5 ms·

From personal experience and from some other people I know, there are really no such things as bad trips. Only uncomfortable trips with often uncomfortable trut

From personal experience and from some other people I know, there are really no such things as bad trips. Only uncomfortable trips with often uncomfortable truths or revelations about the world and/or yourself. (Obviously I'm not counting extremes like dosing someone and throwing them into a haunted house. That would be a bad trip.)

pmoriarty 10y ago
I'll confess to having trips that were like scenes out of a horror movie, including experiencing death. I'd categorize them as beyond "bad" to "nightmare" or torture trips. That said, I learned a lot from them. In fact, I'd say that I learned a lot more from my bad trips than from my good trips, and found the bad trips much more valuable and profound. They helped me face a lot of things I didn't want to acknowledge or didn't realize in my ordinary life. They were, as they say, years of therapy condensed in to hours. My bad trips also made me feel great respect for these substances, and made me very wary of casual use. I also believe you should always have an experienced sitter whom you like and trust. I can't find it now, but there's an interview with Erik Davis where he tells a story of how Terrence McKenna had turned someone on. Afterwards, that person screams at McKenna: "What did you do to me? How could you! It was so..." So McKenna asks him: "But would you do it again?" "Why? Because what does not kill you makes you stronger?" "No," McKenna replied, "It is what kills you that makes you stronger."
- kilroy123 10y ago
  Yikes. Sounds like a painful way to learn things though.
- colordrops 10y ago
  I will also personally confirm that nightmare torture death trips are possible. I've had one that was that bad, and it took years before I realized that I did learn some powerful things from the trip. I have never fully recovered, and it was almost 20 years ago. I don't think it was the best way to learn - abuse by a parent also teaches you things. edit: in the interest of not misrepresenting hallucinogens, I wanted to clarify a few things. First, this was on LSD, and not mushrooms. I have never had a bad trip on mushrooms, whereas I always felt more out of control on LSD. Also, I've tripped dozens of times, and every other trip was either very positive or at least could be laughed at afterward. And overall I've gained more than I've lost by a long shot. My main point is that hellish psychotic breaks are indeed possible, but not the norm. The one time I did experience this, I was not following the guidelines of experienced trippers, which is to make sure your set and setting are good. My (mind)set was horrible, taking several other drugs in the same evening, and the setting was a shitty vegas hotel. If you go in with a positive, respectful mindset, surrounded by supportive people in a good environment, the chances are almost nil that you will have a bad trip.
mistermann 10y ago
Is your forearms turning into lava an uncomfortable truth? ;)
echlebek 10y ago
Oh but there are! https://deadspin.com/5549389/mushroom-tea-murder-man-removes-friends-still-beating-heart https://deadspin.com/5549389/mushroom-tea-murder-man-removes...
corndoge 10y ago
From personal experience, there are such things as bad trips. I recently had one of my friends -- a relatively experienced psychedelic user -- dive out of a window because he thought the world was going to end. Among other things this resulted in my friend barely escaping death by hemorrhage (I called emergency services, he was hospitalized), an uncomfortable police encounter, quite a few articles of clothing lost due to being soaked in blood, and some unsavory legal consequences for my friend. Not to mention a rather scarring mental experience for myself. Set was good, setting was good, substance was known good. I had absolutely no reason to suspect anything going wrong. But it did go wrong. Even if you know what you are doing and are experienced, it is always possible for bad things to happen. Getting cocky and saying there are no such things as bad trips is an invitation for trouble.
- bioluminescent 10y ago
  How much did he take? It sounds like he took too much. Taking a sensible dose should not result in this.
  - thoughtpalette 10y ago
    Armchair anecdotes. Everyone can and will have a different experience. Even from "safe" doses.
  - corndoge 10y ago
    He had prior experience with the same substance at the same dosage. It was a little high but nothing unheard of, certainly not a heroic dose.
    - bioluminescent 10y ago
      Pretty scary. It reminds me of the girl who went to Amsterdam on a school trip, took shrooms and jumped off a building, killing herself. It resulted in fresh shrooms being banned for sale there.
      - 10y ago
shlant 10y ago
> there are really no such things as bad trips. Only uncomfortable trips with often uncomfortable truths or revelations about the world and/or yourself You can put it in whatever context you want, and for the most part I agree, but I myself have had what I would definitely describe as a "bad trip". It resulted in me having to deal with anxiety and panic attacks for the next 4+ years. I also personally know people who have had what could only be described as "bad trips" including one instance of police being called to the house and one instance of someone jumping out a window. I know it is important to take every experience as a learning opportunity, but there are some people who physiologically have bad reactions to hallucinogens and those who are susceptible to mental disorders. Saying that "there are really no such things as bad trips" is really downplaying how powerful these substances can be.
jamesblonde 10y ago
I dropped one tab when i was 18. It took me a few years to get over it. Flashbacks daily for the first year, slept just a couple of hours a night, constantly on edge, scared I would get a flashback. A course of prozac 18 months later sorted me out - calmed me down enough to deal with it. It still took another 3 years before i felt comfortable enough to smoke a joint. It was the single stupidest thing i did in my whole life.
PhasmaFelis 10y ago
I once spent an evening talking a friend down from a really nasty spell of paranoid dissociation after she ate the recommended dose of a legally purchased pot cookie in Washington. I am in favor of legalization for many drugs, and bad trips can be minimized by attention to set, setting, dosage, and purity (I suspect quality control at my friend's bakery was shit and she got way too much of something or other). But the notion that bad trips are anti-drug propaganda and recreational drugs are perfectly safe is dangerous and hurts people.
- throwaway7767 10y ago
  > I once spent an evening talking a friend down from a really nasty spell of paranoid dissociation after she ate the recommended dose of a legally purchased pot cookie in Washington. > I suspect quality control at my friend's bakery was shit and she got way too much of something or other The quality control may not have been to blame. I've smoked cannabis for many years, and know many people that do. I used to think as many do that these stories of mental breakdowns/freakouts were just anti-drug propaganda. Then one day a friend brought his coworker (whom I had never met) to visit. We smoked one joint between the three of us, it was not particularly strong. But the guy just went nuts. Talking nonsense that was obviously part of some paranoid thoughts he was having. Me and my friend spent the rest of the evening calming him down and by the end he had mostly returned to normal. It's clear to me this guy had some underlying psychological issues that were triggered by cannabis. But it only took a very small amount to trigger that episode. As my friend told me, he just stopped showing up for work after that and after a couple of months was let go. I don't know where he is today but I hope he recovered and realised that cannabis is something that he really should not touch again. But again, this is one person out of dozens of people I've smoked with over the years. It's uncommon, but can be quite serious for those afflicted.
  - dfraser992 10y ago
    Marijuana can be one heck of a psychedelic. For the most part it isn't because of how the typical person uses it, but if you know what you are doing... If the DEA actually understood drugs, they would have done everything possible to prevent marijuana from being deemed 'socially acceptable' (assuming I know "what the DEA thinks"). Medicalization has made it socially acceptable though, and it reflects the general social shift over the past 40 years. Enough 'pot cookie' stories and maybe society will start really wising up as to what we're dealing with.
kahrkunne 10y ago
My uncle had a bad trip - he had to go into therapy for a year afterwards. This is why psychedelics are the only drugs I refuse to do under all circumstances, bad trips really do exist and they can fuck you up badly.

pmoriarty 10y ago

I'll confess to having trips that were like scenes out of a horror movie, including experiencing death. I'd categorize them as beyond "bad" to "nightmare" or torture trips. That said, I learned a lot from them. In fact, I'd say that I learned a lot more from my bad trips than from my good trips, and found the bad trips much more valuable and profound. They helped me face a lot of things I didn't want to acknowledge or didn't realize in my ordinary life. They were, as they say, years of therapy condensed in to hours. My bad trips also made me feel great respect for these substances, and made me very wary of casual use. I also believe you should always have an experienced sitter whom you like and trust. I can't find it now, but there's an interview with Erik Davis where he tells a story of how Terrence McKenna had turned someone on. Afterwards, that person screams at McKenna: "What did you do to me? How could you! It was so..." So McKenna asks him: "But would you do it again?" "Why? Because what does not kill you makes you stronger?" "No," McKenna replied, "It is what kills you that makes you stronger."

kilroy123 10y ago
Yikes. Sounds like a painful way to learn things though.
colordrops 10y ago
I will also personally confirm that nightmare torture death trips are possible. I've had one that was that bad, and it took years before I realized that I did learn some powerful things from the trip. I have never fully recovered, and it was almost 20 years ago. I don't think it was the best way to learn - abuse by a parent also teaches you things. edit: in the interest of not misrepresenting hallucinogens, I wanted to clarify a few things. First, this was on LSD, and not mushrooms. I have never had a bad trip on mushrooms, whereas I always felt more out of control on LSD. Also, I've tripped dozens of times, and every other trip was either very positive or at least could be laughed at afterward. And overall I've gained more than I've lost by a long shot. My main point is that hellish psychotic breaks are indeed possible, but not the norm. The one time I did experience this, I was not following the guidelines of experienced trippers, which is to make sure your set and setting are good. My (mind)set was horrible, taking several other drugs in the same evening, and the setting was a shitty vegas hotel. If you go in with a positive, respectful mindset, surrounded by supportive people in a good environment, the chances are almost nil that you will have a bad trip.

mistermann 10y ago

Is your forearms turning into lava an uncomfortable truth? ;)

echlebek 10y ago

Oh but there are! https://deadspin.com/5549389/mushroom-tea-murder-man-removes-friends-still-beating-heart https://deadspin.com/5549389/mushroom-tea-murder-man-removes...

corndoge 10y ago

From personal experience, there are such things as bad trips. I recently had one of my friends -- a relatively experienced psychedelic user -- dive out of a window because he thought the world was going to end. Among other things this resulted in my friend barely escaping death by hemorrhage (I called emergency services, he was hospitalized), an uncomfortable police encounter, quite a few articles of clothing lost due to being soaked in blood, and some unsavory legal consequences for my friend. Not to mention a rather scarring mental experience for myself. Set was good, setting was good, substance was known good. I had absolutely no reason to suspect anything going wrong. But it did go wrong. Even if you know what you are doing and are experienced, it is always possible for bad things to happen. Getting cocky and saying there are no such things as bad trips is an invitation for trouble.

bioluminescent 10y ago
How much did he take? It sounds like he took too much. Taking a sensible dose should not result in this.
- thoughtpalette 10y ago
  Armchair anecdotes. Everyone can and will have a different experience. Even from "safe" doses.
- corndoge 10y ago
  He had prior experience with the same substance at the same dosage. It was a little high but nothing unheard of, certainly not a heroic dose.
  - bioluminescent 10y ago
    Pretty scary. It reminds me of the girl who went to Amsterdam on a school trip, took shrooms and jumped off a building, killing herself. It resulted in fresh shrooms being banned for sale there.
    - 10y ago

shlant 10y ago

> there are really no such things as bad trips. Only uncomfortable trips with often uncomfortable truths or revelations about the world and/or yourself You can put it in whatever context you want, and for the most part I agree, but I myself have had what I would definitely describe as a "bad trip". It resulted in me having to deal with anxiety and panic attacks for the next 4+ years. I also personally know people who have had what could only be described as "bad trips" including one instance of police being called to the house and one instance of someone jumping out a window. I know it is important to take every experience as a learning opportunity, but there are some people who physiologically have bad reactions to hallucinogens and those who are susceptible to mental disorders. Saying that "there are really no such things as bad trips" is really downplaying how powerful these substances can be.

jamesblonde 10y ago

I dropped one tab when i was 18. It took me a few years to get over it. Flashbacks daily for the first year, slept just a couple of hours a night, constantly on edge, scared I would get a flashback. A course of prozac 18 months later sorted me out - calmed me down enough to deal with it. It still took another 3 years before i felt comfortable enough to smoke a joint. It was the single stupidest thing i did in my whole life.

PhasmaFelis 10y ago

I once spent an evening talking a friend down from a really nasty spell of paranoid dissociation after she ate the recommended dose of a legally purchased pot cookie in Washington. I am in favor of legalization for many drugs, and bad trips can be minimized by attention to set, setting, dosage, and purity (I suspect quality control at my friend's bakery was shit and she got way too much of something or other). But the notion that bad trips are anti-drug propaganda and recreational drugs are perfectly safe is dangerous and hurts people.

throwaway7767 10y ago
> I once spent an evening talking a friend down from a really nasty spell of paranoid dissociation after she ate the recommended dose of a legally purchased pot cookie in Washington. > I suspect quality control at my friend's bakery was shit and she got way too much of something or other The quality control may not have been to blame. I've smoked cannabis for many years, and know many people that do. I used to think as many do that these stories of mental breakdowns/freakouts were just anti-drug propaganda. Then one day a friend brought his coworker (whom I had never met) to visit. We smoked one joint between the three of us, it was not particularly strong. But the guy just went nuts. Talking nonsense that was obviously part of some paranoid thoughts he was having. Me and my friend spent the rest of the evening calming him down and by the end he had mostly returned to normal. It's clear to me this guy had some underlying psychological issues that were triggered by cannabis. But it only took a very small amount to trigger that episode. As my friend told me, he just stopped showing up for work after that and after a couple of months was let go. I don't know where he is today but I hope he recovered and realised that cannabis is something that he really should not touch again. But again, this is one person out of dozens of people I've smoked with over the years. It's uncommon, but can be quite serious for those afflicted.
- dfraser992 10y ago
  Marijuana can be one heck of a psychedelic. For the most part it isn't because of how the typical person uses it, but if you know what you are doing... If the DEA actually understood drugs, they would have done everything possible to prevent marijuana from being deemed 'socially acceptable' (assuming I know "what the DEA thinks"). Medicalization has made it socially acceptable though, and it reflects the general social shift over the past 40 years. Enough 'pot cookie' stories and maybe society will start really wising up as to what we're dealing with.

kahrkunne 10y ago

My uncle had a bad trip - he had to go into therapy for a year afterwards. This is why psychedelics are the only drugs I refuse to do under all circumstances, bad trips really do exist and they can fuck you up badly.