scared after lsd month ago

[Silly sam]

Up untill this problem I have smoked weed heavily for about a year. Pretty much at least a joint a night, minus the odd occassion.

I took LSD stupidly at a music festival about a month ago. It was extremely intense and think was a vary large dosage as was a drip. I had a very intense trip as I was scarred and on my own at this point I closed my eyes trying to sleep. Creating heavy amounts of hallucinations with my eyes closed. I was fine up an till I smoked a joint several weeks later. My head filled up and felt like I had a big head ache. Making me panic. I lost concentration of the film I was watching and kept repeating everything anyone would say (in my head). Since this problem i have completly stopped smoking weed or any form of drug except alcohol from time to time. Over time it went. About a week later I had this same problem of repeating what people say in my head. Again it went away, but over the last few days I have worked it back up. I learnt to control not to repeate what people say but find it a struggle as have thought about it so much.

Last night I went drinking with my friends, I was very happy until I realized without trying that I was again repeating what everyone was saying (in my head). So I left early went home and went to bed. But after waking from my sleep, I tries to fall back asleep, when trying I get to a state of closed eye halusinations with voices similar to my trip. So in the end realizing I'm thinking stupid stuff woke my self completely up to stop it all and posted this.

I'm only 18 going to Uni soon and really regreting taking lsd. Any support or help will be very grateful. Due to the stress involved with these thoughts, I have opened up entirely to my mum, explaining everything as I want to get through this and live my life again!

I did go through all the symptoms of quoting weed, but felt like I have done well except from this problem about the LSD.

Thank you so much to anyone that reads and replies to this.

 

[theotherside]

Not much advice, except for you need to understand what a psychedlic is.....you can't go back and not "know" if you catch my drift. You have to learn how to "blend in" with the people who see carbon as solid...you will most of the time but a year from now you might be sitting at home looking at the wall, listening to a song, and that familar pattern on the wall will happen. It is all about control, learn to control what you have opened up.

 

[BottleOfOxy]

You have to learn how to "blend in" with the people who see carbon as solid...

^ very thoughtful, you also might just be spongey still but that shit wears off.

personally i think it's tight when you get a lil weird visual thing randomly... it's like a treat in your day! i used to have that kinda when i was taking xtc to often. very cool though.

p.s. smoking a joint a day is not a heavy weed smoker, hahaahaha

 

[love_sex_desire]

^ Do you have a past history of mental illness in your family, or have you yourself ever been diagnosed wih any mental illnesses?

LSD does not usually cause such peculiar symptoms, but sometimes they exacerbate or catalyze symptoms that are dormant.

If it has been a month since your LSD experience all I can suggest is to give it time. Take vitamins, drink green tea and stay away from any psychoactives including alcohol. In all likelihood these symptoms should begin to fade away, but if you are still experiencing these symptoms such as repeating what everyone says in your head you may want to seek medical or psychiatric help. Most people don't experience permanent negative effects from a single psychedelic experience. Psychedelics do open your mind and do change the way you think, usually for the better, but symptoms such as flashbacks and repeating what people say in your head after a single psychedelic experience could point to an underlying disorder. Many people experience minor flashbacks only after heavy use of psychedelics. Usually this is after smoking weed or being in a similar environment that you have been in whie tripping, but usualy these minor visual changes are not enough to affect one's life and many think they are interesting.

Stay off anything psychoative, stay healthy, lots of vitamins and exercise and give it time. Having a family member such as your mother that you can be honest with can help talk about these symptoms. Don't suppress them, express them. You should be fine with a bit of time.

Report back and good luck!

 

[Psychodelirium]

I find that the less you obsess over stuff like this, the sooner it goes away. It sounds like you're obsessing about it a lot. This is counterproductive. Doing psychs will sometimes cause you to notice things in your thought process or sensory field that you're not supposed to notice, like tinnitus, floaters, snow in the visual field, etc. If these effects bother you, ignoring them to the best of your ability will usually cause them to subside, while focusing attention on them will intensify them.

 

[love_sex_desire]

^ I dunno, but finding myself repeating everything that people say in my head is a little different than snow in my visual field. I wouldn't obsess over these symptoms, but they are obviously noticeable enough to affect the OP's life to some degree and coming onto a reputable harm reduction site to get serious advice is a good thing. Telling someone to ignore these symptoms isn't offering much help, but I do agree that the OP should not obsess over them, but should be encouraged to be honest and open about the symptoms.

I'd love to hear from the OP again regarding any history of mental illness within the family. This could point out that some neurological disorder might have something to do with these symptoms, or it might be anxiety provoked by the intense LSD trip.

Definitely nothing to panic about, but staying healthy, sleeping on a regular cycle and noting whether the symptoms worsen or decrease would be wise to determine whether any additional help is necessary.

 

[BottleOfOxy]

i definitely agree with Psychodelirium, if you don't think about this stuff it will go away much faster.....

on the other hand...

I'd love to hear from the OP again regarding any history of mental illness within the family.

mental illness brought out by a psychedelic would make more sense for this lasting a month.... i mean unless this kid was fuckin' DOSSSEDDD hahah

to the OP, yes you sam, was this your first experience with a psychedelic? (not counting weeedz)

 

[Aloysius]

Dear Sam,

Sorry to hear you got in trouble. I would not say that what you describe is weird in any way. LSD is a very powerful drug, and having an experience at your age whilst not knowing 100% what you were up to can affect you powerfully. What you describe strikes me as a panic attack, perhaps this is residual tension surfacing from the large psychological stress a drug trip can induce.

Maybe it will help you to think of it as an accident: sometimes shit just happens. You could have been hit by a car while crossing the street, but instead a psychedelic freight-train crossed your path. Psychedelics can have very long psychological tails to the acute effect of the drug. That is to say, you take it, after a day you are sober, but the things you have seen can stick with you for a loooong time. There is nothing much I can advice you to do that will make this go away, I cannot think of a magic bullet. You will recover from this accident however, and when you are no longer dealing with these bad feelings and thought, you will be a wiser man.

I can only agree with the other posts in the thread: please treat your body with respect, try to accept the changes in your mind, don't worry too much and abstain from any mind-altering drug for a while. Focusing on things you find important in life might also shift your attention. Regular walks or exercise also help focus on your body, away from any scary thoughts you might have.

Good luck!

 

[whoseanb]

Looking forward to sams response. I hope you're doing well man.

 

[any major dude]

The third time i took LSD I semi-inadvertently took an exceedingly large dose (several mg). It took about 3 days or so for the acute effects to wear off, but I was a total weirdo for about 6 weeks after. A number of my friends thought i was permanently changed as I was completely obsessed with that ridiculous acid trip. Everything seemed to relate to it or remind me of it. I just could not stop thinking about it for the life of me. I didn't feel that this was a bad thing, I was just really preoccupied with it for an extended period. I had some difficulties in talking with people about everyday sorts of things & wanted to turn every conversation philosophical & metaphysical.

Don't get me wrong in some ways, i'm sure i was permanently changed, but not for the worse at all. This happened in early november, and by the time i got back to school from christmas break I was perfectly fine. I did retain a healthy interest in psychedelics for a time after that, but nowhere near the obsession level of those few weeks.

This type of thing is not specific to LSD or drugs of any kind. Many types of peak experiences or other very overwhelming experiences can have a similar effect. What I'd imagine has happened to you is that the impression this trip left on you was very strong & thus the memories very vivid. This can make it very easy to trigger said memories when you are exposed to a stimulus similar to one you remember from the trip. When these memories are triggered frequently by common stimuli, you can end up with a faulty feedback loop that triggers not only the memories of the events, but the emotions & sensations as well. Temporarily avoiding things that trigger these memories can be an effective way to start to break the cycle, but ultimately you'll just have to integrate the experience, which can sometimes take a while. Ultimately it should be worthwhile though.

This is of course all speculation, and a bit poorly worded unfortunately, but i'm a bit sleep deprived at the moment. Feel free to ask questions if anything isn't clear

 

[Silly sam]

I was really courcious as to comment on this forum but I'm pleased I did. I got into drugs because of the people. Rarely anyone judges and love the company. I think the real problem was that i was already too fucked on ket and drink before taking the drip. I enjoyed it for a short while but it got extremely intense and found my self at the other side of the festival on my own walking back towards the last place I remember being. Then basically passed out on the floor. To be woken up by a light in my eyes, than taken to a little recovery hospital where I spent the rest of my time tripping my nuts of. Having spent the majority of the trip with closed eyes trying to sleep I think im finding it easy to have a flash back as when sleeping am in a pretty similar environment. I think I'm having these other thoughts due to coming off weed, stressing about Uni and anything else. Iv realized im not going crazy just thinking way too much into everyday life. Smoking weed obviously slowed that down. Now sober my brain is free to go crazy. The trip was on my 18th bday and 3 other of my friends where in pretty much the same state as me, 2 in health centers like me. Must have been fucking strong stuff as we are all comfortable drug users. I just worry a lot more . Thanks u guys

Oh and battle of oxy I was saying in general I smoked a good ben or hen a day to be honest, but has the odd weekend of, so thought was better to estimate. Forgot it was a big competition.... Naaattt

 

[Silly sam]

Help to anyone else, if u have the confidence to talk to ur family do it. I think I would be trapped in my little crazy loop still if hadnt spoke to my mum about it all. Even helping me build a much stronger relationship with her as my parents split up a few years ago and I don't actually live with her sadly anymore. X

 

[psilocybonaut]

Sam, does your family have a history of mental illness?

 

[Silly sam]

Don't think so, everyone in my family is healthy from what I know. I'm very similar to my dad and he's got hid head deffinatly screwed on. Very down to earth, constantly busy. Same for his dad. Dads mum randomly had heavy stroke, but that's about it.

 

[Tune in_Drop out]

Sam,
The reason LSD is such a powerful drug is that it opens up all the floodgates of your mind. This makes it really easy for people to overthink things, repeat things, and get into crazy negative thought loops.

once you've had this experience- you've had it and it can't really go away. you can however focus your mind on other things. As someone previously said- you may be overthinking what your mind is doing.

Repeating something someone says in your mind (a fairly normal thing that most people do) has become something that makes you immediately go "OH SHIT!!!" and such the negative though loops begin.

LSD has shown you (and you're fortunate to know) how powerful your mind is. Focus your energy on breaking free of these thought loops. If you find your mind going to a negative place, just take some deep breaths and focus your energy on think about something else.


If you've convinced yourself that you've permanently fucked your brain chemistry up- you're making things hard for yourself from the start..

Good luck

 

[theotherside]

^^Well put, In agreement with my statement. You have to understand what a psychedelic is.....it is not a feel good, make me hyper, make me sleepy drug class....it opens "the doors to perception"

 

[TheMerryPrankster]

Hey Sam,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience - which is particularly unfortunate as LSD can be one of the most enlighting, cleansing, refreshing and renewing of all the psychedelic experiences. I have taken thousands of doses of Acid over the decades, and a few times I *completely* lost my mind. The most severe experience was similar to yours. I had flashbacks for many, many months (you can read about the experience within this post - but it's a long post - you might find it too much to read the whole thing http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=445374).

It was in fact this experience that got me into LSD so seriously as I felt I either could never take it again - or I needed to face my fear and understand what happened to me. It took me a *full* year before I was no longer afraid, and felt that I had completely healed - and I did LSD a number of times during this year (at least 20). Each time I felt I was a little closer to being whole again. The experience itself was the *ultimate* bad trip - so devastating that I lost my memory - completely - in the middle of it. Total amnesia on acid.

Anyway - where I am going with this is that the one thing that I discovered is that while LSD is an incredibly powerful psychological drug, it is, as far as I know (and I am *very* experienced), physically harmless. LSD cannot damage your brain permanently - but sometimes we forget how powerful our brains are - and what our imaginations and fear can put us through. I know in getting over my flashbacks - which were debilitating at the time - part of the solution was getting the confidence to stop being afraid of what had happened to me - *knowing* that the sensations were not real and learning to trust that.

No matter how horrifying and annihilating the experience was for you - it is now just a memory - one that you have to learn to live with and as someone else said earlier - accept as an 'accident' that happened to you. Try to really believe that you have not been physically harmed by this - given the amount of LSD that I have taken over 30 years, I can guaranatee you that it really can't physically injure you.

Something worht consideing very seriously though, was mentioned by a few others in here - very delicately. Do you perhaps have any form of genetic mental illnes in your family? Because while LSD is generally quite tolerable by most - given its profound psychological nature, it *is* possible that it triggered some latent mental condition in you. If this is the case, perhaps seeking psychiatric help might be beneficial to you (although I personally have an innate mistrust of psychiatrists).

I agree with the other comments in that I think that this experience is likely to fade into the background as time goes on - and bear in mind that these other effects - the repetition - could well be something unconnected to the LSD experience - but which your fear is connecting it to.

I have made several posts - pretty much all to do with extremely bizarre - almost insane experiences. Perhaps reading them will help to reassure you that you can undergo experiences like this, and fully recover. I really have been there - way over the edge - several times - but I have always recovered - and grown from the experiences, and at almost 50 years old, with thousands of doses of LSD, Psilocibin, DMT, MDMA and other drugs under my belt - I feel that I have recovered from any and all of the negative experiences that I have had - and I remain quite, quite sane (well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it..

If there is anything that I can share with you that would ease your concern - I am always happy to share anything useful.

Peace,

tmp

 

[Silly sam]

I don't think my family has any health problems. Will check with my mum. I am getting more confident about it. These thoughts did go away but came back which is what got me worrying again. Just had a crazy nightmaire of all the things I have been thinking about all day. So weird!

 

[TheAppleCore]

^ Back when I was first experimenting with psychedelics, I tripped in a rather unwise setting, and this led to a few weeks of increased anxiety and psychological unease, which was then totally cured by another trip on the same substance (LSD).

 

[love_sex_desire]

^ Interesting, my friend experienced the same thing. He had some issues with anxiety after an intense LSD experience which cleared up after he finally decided to use LSD again, a couple months later.

Not recommending this, but it is very interesting. It sounds like the OP is thinking about things too much, and shouldn't ignore them but shouldn't obsess over them either. Sounds like the OP will be fine. Good to hear.