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The Big & Dandy Tripping & Anxiety Thread

I find that morphing and twisting type visuals tend to be acompanied by much more anxiety then oev patterning. Once the world is twisting to the point that your own living room becomes a frightening, alien place, here comes the anxiety.
 
I tend to believe anxiety stems from the ego-loss that is approaching but cannot quite feel. It is a fear of losing control and doing something stupid, is it not?
 
Psychadelics & Anxiety Disorders

Hey,
I've been wondering lately about the problems I might have using psychadelics. I suffer from panic attacks and general anxiety, which hit its worst point about a year or so ago, although over the last few months I feel I have been gaining some sort of control over it. However, it has not gone away, not by a long shot. I still have trouble with certain situations, and I still get the occaisional panic attack, which serves to remind me that I'm not cured, just dealing with it.

Since all this kicked off, I pretty much gave up all drug use. I used to smoke a fair bit of weed, indulge in the occaisional opiate, nitrous now and again, was partial to speed, nothing too "hard", but I didn't feel like it anymore. Lately though, the desire to experiment has been coming back, and for some reason I'm really interested in psychadelics, especially Salvia, although I'm not sure why at all, it just feels like something I should do.

However, I'm really worried about what it might do to my mental state. The main reason I think it may not be a good idea is that my anxiety carries with it a horrible feeling of disconnectedness which I can't really explain, it's my warning sign that a panic attack is coming, I just feel so confused, like everything is different to how it was before, even though it looks the same, it's not. I would imagine this feeling would pop up in a trip at some point, and even though I've gotten pretty good at handling it while sober, while on Salvia I doubt I'd have the same self-control...

Does anyone here have any experience with anxiety sufferers using psychadelics? On the one hand I think it might be OK, I can imagine myself not panicing because I have a reason to, ie I took something, as opposed to panicing sober, which tends to make me think I'm going insane. On the other hand, I really don't want to put myself in a mental hospital anytime soon.

I can see there's a risk here, what I want to know is how much of a risk. I almost feel like I need a trip and it might be good for me, but is it going to do the opposite?

Any advice would be much appreciated (if you can derive any meaning from my long and rambly post.. sorry about that, I always end up doing that!)
 
Its hard to say. Everybody is different.

Salvia is a fairly reliable way to induce anxiety and panic in almost anybody, regardless of their mental state.

Saliva is almost virgin territory when it comes to scientific studies. The long history of traditional use makes me think its fairly safe, but that only applies when used in a traditional context, traditionally. I don't think they're smoking 40x in Oaxaca...

If your anxiety is due to an underlying psychological root (most of our problems are, imo), there is a chance you could benefit from using psychedelics in a therapeutic context. Unfortunately though, this context doesn't exist because there is a war on consciousness going on at the moment and pharmaceutical companies have fiduciary responsibility to extract every penny from mental illness (both real and manufactured) and can't be bothered to investigate unpatentable substances with an negative reputation.

"Here you can take these for the rest of your life instead..." :\

[/rant]


Nobody can tell you what do do, but you might find the following helpful:

Search: Key Word(s): anxiety ; Forum: Psychedelic Drugs and child forums

Thanatos To Eros, 35 Years of Psychedelic Exploration
 
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The Main Tripping & Anxiety Thread

I'm fairly experienced with psychs at this point, however recently I've been having a problem with anxiety that is getting fairly annoying. The problem started at the exact same time my psychedelic use became more spiritual rather than purely recreational.

Basically, my past 6 LSD trips have all followed this exact pattern (all doses of 200-600mcg, and all spaced about a month apart): I drop, I'm generally feeling pretty good and I'm normally confident about the set and setting. After about an hour I may start to feel slightly anxious, but it's not too big of a deal and I attribute this to the process of coming up and adjusting to my new state. Eventually, after about 2 hours while I'm in the middle of my peak my anxiety will suddenly become very intense and I have a hard time doing anything other than sitting down, I often have to remove myself from my situation if I'm with other people to relax and avoid stimulation. My heart rate will continue to increase even while relaxing and I begin to feel like I'm going to die. This lasts 30 minutes - 1 hour, but I always eventually abruptly snap out of it and settle into a calm and beautiful trip that lasts another 8-10 hours.

I never had this problem during my early LSD usage, however my trips weren't anywhere near as intense either - even at the same dosages. It should also be mentioned LSD is the only psych so far that this happens to me on, though I have been getting some anxiety on marijuana lately. I really want to get over this so I can be a little more adventurous in my trips.... Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.
 
Hey,

Perhaps you have seen what you needed to see with your LSD trips and now real work apart from using psychedelic drugs is in order. Meditation, drumming, dancing?

peace and hugs,
samadhi
 
I agree to some extent... many themes in my trip are reoccurring... but my use is not purely spiritual (though that has been the main theme), I enjoy tripping with other people and turning other people on, and I would hate to stop the social aspects of it. I already keep my use fairly infrequent... : /
 
samadhi_smiles said:
Hey,

Perhaps you have seen what you needed to see with your LSD trips and now real work apart from using psychedelic drugs is in order. Meditation, drumming, dancing?

peace and hugs,
samadhi
Click to expand...

I agree totally. LSD & other psychedelics are like road signs pointing you in the right direction, but you still have to put the effort in to walk down that path to it's conclusion
 
Small dose of phenibut should help, it will probably dull the trip a bit but it's worth it.

I would also abstain from smoking tobacco and pot, and eliminate any sodium and sugar intake the day you are doing it. Smoke some passionflower and make some tea out of it. Drink it throughout the comeup. Kava also works well. Eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, exercise, prepare for a good set. IME self-healed quartz crystals with multiple termination points work wonders in clearing mental and emotional blocks.

Good luck
 
I'm having difficulty understanding what you want. You claim it began happening at the same time your trips became more spiritual, but you're trying to brush away what is obviously a part of you as annoying.

It seems to me that LSD is just showing you a part of yourself. It's normal to feel a little anxious when you're coming up or have taken a dose too low to push you fully into the psychedelic aspect of the drug, but at 200+mcg this should not be a problem.

I found myself getting rather bad anxiety on LSD too, and in my experience it's a never a good idea to ignore what it is trying to tell you. Nothing helped me get to the root of my inner problems quite like LSD. If you truly want these spiritual experiences you need to accept that along with the good, you will come face to face with parts of yourself that you won't necessarily like. Rather than try to ignore them because they're annoying or frustrating, learn from them and try to get to the roots of your problems. LSD can be an amazing tool for inner healing, but it always requires work.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone

emjay said:
I'm having difficulty understanding what you want. You claim it began happening at the same time your trips became more spiritual, but you're trying to brush away what is obviously a part of you as annoying.

It seems to me that LSD is just showing you a part of yourself. It's normal to feel a little anxious when you're coming up or have taken a dose too low to push you fully into the psychedelic aspect of the drug, but at 200+mcg this should not be a problem.

I found myself getting rather bad anxiety on LSD too, and in my experience it's a never a good idea to ignore what it is trying to tell you. Nothing helped me get to the root of my inner problems quite like LSD. If you truly want these spiritual experiences you need to accept that along with the good, you will come face to face with parts of yourself that you won't necessarily like. Rather than try to ignore them because they're annoying or frustrating, learn from them and try to get to the roots of your problems. LSD can be an amazing tool for inner healing, but it always requires work.
Click to expand...

The only reason its annoying is because I feel it restricts me, in a sense that I can only do it somewhere I'm willing to experience a minor freak out... I'm willing to accept that some bad must come with the good... Thanks for the advice.
 
fastandbulbous said:
I agree totally. LSD & other psychedelics are like road signs pointing you in the right direction, but you still have to put the effort in to walk down that path to it's conclusion
Click to expand...

I don't know about this....

I think a lot of the most respected posters on this forum would say that you probably need to start taking some sort of opiate, maybe heroin, to balance out the anxiety psychedelics produce. It probably is because your body *needs* an opiate, you just have a natural opiate deficiency or something.
 
In a perfect world heroin would be safer than almost any drug we use today, even so called 'benign' drugs like acetaminophen- and certainly safer than anti-anxiety pills like xanax or paxil.

Maybe a few opiates could be useful to tide someone over during times of anxiety, only as a temporary thing until enlightenment comes.
 
in conclusion, in this imperfect world, by our attitudes and through our actions, we psychonauts endorse the consumption of narcotics whenever the journey to eschaton becomes the least bit unpleasant or interesting.
 
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Well not personally, I think it's more benefiocial (if less comfortable) to learn things like breathing techniques for controlling anxiety etc. Uncomfortable experiences can be much more rewarding in the long run as they are generally the result of becoming aware of something about yourself that you normally keep repressed/hidden. Anxiety control is helpful in not letting it deteriorate into a flat out panic attack, which is never useful. Learned techniques are far better than pharmacological ones because it gives you confidence in dealing with such situations and you don't forget to pick up your bottle of learned techniques...
 
fastandbulbous said:
Well not personally, I think it's more benefiocial (if less comfortable) to learn things like breathing techniques for controlling anxiety etc. Uncomfortable experiences can be much more rewarding in the long run as they are generally the result of becoming aware of something about yourself that you normally keep repressed/hidden. Anxiety control is helpful in not letting it deteriorate into a flat out panic attack, which is never useful. Learned techniques are far better than pharmacological ones because it gives you confidence in dealing with such situations and you don't forget to pick up your bottle of learned techniques...
Click to expand...

I agree. Btw any breathing technique link in hand?


I never had this problem during my early LSD usage, however my trips weren't anywhere near as intense either - even at the same dosages. It should also be mentioned LSD is the only psych so far that this happens to me on, though I have been getting some anxiety on marijuana lately. I really want to get over this so I can be a little more adventurous in my trips.... Does anyone have any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Ugster I think you should 'try' to let go of your ego. As for the socializing part and turning others on etc - dunno, generally I find that the time most suitable for this is after the peak. You can also override anxiety by shifting awareness/focusing on the nature or the music,or your breath, by believing that there's no reason to be anxious since there's no danger, etc.

An interesting related article:
http://tripzine.com/listing.php?id=pit24
 
^ Just the one they explain to people for controlling panic attacks, namely a modified version of the yoga one where you concentrate exclusively on your breathing, while repeating in your head (or even out loud) good air in, bad air out. You also visualise pristene clean air entering your nose and exhaling 'dirty' air carrying out the foul anxieties through your mouth.

When I first told B9/zophen about this, he thought I was taking the piss, but he's since admitted (reluctantly =D) he's tried it and was pleasantly surprised by how effective it is in controlling anxiety (he hates having to admit I'm right!!! =D =D)
 
Absolutely!

fastandbulbous said:
Learned techniques are far better than pharmacological ones because it gives you confidence in dealing with such situations and you don't forget to pick up your bottle of learned techniques...
Click to expand...
Spot on advice, F&B %)

It has long struck me as strange that, in general, our education is targeted towards 'using one's mind' when it would be far more beneficial to 'train one's mind'.

Meditation and other yogic techniques, such as that F&B has described, should be considered essential training for everyone - let alone those who venture into the realm of the psychonaut :\
 
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