[Bad Trip Subthread] Have You Ever Had a Bad Trip?

[Kelmarock]

I've had multiple trips, all of them being good except one. This happened only a few months ago and still to this day I don't understand the trigger to what made it happen. Three great friends and I were on my back deck chilling, smoking a few bowls over some amount of minutes. I dropped 2 hits of pretty potent LSD. After two of my friends left and I was left with one who was staying the night tripping too, I went about playing music and relaxing around a half hour after dropping just chilling in my basement. This is when I decided I would go take a shower and have a what I guessed would be a "clean" mindset. Everything went perfectly until I got out of the shower and that's when I blacked out. The next thing I know is I'm looking into my friends face (one that had we t home earlier) while I'm flat on my back and he's saying to me "You can pull through this, it'll be okay." >> I BLINK<< Then what didn't even feel like a second had passed, he was hitting me aggressively saying things like "You like being hit?! You fucking love this don't you?!" (He was smiling all too excessively and had a sick pleasurable look on his face). >I BLINK< This leads to me unable to hear anyone or anything except for some Grateful Dead & Pink Floyd sounding song but it wasn't either. In my entire peripheral vision I see this flashing red&green border around everything I see (kind of like in WoW when you're in combat and use your map and see the flashing red border). This is when things get even worse. >I BLINK< I thought that the world had ended, that I was the only one left in the entire world and everybody I loved was gone and didn't ever remember my existence. I was sitting up against a couch in my basement and the walls, carpet, ceiling, all turned a charcoal grey black. I suddenly was seeing the basement of my house as a dusty, ruined, extremely terrifying 18th century home. During this I kept saying vocally "One glass of water.", "Can I please have one glass of water." "Water, is there any water." >I BLINK< I'm now holding a glass of water and proceed to dumping it out on my head. I look down at my hands, legs, and feet and see what looks like thick cobwebs all over me, my feet looked like feet of a scamp (like in TES: Oblivion). My skin is melting off my hands and I see bone. >I BLINK< My three friends are around me and this is when I seriously thought all hope was lost and I wasn't ever coming back. Their skin turned red, their eyes black, and they started moving closer and then a giant biohazard symbol appears in my view in midair. My friends suddenly are themselves again but right as I realize what they just were they instantaneously transformed right back into the black eyed demons and all pounce me simultaneously. I blacked out and the next thing I see is myself as a corpse on the ground, rotten, decayed, lifeless. Blood spurts out of the carpet, the walls, drips from the ceiling onto everything and I have a sudden shock of utmost absolute terror. I don't see anyone or hear anything living, all the furniture, posters, everything all is decayed. Whenever I turn my head I think my time is up and I'll see the Grim Reaper standing a few feet in front of me, waiting to take me. I black out and my friends are back, things are still on edge of looking as if they could transform back into a living nightmare. One of them offers for me to go to a bed near me, I don't know how I got there but I did. He then says while smiling "Would you like to see yourself in a mirror?" I thought that the second I saw myself I would be that same rotten, decayed corpse, and the trip was still happening and this was going to continue. I go to the bathroom with my friend and I look to see myself. I had two horrible black eyes, my face had multiple cuts, my eyes were bloody, and I looked emaciated. I went back to the bed unsure of what was coming, if anything. I fell asleep and woke up and discussed the events of last night with my friends.

According to them I had been acting horribly violent, I was fighting them aggressively and was trying to kill them. I had used my Mac as a weapon and threw it at one of them, destroying the computer entirely. I had tackled one of them into a wall and caused them severe back pain. I kept rambling on about water, life, the end of the world, the apocalypse, demons, and the sort. I haven't tripped since then only until last night when I did a dose of 2C-B. I've thought about it almost every day since and am trying to discover the trigger of why that happened, what would of made me so unlike myself. I still yet to have found out why.

 

[Anon610]

Have you ever had a 'bad trip'?

I'm curious. I read, and hear a lot about people having 'bad trips'. Anyone else out there who has done a lot of psychedelic drugs and never experienced a bad trip?
If so what is your usage history?

Personally, I've done DMT the most. I started using Psychedelics when I turned 18 almost 2 years ago. Turning 20 in July.
Psilocybin - 28 times.
DMT - ~100 times. (Estimate, but more than 8 grams.)
LSD - 3 times. (Went too far last time I used LSD. Dumbass kid dosed me with ~1.5mg.)
Ayahuasca - 2 times.
25I-NBOMe and 25C-NBOMe - 4 times.
Unknown DOx compound once.


Anyway, they say its about set and setting. And honestly I've done em all in weird settings. Even with people I just met. No problems. Which surprises me because I have really bad anxiety.
Just trying to get an insight and find out if other people just are I guess 'immune' to bad trips.

 

[my3rdeye]

No you are not immune to bad trips, its impossible to say that. You havent had one yet. You only took LSD 3 times.

 

[Anon610]

No you are not immune to bad trips, its impossible to say that. You havent had one yet. You only took LSD 3 times.

That was a little misleading lol. I know I'm not immune to it. But is it because simply of the knowledge and respect I have for psychedelics?
Even on mushrooms, some people claim to have horrible, horrible trips on shrooms. A few friends of mine hate shrooms because they never have a good time but love LSD.

And I'll do more LSD and be confident things will be fine. Just hard to find around here. But even on about ten hits of LSD I was absolutely fine.

 

[Disconnect]

I think it has a lot to do with the way people think about their experiences.

Does difficult = bad or does difficult = a possible learning experience?

 

[cyberius]

Yes I have. My first drug experience at all was with MDMA and it was fucking satanic on the come-up, especially since I took a heroic dose of 280mg on mistake.

After I came up though, it was the best night of my life, and I have never tried to fight back against a drug again, and I've never had a bad trip.

 

[Morninggloryseed]

A 'bad trip' is such a loaded phrase. What is 'bad' itself is a loaded word because so often only when people are 'bad' can they see the good, and (hopefully) aspire to reach it. One thing is for sure, a traumatic and difficult psychedelic experience is like any harrowing life experience....some people will take the experience and 'learn' from it...then move to the next step. And those people will often not label the difficult psychedelic experience as a 'bad trip' because those people will see the experience as having made them stronger from the pain, and wiser from the experience.

And there are other people who will label the difficult psychedelic experience as a 'bad trip' and may often then think 'dangerous illegal drugs' and maybe even think on some level that, "this experience caused me to face things I wasn't ready to face" but that is often to deep for those people so to cope, they have a defense mechanism were by the difficult experience becomes an external issue related to 'dangerous hallucinogens.'

Anyway, that's how I see 'bad trips'

I suppose a bad trip to me would be one that resulted in me losing a body part, or perhaps being arrested for some odd reason.....I've cut my teeth on some pretty difficult psychedelic experiences and those are the ones that I remember most as growing experiences. I've never had a bad trip. I don't 'believe' in them in my world.

 

[TheAppleCore]

^ Great post.

One of the greatest lessons that psychedelics have taught me is that nothing is "bad", and nothing in this world is to be feared. Pain and suffering abound, to be certain, but all is love in the end.

 

[Morninggloryseed]

Respect!

 

[sekio]

Don't ever make the mistake of assuming you're immune to bad trips, because you've never had one before. That's a surefire way to get burned.

Most of the time, bad trips are caused by only a few things.
1. Doing psychedelics in an inappropriate circumstance. Say, doing acid in your bedroom with your anti-drug parents outside. Or doing DXM at school.
2. Taking the wrong drug (testing/labeling issue, or recklessness), too much of a drug (measurement error or plain foolishness), or having an unexpected drug interaction.
3. Unexpected intensity of the trip causing e.g. paranoia that spirals out of control.

If you respect psychedelics and yourself, and have a understanding of the drug (and a sitter) you'll be a lot more likely to weather a potentially bad trip in good spirits. Even then, eventually you're going to run into some combination of circumstance and drug use that leaves you less than happy at the end.

It also depends how you define "bad trip" - if for instance you eat a few grams of shrooms looking for some nice visuals and a buzz, and end up having a hellish introspective visions that leaves you curled up in the dark, insecure and alone, trying to avoid any stimulus, some people may actually interpret that as a bad trip rather than a "healing experience". But I know some people who think that's a good use of their Friday night, so to each their own.

TL;DR If you keep pushing your luck, you'll eventually have something you could call a bad trip. Even if it's not a textbook hellish experience from beginning to end, some trips are just better than others. (You could also have something really fucked up happen, like watching a friend die, or get arrested or robbed or something. That tends to make trips sour really fucking fast.)

 

[TangerinO]

I had an extremely terrifying experience on acid maybe the fourth or fifth time I did it. Unexpectedly large dose in a horrible setting.

I wouldn't call it a bad trip, I learned a shit ton, but your average inexperienced user eating a tab and having that experience, would almost certainly think of it as a bad trip.

 

[2002Tii]

I've had multiple and I agree that difficult is a much better description of it. Each one has left me better off in the long run.

 

[I<3Hallucinogens]

my experiences with psychedelics is kinda limited, only tried mushrooms 5 or 6 times and salvia a handful along with 2c-i, and i havnt had a bad trip yet. i also agree with what morningloryseed said about not having bad trips, just difficult experiences. now again, ive never experienced one, but in the state of mind ive been in since a very intense salvia trip, i feel like im as ready as i can be to face any demons that may come out and greet me. when this will happen, idk but im sure it will at some point, and im going to get through it then be a stronger person from it.

 

[Morphling]

Not had bad trips, just ones that were too intense.

 

[One Two THREE]

From my 3rd experience with lsd (3/3), I smoked quite a bit of weed on the come up expecting it to be a beautiful smooth ride like the two times before on it, when it turned dramatically south. I was in my friends apartment on 3 hits and smoked and after a "friend" left, got a knock on the door of a neighbor complaining of the smell in a very threatening manner. I thought it was the police in the first place, so I was already out of my mind in a way. As we panicked about moving paraphernalia and weed out of the apartment, I tripped two of my best friends out of existence. I believed they were fictitious people I made up myself. Which made me feel hollow and terrified. That specific idea didn't last too long, but that along with specific snapshot faces (hollow and horrifying as well) I can still somewhat imagine (2 months after), made me feel, for lack of a better word, awful for quite a while after the trip. I have definitely learned from the trip but the experience was surely scary.

 

[Transform]

Again, depends on your definition of bad. Every trip has challenging moments, some more than others. I've had maybe one trip that I spent less than 50% of the time enjoying because a lot of the plans fell through and the people I was with just wanted to get stoned and watch cartoons, something I find quite boring and a waste of a trip. It wasn't so much bad as it was just boring, distinctly lacking music and in a poor setting.

 

[Jean-Paul]

even every 'bad' trip was good for me because i learned something i didn't know before. so i mean it was "unpleasant" but i really learned a lot and grew as a person so i don't really i guess, get the the whole bad trip stigma because even when i have a bad experience i still learn something i couln''t have before.

 

[King-Anubis]

Yes I have. My first drug experience at all was with MDMA and it was fucking satanic on the come-up, especially since I took a heroic dose of 280mg on mistake.

Reminds me of my first time with MDMA when I said 'fuck it' and took two and a half blue defqons (For a grand total of ~500mg). That come up was horrendus and I never really got a good feeling in the end. If you can have a bad trip on MDMA I had one that night - nothing but severe anxiety and a "I've way overdone it" feeling. That was completely my fault, however, and I've never been one to say to people to 'avoid' MDMA because it's horrible. I just tell them to take a sensible, non-reckless dose!

 

[kidklmx]

Have had quite some emotional trips. Wouldn't call them bad trips per se, these trips allowed me to face my problems from all kinds of angles. If it makes you cry or sad its not a bad trip, just not an enjoyable one

Had a "sensory overload" once at some glow in the dark event thing and just went home. Once I got outside it was all great and amazing though, it's all set/setting and dose with this kind of trip. I guess we're all bound to have these and it teaches you to take psychedelics in a respectful way. I'd say this qualifies as a bad trip, you don't really learn a lot from it, but in no way is it uncontrollable. Some might say external factors, but if your dose is high enough that you're not able to deal with it, then you definitely did something wrong. (E.g right dose for the right place/activity, you know the deal) Everyone has bad judgement every once and a while, so it's not like you're using psychedelics improperly or anything, just some factors to note for your next experience

 

[cyberius]

Don't ever make the mistake of assuming you're immune to bad trips, because you've never had one before. That's a surefire way to get burned.

Most of the time, bad trips are caused by only a few things.
1. Doing psychedelics in an inappropriate circumstance. Say, doing acid in your bedroom with your anti-drug parents outside. Or doing DXM at school.
2. Taking the wrong drug (testing/labeling issue, or recklessness), too much of a drug (measurement error or plain foolishness), or having an unexpected drug interaction.
3. Unexpected intensity of the trip causing e.g. paranoia that spirals out of control.

If you respect psychedelics and yourself, and have a understanding of the drug (and a sitter) you'll be a lot more likely to weather a potentially bad trip in good spirits. Even then, eventually you're going to run into some combination of circumstance and drug use that leaves you less than happy at the end.

It also depends how you define "bad trip" - if for instance you eat a few grams of shrooms looking for some nice visuals and a buzz, and end up having a hellish introspective visions that leaves you curled up in the dark, insecure and alone, trying to avoid any stimulus, some people may actually interpret that as a bad trip rather than a "healing experience". But I know some people who think that's a good use of their Friday night, so to each their own.

TL;DR If you keep pushing your luck, you'll eventually have something you could call a bad trip. Even if it's not a textbook hellish experience from beginning to end, some trips are just better than others. (You could also have something really fucked up happen, like watching a friend die, or get arrested or robbed or something. That tends to make trips sour really fucking fast.)

I also found fighting the drugs effect can push you into a really bad place. On my MDMA bad trip, I felt pretty good until I started fighting back because it was too intense. I was trying to tame the drugs wild interactions with my body, when I should of had just let it run its course the whole time.