8 Common Ecstasy Withdrawal Symptoms

Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, is a hallucinogen that’s been around for many years. Since 2015, hallucinogen usage in the United States has increased, with approximately 5.5 million people using them in the past year.

Though ecstasy is a popular “party drug,” many people aren’t fully aware of how to get help with the withdrawal symptoms it can cause. If you’re trying to stop using ecstasy, learning more about ecstasy withdrawal symptoms and how to manage them will make the process much less scary.

Keep reading this guide to learn about eight common ecstasy withdrawal symptoms and how to find treatment.

1. Depression and Anxiety

Feeling depressed and anxious are common symptoms of ecstasy withdrawal and can become severe.

Ecstasy is a synthetic drug that alters your mood and perceptions. It’s similar in chemical structure to stimulants and other hallucinogens.

When you use ecstasy, it affects your brain in different ways. First, it increases the activity of dopamine in your brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that your body makes. It acts as a chemical messenger and a reward center, playing a role in motivation, mood, and memory.

Ecstasy also impacts serotonin levels, which are neurotransmitters that send signals throughout your nervous system. They also play a role in mood regulation.

When you take ecstasy, it increases your dopamine levels. As a result, you’ll experience feelings of euphoria and pleasure.

Since ecstasy increases your dopamine and serotonin levels, when you stop taking it suddenly, these levels drastically decrease, causing you to crash. This leaves you feeling unhappy, tired, and unmotivated.

Many people with addiction already have mental health issues like anxiety and depression. These issues can become worse when you’re going through ecstasy withdrawals.

Finding a dual-diagnosis treatment center in the Bay Area will allow you to get the mental health treatment you need. A significant part of addiction treatment involves behavioral therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

A treatment center that has experience with this is your best option.

2. Feelings of Dysphoria

Dysohoric mood or dysphoria is a mental state that causes you to feel a profound dissatisfaction or unease with life. People with dysphoria have symptoms like:

• Apathy
• Fatigue
• Sadness
• Worry
• Low life satisfaction
• Little interest in activities

While it’s not an official mental health diagnosis, it can occur in people with substance use disorders. People often feel dysphoria along with feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress.

You can experience dysphoria while withdrawing from ecstasy. It can ease up after the initial withdrawal symptoms improve but can return weeks or months into recovery.

Once your appetite and sleeping patterns improve, the dysphoria will slowly subside.

People also experience dysphoria after stopping alcohol or tobacco use. If you’re also quitting smoking and drinking at the same time, you can have an increase in feelings of dysphoria.

Ensuring you have the support you need during the withdrawal period will make navigating this easier.

3. Cravings

Along with feeling anxious and depressed, you can also start to experience cravings. This is mainly due to the feelings of euphoria taking MDMA causes. Once you become dependent on this euphoric feeling, you’ll keep taking more MDMA to replicate the initial high.

This causes cravings since you’re constantly chasing this feeling. Eventually, taking ecstasy is the only way to feel normal. Not taking it will cause you to crash and feel intense mood symptoms.

You can start feeling withdrawal symptoms within 3 to 6 hours after your last dose. MDMA can remain in your system for up to two days, even after you stop feeling its effects.

The severity of cravings you experience depends on how much MDMA you use overall.

Feeling cravings lead to a vicious cycle of attempting to stop using and then using again. This is why finding a detox program is crucial to your long-term recovery.

Detox programs offer medication-assisted detox, which involves medications that help manage the symptoms. You’ll also get 24/7 monitoring by medical staff while your withdrawal symptoms are the most intense.

As you detox, you’ll start learning coping strategies and enter a drug addiction recovery program to continue treatment.

4. Crash or a Comedown

You can also experience a “crash” or “comedown’ once you stop taking ecstasy. This phase can happen at the same time you start experiencing withdrawal symptoms. The timing of the crash can make it challenging to tell the difference between crashing and actual withdrawal symptoms.

The comedown after taking ecstasy is much like a hangover and can include symptoms like:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Lethargy
• Feeling dissatisfied with life
• Severe sleepiness
• A sudden increase in appetite

The best way to tell the difference is you’ll have withdrawal after abruptly stopping MDMA. On the other hand, you can have a comedown or crash after using ecstasy a single time.

Unlike a crash, withdrawal symptoms will continue anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks, depending on your use history.

5. Difficulty Sleeping

Withdrawing from ecstasy can cause severe sleep disturbances. This is due to the drop in dopamine, but also MDMA acts as a stimulant. Stimulants cause you to feel more awake and energetic, but they also cause changes to the neurotransmitters in your brain.

Once you start withdrawing, you’ll struggle with the stimulant effects and withdrawal symptoms.

This can make it extremely difficult to get proper sleep and rest. Not getting adequate sleep causes symptoms in itself like:

• Mood changes
• Reduced concentration
• Daytime sleepiness
• Irritability
• Slower reaction times

It can quickly become overwhelming to manage both sleep deprivation and withdrawal symptoms on your own.

This is another reason that finding a detox and addiction treatment program can help get you through this phase. You’ll be able to get medical and psychological support to help you get back on track with your sleep patterns.

6. Loss of Appetite

Although you can have an increased appetite while coming down from MDMA, you can also lose your appetite during withdrawal. This is because serotonin plays a role in regulating body functions such as your appetite. Abruptly stopping MDMA can cause your serotonin levels to decrease.

Getting adequate nutrition is already an issue for people with drug addiction. When you have a substance use disorder (SUD), your main focus is getting drugs, no matter the consequences.

The focus is so extreme that people with addiction typically don’t eat enough. When you do eat, it’s usually food that holds little nutritional value. Additionally, since MDMA has stimulant effects, it can cause you not to drink enough water or eat enough overall.

The problem with appetite loss during withdrawal is that it worsens your other symptoms. When you don’t get enough nutrition, you can feel anxious, depressed, and low on energy. These feelings worsen your other withdrawal symptoms and trap you in a stressful addictive cycle.

For this reason, addiction programs focus on nutrition and fitness as a part of your recovery program. You’ll learn more about nutrition and work on fueling your body with the vitamins and nutrients it needs.

Starting an exercise program is also vital to managing withdrawal symptoms and long-term recovery.

Exercise releases healthy endorphins, and eating healthy gives you the necessary fuel. You’ll also improve your overall health in the long run.

7. Difficulty Concentrating

Ecstasy withdrawals can profoundly impact your ability to concentrate on even the most basic tasks. Remember, MDMA affects your dopamine and serotonin levels.

This can seriously affect your ability to concentrate, and you can even feel like you’re in a brain fog. It also makes it more difficult for you to make decisions and find enjoyment in the things you’re doing.

Also, since ecstasy withdrawal can cause a depressed and anxious mood, you’ll feel more irritable and tired.

Overall, difficulty concentrating is due to many factors, and some people can experience problems with this for the first month after stopping MDMA use. Additionally, if you have long-term depression or other mental health problems, it can take longer for this to resolve.

An addiction treatment program will recommend behavioral therapies and mindfulness techniques to help you work through these symptoms.

8. Changes in Self-Perception

Finally, it’s common to have changes in how you perceive yourself during withdrawal. Remember, you’re already experiencing different symptoms like depression, anxiety, and dysphoric mood.

These symptoms can be life-changing since they force you to look at things differently. As you move through these symptoms and focus on long-term recovery, how you look at your life also changes.

Your focus will no longer revolve around getting and taking drugs. This causes you to view aspects of your life differently, like relationships and careers. You may also see yourself differently; accepting these changes takes time.

It may also affect your self-esteem and can cause some people to feel their situation is hopeless.

Getting the proper support is necessary to help you look at yourself and your life non-judgmentally. You’ll then start seeing yourself more clearly while making healthy lifestyle changes.

Get Help Managing Ecstasy Withdrawal Symptoms

Now that you know more about ecstasy withdrawal symptoms, you’ll feel less nervous about the withdrawal process.

Remember, don’t try to go through the withdrawal process alone. You can turn to Reflections in the Northern California area for the help you need. We’re a luxury treatment center that can help you along the path to recovery.

We provide detox, residential treatment, and intensive outpatient treatment programs. We also have a dual-diagnosis treatment program to address mental health issues along with your addiction treatment.

We can even help people in unique situations by offering treatment tracks for celebrities, LGBTQ+, and business executive clients.

We work with most PPO insurance plans to help you find the best price for treatment. Make sure to contact us today to learn what treatment options are best for you.