Having a problem with anxiety/overthinking things during my trips

[drew4008]

With both shrooms and M (mostly shrooms though), I'll be feeling great, social, euphoric/uplifted.. everything I want. But then there's just too many highs and lows. It's hard to fully describe but I'll try, in hopes that other users know what I'm talking about.

I don't think anxiety is totally the right word, but it's like a mix of that and being too introspective and just too 'heady' and all in my mind. I'll be a little too stimulated (jittery) and start thinking about how everyone is thinking, what they're thinking of me, what they're thinking about the conversation they're in and basically over-analyzing my surroundings in the room and the social interactions, particularly as they relate to me.

Smoking weed definitely helped, but I didn't want to overdo it. I've also got some benzos, but again, wasn't sure about the reaction there (same thing with alcohol, which I thought might take the edge off).

Anybody found a good way to subdue this and keep the euphoria to a maximum? I mean I love the clarity.. but the anxiety needs to be limited haha.

 

[transitionsynth]

Our cognitive systems are noisy. They are influenced by our bodies, by our environments and by other people and animals, and so on. Sounds to me like you aren't familiar with techniques for controlling cognitive noise. There are many schools of meditation that have practices designed to train you to stabilize cognitive noise. Psychedelic headspaces can amplify cognitive noise and bring to the surface nexuses of mind-body interaction that go unnoticed in restricted states of consciousness like sobriety. Do you practice meditation? Look into beginner's Tibetan mindfulness meditation. It teaches you to recognize cognitive dissonance and dissociate yourself from it, which then leads to practices for stabilizing the system and eliminating cognitive noise altogether. Meditation and control over psychedelic mindstates go hand in hand.

Also, the "highs and lows" thing you mention is more pronounced, for me personally, with mushrooms than with, say, mescaline or LSD. You might have better luck there. But there is an element of that with any properly psychedelic chemical, so the meditation stuff comes highly recommended.

 

[oar9fi]

The emotional ups and downs are just the nature of the beast with shrooms. A beer or a small dose of a benzo might smooth things out somewhat. Shroom trips are best reserved for special occasions and with people you are completely comfortable with.

When you are with people who you really don't give a fuck even if they are laughing at you it can be fun to just be silly. That is where the real fun is. Not parties. That is my experience. And as for the lows, if you can kind of embrace those feelings you can sometimes have what seems like a negative experience be a learning experience. I've had experiences where I cried about the death of a loved one and it felt so good to cry that I was laughing while crying. Letting go and surrendering to the experience. You probably won't win if you fight it.

I have no Idea what you are referring to as "M" since it can be a number of things. Mdma? Mescaline?

 

[drew4008]

M would be MDMA.. which most times is nothing but a great experience.

And I get what you're saying about the mental aspect, meditation, etc. Don't think I'd go that far (meditating prior to and/or during).. but I definitely noticed that I felt the best when I like.. let myself/my close friends know how good I was feeling and just kept staying in that moment and focusing on the positive mindset to prolong it. It also boosts everyone else around you, since they're eager to get just as euphoric.

But yeah, I'll probably see how the benzos go next time if need-be.

 

[transitionsynth]

Be aware that benzos will only mute the anxiety and paranoia to the extent that they mute the trip as a whole. They're good for aborting a trip, not for maximizing euphoria and limiting anxiety as you indicated in your original post.