Bee Stings and Psychedelics

[RhythmSpring]

Hi, I have kind of a random question:

Assuming there is no pre-existing allergy to bees,

Is there any reason a human response to getting stung by a bee would be different on mushrooms or another psychedelic as compared with being sober?

The reason I ask is I know that bee venom has a stimulating effect on the immune system, but psychedelics have a temporary immune-suppression effect. IIRC, bee stings stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, and psychedelics often stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. Forgive me, I don't know much more than that.

There could be many other reasons why it would be a different experience, aside from the more impressionable state of mind, eg- "ouch! a bee!" vs. "HOLY FUCK OH MY GOD OW OW" ... and who knows, maybe on psychedelics a bee sting might be extremely well tolerated. I remember mosquito bites being forgivable and cute on mushrooms.

 

[atara]

I imagine it'd just hurt a lot. Bee stings involve formate, IIRC, which is painful but rather benign.

 

[Psychedelic Jay]

Hi, I have kind of a random question:

Assuming there is no pre-existing allergy to bees,

Is there any reason a human response to getting stung by a bee would be different on mushrooms or another psychedelic as compared with being sober?

The reason I ask is I know that bee venom has a stimulating effect on the immune system, but psychedelics have a temporary immune-suppression effect. IIRC, bee stings stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, and psychedelics often stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. Forgive me, I don't know much more than that.

There could be many other reasons why it would be a different experience, aside from the more impressionable state of mind, eg- "ouch! a bee!" vs. "HOLY FUCK OH MY GOD OW OW" ... and who knows, maybe on psychedelics a bee sting might be extremely well tolerated. I remember mosquito bites being forgivable and cute on mushrooms.

I'd say it would be less of a shock.
Instead of: "OMG A BEE JUST BIT ME!" Your perceptions would be very distorted depending on how fried you were trying to get. So it turns into: "Wow man, did you see that shit? A bee just stung me... I'm not lying... Do I have a stinger in me? Can you see it? It kinda hurts man."

 

[indelibleface]

I imagine it'd just hurt a lot. Bee stings involve formate, IIRC, which is painful but rather benign.

Bee stings, I believe, involve not formate, but apitoxin, a proteinaceous venom.

I think you're thinking of ant venom, which is [usually] formic acid.

 

[pofacedhoe]

I remember mosquito bites being forgivable and cute on mushrooms.

this made me laugh

 

[Unlucky]

Yes, bee sting could possibly be perceived as less painful on pyschedelics for the same reason that you dont feel an injured and painful area on your body when your minds too busy engaged in your favorite television show...

"Distraction" is one of the minds most powerful tools. People have even undergone surgery without anesthesia just using hypnotism alone. I ocasionally use cannabis for managing my chronic pain because it allows my brain to be occupied with other thoughts distracting me away from the pain so I believe psychedelics would also act the same way as your busy overactive mind could easily move past the pain.

 

[Solipsis]

Definitely ask PepperSocks (he is mostly over at Psychedelic Drugs). He got stung one time while he was on dextroamphetamine and possibly some other drug - was he on a psychedelic? - and I think he got a mild anaphylactic shock but believed that the dex helped him cope in some way.

If you're talking mushrooms or LSD personally I think only the psychological effect should be considered and it can depend if you are distracted by other things like Unlucky says... both drugs can be dissociative on their own mind you!
Or otherwise they can magnify the discomfort from the sting. Basically psychedelia is a magnification of your psychological state to put it very simply, so if you are feeling pretty bad you might just be torturing yourself all the more because it seems to have much more impact than it actually has (the bee or sting might look much bigger and wild, you might see weird colors that scare you into thinking it was a dangerous insect and you might die or something).

So to sum up I think you can go either way, or it might just feel about the same as normal. Factors would be the dose of the psychedelic and your own force of mind. Sober you can will yourself into ignoring the pain, which is what some professionals might be trained in (I imagine some sort of elite agency taskforces), or you can focus on the pain - probably not consciously.

Some psychedelics like 2C-B might have an effect on your immune system. I am really not sure about what happens exactly though but it might be affected negatively or positively. No idea if this might have consequences for a bee sting. You'd have to be quite unlucky.

 

[Limpet_Chicken]

It isn't usually formic acid in ant STINGS per se, wood ants spray the stuff out of their back ends, but they do not inject it as a sting.

Ant venoms are usually protein based, such as poneratoxin, found in Dinoponera/Paraponera/Megaponera spp. (bullet ants), although there are non-peptidic venoms such as the piperidine solenopsin found in fire ant venoms.