Psychedelics and losing touch with reality...

[ovenbakedskittles]

hi im pretty new to psychedelics and i had a question about them but first i wanna tell you about the first time i did shrooms...

the first time i did shrooms i took about 2.5-3.0 grams and pretty much lost touch with reality. i was still aware of my surroundings with mild to somewhat wild hallucinations but my mind state was completely different. i wasnt able to interpret emotions and i had this feeling that nothing mattered! family, friends, religion and other stuff! it didnt matter to me and i started feeling depressed but then i realized i wasnt sure what depression really was. pure confusion and was a unpleasant experience. total mindfuck! i remember wondering if i would ever go back to normal...

with this experience it made me wonder... if you take psychedelic drugs, such as shrooms or LSD, too much or for too long is it possible to lose touch with reality after the drug has worn off??? and long after??? can it completely change your way of thinking and the way you view reality??? and if so is it something that just occurs for a little while and goes away eventually or can it be a permanent thing???

 

[pmoseman]

I think if you ask that stuff around here you will get responses like, well... what is reality?

 

[Leaf Breeze]

Hello there. I believe I've read that there is a chance of having permanent reoccurring hallucinations. Also if you have any mental illness similar to schizophrenia you can accelerate the symptoms. I've only tripped one time, but I never lost touch with reality completely. I always kept myself grounded in a logical way.

I have a trip report on the first page of the trip report's section describing my experience. But in short, it greatly effected my depression. How much of that was placebo is not clear, but for me the effects were very positive. Its interesting you mentioned wondering if you'd ever be the same. I had a similar thought towards the end of my trip, followed by a real down day. I experienced I full day of extreme depression and thought about my life and how I had wasted my life so far, and how I needed positive change in my life.

So better mood and motivation. But this is just one instance. If you don't ease your way into it you could very possibly have a bad experience. Plus everyone is different. Effects are different person to person. Your setting, the people, and your mental state and chemistry all play important factors.

 

[velmwend]

Unfortunately, due to political bullshit, very little research has gone into psychedelics over the years. If a small minority of nobheads had stood aside years ago we'd be much more informed nowadays.

We're geared to optimize our survival rate in the environment, so what we see, feel, hear, blah blah, is there to help us get by and reproduce successfully. We're not meant to enter the 'other' dimensions of existence, but we get the occasional glimspe ... it's a tease, really. We're fucked up in that respect: we're teetering, and we rarely get to return to 'normality' with any real grasp.

When you remarked about nothing mattering, it's because you'd broken through the structures of daily life. It matters ... alot, when you're living in this realm, but not so much when you're treated to a peek of the otherworlds.

What I'm trying to say is: don't lose sight of your roles in different worlds. There are many dimensions and each require you to perform certain functions in order to realise your full potential. What makes great people is being able to bring the best of each dimension into opposing worlds and making it work. (food for thought).

 

[phuckingnutz]

with this experience it made me wonder... 1: if you take psychedelic drugs, such as shrooms or LSD, too much or for too long is it possible to lose touch with reality after the drug has worn off??? and2: long after??? 3: can it completely change your way of thinking and the way you view reality???4: and if so is it something that just occurs for a little while and goes away eventually or 5: can it be a permanent thing???

1: Yes
2: Yes
3: Hopefully
4: Maybe
5: Hopefully

...what is reality?

 

[pmoseman]

Unfortunately, due to political bullshit, very little research has gone into psychedelics over the years. If a small minority of nobheads had stood aside years ago we'd be much more informed nowadays.

We're geared to optimize our survival rate in the environment, so what we see, feel, hear, blah blah, is there to help us get by and reproduce successfully. We're not meant to enter the 'other' dimensions of existence, but we get the occasional glimspe ... it's a tease, really. We're fucked up in that respect: we're teetering, and we rarely get to return to 'normality' with any real grasp.

When you remarked about nothing mattering, it's because you'd broken through the structures of daily life. It matters ... alot, when you're living in this realm, but not so much when you're treated to a peek of the otherworlds.

What I'm trying to say is: don't lose sight of your roles in different worlds. There are many dimensions and each require you to perform certain functions in order to realise your full potential. What makes great people is being able to bring the best of each dimension into opposing worlds and making it work. (food for thought).

It is more of a 'becoming something' than 'learning something'.

 

[Cream Gravy?]

I think if you ask that stuff around here you will get responses like, well... what is reality?

Yeah, "What is real, Neo?"

But on your question OP, some people do have this disconnect from "reality"; however, many of those people already had mental illnesses, and it's not like doing psychs a couple times a year, even more, would ever be cause for any kind of concern.

It sounds like you didn't enjoy having your reality swept out from under you. Psychs are known for deconstructing the ego and "reality", if you don't enjoy finding eternal truths and questions that will change your perspective on life and all that is around you, then don't take psychedelics. People get this idea in their head from the media, thinking that they'll see pink elephants and just have a good laugh on psychs, when the experience is usually far from that.

Of the people I know in person who have tried psychedelics, I'd say only about 30% of them actually end up liking them or coming back to them. Some people are so afraid of the true nature of existence that they choose to run and hide from it. It's no surprise given the way our society functions; if everyone chose to truly accept the truths of the universe, how could we have war, poverty and bigotry anymore, the foundations of our great society?

 

[phuckingnutz]

Some people are so afraid of the true nature of existence that they choose to run and hide from it. It's no surprise given the way our society functions; if everyone chose to truly accept the truths of the universe, how could we have war, poverty and bigotry anymore, the foundations of our great society?

True dat!

 

[pmoseman]

Poverty maybe our foundation, but bigotry and war, those are our ideals.

 

[phuckingnutz]

poverty maybe our foundation, but bigotry and war, those are our ideals.

yes they are!!! woot! woot!...Go USA!...

 

[pmoseman]

Done it. We did that. Fucking nailed it. AMERIKAKAKAZEBRA!!! I am not a patriot but today, this labor day, I got blue balls, big red tits, and white knuckles all day. Hells ya. Somebody dump ice on me!

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

hi im pretty new to psychedelics and i had a question about them but first i wanna tell you about the first time i did shrooms...

the first time i did shrooms i took about 2.5-3.0 grams and pretty much lost touch with reality. i was still aware of my surroundings with mild to somewhat wild hallucinations but my mind state was completely different.

That is what psychedelics do, is that not why you took them?

can it completely change your way of thinking and the way you view reality

A mental state created by the consumption of exogenous chemicals cannot be maintained after those substances cease to exert their effect. While it is true you can't take back the ideas you've had, you should be able to compartmentalize your trippy thoughts away from your sober thoughts. You're overthinking this, or rather overfeeling this, look at it logically, and calm down. It is highly unlikely that you've led to any lasting changes in your worldview off of a single less unpleasant experience, it tends to be the amazing trips that influence people long term.

Also, try to find the silver lining in things. You say "i had this feeling that nothing mattered! family, friends, religion and other stuff", most of us take that feeling positively, as something more like, "Being my honest-to-goodness self is what matters, the opinions of others and arbitrary rules do not determine who I am." Not to say those things aren't valuable, but the benefit of these radically different viewpoints is that the perspective can lead us to productively reinterpret our prior assumptions, we call this part of the experience integration.

 

[downerhead]

RE:The OP's experience:That's pretty much what psychedelics like acid and shrooms do.Sounds like a pretty typical trip to me.Keep in mind that you have to be in the right frame of mind when taking them and the last thing you want to do is fight a hallucinogen.Also,hallucinogens can exacerbate an existing mental condition.Something to bear in mind if you're going to take something like that.

 

[dstr8427]

Some may disagree with me, but I found from experience tripping multiple times from different research chemicals and L once or twice a week, and did so for too long. It really made me feel like I lost touch with reality. I thought all my friends were stealing from me and talking bad about me, and I thought I was being watched by the police. I stayed away from psychedelics for a while. The important thing to remember is that this happened because of my very constant use of psychedelics, and aren't going to happen to the normal person.

I have definitely now learned that psychedelics are alright, as long as you take them for what they are, and in moderation. For example, I have always felt that DMT is something that's not really recreational, just something that can be really nice every once in a while. All drugs should be taken with moderation, and I was not doing that at all. Use psychedelics in moderation and don't just use them as a means by which you can get fucked up.

 

[Solipsis]

I think in this context, reality is meant to be the going-ons that stay the same regardless of what you think about them. Your opinions are subjective, but facts that happened in a day like that a certain friend dropped by or not is hardly subjective. It is normal to doubt things that are subjective to begin with, but if you lose touch with the basic going-ons you may run into problems with functioning.

Other than that, if you feel like you are losing touch with reality, call more often.

 

[Lucid56]

Has anyone ever experienced the same trip more than once? Each time I trip (in different environments) I see the same visuals, colors and sound. Like I see the same pictures and patterns I've seen before while tripping

 

[pmoseman]

Has anyone ever experienced the same trip more than once? Each time I trip (in different environments) I see the same visuals, colors and sound. Like I see the same pictures and patterns I've seen before while tripping

Yes. I forget the technical name but there is a pattern we each use to see the world by and it is impressed on our brain from early experiences. Kind of like a stencil we use to make comparisons, is that a human face or an animal face? We have a lot of human face stencils to sort out different shapes, but there is a limited amount of shapes you can actually see. That plays a big part in your hallucinative perception and is relatively constant.

 

[Lucid56]

Yes. I forget the technical name but there is a pattern we each use to see the world by and it is impressed on our brain from early experiences. Kind of like a stencil we use to make comparisons, is that a human face or an animal face? We have a lot of human face stencils to sort out different shapes, but there is a limited amount of shapes you can actually see. That plays a big part in your hallucinative perception and is relatively constant.

I agree. Although it's a bit unusual. Each time I trip I see this eye. Just patterns of an eye everywhere. Just a random one eye. It doesn't exactly look like mine but I feel connected to it in a sense. It's everywhere I look, grass, pavement, floor tiles. There's more to it but it's unusual to me

 

[downerhead]

The tree demons were my constant companions on every acid trip I've ever had.Actually just about eveything would become alive with ever changing demon faces morphing over into new ones but trees in particular were infested with them.Poor little fuckers always seemed to be in pain for some reason.Ahh,the crazy shit acid makes you see.

 

[Clocktower]

After each of my acid trips I feel closer to reality than I was before. The things I tend to lose touch with are societal lies and false assumptions.

That said, when it comes to OP's questions:

with this experience it made me wonder... if you take psychedelic drugs, such as shrooms or LSD, too much or for too long is it possible to lose touch with reality after the drug has worn off??? and long after??? can it completely change your way of thinking and the way you view reality??? and if so is it something that just occurs for a little while and goes away eventually or can it be a permanent thing???

Yes to all.