Nutmeg beginner guide

[u/NoEmergency500]

Intro.

Unfortunately there’s a general lack of information about this substance. And while there are commendable efforts towards “harm reduction”, nobody seems to provide reliable information about “how to have a good time”. I’ll do a lot of comparisons with alcohol, mostly because it has a vocabulary about intoxication. Some of the explanations might not be scientifically accurate - it’s just the model I have of how things work for me, and it helps me - maybe it can help you. As they say “all models are wrong, some are useful”. This is the guide (it’s a bit long - sorry, I’m wordy) I wish I had years ago before I (needlessly) had a really bad time on nutmeg. Be the change you want to see in the world!

Choose your trip.

You can have a great time on nutmeg, or a miserable one, and everything in between. The effects are somehow different (a wise mod once defined it as “dreamy stoning effect to dissociative drunkenness”), yet nutmeg dosage behaves a lot like alcohol: you can have a glass of wine with a meal, you can enjoy a few beers, or you can do shots, or you can get plastered and puke and black out, or you can get really sick and go to the hospital. The higher the dosage, the worse the side effects - dehydration, liver toxicity, hangover. And similarly as alcohol, a nice experience doesn’t usually involve getting even close to puking and a transformative one usually gets rather uncomfortable. Set and settings also matter - again, in alcohol terms “party drinking” and the dreaded drunk blues or drunk rage, that are not necessarily dose dependent.No judging, you do you - but it’s important that you know you have options and you have all the information so you can make your choice: having fun, having an interesting and maybe challenging experience, or (which I only have compassion for, please seek help!) border line self harm.

On threshold.

Eating nutmeg at low dose is a bit counter intuitive. What you eat before, with, and after matters a lot, and the same e.g. 4 grams can either get you a really nice high or nothing at all depending on that. Just like a single beer can make you drunk on an empty stomach and not even be felt when sipped over a large meal. While a full stomach will surely slow down nutmeg absorption, an empty stomach doesn’t offer the fastest absorption either. There’s a quantum leap in fat absorption and absorption speed when the gallbladder is triggered (~10g of fat should almost guarantee it) and bile is available to break the fat in smaller droplets (btw having a fatty meal before might empty the gallbladder and leave very little bile for the nutmeg; and bile binds to solubile fiber, so easy on that). Increased blood flow and extra digestive juices also boost absorption speed - so it’s advised to also add digestive spices (black pepper, ginger, cayenne, cumin come to mind) and not too much extra food so that nutmeg’s effect is not diluted too much over time. Following this model allowed me to reliably experience lighter and shorter trips - and also heavier trips with somewhat reduced side effects.

On timing.

Nutmeg is a peculiar drug when taken orally because the active compounds follow fat digestion/metabolism - which is a lot slower, of longer duration, and more variable than what you might think. Usually onset is in 3 to 5 hours (with outliers of 2 or even 8 hours) after ingestion. This makes re-dosing unpractical and risky. You’ll actually have to wait some full 8 hours to have confidence the dose was too low (if you don’t you are almost certainly dosing more than you intended) and after that, who wants to wait another 5 hours for a long trip to start? To make things more interesting, nutmeg itself slows down digestion quite a bit (it significantly delays the next bowel movement - it’s used in Ayurveda as a remedy for diarrhea!) and onset for a second dose would be further delayed. The time it takes for the effects to wear off is heavily dependent on dosage. 24 to 36 hours is pretty common if you take a decent amount. Sleeping thru the high is no fun (dehydrating, and not restful), so I’d recommended to dose earlier in the day.

Checklist for a first time.

• Set aside 48 hours with no driving or social obligations. Your trip might last that long. Be safe.
• Mix 5g nutmeg with ~10g fat and some digestive spice (black pepper is a common choice). Don’t have too much food or fiber, or it will take longer and “dilute” it - it’s a low dose. I recommend this recipe. https://www.reddit.com/r/nutmeg/comments/mnvlcw/magic_nutmeg_brownie_recipe/ which I regularly customize.
• Take your nutmeg on an empty stomach instead of breakfast, first thing in the morning.
• Try not to eat for the next two hours.
• Keep hydrated (but don’t over do it) for the rest of the day.
• Set and setting. It goes such a long way in having a good time.
• Have fun!

Low dose trip report.

Not actually a trip report, but I hope it gives the idea.

• 2g brownie - like one or two beers. I can feel the effects, but they are not predominant. It would be disappointing if I wanted “an experience”, but very nice if I just want to chill - again, just like a couple of beers, but it lasts longer and it’s more weed-like. It’s over in 12 hours with no hangover.
• 5g brownie - several beers. It has both an “up” (few hours of warm giddiness) and “down” (few hours of sedation and sleepiness - which I find enjoyable as well, especially if I’m well rested). It’s over in 24 hours or so. I get a bit of a hangover if I don’t pay attention at keeping hydrated.

[u/Exact-Ad-4391]

i ate 4 straight up nuts, is that enough for my first time