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Your PERSONAL way of getting out of a bad trip.

Psycholin

Psycholin

Greenlighter
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Messages
2
Location
Melbourne
Hey everyone,
I was having a discussion with a close 'trip-buddy' earlier today about what we do or think to ourselves when we a having a horrible trip on hallucinogens.
I was wondering what you guys think, or if you have a certain thought pattern that snaps you back to reality, you may even have some sort of object
which reminds you everything isn't so bad... ;)
When I have the odd bad trip or delusion, I always try to play a song over in my head, it's 'Bitter-Sweet Symphony' by The Verve, and I'm not sure why I
chose this song, but it always gets me happier no matter how messed up on a substance I am!

So guys, what do you do personally when you are losing your mind completely?

P.S This is my first post!! Let me know if I've done anything wrong.. :):)
 
Yeah i have this silver curb link bracelet, if i'm having a bad trip i'l sit there counting each of the links till i'v stopped thinking about the trip, That always works to put me in a better frame of mind, The worst trip i've ever had was when i didnt have my bracelet on so i'm guessing it does kinda help in some weird sort of way.
 
I' honestly don't know what a "bad trip" is. I have had some (really) bad thoughts but was always able to work through them, using the altered state the trip provided. Sometimes I needed egodeath but it never felt threatening.

In sober life, however, I sometimes get these "acute depressions" Ann Shulgin talks about Alexander having sometimes in PIHKAL. I must say the frequency and intensity is much less since I've been introdcued to psychedelics. And even when I'm sober I can think back about the latest trip and work through the feeling.
 
I've never had a bad trip where I thought the world was ending or like I couldnt get bad thoughts out of my head, all my bad trips start out with me noticing how fast my heart is beating and then just end up fixated on that and then it just turns south from there, panicing, heart pounding just all over dysphoria and the whole why did I do this feeling. Normally I like to take deep breaths and steady my breathing, have lots of water and juice to drink, keep some benzos and weed around, maybe some alchohol and peacful music and peacful setting and just hope for the best
 
I've had a bad trip once where there were snakes coming out of the walls, and the head of my trip buddy looked like a skull wearing a viking helmet, but when I closed my eyes, the visuals were even more disturbing. It's a really vicious circle lol, cuz then I also started to feel hungry, but I wasnt sure if it was being hungry or the complete oposite, that i'd be on the verge of puking my brains out (i woulda forced it out to make sure, but for some reason I don't have a gag reflex?)... and constantly having the feeling you have to pee, but when you sit on the toilet for 30 mins, nothing comes! (I took quite a bit :p and so did my trip buddy)

I was so fucking lost in this abyss of downwards spiraling that my trip buddy had to make an effort to drag my sorry ass out of it. He turned on my PS3 and he forced me to play some silly minigames with him. which got my mind focused on something entirely different, so the "evil" visuals turned regular, and I didnt have nausea/dunno-whether-to-pee-or-not anymore... The BEST thing he did though, was NOT notice/ask that I was feeling better. that woulda put me right back at square one.

I feel bad for basicly ruining his trip, but I fucking respect him for the way he handled the situation as he has/had almost no experience with tripping (was his third time or so)

Other than that I've never had a bad trip. But considering that experience, I'm pretty sure that if I get into one, I'm pretty screwed unless i have a friend that knows how to handle it. Maybe because I've had this experience, I might know what to do next time? I don't know...
 
Never had a full blown bad trip per say, but when i feel my thoughts getting negative, me getting uncomfortable I will switch up the song i have on and if that doesn't work go to a different room or start a different activity, almost always helps
 
nova elyos said:
I've had a bad trip once where there were snakes coming out of the walls, and the head of my trip buddy looked like a skull wearing a viking helmet, but when I closed my eyes, the visuals were even more disturbing. It's a really vicious circle lol, cuz then I also started to feel hungry, but I wasnt sure if it was being hungry or the complete oposite, that i'd be on the verge of puking my brains out (i woulda forced it out to make sure, but for some reason I don't have a gag reflex?)... and constantly having the feeling you have to pee, but when you sit on the toilet for 30 mins, nothing comes! (I took quite a bit :p and so did my trip buddy)

I was so fucking lost in this abyss of downwards spiraling that my trip buddy had to make an effort to drag my sorry ass out of it. He turned on my PS3 and he forced me to play some silly minigames with him. which got my mind focused on something entirely different, so the "evil" visuals turned regular, and I didnt have nausea/dunno-whether-to-pee-or-not anymore... The BEST thing he did though, was NOT notice/ask that I was feeling better. that woulda put me right back at square one.

I feel bad for basicly ruining his trip, but I fucking respect him for the way he handled the situation as he has/had almost no experience with tripping (was his third time or so)
Click to expand...

Yeah dude, I've had quite the similar experience where a friend helped me out a lot.
I was tripping badly on about 15 dried mushrooms and was quite drunk too, and I was really stressed at the time, because the next morning I had work at 6AM (BAD IDEA!).. So when I was peaking around 12AM the night before work I tried to figure out my plan to get to work on time and get home etc.
While thinking this, I completely lost all sense of time, I could not comprehend what it was. I then looked up at my friends, and I couldn't understand what emotions they were using. I could not tell if they were happy or angry or sad, which made me so confused and scared shitless... Thank god my friend reassured me that everything was okay, he put me to bed, told me to lie down, got me some water and set his alarm for 4AM. He then said to me, I will wake you up in 4 hours, and we will go back to yours and you shall go to work. This made me feel amazing. It was like he was some sort of guardian letting me know that he will take care of everything. He wasn't tripping at the time too, so I guess it's nice to have a buddy watch over in case something goes wrong. And yes, 4 hours later everything was fine, apart from me feeling a bit embarrassed!

May not sound like that bad of a trip.. But wow! When you do not know time or human emotion to the point of nothingness, you feel so, so lonely... Not to mention I was going to get fired if I didn't make work!
 
The best way of escaping a bad trip is *not* to try to distract yourself from the negativity. You have to address it head-on. Ask yourself, why are you pained? It's never arbitrary. There's always a reason. Maybe you're feeling guilty, ashamed of yourself for how you behaved in a particular situation, for instance. Acknowledge that it's in the past, and you can't go back and change things; but ask yourself, "how can I avoid making a similar mistake in the future?" Etc.

This works during sobriety too. Psychedelics have a neat way of teaching you fundamental and universal approaches to dealing with your problems.
 
VisualMagic said:
Never had a full blown bad trip per say, but when i feel my thoughts getting negative, me getting uncomfortable I will switch up the song i have on and if that doesn't work go to a different room or start a different activity, almost always helps
Click to expand...

Spot on. Changing the setting is a great remedy. I like to go out for a bike ride if I can. If I can't I've found watching futurama works.
 
Breathe slowly and deeply, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Shoes off, bare feet on hard floor. Eyes open, lights on. Valium, beer. That should be a start.
 
TheAppleCore said:
The best way of escaping a bad trip is *not* to try to distract yourself from the negativity. You have to address it head-on. Ask yourself, why are you pained? It's never arbitrary. There's always a reason. Maybe you're feeling guilty, ashamed of yourself for how you behaved in a particular situation, for instance. Acknowledge that it's in the past, and you can't go back and change things; but ask yourself, "how can I avoid making a similar mistake in the future?" Etc.

This works during sobriety too. Psychedelics have a neat way of teaching you fundamental and universal approaches to dealing with your problems.
Click to expand...



Not neccesarily "bad trip" area, but a lot of times when painful thoughts start approaching while tripping, my first response is to "dodge" them so to speak. I usually trip alone, and try and focus on certain aspects of my life/emotions/etc etc. I usually realize ducking the real reason for tripping in the first place is counterproductive, and just open myself to the feelings. They might be intensely painful, but such is life.

For instance, one night I was trying to come to terms with my feelings over a female and how the situation had to be. It's so strange, lying there letting yourself revel in all the pain you've been hiding from. It's pretty helpful though to feel it all at once and come to terms with the way things have to be. Makes living my daily life easier.

It's important to acknowledge why we feel the way we do, as it's usually indicitive of something that would be beneficial to alter in our regular lives :-).

As far as ending bad trips... etizolam/benzos. Dealing with strong comeups is par for the course sometimes, but each of us should know our limits. If you have a trip sitter, it's more a luxury than neccesity sometimes. If you trip alone often, it can literally be a lifesaver having something to kill anxiety if you overdid it.

Getting up, moving to a different location. CHANGING MUSIC. I never realized til later, when hearing certain songs sober and feeling the abject terror they put in me, how they affected a particularly bad trip I had. It has led me to not use Pandora when tripping as much, too volatile!
 
Hear hyped music, electro house, trance, hype dubstep, dnb. Something like those.
 
Benzo's, if that won't work, Haldol. Only if all non-pharmacologic approaches have failed (if you're into all that hippy shit ;))
 
It depends on the type of bad trip for me. However for me, I prefer to first and foremost NEVER start a trip in a bad mood, its so hard to get out of it, then before I even start I always state my intentions of the trip, with whomever I do it with, even if its just for fun, i.e. I will state I intend to have fun and get to know whom ever I am with better, or whatever, sometimes I have work I need to do in my life, I intend to heal this certain situation, ect..
If there are problems in my life that I am not facing that surface themselves during a trip, it always proves good to work through it no matter how hard it is.
If it's just a bad trip I am having a hard time with and and working through it is not working, I start by breathing in and out deeply, reminding myself that I am in fact tripping, and this is something I wanted to do, then I repeat a mantra I like. You can find your own that works for you but I like:
Be still and know that I am god
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be.

Thats what has worked for me so far. :)
 
I realized that almost all of my bad trip mindsets come from worry. If I start worrying about negative things that might happen to me, I'll panic leading to a bad trip.

To get out of it and stabilize myself I always go into my shower. It's like my safe spot. I'll sit on the shower floor and let the water run over me until I come down. The combination of the white noise the shower makes and the constant water drops hitting my body really keeps me 'with it' and stops any delusional voices or thoughts. Plus if I throw up the shower drain is right there >__> Although I can't recommend it for everything. Even though you aren't submerged, being in/around water isn't the safest thing to do while tripping(basically blacking out then drowning).
 
Not too long ago I had a low dose mushroom trip that went solo, and when I go solo I tend to trigger some anxiety issues of mine.

I tried binaural beats. Worked alright but the tension was still there, in the background.

I tried playing videogames to distract myself. Naturally they were pretty distracting and I was enjoying them, but one lapse of attention and I'm thinking about stuff again.

A friend of mine kept popping up on MSN briefly, and I tried to talk to her about the stuff that was bothering me. Eventually the conversation was had, the issues were put out on the table, I did a little crying and all was good again. Ultimately, dealing with it head-on was the way to go.

Oh and somewhere in that mess of waiting for her to come back and talk, I ended up listening to Terence McKenna talk about monkeys getting stoned, which was quite a pleasant thing to think about on the very same mushrooms he said the monkeys were doing. If there were anything that worked best for me besides actually resolving the issue, it was this. Specifically his "What's So Great About Mushrooms?" rant. It got me thinking positively about the mushroom, and there's something about his way of talking that enthralls me.

Having a sidekick or someone I'm guaranteed to be able to talk to seems help the most. But only a friend who's done them before and who'll understand.
 
I turned a nightmarish high dose amt+mushroom into a beautiful trip by rather painfully and forcefully making myself say out loud things in life that I was happy for. Every little mundane thing I could think of that would improve my mood was help. I literally forced myself into a positive headspace. It was incredible for the observer part of my brain to watch this happen.
 
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