulates your core temperature. Experts say that most people who overdose on ecstasy have body temperatures of 106.7 degrees or higher, and they often have multi-system organ failure.
People who take tainted Ecstasy have symptoms caused by the additive, which can vary depending on what their dealers added to their drugs. Their problems are harder to predict, and this makes them harder to treat. For example, if there is an opioid in your pill without you realizing and it’s causing an overdose, you may not receive Narcan to reverse the overdose because you don’t realize you’ve taken an opioid.
Staying calm is one of the most important things you can do in an overdose situation. Don’t panic, run, or scream. Instead, find a cool and quiet place to assess your next steps.
Since ecstasy is so powerful and dangerous, any overdose should prompt a call to 911. Tell the operator where you are, what’s happening, and what you’re experiencing right now.
If you’re overdosing, ask someone to stay with you until help arrives. If you’ve found someone who is overdosing, follow the 911 operator’s instructions and stay with them until you’re told it’s safe to leave. Once medical personnel arrive, they will treat the specific symptoms present, but give them as much information as possible to help.
Once medical personnel arrive, they will treat the specific symptoms present, but give them as much information as possible to help. Remember that paramedics do not handle law enforcement, so don’t try to hide illegal activity; be honest with them so they can help you.
The short answer is yes, you can overdose on Ecstasy. Your body may not be able to handle a standard dosage or the pill you take may be far more than a standard dosage, or it could contain other drugs that cause an overdose.
When you overdose on MDMA, what puts your body in danger is the overflooding of serotonin which makes certain core body functions, especially body temperature and heart rate, go out of control. So an Ecstasy overdose will generally feel like your body is overheating to an extreme degree. Some people also describe feeling like their heart was going to explode.
After you take Molly, the high typically lasts for 3 to 6 hours. But the drug stays in your system for much longer. It’s usually still detectable in your body fluids for 3 to 5 days after your last dose, and you can also still feel the effects of “coming down” from Ecstasy for a week after your last dose. All of this can vary for everyone, though, depending on factors like your body’s metabolism, your age, genetics, and how healthy your liver and kidneys are.
If you or someone you know is addicted to MDMA, don’t wait until an overdose before acknowledging that it’s time to get help. Fortunately, addiction treatment centers can help with Ecstasy addiction through techniques like therapy, helping you to understand the reasons your addiction developed and develop the healing and the skills to overcome the addiction.
Depending on the circumstances and the severity of the addiction, your recovery journey could include medical detox and residential rehab or just outpatient rehab with intensive therapy.
Evidence Based
10 sources cited
