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The Big & Dandy Seizures & Blackouts on Psychedelics Thread

Postural hypotension can be a cause, like standing up too fast or stretching can both cause someone to pass out - mushrooms might make a person more sensitive to this happening. If anyone ever feels like they are approaching fainting or passing out, lay down and elevate your feet.
Another thing might be a vaso-vagal response, I think this technically includes the above. But other causes can be extreme emotion, hunger, exhaustion, sneezing really hard, even swallowing, overheating, using the bathroom, and other things. So you see a variety of things can overstimulate a certain nerve that causes the fainting. I think extreme emotion rings a bell the most in the mentioned list, experiencing a spectrum of extreme emotions is IME definitely a typical thing mushrooms can do - most of all psychedelics actually.

Seizure-like activity is a somewhat different thing though, the underlying mechanism is less clear though but brain zaps are also seen with mushrooms and the best explanation I think we have is specific chemical imbalances. Something might be self-catalyzing because the most memorable time I was right on the brink of 'whiting out' it felt like I was riding up the looping of a rollercoaster but I just kept going up and up like a snowball effect.
But it might be a directly related thing to the vasovagal reaction i.e. nervous overactivity is the common denominator.

Whatever is going on there I always heard there is no reason to assume this is dangerous or can potentially cause lasting or health threatening situations or damage.
 
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Funny enough, some of the things you mention as "big fish" stories really aren't that far from the truth. The seizures for example: twice I have been with a person (two different people) who took roughly 3.8-4.0g of mushrooms and about halfway through the trip began talking about dizziness and everything turning white. In both instances this was followed by a seizure. In the first case my friend was sitting on a couch, his body went completely rigid, his legs straightening enough to kick the coffee table and knock some things over. His eyelids peeled back and his eyes rolled upward as a choking sound was coming out of his mouth. This episode lasted for about ten to fifteen seconds, after which he was extremely tired and could not walk without assistance for about ten minutes. The second episode was a young woman who had taken a similar dose of mushrooms from the same batch. While walking through the park together she told me she needed to sit down. As a turned toward her she fell. I tried to catch her but it was sudden enough that i could barely get hold of her coat to slow the fall. Her body was completely rigid with some relatively intense jerking motions. A choking sound came from her mouth which was severe enough i dug my finger into her mouth the pull the tip of her tongue out of the back of her mouth. Her eyes were rolled back until I could not see any of the iris. This episode lasted somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty to thirty seconds. After this she was unable to stand at all for several minutes, and I was forced to call a friend to help me get her to the car. Neither of these two has had any seizure or related episode since. Neither of these two has any sort of seizure disorder or panic disorder. Oddly enough, I had taken a similar dose from what i assumed to be the same batch in both instances, yet I experienced no physical reaction.
 
how come some people get seizures on shrooms

my friend got a seizure once on shrooms. is there any way to avoid it happening? i take shrooms sometimes but now i am worried that i might get it because my friend got it. is there any research done on it?
 
Hey,

I've had many experiences with shrooms with different friends, noone have had any seizure, from what I know.. so it must be pretty rare, I think?

Peace.
 
I have. I believe that mine was caused by a lack of food. I wouldn't call it a siezure I just passed out from low glucose and started shaking violently for a minute. I don't call that a seizure more like a "passing out thing" this is probably what your talking about.
 
I think it lowers the seuizure threshold.
I've read many articles on it but I can't remember any right now, coming down from stimulants, someone should be able to info you up with an article at least.

I recommend eating some sugary food to put your blood sugar back up, I theorize that low blood sugar can turn trips sour.
 
Yeah the only people I've seen collapse on mushrooms did not eat all day. I've seen 2 people do it and I did it. Like I said I don't consider it a siezure in the threatening medical definition but rather collapsing because of low glucose/blood pressure. When you collapse your muscles spasm, I doubt a brain scan would show the chaotic electrical signals caused by a true seizure, but what do I know chemistry is my thing not medicine
 
I passed out cold, mid sentence while standing on my own two feet, just BAM out, fell into the wall and was out for at least a few minutes. Woke up into a complete ego death. One of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Read the trip report here: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/...perienced-Passed-out-mid-sentence-unconscious.

Why this happened? Not a clue. Wish I did though....because I thoroughly enjoy shrooms but am always anxious about them now.
 
Adding one more data point to this thread. I've never seen anyone have a (medically confirmed) seizure on any psychedelic, but my friend did pass out (fall asleep standing up) in line at Starbucks on the tail end of a mushroom+weed trip. Probably low blood sugar like others have said. She said everything in her vision turned yellow and she had an urge to go to sleep all warm and cozy, which fits the definition of passing out but definitely not a seizure of any kind.

EDIT: Seattle Stranger, I just read your trip report and I'm inclined to say you may have had a "chakra event" or perhaps simply a precipitous drop in blood pressure due to suddenly standing up and walking around after sitting/laying for a while. I know personally that when on psychedelics if I am really getting into the experience I feel like I can sense every connected neurotransmitter system in my body, including the autonomic responses like heart rate and spinal fluid flow. Deep mushroom tripping is really about trying to "stop time" by way of breath control and keeping focused on the darkness inside, and I'm quite convinced that if you try to stand up in the middle of an intense wave of psychedelia you will certainly disrupt a whole bunch of processes that were on their way to the dream state. You can't run up ten flights of stairs right after you wake up, can you? It's the same idea. Diving into the subconscious is simply counterindicated with any kind of physical movement IMO.
 
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I think this is a really good thread, and totally on topic re harm reduction.

one of the things i have always believed and tried to do is to take psychedelics on an empty stomach, I don't fast for days or anything but i do try and go for at least 6 to 8 hours without food especially before mushrooms, for a couple of reasons, 1 is that on shrooms I always figure if you have nothing in your stomach and are less likely to throw up badly, and that as you wont have a whole lot of gastric juices busily working to digest the contents of your stomach then the shrooms will enter a chemically less toxic and destructive environment in the gut, and the second reason is that from my experiences having no food in your system makes the effects of most things more pronounced, a always get a stronger whack through the system from LSD for example if I have not eaten.

But the idea that you could expend so much energy while on the drug could lead you to have a physical collapse just because your system needs some energy to keep going is a valid point.

So perhaps even if I don't feel like eating when I am on a big trip (On LSD I cant take food seriously at all) then at least having some glucose energy drink like gator aid or some fresh fruit juice to just top up my sugar and electrolyte levels would be a good thing to start doing and it will lessen the danger of collapsing through lack of fuel and energy in the system.
 
I've never known anyone have a seizure on shrooms. It's so rare that you can ignore it. I imagine most of the problems come from excitable teenagers taking drugs with their friends and becoming so excited and silly that they faint.
 
i think some people could mistake the symptoms of a seizure while there tripping out really hard, in my most intense states iv been in my eyes will be rolling around and at points borderline convulsing, shaking, taste buds going crazy, involuntary reppetitive movements etc. ill get scared at times but i reasure my self its all in my head.
 
one of the things i have always believed and tried to do is to take psychedelics on an empty stomach, I don't fast for days or anything but i do try and go for at least 6 to 8 hours without food especially before mushrooms, for a couple of reasons, 1 is that on shrooms I always figure if you have nothing in your stomach and are less likely to throw up badly, and that as you wont have a whole lot of gastric juices busily working to digest the contents of your stomach then the shrooms will enter a chemically less toxic and destructive environment in the gut, and the second reason is that from my experiences having no food in your system makes the effects of most things more pronounced, a always get a stronger whack through the system from LSD for example if I have not eaten.
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to add, one more reason is so the shrooms all hit at the same time.
If you have a bunch of food stirring around in there and shrooms too I find you don't get the same all at once punch.
I figured this out two nights ago after grubbing two burritos and that last .8g of strong shrooms I had. I peaked about 4 hours into the trip oddly enough.
Now I need another batch =\
Hope I can find some.

Re: OP,
My body starts to shake quite a bit from the fungus flowing in my veins on a good trip.
I have yet to see anyone actually pass out or seize from shrooms but I seen people, including myself.. curl up into the fetal position and beg for forgiveness and life and love on mushrooms. hahahaha

I've seen a lot of people take shrooms too and never really seen anyone pass out from it yet. Seen lots of ego death scenarios.

On LSD I cant take food seriously at all
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I vaguely remember staring at some particles of waffles left over in the syrup dancing around for hours and forming waffle particle communities. lol
 
Interesting topic. Always wondered this too. So why would shrooms mess w/ blood sugar severely enough to cause convulsions/fainting? Any ideas how this happens?
 
greenmeanies said:
Adding one more data point to this thread. I've never seen anyone have a (medically confirmed) seizure on any psychedelic, but my friend did pass out (fall asleep standing up) in line at Starbucks on the tail end of a mushroom+weed trip. Probably low blood sugar like others have said. She said everything in her vision turned yellow and she had an urge to go to sleep all warm and cozy, which fits the definition of passing out but definitely not a seizure of any kind.

EDIT: Seattle Stranger, I just read your trip report and I'm inclined to say you may have had a "chakra event" or perhaps simply a precipitous drop in blood pressure due to suddenly standing up and walking around after sitting/laying for a while. I know personally that when on psychedelics if I am really getting into the experience I feel like I can sense every connected neurotransmitter system in my body, including the autonomic responses like heart rate and spinal fluid flow. Deep mushroom tripping is really about trying to "stop time" by way of breath control and keeping focused on the darkness inside, and I'm quite convinced that if you try to stand up in the middle of an intense wave of psychedelia you will certainly disrupt a whole bunch of processes that were on their way to the dream state. You can't run up ten flights of stairs right after you wake up, can you? It's the same idea. Diving into the subconscious is simply counterindicated with any kind of physical movement IMO.
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Funny you should say this, because I eventually chalked it up to something similar. I was laying down for what felt like at least an hour, however time dilation was extremely severe so it's hard to tell exactly how long I was laying down. Regardless, the pass out happened about a minute after I got up from the couch, and I figured it was some kind of head rush sending copious amounts of psilocybin rushing into my brain.

I also wonder if it had anything to do with an interaction. I was on a daily medication called Lamictal for depression, which is ironically also an anti-seizure med. Lamotrigine never seemed to help my depression, so I eventually tapered myself off. One thing I noticed is that this -> http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/...ppens-to-me-when-I-trip-on-cubensis-mushrooms. stopped happening after I stopped taking Lamictal. I should also note that right before I passed out, this was happening like mad. It's scary! Similar to the sound when a REALLY big bee whizzes by super close to your ear and you just hear a big loud quick WHZZZ. That, and I'd feel like I'm about to pass out for a split second, and then I snap out of it.

I would love to know more about this.
 
I've had a similar experience on boomers as well.................ate a large dose.............didn't eat enough of a meal before hand..............blood sugar dropped............i blacked out for a few. Woke up, threw up, and then had one of the worst anxiety attacks of my life. The reason I say it was blood sugar in my case is because I've had this unfortunate situation happen when NOT on any drugs..........I just worked all day, didn't have time to eat a good meal all day, was worn out, came home and hit a bong a couple of times.......which lowers your blood sugar........stood up to go get some food in the kitchen..........got all fuzzy for a second, only this time I LAYED DOWN FLAT ON MY BACK before it fully hit me.............and I didn't pass out, I just had to lay there for a second to regain stability and let my brain adjust.
Best recommendation..............ALWAYS EAT A GOOD, HEALTHY, PROTEIN RICH MEAL BEFORE DOING ANY KIND OF HEAVY DRUGS. You never know when your body will feel like eating again........and trying to eat while tripping can just plain suck and be annoying as fuck...........not to mention it will cut down the duration of the drug as well. Take care of your health BEFORE taking the drugs. ALWAYS.
 
People get brain-zaps which seem to sometimes be related to heightened seizure activity/susceptibility.
 
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