Using ketamine to relieve a bad trip

[Zeeman]

Through combining K with other psychedelics halfway through the trip, I've discovered that a small dose of K usually clears up all dynamic visuals immediately and just turns the world warped but static.

I've had some emotionally difficult trips before, but nothing like the nightmares I've read about where some people hallucinate bugs crawling all over them or whatever, which still terrifies me despite me being a fairly experienced tripper now because I have a bad phobia of insects.

I'm wondering if anyone else has discovered that if a difficult trip is due to disturbing visuals, that taking some K can quickly clear that up?

I find substituted amphetamines to cause much more clear-headed trips than other classes of psychedelics such as LSD, often inducing crazy visuals with very little impact on cognition, so I'd imagine this would be particularly useful with those substances .

 

[AA357]

Difficult trips happen because psychedelics alter your consciousness, amplify your emotions and increase anxiety. It's a psychological thing and it's got nothing to do with the damn visual effects... why on earth would that scare you? You sure you not been on the Datura?

 

[Tranced]

Difficult trips happen because psychedelics alter your consciousness, amplify your emotions and increase anxiety. It's a psychological thing and it's got nothing to do with the damn visual effects... why on earth would that scare you? You sure you not been on the Datura?

I'm sure they know what causes difficult trips for them.

Visuals can be overwhelming and symbolic... leading to amplified emotions and increased anxiety.

I can remember having some ketamine when I was having a difficult time on acid actually, and it cleared things up. I can distinctly remember the overwhelming visuals becoming more manageable. Maybe something to it.

Too much though and it's going to have the opposite effect.

 

[GreenMachine]

i am pretty experienced with both L and ketamine, but bumping K for me on a heavy trip usually winds up like the ending of the film "interstellar", and most of the time not in a good way. if i do any K, its usually on the tail-end, unless im begging to lose my cookies.

 

[Tranced]

i am pretty experienced with both L and ketamine, but bumping K for me on a heavy trip usually winds up like the ending of the film "interstellar", and most of the time not in a good way. if i do any K, its usually on the tail-end, unless im begging to lose my cookies.

Yeah, thinking about it properly, whilst this did help me once it might have been more to do with sending my mate away for a line in order to prevent him from speaking to me for ten minutes. He's well annoying on drugs.

I've done ketamine pretty much every time I've taken psychedelics, and always at the tale end of the trip. It's sent me to hell and back on a few occasions. Always makes for a messy few extra hours.

I can remember once my (other) friend had some kind of nose defect which meant that he only had a short window of opportunity to sniff a line, so the three of us all did gram lines when he had the chance.

My mate Tom didn't return from the toilet for a while so I offered to go and find him. I found Tom kind of hunched to one side and walking round anti-clockwise in repeated circles. He was kind of lumbering round in some kind of ritual and the ketamine hit me and I realised that this was our reality now and I had to join in. So I did and it was basically hell.

We spent a long time in the toilet lumbering round in circles before we somehow ended up in the corridor. At this point I was visited by a futuristic space elf who was trying to communicate with us.

A few weeks later my mate Dan admitted that it was him cleaning up his sick off the floor.

 

[transitionsynth]

I've found small doses of ketamine to reduce the body load of a long-acting serotonergic psychedelic. It's plausible that this might help decrease anxiety, as I think there is a strong correlation between the broadcasting of negative bodily valences and psychological anxiety in general, and of course this is amplified through a variety of mechanisms in the psychedelic state of being.

EDIT: I should emphasize, when I say small I mean seriously threshold or sub-threshold doses. Anything higher than that stands to ramp up the experience, which is fine in its own way of course .

EDIT2: I should also emphasize, this can relieve mild or moderate trip anxiety that is correlated with negative bodily valences, since ketamine has the dissociative effect. Under no circumstances should anyone in the midst of a panic attack or seriously delirious negative mind-state self-administer any additional hallucinogens.

 

[AA357]

I'm sure they know what causes difficult trips for them.

Visuals can be overwhelming and symbolic... leading to amplified emotions and increased anxiety.

I can remember having some ketamine when I was having a difficult time on acid actually, and it cleared things up. I can distinctly remember the overwhelming visuals becoming more manageable. Maybe something to it.

Too much though and it's going to have the opposite effect.

I don't mean to sound like an ass but if you're not prepared to see some crazy shit then WTF are you doing taking psychedelics?
I've had a few rough trips myself but these were all caused by the powerful psychological effects (mindfuck) of the drugs. Deliriants are a different story but with classic psychedelics there is nothing inherently scary about the visual effects themselves.
I am no stranger to high dose LSD, DPT, shrooms or 2C-E. I did some ridiculous combos last year and I've been in states where I couldn't tell whether my eyes were open or closed. If visuals alone are enough to give you a bad trip then you're probably better off staying away from these drugs.

 

[Tranced]

I don't mean to sound like an ass but if you're not prepared to see some crazy shit then WTF are you doing taking psychedelics?
I've had a few rough trips myself but these were all caused by the powerful psychological effects (mindfuck) of the drugs. Deliriants are a different story but with classic psychedelics there is nothing inherently scary about the visual effects themselves.
I am no stranger to high dose LSD, DPT, shrooms or 2C-E. I did some ridiculous combos last year and I've been in states where I couldn't tell whether my eyes were open or closed. If visuals alone are enough to give you a bad trip then you're probably better off staying away from these drugs.

Well, I've certainly been overwhelmed by visuals before.

I couldn't help it I'm afraid. Sorry.

I take psychedelics because I like them and they benefit me.

 

[AA357]

Well, I've certainly been overwhelmed by visuals before.

I couldn't help it I'm afraid. Sorry.

I take psychedelics because I like them and they benefit me.

What did you see that made you afraid? What do you get out of taking psychedelics?
I've seen some really crazy shit before but I have never found it anything short of awesome. Psychedelic visuals are always beautiful, even the skulls and evil looking faces I often see overlaying everything.

Everyone is different. It sounds like OP handled his trip just fine….why would you advise him to stop using?

Because it sounds like every time he takes them he's afraid of what he might see... I don't even understand why he takes them. It's not a good mentality to have - you should embrace the visuals.

Anxiety, set and setting and body load are the REAL concerns with psychedelics.
If visual effects alone are enough to actually frighten you then how the hell do you expect to be able to control yourself once the bad thoughts start popping into your head?

Bad trips IRL are nothing like the way they are portrayed on Family Guy or Simpsons. You don't think monsters are chasing you or any of that BS - it's much worse than that.
You basically get into a fight with yourself in your own head... it's just a feeling of pure, inexplicable terror and helplessness.

 

[AA357]

I agree, a bad trip starts in your head with negative thoughts….but sometimes visuals can start to match up with those thoughts and get scary. I remember once, a long time ago, I took acid with some girls that I wasn't completely comfortable around. I started to get paranoid and thought that they were against me. One girl then started to look snake-like. I could see scales on her skin, and and she had sort of a pointy tail that was trying to sting me. I knew it wasn't real, but it was pretty freaky.

To each their own I guess.
That would probably make me laugh. Visuals to me are cool as fuck regardless of how weird/confusing/macabre/sinister-looking they are. It really makes me appreciate the complexity of the human mind.

 

[dan k]

i do k to intensify my psychedelics.
i cant imagine a bad trip being made better by k, maybe if youre like manic and freeking out then you khole, but even then you gotta have someone watching you cause i know someone who died from puking in a khole.

 

[.:Holy::Toast:.]

I would never do ketamine to alleviate a bad trip, ketamine only makes my trips much more intense.
Not to mention the confusing state it can put your brain in sounds like a recipe for disaster during a bad trip

 

[Tranced]

What do you get out of taking psychedelics?

Probably the same things you do.

I really don't want to dwell on this. I'm pretty certain most people on this forum have at some point been overwhelmed by visuals. The visuals are hardly the most important part of a trip. It happens and it's pretty common. There should be no elitism regarding psychedelics.