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Are bad bad trips worse than nightmares?

H

hurlumpsis

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Dec 18, 2020
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I woke up to a nightmare last night. That familiar feeling of horror occupied my body and I coulnd't walk to the toilet without looking back. It made me wonder, I've never felt that awful on any of my "bad trips" or ever in my life in general. I believe that the nightmarish horror-movie type of feeling is universal. But this made me wonder if really bad bad trips are something like a nightmare? Boy I wish never to feel that way on a trip, but just now I'm thinking if that's a possibility. My bad trips have been anxious and demanding, but far from that feeling I have when waking up to a dark house and it feels like I'm the lead in a horror movie.
 
A nightmare is over when it's over. A bad trip can have lingering psychological repercussions for years to to come. There is no comparison.

That said, I've never had a really bad trip, unlike some people I know. I think at least part (but not all!) of this has to do with an attitude of accepting what is without judgement, even if it's something I don't want. Someone once tried to break into my house while I was tripping. I stared the guy right in the face. It was scary as fuck, but even that didn't turn into a "bad trip," though it easily could have I'm sure.
 
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December Flower said:
You must have cute nightmares, or very bad bad trips

90% of my dreams have been nightmares since I can remember, and they fucking get me by the throat every time. In a trip, at least I know I'm tripping - my nightmares are super tricky at making me think I'm awake
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My thoughts exactly lol. All my dreams turn into nightmares and leave me much more unsettled than any rough acid trip EVER has... getting stuck in a loop is weird but you settle into it. Getting wrapped up in a nightmare can fuck with your head in much more traumatic ways IME.

I too am one of those 'There are no good or bad trips, only trips,' type thinkers though. But there are bad dreams! Definitely bad dreams...
 
Listening said:
A nightmare is over when it's over. A bad trip can have lingering psychological repercussions for years to to come. There is no comparison
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That's the thing, a nightmare can be far more frightening, but it's very unlikely to induce you a trauma, or a lasting sequel of any sort. If you have a really bad trip it can literally harm you. Luckily I've never really had bad trips, only anxious or difficult ones. But my girlfriend once had an ETH-LAD experience so hectic and confusing that it resulted in her having derealization symptoms and pretty bad anxiety for almost a year. It was REALLY scary for both of us.

So yeah, I would say a pretty bad trip can be worse than the worst nightmare.
 
Cream Gravy? said:
My thoughts exactly lol. All my dreams turn into nightmares and leave me much more unsettled than any rough acid trip EVER has... getting stuck in a loop is weird but you settle into it. Getting wrapped up in a nightmare can fuck with your head in much more traumatic ways IME.

I too am one of those 'There are no good or bad trips, only trips,' type thinkers though. But there are bad dreams! Definitely bad dreams...
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I keep getting loops in my nightmares. I keep dreaming that I wake up from a nightmare, just to have another one, and "waking" up from that and so on and so on.

I've had this "trick" for some years that I would hold shut my nose and try to breathe through it. If I could still breathe, I'd be in a dream, if I couldn't I'd be awake, but somehow my dreams have adapted to that, and I can't breathe through it even in a dream.
 
Img_9999 said:
That's the thing, a nightmare can be far more frightening, but it's very unlikely to induce you a trauma, or a lasting sequel of any sort. If you have a really bad trip it can literally harm you. Luckily I've never really had bad trips, only anxious or difficult ones. But my girlfriend once had an ETH-LAD experience so hectic and confusing that it resulted in her having derealization symptoms and pretty bad anxiety for almost a year. It was REALLY scary for both of us.

So yeah, I would say a pretty bad trip can be worse than the worst nightmare.
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I'm usually very fucked up after waking up, sometimes absolutely destroyed emotionally for up to 2-3 days, so I can't really agree with that. My nightmares scare the shit out of me, they're just so damned real. I can't speak for a trauma from a single dream, but I definitely have a fucking trauma from spending my entire childhood afraid of going to bed.

I'm so freaking scared of my dreams that since I was 14, my highest priority has always been having weed for sleep, so I don't dream.
I don't even really care for weed, but my dreams are fucking terrifying.
 
I’ve had very bad nightmares where I had no idea it was a nightmare. I felt trapped and terrified in these nightmares. However, I’ve always known a bad trip was a bad trip and could always reason that it would eventually wear off. So never felt trapped or terrified.
 
Id take a nightmare over a bad trip anyway.

I've had bad trips where I was paralyzed with fear and could not talk or walk for 6 hours(lsd). Catatonic. Or about to call 911.

This is from someone with nightmares from past sexual abuse. PTSD like night terrors. Usually wears off a few hours after waking. Ive had bad trips that racked my head for a good week after.
 
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Atelier3 said:
I’ve had very bad nightmares where I had no idea it was a nightmare. I felt trapped and terrified in these nightmares. However, I’ve always known a bad trip was a bad trip and could always reason that it would eventually wear off. So never felt trapped or terrified.
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Yeah, that's kind of the only good thing about bad trips.

Yea, some are fucking terrifying, but deep down you know it's going to go away. You're never 100% sure that what you're seeing or feeling is actually real, quite the opposite actually, but in a nightmare - I'm 100% sure it's real.
I never know that I'm dreaming, when I'm having a nightmare, so the situations feel much more "real" to me, than any bad trip ever could.

Srsly, whoever says bad trips are worse, I would kill to have your nightmares.
 
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I can tell people have not truly had a bad trip and instead a usual trip that is challenging alot of people label bad.

A true bad trip which i hope no acutally goes through is when you acutally enter eternal hell with satan killing you for eternity or putting you deep hellish realities which feel more real than this life and can last millions of acutal years and you will feel that pain and terror in every single atom of your existence no anchor or connection to acutal reality anymore the suffering is so great it causes a psychotic break from reality where the only way out in your mind is for somebody to shoot you in the head because every second is eternal of the worst suffering ever in reality hell exists and once you been there and come back ptsd ensures you will not feel okay for a long time and most of the trip will be blocked out because it was that horrific.

Imagine living every life as a holocaust victim that can truly happen in a hellish trip. Trips into reality where you are going about random events in your life only at the most unsupected moment for the devil to reaveal himself when you have totally forgotten you are in even on drugs or in a trip but are living actual lives in multiple parallel realities. The devil will fuck with you in every single way on a bad trip. The shit i was witness to should be fucking impossible even by highly powerful trips but on a bad trip there is zero limits to anything. its mind rape by pure evil
 
TripSitterNZ said:
I can tell people have not truly had a bad trip and instead a usual trip that is challenging alot of people label bad.

A true bad trip which i hope no acutally goes through is when you acutally enter eternal hell with satan killing you for eternity or putting you deep hellish realities which feel more real than this life and can last millions of acutal years and you will feel that pain and terror in every single atom of your existence no anchor or connection to acutal reality anymore the suffering is so great it causes a psychotic break from reality where the only way out in your mind is for somebody to shoot you in the head because every second is eternal of the worst suffering ever in reality hell exists and once you been there and come back ptsd ensures you will not feel okay for a long time and most of the trip will be blocked out because it was that horrific.

Imagine living every life as a holocaust victim that can truly happen in a hellish trip. Trips into reality where you are going about random events in your life only at the most unsupected moment for the devil to reaveal himself when you have totally forgotten you are in even on drugs or in a trip but are living actual lives in multiple parallel realities. The devil will fuck with you in every single way on a bad trip. The shit i was witness to should be fucking impossible even by highly powerful trips but on a bad trip there is zero limits to anything. its mind rape by pure evil
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sounds pretty much like my nightmares, actually.
But I haven't had a bad trip like that. Only a few times where I lost complete track of reality and being overwhelmed by fear, but that's just like a good night sleep, really.

I can just as well say "guess you haven't had a truly bad nightmare", this discussion will just turn in circles..
I mean there's no real way of measuring fear, by what, 16 kilofears per second?
It likely just depends on the individual instance. One bad trip might be worse than a nightmare, one nightmare worse than a bad trip. Let's face it: the only thing we can say for certain is "they both fucking suck"
 
I'm tempted to say trips.
Bad trips can be a lot more than just anxiety, they can be full on real world flip outs with serious lasting effect.
But, I have never personally had a trip that bad. Also I smoke so much weed that I rarely remember my dreams.
But I know people who have "night terrors" which seem like their own special class of super nightmares.
If bad trips are just uncomfortable anxiety (like mine are if I ever have one) and you have to deal with nightmares
on a scale closer to terrors then sure, I suppose nightmares would be worse.
 
TripSitterNZ said:
A true bad trip which i hope no acutally goes through is when you acutally enter eternal hell with satan killing you for eternity or putting you deep hellish realities which feel more real than this life and can last millions of acutal years and you will feel that pain and terror in every single atom of your existence
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Oh man, this sounds just like my purge on ayahuasca
 
electronDegenerate said:
Oh man, this sounds just like my purge on ayahuasca
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thats a true bad trip. Most people will never have that but those who have been there know how the true depths of hell. Theres not just trips. hell exists and if your the unlucky bastard to visit there most likely ends up in psychosis or killing themselves if alone.
 
TripSitterNZ said:
I can tell people have not truly had a bad trip and instead a usual trip that is challenging alot of people label bad.

A true bad trip which i hope no acutally goes through is when you acutally enter eternal hell with satan killing you for eternity or putting you deep hellish realities which feel more real than this life and can last millions of acutal years and you will feel that pain and terror in every single atom of your existence no anchor or connection to acutal reality anymore the suffering is so great it causes a psychotic break from reality where the only way out in your mind is for somebody to shoot you in the head because every second is eternal of the worst suffering ever in reality hell exists and once you been there and come back ptsd ensures you will not feel okay for a long time and most of the trip will be blocked out because it was that horrific.

Imagine living every life as a holocaust victim that can truly happen in a hellish trip. Trips into reality where you are going about random events in your life only at the most unsupected moment for the devil to reaveal himself when you have totally forgotten you are in even on drugs or in a trip but are living actual lives in multiple parallel realities. The devil will fuck with you in every single way on a bad trip. The shit i was witness to should be fucking impossible even by highly powerful trips but on a bad trip there is zero limits to anything. its mind rape by pure evil
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I’ve had some very intense trips. Possibly around 500 ug (who ever knows really?). Not bad like you are describing but definitely in an alternate universe but don’t think I ever totally forgot I was on drugs. I’m not sure I’d want to to be totally honest.

When I first started trips I’d try really hard to hold onto reality and they mostly ended up miserable for the last 3-4 hours when I was just sketched out. My girlfriend at the time described me as hopping on the train but always trying to keep one foot on the platform. When I stopped doing that my trips were infinitely better, but never what I imagine too be full ego-death and loss of self no matter how much I took.
 
ego death is never a dose dependent thing its all about setting and set and various factors and is rare anyway. 250 ug without tolerance in a dark room can induce ego death or some heavy ego dissolution higher doses = easier but also more side effects. Best to smoke 5meo dmt if people want ego death.

Bad trips really take the visual and experinces up to new levels. Almost in a way some part of your consciousness gets lost there forever til you find it again and that can take years of integration to feel whole again. And that might mean taking another huge dose and forcing yourself to revisit that night to come to terms with what happened and a new understanding.

for me 500 ug + a entire joint of skunky sativa weed a fat 1 g joint smoked straight to the end induced me into that hell trip and psychosis + bad mindset and setting been outside sitting on a bench while also meditating. I closed my eyes after the joint and focused on a door in my mind and just walked through it i was trying to achieve total nirvana and perma enlightement. Should of left that door closed because it opened pandoras box of everything i had blocked out and tried to forget growing up aswell.

I also had a saving grace of having a trip sitter with antipsychotics who managed to get me away from everybody in the street who came out to see what the fuck was going on so i had no police or ambulance was able to snap me back to reality long enough for me to down a pill while it sedated me i was still tripping hard in my mind but totally paralysed. It did something to my trips after that made going over the edge easier. Screaming at the top of your lungs for a long time in the streets mostly about the devil but random shit from child hood aswell i believe though i dont remeber screaming at all. All i knew was that reality totally dissolved i entered hyperspace and went through trillions of lifetimes in hell with satan i also met some fractal creatures bart simpson and shiva in hyperspace.
 
I mean I guess when you dream and when you're tripping, you're sort of in the same realm of subconsciousness. You're just hooking up to the supercomputer that your brain actually is.

I'm seeing lots of similarities to my nightmares @TripSitterNZ
 
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