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  • Trip Reports Moderator: Cheshire_Kat

Cannabis - Years of Experience - Heart Attack? Panic Attack? Flashback?

hetzjagd

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 14, 2003
Messages
55
Marijuana - Years of Experience - Heart Attack? Panic Attack? Flashback?

Hey there,
I've smoked weed for about 2 and a bit years and I've had more than my fair share of experiences including bad and terrible ones. Just recently though, this weekend I had 2 COMPLETE freak outs like I have never had before. Before I get started on the details I'd just like to note I've taken lsd once (approx 1.5 months ago, maybe 2) and mushrooms twice (once about 2 or 4 months ago and the second time with acid). I've done pills about 7 or 9 times and I've found usually the more md-substance in the pill the more I hallucinate (i.e. the best pills I've had were much love + visuals). I must've smoked up 200 or more separate occaisions in my "career" thus far.

This all happened just the last weekend starting on friday.
I started off with sharing a jay with a friend before a movie. The effects weren't very pronounced but when it came to talking I got my words mixed up majorly. Apart from this and a freaky movie my high wasn't particuarly unusual and in fact was very light. About 2 or 3 hours later I smoked again before bed. I had about 2 or 3 cones of the same weed, thinking I would need to get some good hits in to feel the effects. Well my memory is really damaged for the weekend in question but from memory of friday after I smoked I can remember;
1. Lying in bed in the dark and with the light on desperately sure if I didn't get murdered that night then it would happen one night soon.
2. Having intense body rushes and CEVs as well as minor yet very noticable OEVs.

As for the first point, it sounds stupid but I seriously could not reason with myself why it would be possible that I was not going to die soon. So thus I was totally convinced that I was going to die either that night or real soon. In retrospect the person I thought might murder me probably wouldn't do it, there would be a very small chance of it.

This was a very rough experience but not as much as a mind shake as possible because I smoked the next day and the day following that (sunday).

Now Sunday (last night) was where this became a HUGE problem for me. Again my memory is really fucked and I only remember chunks of the event but not when or in what order they happened.

I mixed the last of my weed from friday in with some totally separate weed which I had not smoked before. I had, I think, 2 cones and felt relatively fine. I felt stoned but I didn't note any anxiety/stress or fear of any kind. About 10 or 20 minutes after smoking I am in bed and I decide to put on Marilyn Manson's The Last Tour On Earth. As the opening track plays I can feel myself getting into it and really riding on that music-high you can get with weed. The second song starts and I start to notice that I'm breathing really hard and I'm starting not to feel comfortable in the position I'm lying in. I keep trying to move around and get comfortable but the pain/ill feeling wont go and it starts to get stronger. At this point I am getting strong patterns and colours for oev in the dark. I try to close my eyes but there is a massive body rush and it is too intense. I NEED to turn the lights on and get my head together. I take off my headphones and I now realise how fucked I am. My body feels paralysed and unusual. I think if I have ever experienced this feeling before in my life it must have happened only once or twice and somehow I dont remember it. At the moment though it's not TOO bad (as compaired to as bad as it got).

I am now lying in bed with the light on and I notice I am tripping. I dont know why or how but the walls are breathing. My poster is moving and focusing on certain points in the poster makes it look "differant" (I dont know how...a bit weak sounding I know but thats just how I interpreted the effect at the time). I look over at the wall to my left and I try to judge how far it is from me. I can't do it because the wall and the fan next to it keep easing slowly closer to me and then sliding away from me. Im starting to panic a little bit, I've had these sort of intense effects before from drugs but not usually all of them at once and not from 2 cones of fucking weed!

I start to notice I'm having trouble breathing. I try and inhale deeply and force the air down my throat or through my nose but it just feels like only a tiny portion of air is making it through to the vital zones. My body feels totally fucked (how is that for descriptive), I say this because I have never had this feeling before and its not pleasent. Where to begin. Putting my hand on my chest it feels like my left pectorial area is sort of pulsating up and down independantly to my heart beat which made it hard to take my pulse. Eventually I was able to control it and feel my heart and it was totally racing so much that it didnt feel like a normal heart beat. You know how your normal beat is dun dun.....dun dun... dun dun. Well mine just sounded all out of whack like dun dun dun..dundun..dun..dundun (except all of those were faster and without any break in between but you get the idea that there was almost no pattern to the beat). This also adds to my freak out. I dont really know what to do so I just lie there and think that this has to pass some time, I can only be "so" stoned and it'll end soon. I now notice that after about 5 seconds of inactivity any part of my body will just seize up and go insanely numb and feel totally alien. To move my arms for instance, is really difficult cause I can't feel most of them. I keep lying still and shifting when I feel my body go numb and the "feeling" creep over me again but it just gets progressively worse. It's like I have to struggle to move but once I get going I'm fine but then if I stop moving even briefly it kicks in hard again. I smoked at about 10:45pm and I started having the bad feelings around 11pm. I remember staring at my clock at around 11:20pm just telling myself "This is the weed, you're fucked up but it'll pass, take it easy" but I just keep watching the clock and time wont move (as I expect). I do this for about 5 minutes, seeing the time pass INCREDIBLY slowly...then bam

What happened? It's after midnight...How the fuck did that happen? Oh well at least it's passed - no it hasn't! FUCK! (these thoughts occured in about the space of a second or two after regaining conciousness) The feeling or high is back and its possibly stronger now. At some point I'm struggling to stop the visuals open and closed eye. On one hand the closed eye visuals are just TOO intense and rapid but at least I can sort of concentrate on them and sort of lose the pain in my body. On the other hand the open eye world is terrible, disorientating visuals aswell as immense body pain.

This is taking so long to explain so I will cut it short and summarise the gist I want to get across.

Friday, low dose of weed, deep/intense fear/paranoia, mild to medium CEVs and very quickly passing mild OEVs (I normally get CEV with weed but not this intense or detailed).

Sunday, low dose of weed (especially compaired to what I smoked in between Friday night and the Sunday night), strong! CEVs and mild OEVs, trouble breathing ( along with intense fear that I'm going to stop breathing or that something terrible is happening to my body healthwise), complete memory loss for various chunks of a 2 hour period (possibly blackouts), what I can only describe as body paralysis except for my head and neck (despite that I could move if I really struggled but the sensation was entirely that my body was telling me not to move) and also just incredible body sensations such as numbness and pain/discomfort. I also should mention that for about an hour my body had occaisional spasms. The one I remember was lying down my left leg just sort of kicked up.

---------------------

That is pretty scattered and hard to read, I know, but this is about as best as I can explain it. Just reading it, it doesn't even sound right or possible but this is literally what happened. The only shortfall (Apart from grammar and writing technique) of my report is that I've left so much out. Almost all of the effects I described were persistant (I had two chunks of just completely lost 30 or 40 minute periods) and/or occured multiple times. I tried as hard as I could to regain control of what was happening but failed miserably. I tried breathing calmly and trying to relax but that didn't help. I thought I might have been dehydrated so I sipped water occaisionly. I thought I might've been lying in an odd position and my blood flow was fucked or something so I brought my feet towards my waist and had my knees up and lay back but that didnt help.

Normally I love weed as much as the next person and will smoke all my weed until I have none left. Right now there's a fat little mix in my drawers that I dont even want to look at and I don't know when I will be able to bring myself to smoke it considering I CANT handle going through this again.

If anyone has any ideas what happened to me I'd appreciate the input.
 
Sorry man, you've crossed the threshold that many pot-smokers have as well. Indeed you are having panic attacks.

I had some very bad panic attacks a few months ago, and I thought weed might be ruined for me for good. My first and most extreme panic attack happened after smoking pot at the peak of a DXM trip. For the next 2 hours I literally thought I might die from a heart attack at any minute. After that I had some more panic attacks on weed alone that weren't quite as bad, but still made weed an unenjoyable experience.

So I read about panic attacks and realized it happens to a lot of people. Here's what helped me enjoy pot again (although not to the same extent as I used to, admittedly):

1. Remember that weed does increase heart rate, so that's normal.
2. Remember that nobody ever died from weed.
3. Smoke less weed in each session.
4. If you are willing to, take a few weeks or a month off from smoking pot.
5. Smoke slowly, and over time, rather than taking a few huge hits off a bong right at once.

Hope this helps you, and remember what you went through happens to a lot of people. You're lucky to have the sense to ask about it here though so you can know what's going on.

peace
 
^^ Good tips bluedolphin.

You can find a series of placebos, smoking methods, breathing exercises.... when a panic attack or a wave of anxiety comes on, but you must think to yourself.. in the long run, is ignoring the message such a good thing? Personally, I've found I can stop panic attacks coming on by doing such things and deep breathing.. then holding breath.. and even things like sneezing. It's all in your head, but your mind controls the body.

Marijuana is a very psychological high. It's all in your head (as all drugs) but I have found I can focus on something very minor.. like a muscle jump or slight pain.. concentrate on it when high, and the pain increases and increases, I can actually make myself hurt using my mind. Then, I can snap out of it in a second, just by knowing it's in my head.

I really recommend stopping for a month.. maybe 2 months. have a joint.. see what happens. Be around close friends in a good environment. Smoke slowly, don't have like 80 cones to catch up.. because you'll obviously have a massive panic attack.

Good luck in the future anyway bud.
 
I too get panic Attacks preety easily on Weed especially when I'm lighting it up at home or in a car because I tend to notice my heart beating so quickly. I think that some people get these attacks from either sensitivity to THC or people that are usally prone to Anxiety or Depression or from people who used too many Psychedelics. Weed might open up their weaknesses a bit to much causing them to be more prone to panic attacks.

But I tend to be able to smoke more when I'm at a rave, because maybe I just don't notice my heart beating so quickly because of the music, or because so many others are fucked up as well, so it could be psychelogical. 8(
 
i've had similar things happen to me when really stoned. really strange things which i can't really explain. the only other time its happened when i've tried to have an oobe (outofbody experience).. i feel my whole body go numb and feel as if there is an energy running through it.. my heart seems to speed up lots. the longer this happens, the more chance there is of having sleep paralsyis. i then start having images appear in my mind, these then become remarkably real.. after this stage i've only gone into lucid dreams and no oobe..
 
panic attacks

man you have no idea, my heart goes nuts sometimes and I think I'm dying, I get this enormous sense of dread like, fuck, this is it.... iunno, the doctor told me it happens to people who smoke pot ... rapid increases in heart rate followed by anxiety, insane twithching and such ... don't worry bout it. I quit for awhile then i started again, and I had no problems, then it happened again, so I quit again, and I haven't smoked again yet. After reading that you guys have these panic attacks as well, I may smoke up... like right now
 
i've experienced the same thing. in fact it happens to me on a semi regular basis. i can control and it stop it if the dose is low enough but if i accidentally smoke too much i can't stop the feelings. i believe the numbness and certain other effects are associated with ego loss. the only effective method ive discovered for dealing with it is to let it happen. if i feel like i'm dying or going crazy, i say well lets go crazy and die. so i go lie down and close my eyes and stop fighting it. i just let my ego slip away (as i believe the fear is caused by the ego being afraid to give up control). and before i know i have died (not physically, i just mean ego loss) and while i'm dead i obviously am not at all bothered by the panick attack. i stay dead for about 40 minutes until the weed wears off and then i'm fine.
 
i used to think i knew what a panic attack felt like until i had one, and it scared the shit out of me. Panic attacks are really strange cause even though you know you arent really in harm, you cant tell yourself this and you just get more and more paranoid, at least this is what happens to me, so you feel like something really is wrong with you.

personally i think mild panic attacks can be sorta fun, like a good jolt of adrenaline, but worse ones can be pretty terrible. I never got one until i smoked weed, and now they can be random.
 
3 and half years ago, I had one so-called panic attack. I smoked one really-really big joint and I thought I overdosed with marijuana. My heart was something like 200 in minute. All that horror has been lasted for 6 hours. I tried marijuana after that a few times in very small doses and it was something different, but I didn't know what. And then, about a month after my first panic attack, when I smoked a 1/4 of really-really small joint, it started again. It was much worse then the first time. I started screaming and running around and said that I'm going to have heart attack, so one of my friends took me to the hospital, and there they give me some shit to come down. I stopped smoking for 2 years. And then tried again. Then it was like completely new drug for me. From that time I haven't any bad experiences with marijuana.
 
I thought more along the lines of the bud perhaps being laced with something? I`ve heard stories on OG about laced buds that sounded quite similar. Unfortunately I have never seen/had laced weed, but I do not live in America, so that might be it. What`s with all the people having panic-attacks on weed lately?
 
Splatt said:
t's all in your head (as all drugs) but I have found I can focus on something very minor.. like a muscle jump or slight pain.. concentrate on it when high, and the pain increases and increases, I can actually make myself hurt using my mind. Then, I can snap out of it in a second, just by knowing it's in my head.

Same thing here dude... good to know I'm not the only one.

GrOwThSpUrT... hah that's wild having to press SHIFT for every other letter, anyway I think the reason so many pot smokers are getting panic attacks lately is related to the amount of THC in the buds we're smoking today. When people take ten or twenty hits off one-hit-wonder pot its no surprise they're getting panic attacks, myself included.
 
Indeed good to know i'm not alone too.

I've had several of these panic attacks, while lying in my bed trying to sleep. Small pains, the beating of my heart, my breathing, it all becomes frightening in some way. I think that I'm going to have a heart attack, or just stop breathing when I fall asleep, so sleeping is impossible at that moment.

I had 1 panic attack from weed on a comedown of cocaine, which was the most frightening experience I've ever had. Cried like a baby.. :\

Best thing about that attack was that it stopped me doing cocaine, and the lesser attacks I now once in a while experience from just smoking weed I can live with.
 
panic attacks generally get worse when you overinterpret your "symptoms" like heart beat. i always feel my heart beat faster and faster and if i focus on it it does feel like i'm gonna die and i freak out. if you stop focussing on your body and walk around or just move around in your room (if you can't go outside) or focus on something else like tv or something the panic generally stops (for me anyway). sometimes its hard to stop when you really think your gonna die, just try shifting your attention. don't listen to freak out music listen to something calming like techno or celtic, or something with a strong and consistant beat with no harsh lyrics. good tips from splatt its all in your head. also look to the spiritual/metaphysical aspect maybe you've reached a different "plane" of reality. reality is so funny like that you shift sometimes and freak out (sometimes interpreted as a "flashback"). i don't know if any of this helps, maybe i'm wrong maybe not. good luck.
 
well,I too had a few mild of those panic attacks..
Know what I did? QUIT THE ECSTASY FOR 7 MONTHS!
Now I can smoke weed, hash, anything, everyday, all day, and had nothing of it
Sometimes I still get pretty anxious.. perhaps I've become an anxious person hehe but it doesn't bother me at all, in fact its good to be alway productive and willing to do things.. I certaintly break the "stoner lazy as hell "stereotype.. And I have no panick attacks since december of last year... 1 year! And I took ecstasy again a few times this year.. but it didnt affect me.. Its all about mind control.. and if ucant control it, quit it all for a while. then regain power,. then control it and go back if u wish
I had made a quick research and found out many people that had anxiety or panic attacks on weed only started to notice this after a few months taking ecstasy.. and they only realized it when I asked 'em.. dunno.. I THINK there has some relation, it can't be just a coincidence.. but im no doctor..
 
Panic attacks are not connected with using of ecstasy. I have panic attacks while I haven't been tried any other drug then weed.
 
^ MDMA has been known to induce anxiety and panic attacks.
 
Immortal, that was the WORST bit of logic that I have ever seen posted in these forums.
 
bluedolphin said:
GrOwThSpUrT... hah that's wild having to press SHIFT for every other letter, anyway I think the reason so many pot smokers are getting panic attacks lately is related to the amount of THC in the buds we're smoking today. When people take ten or twenty hits off one-hit-wonder pot its no surprise they're getting panic attacks, myself included.

yeah, could be, but i have never had a "real" panick attack and i smoke the most potent buds every day. the only panick attacks i have are real mild and are a part of everydays life, had that when i was little kid and they don't bother me, it are just annoyances, i accept them. now paranoia is another story. it's somewhat connected; paranoia leads to a panick attack, like eeuh, example: you are smoking a joint outside of school campus, you're fucking tense and think they are all looking at you, teachers everywhere.. that could freak you out and may set of a panic attack, but if you just stay calm and THINK about it you realize it doesn't make sense.. just try to fucking think when you're having a panic attack, now that isn't too hard.. or is it?
 
Anxiety

I have never had a panic attack before when I was not high. Ever since about two years ago when I had my first panic attack from weed I have had them every time I smoke up. It's really depressing. Until now I thought that i was the only person that had this problem. I think that it may have something to do with the LSD, mushrooms, and ecstacy that I have done over the years but I stopped them years ago and I still have this horrible reaction. The main fear that seems to run through my mind is that I am going to die of a heart attack which I know is totally irrational but i can't shake it. It really sucks!
 
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