I recently advised someone on SWIM's experiences weaning himself off binge drinking, and thought this thread may come in handy for others. It's not restricted to psychedelics, although some of the substances that he's found useful are.

SWIM has so far found a few plants useful in stopping binge drinking, which was very disruptive to his life due to 2-day long hangovers, hangover depression and the obvious future health problems. Obviously if you're situation is really bad your best bet may be to stop going to places where alcohol is consumed, however SWIM isn't ready to hang up his boots just yet, hence the focus on alternatives.

DMT
After smoking DMT, SWIM no longer felt a need to 'get wasted' ever again. Now it's just a matter of finding something to mellow him out and stop him getting bored when he's surrounded by drunks.

Cactus
SWIM's healing began thanks to the realisation that a 5g dose of cactus (Peruvian Torch or San Pedro) gave a nice feeling and reduced the 'thirst' for alcohol. [EDIT: these contain mescaline, but are legal in many countries] After this revelation, he was able to feel relaxed and so found himself usually drinking half as much. No more hangovers! However, the cactus needed to be balanced with the booze... trippiness from having more cactus reduced sociability, while enough booze drowned out the cactus and the 'thirst' to get wasted would kick in again. Try 5g... bear in mind it takes a couple of hours to peak.

Kanna
Kanna snuff seems to help a little but it's impractical, so the nasal spray thread here (search Nexus for 'sceletium nasal' looks promising. [EDIT: SWIM had no joy here]

Kratom
Kratom is addictive so be indful you may be swapping a binge habit for an opiate-style addiction if you overdo it. SWIM didn't think much of it because while it works well as a fun party stimulant, it felt 'mindless' and he got forgetful, inane and insecure at higher doses. It also gives hangovers apparently. He certainly felt rubbish the next day, but it was always combined with booze.

Kava
Kava is meant to be good, but hasn't been able to get hold of any yet. There's a question mark over liver toxicity scares, and even though people say it's only when other parts of the plant other than the root are used, that put him off a little because he doesn't particularly trust vendors' suppliers to get it right every time.
[EDIT: SWIM's had a few trys now, it doesn't seem particularly useful to him, but it was fun to try out anyway. Better for de-stressing chilling out.]

Stimulating plants
Forget the caffeine containing ones (guarana, cola nut etc) and forget ephedra if you want to relax. Yerba mate does contain caffeine but apparently it also relaxes so he's going to try that one out too. [EDIT: guayusa (apparently a strong version of yerba?) is nicer than coffee, try it, 5g tea simmered for 15 minutes]
Ephedra can be fun but is not a particularly nice feeling and overdoing the dosage is easy to do, scary and potentially fatal. However, maybe in small quantities it could prove useful in a tailored herb-cocktail.

HBWR [EDIT: Hawaaian Baby Woodrose]
Apparently this is used by people wishing to simulate ecstacy to some degree. After all, alcohol is not the best party drug, so why try to simulate it. SWIM'll be experimenting with HBWR combos soon. He's heard that HBWR and calea tea (dream herb) does it well. 69ron swears by adding peppermint oil to HBWR to make it more energetic.

Some references, with other suggestions that SWIM either hasn't tried or discounted:
A thread discussing 'healthy' alcohol alternatives:
http://www.entheogen.com...m/showthread.php?t=20734
A thread about 'herbal X' (ecstacy alternatives):
http://www.entheogen.com...457&highlight=herbal

Please post if you have any good suggestions.

SWIM found HBWR to be very good for socializing...its one of the best things hes come across that is slightly psychedelic that doesnt make you want to crawl into a hole..

Get people interested in using their brains in a positive way; learning to play an instrument or study philosophy or some other things.
Brains, not interested in any intellectual, spiritual or psychological challenge are no loss, if totally wasted on booze.

sometimes a change in the group of friends or the time to hang out with them can also help, though obviously its not a solution in and on itself because this alone it would just be 'running away' and not dealing with the problem

Booze can help sometimes when jamming. Like if im jamming on the guitar or playing the decks or whatever it can help, though not if your totally wasted obviously.

Khat could be a good alternative, though sometimes you end up in the pub afterwards, but khat can be very sociable. Jorkest has a point about hbws they can be soiable and more stimulating with the peppermint!

any recommendations on binge tripping hahahaha
i am in no way joking when i say i havent came down completely in almost 4 months
eh im comfortable with it if i wasnt i wouldnt continue

It doesn't count as a binge once it's gone on that long... that's a habit!
Haha SWIM wishes he had that much freetime.
Er, the only advice I can think of is just stop for a while. Reality will probably feel pretty trippy after all that anyway.

Swim binge trips sometimes. Longest binge he had was last summer he ate atleast a 10 strip everyday for alittle over 3 months. Almost the whole summer. But then he also hasnt touched anything in the last 4 months but did start up a week ago with some deamster.
It comes and go's. Sometimes you want to keep doing it other times you dont want to do anything. Cant feed your head all the time.

haha i prefer thinking of it as a way of life...
i can stop if i want to have many times... i dont want to
but its all good

Swim also wishes he had the time to get tripping all the time but he doesnt, you guys are lucky! Swim used to binge trip every mushy season as a teenager, now hes lucky if its twice a month.

Swim listened to a podcast a few weeks ago by alex grey and his wife and twice in their life they went sober for a year or two, they said it was great and was such a buzz, the thought of being sober for two years is beyond comprehension for swim, sorbietys not for everyone.

time? time to trip?

its what i do i dont have time for anything barely i work 56 hours a week i come home an i dose an go about my life as normal its just a part of my life... go to the grocery store get some food get distracted reading the labels of the food while they try to squirm away you know the norm

THATS not for everybody though... ill be the first to say im not "normal"

I couldnt handle getting tripping then going to work the next day, I cant sleep for one. I also work sleepovers a lot so its out of the question then, and my g/f has a kid so I cant get tripping when the kids around, occasionally take things when shes in bed but by then its usually too late as id be up all night.

My life is work the girlfriend, socialising with friends and then trying to get time to trip, not all my friends are into psychedelics which is crap!

yea through extensive urhmm... "drug-use" i have the ability to sleep on anything yes i can rail a line of amphetamine and go to sleep if my allocated sleep time has come... and many times when i am at work i am tripping... now i wouldnt advise it but thats how i live my life.. even when i havent dosed i am still "tripping" dosing just intensifys it...

but i hope you find time to do the things you like

i feel ya on the friends bit the few friends i have that take trips think im crazy with it...(rightly so) no one understands...

I do get to do the things I like but not as much as Id like, wish I was like you and could just sleep when I wanted to, thatd be great!

heh it takes practice... but motivation helps like "okay your tripping your ass off and have 5 hours before you have to wake up for work SLEEP NOW!" and i do and i wake up and start another day... and so on

but i dont condone my activities at all... only a psychopathic drug addict would do these things...

Someone pm'd a few questions, here are the answers:
The cactuses I mentioned contain mescaline. They can be legally bought on the internet or from headshops.
HBWR is short for Hawaaian Baby Woodrose. The seeds contain LSA and I hear LSH when fresh. Check the other threads on them for admixtures to convert their LSA to LSH for a more stimulating time (69ron's tips about peppermint oil, and cherry?). I'm told you shouldn't eat the furry outside. And don't take too many because apparently this causes some people to covulse.

what do you do for a job that allows you to work while still tripping?

As I expressed in the other thread, I've always had issues with drinking too much once I get going as well. I'm trying really hard to break that habit. There is some good info in this thread (thanks ohayoco). I noticed that HBWR seeds are listed on ebay. It sounds like you just order the seeds and let them sit in your mouth for a while like "chew". Does anything need to be done to the seeds first?

Also, I have never tried cactus. Is it prepared like a tea? Is there a thread that someone can point me to that already covers this?

i am highly gifted auto mechanic (yes that involves driving)
what i do is not for everyone.. i would not condone my activities.
i work within my means and know not to surpass them, bad things dont happen to me something is watching over me.

in response to socal's question on mescaline

extraction

that is very easy highly effective extraction
cheap and strong

i would be willing to answer any questions i could as im sure 69ron would aswell pm if necessary

mescaline in low dose was one of the most glorious social "drugs" iv ever taken surpassing mdma IMO