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[Bad Trip Subthread] How to handle or prevent a bad trip

Ive had my fair share of psychosis and bad trips mostly from lsd but I have learnt some very important facts about psychedelics as much as you have to be physically prepared you also have to be mentally and spiritually prepared as well.

Firstly if you are going to trip make sure you have a good posse of good friends, make sure you rock up to the event together and take your drugs together(at least the first psychedelic dose ect..) for some reason friends not only protect you emotionally and physically but the bon of friendship also helps to keep out those unwanted miscevious entities you may encounter while your flying in those higher planes, without friends or if you dose before you meet your friends you leave yourself extreemly vunerable if you dose before you meet your friends you will be on a different level than them and depending on how much it effects you, they may be there in the physical but you will not be able to make contact with them.

When the trip is coming to an end try and go back to the place where you first dosed if possible this ensures that you make a good landing and trust me good landings can be very very rewarding. If your doseing by yourself at home you can do this fine without worries of entities fucking with you, its only when you start to come into contact with oher people that bad entities can use their bodies as a catalyst (dont ask me how but ive experienced this many times). Just make sure your comfortable in your environment set up a playlist, candles, inscense ect... and definatly try meditation if you start to feel yourself comeing disconected. Also shoot off a few prayers and ask for protection you never know it might help.

A good way to avoid a bad trip is to write a note for yourself, or have somthing you can refer to if things start to get bad, somthing to bring you back to reality, its also good to have things like fruit, food ect... things that will help bring you back to earth.

If you have more ofhe psychedelic than you were planning to take then make sure that you store the rest of it in a safe place that you will not think to look, as you may find yourself munching the rest of it which dosent go down too well as you will imagine.

Disconnect the home phone if possible keep a mobile handy but possibly not on you as mobiles allways tripped me the fuck out. If you find you are freaking the fuck out and you want to come down get some scotch, it definatly levels you out, take a shower get into comfortable clothes this will help bring you down, try not to watch tv as it will probabbly blow your mind if your in that state just roll yourself into a ball in some blankets hit the scotch and chill to your favorite tunes also try and put on some happy uplifting music (me and a friend were listing to some dark music cant remeber exactly what it was but we were crying our eyes out locked in a room tripping the fuck out)

I cant think of much more atm but ill edit it to include some things that will help.
 
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Xorkoth said:
However, some people truly have had bad trips which have left lasting, scarring impressions on them. From what I can tell, this usually happens when someone takes a psychedelic drug not knowing the depths that they can travel to and not expecting or wanting that kind of experience. Then, when their ego is brutally destroyed and they find out that their ego and entire life is an illusion, they reject the idea completely, leading to confusion, terror, and so forth. The difference is that after they come down, instead of thinking that they're glad they had the experience and seeing existence in a new way, they deny and suppress it. But meanwhile, they're torn, because the experience they had seemed so real. So bam! they're stuck in an existential crisis when all they wanted was to get fucked up and party.
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That's exactly what happened to me. I don't know anyone else IRL who's had the same type of thing happen to them, so it's really nice to come on BL and see that I'm not alone.
I definitely have a lot more respect - and fear - of psychedelics now... I drink alcohol to get fucked up now. And also to forgot about my fear of existence. :/
 
^here too.
Xorkoth hit a huge nail on the head with that last line. Do you have any further info on dealing with this existential crisis, which still occasionally rears it's ugly head (after 2 years without psychs).

glogga, you are so right. nice one :)
 
L2R said:
Do you have any further info on dealing with this existential crisis...
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There is an entire school of philosophy and also one of psychology that deals with such existential issues and mans search for meaning. IMNSHO There are basically two (honest) answers to the world once you have seen the Abyss and it has looked through you… you can attempt to create a life of genuine humanistic values that are authentically your own and not merely given by mom, dad, culture, tradition, etc. or you can try and cross the Abyss into the realms of the transpersonal.

The French Existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre had one hell of a bummer on mescaline, but managed to live an engaged and meaningful life without recourse to God etc.

The psychiatrist Stanislav Grof started as an atheist and was forced to traverse the realms beyond those of the individual psyche in order to find answers to the challenges his sessions with LSD provided.

Readings by writers in the vein of Existential and Transpersonal Psychology might help you come to terms with what you experienced.

This is the important part though, whatever road you opt to take it must be authentic and it must acknowledge what you have already experienced as real. Fleeing to the safe harbors of the given (static routine, dogma, alcohol, etc.) will not undo what you have lived.

Stanislav Grof has a book called “LSD Psychotherapy” (among others) that might be of some use. There are several different existential philosophers or psychologists who deal with the issue of authentically living your life and confronting the core questions and trials of existence. There is also a growing number of persons schooled in transpersonal psychology that discuss the integration of non-ordinary states of experience. In addition to Grof who was already mentioned, possibly Ken Wilber would be a very good read in this area.

I hope this has been somewhat useful? Maybe?

Anyway, both wingnutlives and L2R feel free to PM me any questions about the above, integrating abreactions, etc.

I B
 
Your words are cutting right down to my bones man. I'll look into your recommendations.

The examples you've mentioned of people managing to live an adequate life beyond such experiences are reassuring, as losing touch with loved ones (especially in my prime (i'm 29)) is one of my greatest fears.

thank you :)

edit: just talking about it like this is bringing back the still dreadful synchronicities. two workmates just walked in from lunch and their dialogue seemed to communicate to me something they weren't saying. Something really uncomfortable. :(

am i broken?
 
^ I doubt it dude. The fact that you are even aware of these facets of yourself is pretty healthy, IMO.

You're probably less broken than the majority of people out there. :)
 
i thought bad trips only happened when you took too much, or you took the drug because you needed to escape from reality really bad...Am I right?
 
^nah bad trips can creap up on you even if the set and setting and mindset is perfect at the start of the trip you can be throwen into hell very quickly.
 
I don't really have any advice off the top of my head, as I always took psychedelics to try to discover what I could, so I never got stuck in a major existential crisis. I was able to take what I saw and rearrange my concept of reality pretty easily. I was just mentioning what I've noticed has happened to people who seem to have long-term negative reactions to trips. But I'll think about it.

And bikki, nice post. But I'm not sure the friend thing applies to everyone or every situation. It's true that having good friends can buffer you from getting too lost within yourself, but it also highly depends on how well your friends can handle tripping. Personally, my old friends from my childhood are terrible at tripping and always, every time, end up dragging me down into a paranoid, anxiety-filled experience. Because of that, I started tripping alone, and now, tripping alone is by far the easiest way for me to do so. When I'm tripping hard, being around people is extremely difficult for me for some reason. I think it just depends on your relationship with yourself.
 
In my case I absolutely agree with above - tripping alone is easiest for me. Even if I have hard trip I can manage and don't panic(actually kinda like those scary once).
When tripping with others, probably I care too much about their well being to relax completely and if they freaking out I might be as good.
 
Cheers Church :)

Back in the day, i'd become almost mute when tripping, even when with others. The hyperstimulation makes me choke on my words because too much was happening upstairs to be able to focus enough to complete proper sentances.
 
--------UPDATE--------



I have the wiki set up (no its not a commercial wiki site im running it on my server), for now im going to contact the people i know will be helpfull and make usernames for them on the site. If anyone would like to contribute to the page contact me any of various ways i have posted in my profile.

IT IS a public wiki theres no password to view it, but im just not comfortable letting all of bl roam over it. So like i said, PM me and ill set you up with a user on the server. A number of you are already being contacted simply because i know who you are.

When it is finished it will be ported over to BL, we arent using the wiki for bluelight just as a whiteboard for creating the guide, i dont have the bandwidth to let the entire world browse the wiki.
 
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It seems apparent that "bad trip" means different things to different people, & that even someone's own definition of a bad trip will change over time & with experience.

I've never totally lost it in a classical "bad trip" sort of manner, but I've had "difficult" or "unpleasant" experiences. I'd describe such experiences as having an uncomfortable body load (e.g., muscle tension, headaches, blurred vision, nausea, histamine reactions) & high anxiety. Under such circumstances I've been able to turn around or terminate a difficult experience by getting to a safe/quiet place (w/o driving yourself anywhere), treating the body symptoms (w/ pain relievers, muscle relaxants, antihistamines) and anxiety (w/ benzos or antipsychotics).

I have a friend who accidently took 150mg instead of 15mg of 2C-I & had a "difficult" experience. He first checked to make sure it wasn't a lethal overdose, then moved to a safe & quiet location to ride it out. After 4 hours & no sign of leveling off he took 20mg hydro, 20mg hydroxyzine & 20mg diazepam. 15 minutes later he was comfortable, calm & actually enjoying the rest of the experience.

I wouldn't recommend any particular remedy for turning around or terminating a "bad trip" to anyone. You've got to know how your milage varies. However, I don't think you can go to far wrong if you can improve your set & setting and treat any bodily discomfort & anxiety.
 
I personally think a small dose of opiates is a little better than benzos as an emergency brake for a psychedelic trip. Less memory loss and it forces an aura of positivity and euphoria.

Why do trips go bad? They don't, people do.
 
When we say bad trip, as far as the guide is concerned, at least *I* mean difficult experience, unwanted side effects like headaches etc are another issue entirely. My meaning would be an experience that is fairly unpleasant or causing highly irrational thinking paterns (you know what i mean), theres a point where stimulation or extreem mental push from the drug is just not bearable, leading some people to go to the hospital.

I used to use oxycodone with any psychedelic i took, every time it pushed things to a positive direction, the absolute most amazing trip i ever had was one i used oxycodone with. I would say theres a fairly strong correlation there at the least, seems to be nearly every time someone uses opiates with psychedelics it helps to calm the person and help them enjoy the experience.
 
8( Well for a trip headache 800mg motrin does wonders.

As for a bad trip recipe, I try and use a sort of chi, where I push the bad things down towards my feet using deep breaths. And with a sort of pushing motion with hands in front of me fingertips touched with a downward motion. I can usually feel the bad energy leaving my body via I know this sounds nasty but out of my orfices (pee hole and asshole).
Also just thinking happy thoughts like I may get some pussy in a little while from my g/f or I have a nice ambien waiting for sleep later, or some cold beers for later.. ::knocks on wood:: I have been almost caught in that loop of maybe spiraling into a bad trip..But I try and use these things to clear my head
 
The best thing is to have a line or a concept or something in your head that you go back to when you start getting anxious about something. For me its usually something like "just try and enjoy this for a bit" "just smile and let the trip take you" and "nothing exists except this very moment. I have not a worry in the world right now"
 
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