This past weekend, one of my friends had a serious "freakout" incident that landed him in the hospital, strapped down to a bed, after police intervention.
The story:
Friday night, I was having a couple friends at my apartment when around 7:30 three other friends show up unannounced, one of whom (I'll call him Evan) is tripping on "acid" (in quotes because I'm not convinced it was real LSD). We smoke and chill, watching a mix of TV and videos online. Evan dosed around 6:30 so he's coming up while we're hanging out. As time goes on, he starts making less and less sense and becomes seriously agitated. By 8:30, he's running around my apartment screaming and making a huge mess of my stuff. The rest of us try for a while to talk him down without success. At this point, he's shouting and making so much noise that I expected my neighbors to call the police. Then, Evan threw my brand new iPhone 6+ at my TV; thankfully he missed the TV but the phone is totaled.
A couple minutes later, he ran out the door into <10°F weather. At this point, all but one of my friends leave because they expect the cops to show up at any minute. I run out to follow him so we don't lose track of him. My remaining friend (Craig) and I get into my car to try to give Evan a ride home. I figured a change of scenery might help and being home might calm him down. He didn't seem to recognize us and ran away whenever we tried to get him in the car, so we back off and watch him from a distance.
After being outside for 15-20 minutes, Evan starts trying to break into cars parked at my apartment complex. Craig and I then realized that if we don't call the police now, someone else will and Evan would be in serious trouble. We decide to call the campus police (since Evan is a student and I still live on campus as a recent graduate). The cops come and we explain that he took too much "acid". Cops approach him and he runs off almost immediately, so the officers had to tackle and handcuff him. I'm just glad he didn't try to fight the officers or he would be in jail right now. The EMS arrives and the officers had to help the EMT's strap Evan down in the ambulance since he's so strong and resistant. They take him to the nearby hospital, where staff tied him down (full ankle and wrist restraints) to a bed in a locked room. The doctors gave him a shot of lorazepam and kept him restrained overnight. I can only imagine how shitty it must have been to be tripping BALLS while experiencing that.
This whole experience was incredibly stressful for me and really ruined my night. Evan was really scaring me, to the point that I was worried about my own safety. It really sucks to be in a situation where you have to call the authorities about one of your friends. I couldn't sleep all night after this. On top of all that, I'm out over $1000 for damage to my apartment and a replacement phone.
My questions:
I have a lot of experience with psychedelics and I've never seen anything like this. I used to live in a house where people (often including myself) would be tripping more weekends than not. The worst we ever had to deal with was the occasional bad trip, something we could easily handle. Nothing like this total loss of mental and physical control.
In the past, I kept some trazodone on hand for people who were tripping too hard. It would bring someone down pretty quickly if talking didn't work. I currently don't have any since I haven't tripped in a few years.
If something like this happens again, is there anything I can do before things get out of hand?
I tried talking him down, moving him to another room, and attempting to steer his trip in a more positive direction but none of the usual tricks worked.
Should my friend Evan trip again? I'm thinking not since it might set him off again but he says he still wants to. Any recommendations as to how to encourage him to avoid psychs?
I enjoy psychedelics but I feel like I don't want to trip again after this debacle.
The story:
Friday night, I was having a couple friends at my apartment when around 7:30 three other friends show up unannounced, one of whom (I'll call him Evan) is tripping on "acid" (in quotes because I'm not convinced it was real LSD). We smoke and chill, watching a mix of TV and videos online. Evan dosed around 6:30 so he's coming up while we're hanging out. As time goes on, he starts making less and less sense and becomes seriously agitated. By 8:30, he's running around my apartment screaming and making a huge mess of my stuff. The rest of us try for a while to talk him down without success. At this point, he's shouting and making so much noise that I expected my neighbors to call the police. Then, Evan threw my brand new iPhone 6+ at my TV; thankfully he missed the TV but the phone is totaled.
A couple minutes later, he ran out the door into <10°F weather. At this point, all but one of my friends leave because they expect the cops to show up at any minute. I run out to follow him so we don't lose track of him. My remaining friend (Craig) and I get into my car to try to give Evan a ride home. I figured a change of scenery might help and being home might calm him down. He didn't seem to recognize us and ran away whenever we tried to get him in the car, so we back off and watch him from a distance.
After being outside for 15-20 minutes, Evan starts trying to break into cars parked at my apartment complex. Craig and I then realized that if we don't call the police now, someone else will and Evan would be in serious trouble. We decide to call the campus police (since Evan is a student and I still live on campus as a recent graduate). The cops come and we explain that he took too much "acid". Cops approach him and he runs off almost immediately, so the officers had to tackle and handcuff him. I'm just glad he didn't try to fight the officers or he would be in jail right now. The EMS arrives and the officers had to help the EMT's strap Evan down in the ambulance since he's so strong and resistant. They take him to the nearby hospital, where staff tied him down (full ankle and wrist restraints) to a bed in a locked room. The doctors gave him a shot of lorazepam and kept him restrained overnight. I can only imagine how shitty it must have been to be tripping BALLS while experiencing that.
This whole experience was incredibly stressful for me and really ruined my night. Evan was really scaring me, to the point that I was worried about my own safety. It really sucks to be in a situation where you have to call the authorities about one of your friends. I couldn't sleep all night after this. On top of all that, I'm out over $1000 for damage to my apartment and a replacement phone.
My questions:
I have a lot of experience with psychedelics and I've never seen anything like this. I used to live in a house where people (often including myself) would be tripping more weekends than not. The worst we ever had to deal with was the occasional bad trip, something we could easily handle. Nothing like this total loss of mental and physical control.
In the past, I kept some trazodone on hand for people who were tripping too hard. It would bring someone down pretty quickly if talking didn't work. I currently don't have any since I haven't tripped in a few years.
If something like this happens again, is there anything I can do before things get out of hand?
I tried talking him down, moving him to another room, and attempting to steer his trip in a more positive direction but none of the usual tricks worked.
Should my friend Evan trip again? I'm thinking not since it might set him off again but he says he still wants to. Any recommendations as to how to encourage him to avoid psychs?
I enjoy psychedelics but I feel like I don't want to trip again after this debacle.
