I guess I have to clarify what I meant. When I take a psychedelic (other than cannabis), even after years of doing so, I still get weak knees, a funny feeling in my stomach and thoughts like "is this really a good idea?" right before ingesting the substance. I think this is totally normal when dealing with substances that have the potential to make you question everything you have percieved as "reality" for your whole life. And, especially thinking of somebody who takes a psychedelic for the first time, I think one should feel like that. If I was talking to somebody who was planning on taking a psychedelic for the first time and they were indicating they have no doubts at all and are 100% sure that they really want to make this experience, I would find that very worrisome and would probably assume that they haven't researched these substances enough to understand all the implications such an experience entails. I would much rather hear something like "I know this could turn into a bad/difficult/terrifying experience, BUT I am willing to take that risk."
Cliffy78, I'm not sure if we were talking about the same thing. We have to differentiate between the exact moment in which somebody is about to ingest a psychedelic on the one hand, and on the other hand the long amount of time (months or even years) between the first thought of "I might want to try a psychedelic one day." and the day when it actually is about to happen. But in both cases I stand by my point that it is totally normal, expected (and I would add even necessary) to have *some* amount of doubt. Having doubts doesn't automatically mean you shouldn't do it, but you have to seriously ask yourself if you think that it is worth the risk. Obviously to you it's not, and to me (up until this point) it is. AnanasBannana will have to make his/her own decision.
AnanasBannana, I'm fully aware of the phenomenon you describe. I have a few friends who have experienced panic attacks after smoking cannabis, worrying about one's heart rate seems to be pretty common. Some of these friends have managed to enjoy cannabis again after that, overcoming the initial fear they had every time they smoked after that particular incident, others have just stopped smoking cannabis. As I wrote above, just like cannabis other psychedelics have the potential to induce panic attacks. Nobody can really tell you whether what caused your panic attack was something that cannabis has in common with other psychedelics or if it was something that is unique to cannabis, that other psychedelics don't have at all. Since I never had that much of a problem with cannabis-induced panic attacks I can't really say how much of a role that "fogginess" plays that is pretty unique to cannabis. In the end you really have to decide for yourself if you think that it is worth the risk. If you decide to try LSD for example, I would definitely start with a low dose.
Edit:
In terms of coming back from anxiety, weed probably makes me too stupid to help myself (at high doses).
Would you consider yourself to be stupid on LSD, does it fog your mind basically?
That "fogginess" is pretty unique to cannabis, but I think high doses can be quite similar to the classic psychedelics in some ways. In my experience for example not realizing the impact of the setting at the time, e.g. feeling shitty for half an hour and only then realizing that it is just the music pissing you off. I don't experience much anxiety on either but I would guess letting go of it isn't necessesarily easier on classic psychedelics than on cannabis.
