A LIMERICK graduate has described a life nearly destroyed by acid after she was rendered catatonic by the hallucinogenic drug.
The Ennis native, who goes under the pseudonym Jane Heartfield, developed acute psychosis triggered by taking LSD as student in Limerick.
The 35-year-old, who has written a book Psychosis and the Art of Hanging Cats, said she was left tormented and insane. “I took it four or five times between the ages of 18 and 20. I was tripping for 11 months and I couldn’t come down. I once looked into the mirror and could see no reflection, my shadow peeled off the wall and punched me, I heard voices. It was petrifying.”
The art graduate said she she fell into a drug-induced psychosis.
“I started failing college and isolating myself from friends and family. I drank for a long time trying to deal with it. In 2001, I went into rehab for alcoholism and I have been sober for 11 years now.
Jane wrote the book from diaries she kept over the years. “I originally took acid because I heard it would make me creative but in fact it deadens the senses. I don’t want to preach. I just want to relay my experiences,”
Psychosis and the Art of Hanging Cats by Jane Heartfield is available to order in a Kindle edition or paperback from amazon.com
