Is my friend going to fully return to reality? (Psychedelic-induced psychosis)

[captaintom]

To avoid confusion I just want to make it clear that I am using the pronoun "they" to refer to a singular person here as my friend identifies as gender-neutral.)
This friend recently experienced an overly intense trip on two hits of LSD at a music festival, they were looping intensely and not making any sense, repeating the same few phrases over and over again. The trip was somewhat aborted with large amounts of valium and after that they seemed ok if a little fried. As a result of this I was reluctant for them to take acid again, however I believe in letting people make their own decisions.

A few weeks later at a gathering we attended in the forest they took 15mg of 2CI and then a few hours into the trip they decided to take a hit of LSD as well, against my warning. They eventually started to trip even harder and loop more intensely than at the music festival. At the peak of this for around two hours they were unable to speak or comprehend anything that was going on, they looked like a frightened animal and kept repeatedly moving their hands in a strange fashion. After some comfort and reassurance they seemed almost sober and had definitely broken out of the loop. The last I saw of them they seemed happy and if a little spaced out, relatively back to baseline. I got a lift back from the gathering and went home. Two days later I received a message from their brother saying that they had been picked up wandering around the forest clearly in some distress talking nonsense to themselves. I'm mystified as they honestly seemed fine when I last saw them but clearly this was far from true. I can't imagine how horrible it was wandering around a forest in a delirious psychotic state for two days.

They are currently in the hospital and while they are still not making much sense they are apparently calming down significantly. They are currently receiving a psychiatric evaluation. I really really hope they're okay again Has anybody experience similar things? I know it's obviously hugely variable but what sort of time period can you expect for some sort of return to relative normality? Is it likely they will be given antipsychotics of any variety? I'm just very worried for my friend right now as i've never seen such an extreme reaction to such a low dose of LSD and 2ci, a psychedelic I personally consider to be somewhat light and fluffy. Obviously in combination for those with a low tolerance it's a different story. Apologies for the somewhat cluttered nature of this post.

 

[szuko000]

First off I am sorry that your friend is experiencing this and these situations are difficult to deal with. I do have some first hand experience on several different situations with others having breaks. Usually one psychotic break means that they are not able to trip on psychedelics again, at least in my experience.

To start I will share snipits from my story. My cousin and i were to trip with 2 of his friends I took 5 hits he took 3. So it was about 1.5 hours into it before he started visibly being in distress, sweating a bunch asking if he was ok, he was on the verge of breaking but not there. So one of his friends has the idea of going to the beach against my wishes as i said he was "about to rip off his cloths and run naked" So when we get to the beach he shouts "they are trying to kill me" and sprints away. Mind you this is in public and people are witnessing this, we manage to get him home. He shouts random things exclaiming we are trying to kill him. I tell my aunt hes drunk (yeah right) and i manage to physically restrain him while hes being combative for 4 hours. He came out of it and is ok but he took half a hit one night and freaked out thinking his friends were demons. He took half a hit something i wouldnt even feel and he seriously thought his friends were demons. Hes a weird kid but he is fine now and is sober and religious, he was always the weird one in my family and the most crazy.

I have others but thats my most crazy, so i know what you are talking about. It is not your fault this happened you can not force someone to do anything either way. My only question is how did you leave him there if you were there when he was having a hard time? I am not saying hes your responsibility but it makes it sound like you "ran into each other" rather then went together. I just dont get how he could be left there did he drive himself? I also had a friend who wandered into the forest during a festival and we managed to find him in some field almost a mile away, somehow. He was completely off his face and called us saying he was by some farm that was seriously like a mile from where we were. He claimed "i felt i needed to walk and walk like i couldnt stop and when i finally could i called" and he was fine we just lost sight of him during the show.

I dont like being the barer of bad news and his condition can easily change but its like everything you get hurt bad you carry a scar. He may not be 100% again and he wont be able to do psychedelics but he should come out of it ok. He may need medications or therapy but he should be able to function. Psychedelics are one of the most powerful and potentially dangerous substances out there and people need to apply the whole "whats ok for me may be deadly for someone else" when it comes to them. I for instance love LSD never had a problem and it always helped me, my cousin who is a blood relative, went nuts off half a hit so its not even as simple as its the same for family members.

I think he will be ok, you may need to be supportive. A lot of times they come out of it with paranoia or an inability to socialize correctly. Its not your fault but i just dont get how he could go missing for 2 days and wander the woods did he go alone or something?

 

[captaintom]

Its not your fault but i just dont get how he could go missing for 2 days and wander the woods did he go alone or something?

We attended the gathering as a large group, there was maybe around 20-30 people there. I didn't so much "go with" my friend as much as I did attend an event that my friend was also attending if that makes any sense. We caught a train to a railway station and then walked around half an hour to find the spot in the wood. I am honestly mystified as well as there was still reasonable numbers of people who my friend knows around when I was offered a lift back so I presumed they would walk back to the station together. Obviously at some point they must have wandered off.

 

[szuko000]

Its very possible he wandered off, like I said my friend wandered off and it didnt take anything for us to loose sight of him. In crowds you can loose sight of someone in seconds or less so thats why i keep saying its no ones fault. Everyone likes to try to blame someone but theres no blame here. I am terribly sorry this happened and its a good thing hes ok as that state could have easily lead to him getting hurt.

These things happen in life and if you play with psychedelics it is likely that you will eventually see someone have a psychotic break. I have witnessed 3 full blown psychotic breaks in my life and countless other bad trips you cant blame yourself for peoples mistakes. I just want you to know you are not responsible for these things, you were actually the nice one who tried.

 

[CrypticArc]

Your friend will most likely be fine after giving their brain some rest. Meditation and lion's mane mushroom may significantly help along the way.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

Maybe he or she will, or maybe he or she will not.

He or she is getting medical care, and he or she will learn that psychedelic drugs are not for them since they go into a psychotic break from them.

 

[captaintom]

Update: my friend is out of observation, back to normality somewhat. Definitely seems spiritually changed by the experience, lots of talk of opening third eyes and such. Friend is not happy with me, accusing me of abandoning them and is delusional about the fact their psychotic break was quite obviously bought on by psychedelics. Friend seems to believe their psychotic break was due to 10mg of valium I suggested they take during their freakout. They have taken valium before and have not experienced paradoxical reactions so I find this very hard to believe.

 

[Xorkoth]

Hmm, that is somewhat troubling behavior I'd say... a common sign of psychosis is paranoia about the intentions of friends and family. I can understand the feeling of abandonment perhaps, if you "allowed" them to be taken away (though it's not a rational belief either), but being convinced it wasn't the psychedelic but 10mg of valium you gave him... that's nonsensical.

I wish your friend a full recovery but my assessment through the Internet without knowing either of you if that he's not there yet.