What we treat
LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine
These substances do not produce a physical withdrawal syndrome, and any program telling you otherwise is selling a treatment for a condition that does not exist.
What is real: acute distress that settles faster somewhere calm and supervised, a depleted stretch afterwards that people often try to fix with more, and — most importantly — whatever else is being used alongside. That last one is where the medical risk usually lives.
What observation actually offers
Not a protocol. A safer place than home while a substance clears, and a look at the whole picture rather than the one drug you came in naming.
- Someone watching the acute hours. Panic, paranoia and disorientation are frightening and self-limiting; they resolve better with calm supervision than in a bedroom or a car park.
- An assessment that finds the rest. Alcohol, benzodiazepines and stimulants are common companions, and unlike hallucinogens they carry withdrawal that can be dangerous — see alcohol detox and benzodiazepine detox.
- Mental health history taken seriously. A psychosis or bipolar diagnosis materially changes the risk with these substances, and it changes what treatment should look like afterwards.
Where each level of care runs
An observed stay runs at Briarwood, which is licensed for medically supervised detox. Residential treatment and intensive outpatient run at Nova Recovery Center, our parent company, with sober housing through Eudaimonia Recovery Homes. One call routes to whichever fits, and what comes after detox covers the options.
Common questions
Is there withdrawal from LSD or psilocybin?+
Not a physical withdrawal syndrome, no. Stopping does not produce the tremor, seizures or autonomic symptoms that alcohol and benzodiazepines do, and nobody needs a taper to come off a hallucinogen.
Then why would anyone come in?+
Because of what supervision is actually for here. Acute distress after a hallucinogen — panic, paranoia, disorientation — resolves faster and more safely somewhere calm with people watching than it does alone or in a crowd.
What about MDMA specifically?+
MDMA has a distinct pattern: a depleted few days afterwards — flat mood, exhaustion, poor sleep — that regular users learn to expect and often try to fix with more.
When is it an emergency instead?+
Call 911 for a seizure, chest pain, body temperature that is obviously wrong, confusion that keeps deepening, or anyone who cannot be woken.
Can hallucinogen use become an addiction?+
Classic hallucinogens are not physically dependence-forming in the way opioids or alcohol are, and tolerance to LSD builds so fast that daily use is self-limiting.
What does the assessment cover?+
What you have been using and how often, what else is involved, mental health history — particularly any psychosis or bipolar diagnosis, which changes the risk picture with these substances — and what has already been tried.
If this is about tonight, call rather than read
Admissions is answered 24 hours a day in English and Spanish. For a seizure, chest pain, dangerous body temperature or anyone who cannot be woken, call 911 first.
Call (866) 710-7710