Low dose bad trips.

[DreadheadIOW]

So first of all I'd like to say hey, i'm still new to this site and clueless so forgive me if this is in the wrong place.

So recently a friend of mine tried lsd for the fist time. He's in his early twenties and experienced in cocaine, mdma and cannabis but was still somewhat nervous, so he only done 1/3 of a "125ug" blotter. He was loving it whiles he was with us, he said lights were brighter, everything was breathing but nothing too extreme, he added that it felt abit like mdma. (this is what I expected.)
Later that night at about 1 (4 hours after dropping) I received a weird phone call from him. He was crying and telling me how he's was "sketching out" and might tell his mum, he also told me he wanted to go to the hospital. I managed to talk him down eventually but apparently he didn't sleep that night...
I was so surprised, I'm quite experienced with acid and have never seen someone react that bad to a low does. I didn't think it was possible to have such a intense bad trip on such a small amount (no more that 40ug.)
He refuses to touch acid ever again..
Has anyone else experienced or know someone who's had a bad trip on a low does like this?
I know it's a kinda pointless question but I'm just really curious.
Thanks for reading

 

[mr peabody]

Was he smoking cannabis? That would explain it. Smoking weed is a frequent cause of bad trips because it greatly intensifies the effects of any psychedelic substance, no matter the dose. There is always a risk.

 

[Rehabicable]

Some people don't mix with acid.. i have a friend who in a similar situation ended up having a freakout from one blotter when another friend and I had both taken 2 each of the same batch and were fine and not even tripping much..
Sometimes i'm guessing that a batch of blotter's aren't evenly distributed (?) and some may have more actual product on one piece than other pieces.. Obviously state of mind and if he was anxious or depressed or things like PTSD are factors but if it really was a low dose then you'd think that bad of a trip would be highly unlikely..

 

[DreadheadIOW]

Was he smoking cannabis? That would explain it. Smoking weed is a frequent cause of bad trips because it greatly intensifies the effects of any psychedelic substance, no matter the dose. There is always a risk.

Yeah, but we're every day smokers so I didn't really take that into account.
Personally I think the combos perfect, but I guess everyones different...

 

[mr peabody]

Combining weed and LSD is like walking on extremely thin ice for certain individuals. Weed certainly can cause a bad trip and that's happened to me repeatedly. By the way, your friend will be fine as long as he completely refrains from smoking weed on the day. The way forward is to do 1/4 tab on it's own (with nothing else), and keep doing that until he regains his confidence. It'll take a little while, but that's better than the alternative - an extended period of disillusionment.

Best wishes now and always.

 

[JimChalk]

Acid's unpredictable...as is our subconscious mind. Dosage will give you some indication of the destination, the duration and the scenery....but as soon as the mind is off the leash - you're at the mercy of yourself. I've had high doses where the world turns to glue, then you fall off it and I've had high doses with no visuals but insanity that has scared psychiatrists. But - that said - around my neck of the woods, it's rule of thumb that your first drop won't get you on the bus unless you really go in hard. The quantity you mention wouldn't have registered. I'm not being patronising here or want to give egg sucking lessons, but if your friend struggled here, he's going to suffer at a later stage for sure. A good friend of mine threw himself out of a window head first (survived thank god) - he hadn't taken any substance for two years...but I was there on his first serious trip and wish I had stopped him then.

Sorry for the gloomy response

 

[LucidSDreamr]

A good friend of mine threw himself out of a window head first (survived thank god) - he hadn't taken any substance for two years...but I was there on his first serious trip and wish I had stopped him then.

Sorry for the gloomy response

so the public service announcements are true

 

[tokezu]

DreadheadIOW, so your friend took LSD with you but then went home pretty soon after? Was it planned like that? Sounds like a less than ideal setting for a first trip to me. Also given his experience with other drugs, it could have simply been the long duration of LSD that made it troublesome for him, if he wasn't quite expecting that.

Combining weed and LSD is like walking on extremely thin ice for certain individuals. Weed certainly can cause a bad trip and that's happened to me repeatedly. By the way, your friend will be fine as long as he completely refrains from smoking weed on the day. The way forward is to do 1/4 tab on it's own (with nothing else), and keep doing that until he regains his confidence. It'll take a little while, but that's better than the alternative - an extended period of disillusionment.

Best wishes now and always.

Your right in pointing out the possible risks of combining weed with psychedelics as many people seem to completely overlook those. But I think you're going a little bit overboard here, it seems like your saying if he doesn't smoke weed next time then nothing could possibly go wrong. But people have difficult experiences for countless reasons. Slowly titrating your dose is always a good idea, I agree.

 

[DreadheadIOW]

DreadheadIOW, so your friend took LSD with you but then went home pretty soon after? Was it planned like that?

No, everyone else dropped a good few hours earlier, he came round late and he didn't want to miss out. Again I thought at such a low does it wouldn't be a issues...

 

[DreadheadIOW]

I think the problem was me trying to predict the effects using my personal experiences... I guess some people just can't handle it.
Hes been off with me ever since..
I feel awful just wanted to show him the beautiful world of lsd..

 

[DreadheadIOW]

Thanks for the replies, mentioned alot of things I didn't consider..
Just need to find away to make it up to him now...

 

[Tranced]

So first of all I'd like to say hey, i'm still new to this site and clueless so forgive me if this is in the wrong place.

So recently a friend of mine tried lsd for the fist time. He's in his early twenties and experienced in cocaine, mdma and cannabis but was still somewhat nervous, so he only done 1/3 of a "125ug" blotter. He was loving it whiles he was with us, he said lights were brighter, everything was breathing but nothing too extreme, he added that it felt abit like mdma. (this is what I expected.)
Later that night at about 1 (4 hours after dropping) I received a weird phone call from him. He was crying and telling me how he's was "sketching out" and might tell his mum, he also told me he wanted to go to the hospital. I managed to talk him down eventually but apparently he didn't sleep that night...
I was so surprised, I'm quite experienced with acid and have never seen someone react that bad to a low does. I didn't think it was possible to have such a intense bad trip on such a small amount (no more that 40ug.)
He refuses to touch acid ever again..
Has anyone else experienced or know someone who's had a bad trip on a low does like this?
I know it's a kinda pointless question but I'm just really curious.
Thanks for reading

Two years ago I took seven liberty caps whilst picking mushrooms (they're a lot smaller than cubensis and most other psilocybin mushrooms... I'd usually consider about twenty to be a low dose 'trip', and the most I've taken was 43 which produced a +3); I was expecting very little, maybe a mild and pleasant buzz to perk up my day, but they actually totally unexpectedly kicked my arse.

At the time I was still deep inside a relatively prolonged period of anxiety and depression and the mushrooms heightened this significantly, giving a dark vibe (which I could tell was simply a display of my emotions at the time...), and a very strong impression that I was letting my life go seriously downhill (which I was). It was a horrible experience and I was surprised and shocked at the power which could be expressed from such a small amount of psilocybin/psilocin. It was a very mild experience... the visuals were borderline, but my emotions and anxiety were markedly enhanced.

The point being that anxiety and depression are such significant factors in causing 'bad trips'.

People with bad anxiety IME are usually the people who struggle with psychedelics. Your thoughts and emotions are so intensified that even at lower doses than usual, peoples thoughts can easily start running out of control and lead to paranoia and/or a panic attack, or the fear of such (which is a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy).

Basically, if you have a tendency for worrying, expect it to come up on psychedelics! Would that description describe your friend?

 

[DreadheadIOW]

Wow that mad! I'm always careful with shrooms, there potency verys so much from cap to cap..

People with bad anxiety IME are usually the people who struggle with psychedelics. Your thoughts and emotions are so intensified that even at lower doses than usual, peoples thoughts can easily start running out of control and lead to paranoia and/or a panic attack, or the fear of such (which is a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy).

Basically, if you have a tendency for worrying, expect it to come up on psychedelics! Would that description describe your friend?

Hmmm well to be honest he's never been one to talking about his emotions and feeling, so I wouldn't know...
Maybe he has a lot of suppressed feelings up there??

 

[Tranced]

Wow that mad! I'm always careful with shrooms, there potency verys so much from cap to cap..




Hmmm well to be honest he's never been one to talking about his emotions and feeling, so I wouldn't know...
Maybe he has a lot of suppressed feelings up there??

BTW, you don't need to have severe day to day anxiety to have a bad trip, but when your mind is altered on psychedelics, you're just so much more likely to experience uncontrollable anxiety, which I'd say is pretty much at the very root of almost all bad trips... even from very low doses. It's just that I find that more worrisome minds are generally prepositioned to this.

If your friend is the kind of person to keep his emotions locked up, then maybe try to explain to him that it's best to let it out and discuss it and that you'll be a friendly ear. Keeping it all locked up isn't the best approach to getting over this.