I was just wondering if anyone else ever experiences any paranoia while on harmalas. I've only ever used syrian rue and I've only ever noticed this while on 5g doses (a relatively low dose for me) while in the woods at dark.

This paranoia is always mild and transient. There is no anxiety associated with it and I still feel the calming, slightly euphoric effects. But I get a little jumpy and occasionally mistake objects in my peripheral vision for an animal or person, or it looks like something unexpectedly moved and it startles me.

This effect has a very anticholinergic quality to it. It reminds me of diphenhydramine.

As far as I know, harmala alkaloids are actually acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, so they increase acetylcholine in some ways. But the effects of haramalas are pharmacologically complex. Does anyone know if harmalas are anticholinergic in any way? And does anyone else experience this paranoia?

I'm not sure that qualifies as paranoia then. What you're describing sounds like an overactive imagination in a context (the woods at night) that generally stimulates alertness and being on-edge, even in drug-free states.

Having suffered paranoia, both drug induced and organic, one of the biggest parts of it is that it is NOT 'transitory,' it's a persistent thing, and is almost universally unpleasant. I've never heard anyone describe 'euphoric' paranoia. It's almost an oxymoron.

Blessings
~ND

Harmalas are pretty anti-paranoia/anxiety for me (even helps weed anxiety a lot), although that's not always the case if I add tryptamines to the equation. 5g alone in a dark forest is enough to make many people feel on edge. It doesn't sound like full blown paranoia though to me really...peripheral hallucinations like that are common with harmalas, and it can get the jump on you sometimes...heheh

Are you sure you don't mean Telepathy? Or some kind of ESP phenomenon.

I'm not jumpy at all while I'm in the woods at night in a sober state. And honestly, very few drugs that I've tried make me jumpy in the woods at night. I spend a lot of time in the woods, both in the day and night and while sober and not.

Maybe it doesn't quite qualify as paranoia due to its transient nature. But when these little episodes do occur, they temporarily induce a state of anxiety. This anxiety goes away within seconds though, and then the normal effects resume.

So if you really want to be exact, this would be occasional transient episodes of paranoia and anxiety brought on by peripheral hallucinations. Although they would barely qualify as hallucinations in my opinion. The objects aren't really visually distorted in any way. It's just that my mind seems to suddenly interpret the object as something threatening.

Perhaps this has something to do with potentiation of normal norepinephrine/epinephrine release, leading to a stronger fight or flight response.