Of course, anyone who gets wrecked on MDMA most weekends will be well aware of the rollercoaster that comes the following day; you’re under the duvet, smashing back the 5-htp and feeling totally despondent for the near future. But that’s part and parcel, right? It’s just a minor repercussion that doesn’t measure up to the high. You hold tight and ride it out, job done.

Well, it turns out that while MDMA and ecstasy mean being sky-high for a Friday night, it’s actually doing the opposite to users in the long term. A study conducted by the Swinburne University of Technology used hair samples to measure the amount of cortisol — a stress hormone — in the hair of sixty-one participants. The groups tested were either heavy users, light users or a control group who never took MDMA, and their stress hormones were recorded over the course of three months.

As is usually the case with stuff like this, the more MDMA or ecstasy, the higher the stress levels. The cortisol levels of the light users were 50% higher than the control group, while heavy users were experiencing four times as much stress. 

Sorry, science has spoken. Maybe reconsider about your plan of attack for the next few weekends. Or, I don’t know, start a #clubclean trend. I can totally see that catching on on IG.