my first one ever... 12 years ago, 21 yrs old, very drunk cos me and my friend thought that our other friend with the acid wouldn't show up... well, he was very late but he did... had my first ever tab of E that night as well... as the E wore off and the acid kicked in (half a blotter, but very strong) I started having VERY SERIOUS thoughts... as I saw all sorts of visual things, they started all meaning so much... I started judging myself... I saw my friends as dwarves/goblins from a fairy tale and wondered if I wanted to be their friend. I wondered why I drink alcohol. I questioned every single belief I had. Sadly, I had nothing to replace it with except doubt and fear and a general consternation. I realised how sensitive I was. Unpleasant childhood memories came to me... I looked up at the sky (it was night) and all the stars started connecting into this strange thing and then it grew and jumped at me... the whole universe contracted, expanded and then attacked me. Panic.
And then I thought: "This is what it's like to be crazy." And I was desperate to have it stop. I couldn't take any more. I felt like a lunatic like you might see in a film... and I was crying, thinking to myself: "IF I ever get back to normal, dear God, I promise I will change my life." I didn't even know if I believed in an interventionist God but I was desperate and severyl doubted I would ever return to "normal" - I had lost all concept of how I had felt the day before, all innocent. Oh, how dark it was, how terrible. I was well and truly scared and traumatised... the whole thing took 10h+ and it took me 8 more hours before I could sleep, and I was really really freaked out, just staring into space, not connecting with anyone anymore. Just the one question: "What the fuck is wrong with me?" And: "Why can't I enjoy? I had a bad trip. I should have enjoyed it." And again: "What is wrong with me?" . . . ad absurdum, in circles. And totally unable to admit any of this to my friends.
When I finally got sleep and woke up the next day, I was fine. But somehow I knew there was something... wrong... every time I had cannabis after that, I'd go back... took me a pretty long time to recover, really, years actually - though I always got on with my life on an external level (university, etc.) I went through phases of severe social anxiety and depression after that. Probably because deep down I knew I had kind of returned to normal (though of course not quite as it is not possible to live as if one had not experienced something one had indeed experienced) and I decided to suppress the experience and not address it in my thoughts. But cannabis always brought me back into the loop and I couldn't hide from the fact that I had freaked out on that trip and that I was a hypocrite since I had no desire to look at what i was shown unless stoned...
Had to go back to acid in order to sort it out, in the end.. 6 months later. And I also used anti-depressants when repeated acid use after that made me go a bit over the top again and landed me back in that space.... it's actually only after I got rid of anti-depressants, 5 years after the trip that kinda kickstarted it all, that I started really dealing with my problems and solving them.
Today I am grateful for the experience. I almost didn't make it, but I have grown in so many ways and I am glad that I was forced to question my beliefs on that fateful day.... I had been incredibly self-centered and depressed long before that trip and the trip amplified it so I had to start dealing with it or no longer live.
Since that dark period in my life I like to think of myself as a survivor.. well, in a way it is always there but I accept it, it's the ache of being alive and I think everyone feels it if they look
Oh yeah, and I still like to trip - more than ever, and I manage to function perfectly fine in consensual reality the rest of the time, albeit as one who is generally regarded as 'eccentric' . I have on occasion had very difficult trips since, tainted by restlessness and doubt and a general uneasiness, but never worse than that. I couldn't conceive of a worse trip unless I witnessed a nasty external event that might trigger it while I am tripping.
