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Shrooms gave me some type of panic disorder?

hazmatz

hazmatz

Bluelighter
Joined
May 26, 2013
Messages
134
I wasn't sure where to post this here or on TDS section because it related to psychedelics and a bad impact of drug use.

About two months ago I had a nightmare trip on shrooms with my friend. It changed the way I saw the world around me and gave me some severe anxiety problems. Everyday I would think about how bad the shroom trip was. I had more frequent nightmares as well. It really just messed with my head and made me lose sense of the world around me and who I really am.

Well 2 months later (yesterday) I was having lunch with my girlfriend when she brings this up
"Isn't it weird how we all die in the end and life keeps moving forward and you can never go back?"
And when she said that I entered an instant full blown panic attack. It was like I was having an existenial crisis, much similar to the one I had on shrooms a few months ago. It was so bad I had to call my doctor and ask her what was going on with me. While asking her I was crying significantly.
She told me I'm suffering a panic attack and within the last few months it sounds like I've been dealing with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

My question is:
Do you think this panic attack was induced by my nightmareish shroom trip? Or had I always had an underlying anxiety problem that was simply brought out by the shrooms? Or does it have nothing to do with a shroom trip at all? Is this common behavior for people? I have to take clonazepam every day now because I live in constant fear that I'm going to have another panic attack. I don't want to feel this way the rest of my life. I'm a young guy with a bright future ahead of me. I don't want to fall into this pit of constant psychosis and depersonalization.

Help please
 
Mushrooms are no joke my friend! they can scare you to no end, and i've realized this. My thoughts are that you just had a traumatic experience with them. What exactly made the trip so horrific that it haunts you like this? I've had a few scary times with LSD and Mushrooms and have had my share of recovery from these frightening experiences. For example, i took 5 tabs of really strong LSD and thought i was insane and dying and ended up locking myself in a room for a long time. This trip put me in a rut to where i began to think about if i had done damage or brought out underlying psychological issues, that was 4 months ago and i am doing great again. Its just a scary experience and it should pass. If i were you, i would try to avoid medications if they try to put you on any. If the anxiety is that bad maybe xanax or another benzo isnt a horrible idea, but try to avoid anti-depressants, and anti psychotics as these seem to cause more harm than good in a lot of cases. If you need to talk you can send me a message and i can help you out if i can.
 
Yes, mushrooms initiated my existential crisis... I learned a lot from it but it also took a lot out of me. In part I feel like you can get huge amounts of stress, mental destabilisation and PTSD type stuff from the profound and shattering experiences, but another part makes me feel like they initiate a spiritual exploration that gets such a boost from the mushroom trip(s) that you are bound to develop disproportionately and are unable to keep up cognitively / rationally or emotionally. Having a lot of empathy, intelligence or other certain traits may help you find ways to cope, learn and develop over time to try and balance this but you should probably take it seriously and take the time to integrate these experiences.
Just in case: be VERY wary of using cannabis, benzodiazepines or opiates chronically because they can stall this natural development. I understand it can be a lot, but don't try to avoid it too much and go through it, you will likely find yourself a better person coming out the other end.

Good luck :)

(you can always ask to get this moved over to TDS if you want)
 
Yes i have to deal with similar things, after having had a near death experience type trip on mushrooms over a year ago. It started with derealization, then panic attacks, then generalised anxiety plus a severe existential crisis. Right now, I'm taking Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to deal with the anxiety (which has only gotten bad in the last 6 months or so) because I couldn't enter the underground train anymore without getting intense anxiety. Right now, I'm slowly feeling better over the last couple of weeks, before that, I had a pretty bad breakdown and was almost suicidal. But the will to live is strong enough at least and with my friends and family I made it through that.

I suggest you find yourself a psychiatrist and a therapist who can help you. Maybe try out some medication. If you get to the right professionals, they can help you a lot. CBT is definately good, if you having panic attacks. Also, no drugs, they hinder the healing process.

And btw: You don't have a psychosis. The anxiety disorder makes you believe that you're entering insanity, but I guarantee you that this will not happen. Give yourself time, seek help, try to be optimistic. It gets better...
 
Well. I think that shrooms bring out something about you. And make you more aware.

So if you trip out. Your going to have more anxiety for the next couple of days. or weeks. But. It should get better. In my opinion, if the anxiety is not working itself out, then you are fighting the process.

I view clonzepam very much the same way. This drug numbs a sensation. A cure for anxiety for example is exposure therapy. This drug is very much so the opposite of this. this drug does not work like other medictations.

As far as panic. Well. You have to break down the symptoms of what you are experiencing and why. A psychologist is only going to provide you guidance in a process you could do yourself.

A panic attack starts with hyperventilation. This has to do with breathing. It increases oxygen in your blood to highly. This causes a feeling of losing control. Etc.

So. Learn to breathe correctly. And so on. Go through each step. And learn safety behaviors or something that might help you.

The question that i put to you is that, why is a panic attack so bad if you can eat mushrooms? A mushroom trip. Or a drug trip..how is this different than a panic attack.

I guess i'll admit that Ive had panic attacks in my life before. But. I don't anymore. And its all about conditioning. What i did. was. Went through a heavy nitrous oxide phase. And i would hyperventilate before to make it better, when i was new to it and didn't know better. So in result, if i start to hypverentilate i get a light nitrous buzz. Its pretty awsome. Why don't you try that?

Anyway. Maybe not the best advice. But i'm just saying. That a panic attack is really not much different than nitrous for example. And you just have to get used to it. Its only fear. If your afraid, your afraid of being afraid. Its all a social thing. if you are somewhere and you feel shitty. Pass out. No ones gonna care. I mean if your driving your car, your not going to pass out. This is just human. Your concsiouness will defense itself.

Anyway. Look. People i know in real life post on here. So. I dunno. But i'm saying. that i took clonzapam for a long ass time. And it caused problems. And it wasn't a cure. It was a problem. And i fixed what happened on my own. So id say. Avoid a shrink. Nobody helped me but myself. And a couple people on here near the end of it. Sooo yea.

Take it from someone whos had a benzo addicition. Even using them as perscribed is hell by the end. Its like eating a ten strip of bad acid every day that never ends for like two years. And look. If you go to a shrink and say it bugs you. They don't know shit. They're working off literature paid for by the companies making the dangerous drugs. This is true. And rebound withdrawals effects directly mimic other disorders. So if you try and get help. your going to be diagnosed as having something you dont have. and given even more medicine.

If someone gives you clonzapam and tells you. Okay. This is a good idea. There gonna tell you well theres possibilities of withdrawals when you get off. Down the line. years later. This isn't from experience probably from someone they helped get off em. Its something they read. And they got one of those little starter packs and took a couple and was chill.

it's like. If you go to a cousneler or life coach. And they tell you. Okay. Join a frat. Or a sorority. You'll meet people. Well. They might say. yea i mean it can stressful tho. But thats not from the perspective of actually getting hazed. Or so i assume. both have positives. But. Its easy to tell someone oh. this is gonna suck later. Or. Help someone thru and say breathe this and that. But picture it actually being you. So. jus sayin.
 
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I appreciate the helpful replies. do you think if i just try to improve my life, i.e get rid of all things stress related, cease drug use, etc. i will heal over time? i feel really disconnected from everyone and the world around me. I'm going in to see a therapist that specializes in anxiety problems. do you think i should mention that i have done drugs?
 
Let me ask YOU a question.... does it really MATTER where the anxiety came from? Drugs, shrooms, genetics, environmental, etc.... you have it now... and I highly suggest not saying anything about your shroom experience to a doctor, because it will be put in your charts and then any problem you may have in the future will probably be attributed to them.

I would stay off of ALL medications for now.... antidepressants, benzos, antipsychs. etc.... exercise, eat healthy, vitamins, and start meditating. Meditating is like poison in the beginning but is candy in the end, just how drugs are candy in the beginning but poison in the end. You just gotta commit yourself. Your brain needs to work out some deep problems naturally IMO.
 
uhh I dunno that could work if he had no commitments at all but you cant function normally if you are having panic attacks every day
 
hazmatz said:
I appreciate the helpful replies. do you think if i just try to improve my life, i.e get rid of all things stress related, cease drug use, etc. i will heal over time? i feel really disconnected from everyone and the world around me. I'm going in to see a therapist that specializes in anxiety problems. do you think i should mention that i have done drugs?
Click to expand...

Yes, I definitely think so because that was what happened to me. In the course of my psychedelic use I reached a point where I could no longer live with some of the attitudes/perspectives that were holding me back. I had a serious of terrible trips followed by sober panic attacks and episodes of depersonalization/depression. I literally lost all feeling of connection to any person, object or decision I had ever made and it was terrifying.

I'm kind of embarrassed to say that instead of seeking professional help I got really into casting the i-ching, but I think it had the same result of helping me reframe the world from an outside perspective (in my case the viewpoint of a bunch of ancient Chinese scholar/priests, but cognitive-behavioral therapists sound good too). In retrospect it was like I actually shed my ego and had to grow a new one and it was a painful ordeal I will never regret.

In my experience LOTS of people have had really bad death-focused mushroom trips. "We're all gonna die" is a mushroom trope. I guess mushrooms would know!

I don't think you have to talk about drugs with your therapist, but a therapist who has an educated perspective on drug use would be better.
 
I have taken all of the advice here and stopped taking the clonazepam, although after 3 days without it, i still feel a longing for it. each day i fall deeper into depression and disconnection with the external world. some days are worse than others. i suppose i will not mention the drug use to the therapist, because there is a good chance that the anxiety stemmed from my poor upbringing. i would love to try meditating but i have heard several stories about self induced panic attacks through mediating "too deep". no, i have not done lsd-25, at least not to my knowledge. there were a couple of things that i took throughout the years that i wasn't 100% sure of the name of. I'm not proud of that though and now I'm paying the price.

the worst part is that i have no motivation to do anything more. i just want to keep sleeping. I'm starving but the sensation of eating makes me feel sick which makes me anxious which makes me panic. and no matter how hard i try, its impossible to ignore. i am unhealthily losing weight because of it. maybe what i need is exercise. i just don't know where to start.
 
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How long have you been in therapy? It will take time to heal and sort things out. Give it a few months at least. It may make you feel more awful before it starts helping. Try not to beat yourself up if you ultimately decide therapy isn't helping; there are other roads to take.

Have you thought of taking an anti depressant? That comes with a whole other list of risks and side affects like benzos, but it may help you get out of bed and start eating again. Like therapy, you will need to give it at least a month.

This is coming from someone who has yet to try shrooms but has suffered from depression and anxiety and is currently taking an SSRI.
 
Update:
Its been 2-3 months since my bad trip and one month since my panic attack. I took .5mg of Clonazepam every day for about two weeks but decided to stop because I know it is not a long term cure.

I go to cognitive behavioral therapy every week now. My therapist decided that my anxiety and panic is not from psychedelics, but from my compulsive MDMA abuse this summer. He explained that my serotonin levels are extremely low which explains my anxiety, poor appetite and low quality sleep.

I am on the road to recovery, though. I'm not taking any medication (although I'm considering taking 5-HTP again just to help with the serotonin) and I'm eating healthily. Smoking marijuana helps immensely with the anxiety, and of course, helps my appetite problems.

I've decided I'm pretty much done with the hard drugs. I wish I could've seen the future before I abused MDMA. I would've been much more responsible about it. But I'm still here, alive and well, and the world is too beautiful to complain. I am just happy to be surrounded by my loving and supportive friends.

Moral of the story: use drugs with responsibility and respect your own body!!
 
op created this thread five years ago but i?m going to add something in case others come across this like i did.
so he same thing happened to me- anxiety disorder induced- after taking ayahuasca. the smallest things would remind me of the [insanely disturbing] trip. like i would see an image that looked remotely trippy and i would go into panic. or someone would say something existential and i?d freak out. or some thought would pop into my head that would give me an anxiety attack.
i think what happened was an adrenal burnout. we caused such a rush of cortisol, the stress hormone, to be released at once, depleting our adrenals. now responding to any stress is near impossible. what has been healing me is taking adaptogens like holy basil and ashwagandha. these herbs lower cortisol in the body and help us respond better to stress.
i hope this helps anyone else understand. you and your mind are not goig crazy, it?s jsit your body responding to stress with burnt out adrenals.
 
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