My friend dropped acid and he's not coming back......

[Lyvid]

My friend dropped acid 3 days ago around noon with 3 other friends. They first took a single tab and later took another once they thought they were comfortable, and I arrived a couple hours later as their trip sitter to watch the trip play itself out and make sure no one would grt hurt. Everything seemed to be going fine and my friends started to gain their sanity back at around nighttime.... Except one of them. He couldnt get it out of his head that he was connected with the others and he could talk to them through feelings. He seemed deeply introspective and nervous, becoming seemingly agitated that he couldnt seem to connect any longer. I thought everything would be fine after they slept it off. Three days later he still seems to have extremely short term memory, confusion of the identity of individuals(will call his one friend the name of another), inability to converse on a topic because he cannot seem to focus, calling himself his name(instead my referring to himself as my, me, or I). Just earlier today he walked miles to the place of the trip because that was supposedly his happy place... and he thought he was with one of his friends even though he was alone. I am extremely worried that his condition will be permanent.... What is going on??

 

[Mysterie]

it may have triggered an underlying mental instability or predisposition to bipolar/schizoaffective. so he could be in hypomania/mania and it could last 3 days or maybe a week?
especially if he is not sleeping and has a lot of energy, what are his family thinking? if it escalates to psychosis he might end up in a psychiatric institution.. but only if his actions are perceived to be harmful to himself or those around him.

it is very unlikely that he is now permanently schizophrenic, i think he may not have the resources to integrate his experience and come back to our shared reality. perhaps a stressful home environment or just already very sensitive to psychedelics in that way.

my suggestions for him would be to not take acid any more, and not smoke weed with any regularity. may be worth seeking some form of counselling or therapy depending if he has already had mental health problems which have been self-medicated or untreated.

my only thought is to try and get him to take a mood stabiliser like olanzapine to slow down his thoughts and help him to be able to sleep, that could slow down the speedyness going up the mood levels can bring. but i just am at a loss at what is the best course of action based on your OP. i mean his family must have noticed something is off,..

of course i am no physician or psychiatrist so this is just my internet opinion and i also have experienced losing touch with reality after taking acid but i came back slowly after a few days or so but through medical intervention, i was in psychiatric institutions for 2 months, it was a slow reintegration to letting go of my experience of psychosis. but i am probably more mentally stable now than i was before, less so in other ways maybe, impossible to know.

 

[Kaden_Nite]

Prolonged delerium is not common with acid. A hospital would probably freak him out, but medical intervention of some description sounds necessary. Does he have family or flatmates around?.. If so, how have they not noticed his condition?

 

[Lyvid]

His family actually found out through a friend who got caught by his parents but they are surprisingly okay with it. It turns out his father had a couple of trips himself back in the 70's. I'm quite sure they believe his condition will just get better as time goes by, though his father knows the acid should be out of his system by 24hrs and is worried that some sort of permanent neurological damage has taken place. I dropped by suggested therapy offhand but it seemed he wasnt even considering the possibility.

 

[Cdkman]

He may have had an ego death and is having trouble integrating back into his identity..every time I got really messed up and had
an ego death where I have zero concept of "me"..usually after Im fine but once or twice I had trouble getting my psyche back to normal..I would give it time,as long as he is not a danger to himself or others I wouldn't worry

 

[Solipsis]

Damage is never neurological in a case with LSD, it is not neurotoxic... but there are many other psychological problems that have nothing to do with organic damage.

I think referring to yourself in the third person and problems with understanding the boundaries between yourself+your thoughts and the external world and other people are relatively typical for ontological insecurity and ipseitical disturbance, although I certainly wouldn't be too rash to actually diagnose anything armchair-psychologist style...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-disorder

Here you can read a bit about what I mean (didn't want to use to term self disorder because a disorder has to be diagnosed carefully). It certainly reminds of ego-death experience but those are transient.

That your friend's symptoms are more persistent can occasionally be just an episode (like the person calling it temporary LSD delirium), but are quite likely to demonstate a mental lability or latent illness / sensitivity to developing it.
While the symptoms and phenomena I mentioned and linked to are defined in the 'schizophrenia' department as you can see in the wiki, I am not saying that this is what he has. It's probably too early and to superficially (or I should say briefly) discussed/described to say something about it properly, there are many more issues and disorders in varying severities and someone can become psychotic (a symptom and sign of a disorder) but not be schizophrenic, one of possible disorders.

First definitely wait until the LSD has cleared his system, if delusional beliefs really don't diminish it is not a good sign.

He certainly needs to take absolutely no more drugs, and to be supported and monitored and guided to a proper professional if more time passes and he proves to be such disturbance that it becomes truly dysfunctional.

 

[brindlequin]

How is your friend doing?

 

[Lyvid]

He's slowly getting better but he's definitely not the same as he used to be. He's quite anxious and paranoid and at times feels as if people are angry at him as well as wanting to please people and make them calm down even when they arent angry. In the middle of the night last night he hit up the group chat asking where one of our friends was(currently overseas) and said he was going to drive to an airport to meet him. He says he cant connect the dots and is confused, but at least he is able to differentiate between individuals again, right? I sincerely hope he gets treatment.... How the hell does this happen

 

[Crashing]

I had this happen to a friend in college. Dropped acid and was totally gone for days. He loved the trip though, and everybody else came down just fine so it was strange. He eventually went to the hospital where they gave him Ativan which pretty much solved his problems.

 

[way2zen]

This sounds very familiar to me. Perhaps he left a few human limitations behind during the trip and found the awesome connection we all have beneath the surface. It can be pretty exciting and, maybe for him, hard to let go of and 'suffer' reentry the sad and cold limitations of 'normal' humans.

I would almost suggest another trip with half that dosage to reestablish the connection to that ability with a good 'talk-though' by you or someone (also on a light dose) that understands these things. Being able to integrate this could be very cool for him. It's not an easy path, but worth it.

If this is the case he would probably find an increase in empathy (and have to learn how to manage it) and probably the ability to see what other people are thinking. It can be spooky.

So, I would suggest counseling, but only by someone open to higher senses awareness and watch out for messiah complex issues or depression due to returning to the human condition. If he can relax and let it grow comfortably it's a wonderful gift and could lead to some field of therapy, helping others for example. Or a killer wheeler-dealer entrepreneur or poker player, being able to read others so well. Wish you and he luck, I lost a friend to brain-fry once (PCP->mental hospital), at the time 3 of us had been sitting for days communicating only telepathically, then he became God. I know we're all God, but running around yelling about it is a bad thing.

 

[way2zen]

Solipsis, I wouldn't be too quick in using the word 'delusional' which implies that there is some truth or view a person must have.
Individuals can have many perceptions others (especially scientists and shrinks) can't understand.

If this person can integrate this new perception (if it is indeed what I feel it is) into his life in a healthy way it could be an asset.

Learning to 'maintain' (DUDE! TRY TO ACT NORMAL!!) in public when tripping hard is a skill that can help you to not freak out your friends or parents in the aftermath of a life changing experience.

Also, sometimes it's hard, especially when you're young, not to 'yammer at' (share with!) everyone when you've made a great discovery and you're very excited. I still do sometimes, and then miss the 'eyes glazing over' clue and find people suddenly remembering an appointment they're late for.

 

[Mysterie]

i think it is irresponsible to suggest that someone who has taken acid and it triggered latent mental instability (in this case hypomania or mania i guess), that they take acid again, just half the dose.

lsd should not be taken by those who have gone into psychosis on it before.

 

[Solipsis]

I don't think people should conform, although my experience strongly suggests that (heavy) use of psychedelics can impair skeptical thinking, perhaps because then it cannot keep up well with the suggestible nature of 'revelatory' or visionary trips. When I tripped on acid about weekly for a year, while I did fine I became very susceptible to wanting to believe esoteric ideas connecting psychology and quantum mechanics etc. Vague stuff that is not atypical for trippers. 'What the bleep do we know' kind of stuff, things that sound mindblowing but that under careful scrutiny turn out to be bullshit for the half part and unprovable for the rest. Sure it's nice to have your mind blown and some part of it is interesting and helpful in a motivational way... but be careful trying to claim it's true.

People think, helped by trips, that there is perhaps no such thing as being too open-minded. At first, having your mind opened is such a gift, and it really is. But the mistake is thinking that the more of that the better it is. Actually it is not: at some point you have gotten a lot out of being open-minded but if you keep going then you just find it very easy to believe in new ideas that are suggested to you (from within yourself or from outside of yourself). New ideas can be interesting, and out-of-the-box thinking can lead to discoveries... but be aware that it is still important to be able to separate ideas that are just total bullshit from ideas that have merit. No, not every idea has merit.

In this context however, with a person who is so sensitive that just one or two trips can severely mess with their ability to differentiate between certain things, like yourself and others or your own thoughts and actual sound, etc... then this can become dangerous territory really quickly.
Isn't it obvious that it can be highly deregulating and impair being able to function? "New perceptions" as you call it, are fine if they can be integrated and you can separate their usefulness and their relevance.

So maybe wait with talking about 'assets' until this person is able to 'connect the dots' again - it's a bit offensive to talk about this as a bonus when you disregard healthy mental functioning being in question.

Being paranoid, angry etc as was mentioned makes it irrelevant whether there are deeper unseen layers of reality or not. If you're so unstable you cannot really afford to consider that, and suggesting it is reinforces what I call delusions since it's unhealthy in this context.

Nobody is forcing a deterministic worldview on the friend of the OP, we want him to be healthy in the first place... so your post is very misplaced.

 

[Ismene]

Could just be coincidence. There's millions of people who experience such symptoms who've never taken acid in their lives.

 

[Ligaturd]

That would be some coincidence. Lol. I am willing to bet this trip has unlocked some latent mental illness or even sparked a delusional or psychotic episode within this person. I would suggest some sort of medical oversight if it gets in the way of this persons ability to function. It could pass in a week or so or it could progressively get worse if they aren't in therapy learning to ground themselves and differentiate between fact and fantasy.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

A friend of a friend once took shrooms and was totally gone for a couple weeks....didn't even know who his wife was anymore.....but he recovered and went back to normal eventually

 

[Solipsis]

Wow that's intense ^..

Hope the friend from the OP is improving like that.

 

[Ismene]

That would be some coincidence. Lol. I am willing to bet this trip has unlocked some latent mental illness or even sparked a delusional or psychotic episode within this person.

Maybe - not saying it's impossible but I'm just curious what you say about all the thousands of people who wake up one day acting like this who have never taken LSD in their lives. Does there always have to be a neat, cute explanation? Shit happens. If LSD didn't exist people would still be acting exactly like this guy.

 

[Lyvid]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply to my post. Seldom have I been in community where people have been so helpful. There is no need to post in this forum any longer, however, because my friend js gone. Maybe he will come back someday, but for now I hope he is in a better place.

 

[wayab]

@Lyvid before giving up did you try this or a similar option ?

I had this happen to a friend in college. Dropped acid and was totally gone for days. He loved the trip though, and everybody else came down just fine so it was strange. He eventually went to the hospital where they gave him Ativan which pretty much solved his problems.