Are you with me in Rockland? - returning my soul from a pilgrimage to the void

badamsterdam

Greenlighter
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
7
Hello Bluelight, this is my first post in this forum, a post I´ve chosen to write because googling and reading other people´s threads ended up not being sufficient, and I would really like some advice and opinions on my own, personal experience.

I don´t know if I´m supposed to write a long trip-rapport in this sub-forum, but my story and experience is probably one similar to others you´ve heard before.

So I´ll just give a brief description of what happened and my situation today.

This summer, 9 weeks ago, I took a 15g dose of wet mexicana mushrooms in Amsterdam. I´ve smoked pot about 30 times before this encounter with magic mushrooms, but never tried any other drugs. I must also admit that i´d done very little research into mushrooms and psychedelics before I ate these mushrooms and let them work their dark, black magic. Sadly I had no idea of their complex and sometimes life-changing effects. I thought mushrooms was just a way to "play a movie in your head" and laugh about it some hours later. Maybe it is for some people, I don´t know.

I am aware that a lot of people are very fond of these mushrooms and claim they have healing effects. From the 3 first hours of my trip I can relate to this belief. My first 3 hours was a state of bliss: At first I just felt very in peace, relaxed and was enjoying objects moving and the enhancement of colors and sounds. After about 2 and a half hours, I lay down under a blanket and somehow felt like I was an infant again, in my mother´s womb. This was a very pleasant, warm and happy experience.

I guess you know what´s coming now. After 3 hours my sitter told me "listen to this music man", gave me his headset, and I was captured in a world of very dark, psychedelic trance-music. And now the panic arrived. I lay down on my bed, feeling like my memories and thoughts were actual on fire: there was a bonfire in my head, and for every second gasoline was poured on it. After a while counting every second, sure I was gonna end up at a mental hosptial, I "transformed" into a grain of sand and flew over a desert in my mind (though it didn´t seem to be in my mind). When I landed from the trip I just told my sitter "That was not cool, but I appreciate this experience because it gave me a new respect for drugs, and now I know that I will never do anything like this again". Then I slept, sweating and waking several times during the night.

The next couple of days were hard, but I managed. After 3-4 days things seemed pretty normal - sure, there was a lot of thoughts and fear, but I managed quite well, feeling better for every day.

Sudden arrival of a flashback 2 weeks after the trip. Scared shitless, insomnia for two weeks and a bunch of panic attacks. I was no longer a human, I became a state of mind: anxiety.

Now, 9 weeks later, things are a little better. I can manage school ok, and daily life is manageable. But I´m still haunted by existential anxiety (thoughts of the meaninglessness of life, evil in the world ext), and I sometimes wonder if this life of mine really is real, or just a dream. These are thoughts I´ve always had, but they never bothered me like they do now.

I guess I dodged the HPPD and psychosis bullet, but I must be so cliche as to ask - will things return to normal? Will these thoughts be more bearable, and will I again really enjoy life and feel pure happiness without the bitterness of thinking nothing really matters cause everything is meaningless?

I must also admit something. After the trip I told my friend I was grateful for this experience because it gave me a strong respect for drugs, and would certainly keep me away from them. But after the anxiety and flashbacks, when I become anxiety, I just want to run away. I´ve had some thoughts of self-destruction, but maybe even more thoughts of other drugs. Drugs that will help me escape this anxiety, that will make me feel happy again. Valium? MDMA? Cocaine? ... Heroin? I´m not so impulsive that I´ll do such a drastic thing for something that I hope time will heal, but when I´m at my worst, this form of escape seems so tempting and sweet.

Thank you for reading, even though I´m no "special case". I would really appreciate some advice, opinions and even some moral preaching.

Sincerely,
badamsterdam
 
Sadly, it's not rare at all for psychedelics to have this effect and you're certainly not the first person to experience such a bad trip.
All I can say is that it will continue to get better with time as you distance yourself from it. Whenever those thoughts occur just try to remind yourself that they were artificially induced, that this isn't really you thinking, if you know what I mean. Might help to keep that distance.

Just another thing - you've only tried pot and mushrooms and you're thinking about heroin?! Bit of an escalation there - and a very unnecessary one at that! Do NOT try to solve your problems with other drugs, it won't help, it never does. What if you try a benzo or an opiate (not quite sure what the 'calming' value of MDMA or cocaine would be but include those as well) and it does make you feel better, then what? You'll probably start using them regularly, and regularly will turn into daily, and then you can imagine what'll happen. You don't want to go down that path.
 
A bad trip will seem like nothing compared to addiction. Pagey is absolutely right that turning to other drugs as a way to fix this is like inviting the wolf in the door.
 
Thank you for your replies :)

Well, I am aware that other drugs would not be very helpful in the long run, but when you truly become anxiety, you just focus on the moment and want it to go away. Some times it´s so unbearable.. I mean, taking a valium or xanax is far better than jumping from a bridge, isn´t it? I should maybe see a psychologist, or what do you think? I am also afraid that talking about my issues will just make it worse.. that I should just ignore it as best I can and wait for the anxiety, flashbacks and panic attacks to leave me alone.. Maybe I should travel somewhere, or is there no escaping my own mind..?

love,
badamsterdam
 
badamsterdam, trust me, if you start taking other drugs to calm yourself down you're going to regret it, big time. Yes I think you should definitely see a therapist, bottling up all your feelings is probably the worst thing you could possibly do right now. Get your issues out in the open.
Lots of people on here go through the same levels of anxiety as you not even because of a bad trip and I think I'm not the only one who can assure you the right solution is talking about it, not trying to numb it out in any way.
 
So often I see people hurt by the misconception that being stoic, ignoring bad feelings is the way to deal with them. It's a recipe for disaster. Talking about them will not magnify them but diffuse them over time. The places you are most scared of are the places screaming for your attention. They also end up being your best teachers. I encourage you to find a good therapist and talk. Talk and explore.<3
 
Thank you for your advice! I am telling my parents about what happened today, since I believe some of the anxiety is caused by shame (I have a very strong and respectful relationship with my parents). I think they will be sad and worried, but I need support and get rid of this shame by getting my parents ´forgiveness´. I´m also sure they´ll help me get in touch with a therapist :) I feel motivated, and i´m actually looking forward to telling my parents, even though it´s gonna be hard. It´s gonna be my first constructive action towards recovery. Thank you so much.

I feel so much love and respect for all those people here on the forum who are struggling with different things.. But it´s surely a great forum for support, advice and motivation :)

Love,
badamsterdam
<3
 
You will be OK. Myself and many other people have had hmmm I guess you'd say "Dark" times on mushrooms and it was not fun, but it was what we needed at the time, and it was a learning experience.

If I were you I'd abstain from ALL drugs even herb and booze, and get into meditation. Writing about your experience can also help. Time will also help you. Cocaine and opiates will not and may give you other issues and they're not going to solve your problems.

I meant abstaining from booze and herb for the time being until you are over your experience. This takes different amounts of time for everyone.
 
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Thank you for your answer, Priest.

When you advice me to stay off booze and herb, do you mean for some months or for good?

I am a poet, and in the gaps of feeling normal between the anxiety I´ve managed to write some not just therapautic, but also really good poetry. This has been a great relief for me.
 
Writing often saves the day. You should share some in the Words forum if you feel up to it.

Major props on telling your parents what is going on. I hope that they will be able to be calm and supportive. You sound like you have a very good relationship and since that is always a two way street, congratulations to all of you.<3
 
I've not had sunny times w/ mushrooms going on ten years now, and I've done them extensively. The dark experiences traumatized me for some time, but talking about it, as herby recommended, allowed me to extricate those phantoms, in a way. They are probably not acting upon you on a physiological level, but it surely wouldn't hurt to exercise and amp up your endorphins. Psychologically, Priest made a great recommendation w/ meditation; it really provides an immediate calm to deal w/ distress, but it alleviates chronic stress which may exacerbate or contribute to a unnerving flashback. Abstaining from alcohol, marijuana, and junk food (temporarily, at least for each of these) will all do a lot to make you more biochemically sound.

Lastly, I had very scary and traumatizing experiences on hallucinogens, but the amalgamation of these experiences simply cannot compare to the psychic damage and pain caused during and of my hard drug addictions. Please use another solution. Beware of compounding your problem.

Best of luck, and welcome to Bluelight :)
 
and now my gf just broke up with me? what the FUCKING hell! i need something to call me down now! what to do! is there anything i can take that will calm me down but not fuck up my life.. fuck
 
Just from a purely logical perspective, not taking into account any of the overwhelming evidence against heroin and the likes, but just a logical conclusion based on your owns statements:

It would appear drugs caused your problem. So why in gods name would they solve that very same problem?

Answer: they wont. They will just cause more problems, or exacerbate the current one. But comeon....why would something (drugs) solve the very problem it caused?

Also just curious: are you talking about being in, and returning to, Rockland, NY? If so I live right across the Hudson in Westchester.
 
I see. The title is a quote from "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. All I know is that Rockland is a mental hospital where he spent 6 months, and it´s probably in NY
 
I actually looked into it and learned that Rockland was a reference to the Columbia Presbyterian Psychiatric ward, which at the time, was a horrible place where they basically "locked up crazies." It was actually THE place the police and city would send all those people, end of story. That was it, they locked them up in that building.

If you've ever been there, its a very distinct, infamous, building that easily recognizable by it being connected to the hospital by a well known pedestrian bridge. Obviously Columbia Presbyterian, now ranked in the top 5 hospitals in the country (and I believe top 10 in the WORLD), is not some place where they "send the crazies" to get them out of society, but is instead MUCH different than it used to be. Once again though, in NY, its past is infamous.

So it IS in NY, but that is only a coincidence to my inquiries. Although perhaps one (of many) reasons it got that name would be because rockland is "right over the bridge."

Sorry to go off topic. All the points I previously made are still valid.

That is: why would the cause of something also be its own solution?
 
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