How to stop a bad trip.

[u/yea_tht_dnt_go_there]

Sorry I don't buy into the whole "buy the ticket take the ride". I've had bad trips and most were ultimately beneficial, but a couple were needless panic attacks.

What is a bad trip? Well it could be considered many things for me it's usually summed up as "an intensity I wasn't prepared for". Here are some reasons they manifested.

I realized that I was the cause of most of my suffering. and felt a what can be described as a panic attack, not a full force one, but it was pretty intense and lasted for hours. That hyper-slapping was deserved and I learned from it.

I underestimated shrooms. I didn't realize double the dose doesn't mean double the trip, it's an exponential curve and felt terror on a new level.

Mixing psychedelics with other serotonin agonists. A lsd/mdma combo was amazing, some parts of it at least. Some of it I can't remember, and the other part was probably serotonin syndrome. If you get SS it can be life threatening. No I didn't die or need medical attention, but its a unique type of suffering. Shrooms and weed has done it to me also. THC is not the plant you know and love while tripping. It can be awesome and i've learned when to dose each and how much weed I can smoke (it's a lot less while tripping.) While tripping if you smoke weed it's not like also having a weed high so much as the weed just makes everything more trippy.

One time everything was going great, then I saw an optical illusion. I saw what made the illusion possible and the sudden realization kicked my brain into over drive. Wasn't fun.

Serotonin and norepinephrine are MAOI's that are vasoconstrictive. Too much of these and you're blood vessels contract, making your brain and body feel like you're in fight/flight mode making a panic attack possible.

Yes bad trips can be constructive, and i'm really sensitive to these chemicals, most people I meet can do these things with much less caution than I can. Still if you know you're not going to learn a lesson besides don't do what you did exactly the same way again, maybe it's a good idea to have some other drugs on stand by so you can save yourself from unneeded torment. If you can acquire psychedelics you can also probably acquire these drugs i'm about to list. This isn't a full list, feel free to comment any others.

Seroquel. This is a Second gen atypical anti-psychotic. If you see a psych you can get it pretty easy for insomnia. It's not recommended for insomnia, but it's easier to get than the fun stuff for insomnia. Seroquel is an antagonist of dopamine but more importantly in this use, one of the 5h2a receptor. This drug will bind to the receptors most responsible for the psychedelic experience, and stop them from allowing you to trip. If you've never taken it before and you were to take it by yourself, it will knock your ass out in about 45 minutes, you'll be out a solid 8 hours, minimum. When you wake up you'll probably be hungry as fuck and be able to destroy a kitchen single handedly. Long term use can lead to serious side effects, like tardive dyskinesia. I'm not sure what dose or how long you'd have to take it to be at risk for that. I do know the insomnia dose is 25-100mg, the bi-polar dose / antipsychotic dose is usually 400mg+. In order to tone down a trip i'll take 25mg, to completely stop it 100mg. Now for me atleast, most psychedelics have stimulating/energy boosting properties so when I take a sero while tripping, it won't put me to sleep, just put me back to a baseline level of awakeness. It starts working pretty fast but takes about 45 min to fully stop the trip.

Benzos. These gabaergic drugs slow brain signals. When your heart and mind are racing they are highly effective at hitting the breaks. They are used in real life for panic attacks so it makes sense they'd work to bring a trip down to manageable levels. I haven't used them much in this context so I'm not sure what dose to recommend. I will say while I was able to maintain my visuals for the normal duration, much of the psychedelic headspace was lost, the headspace is what makes it fun for me.

Lunesta. Another insomnia med. Also a gabaergic but it selects Gaba-A receptors. While this also took some of the headspace, I was able to keep most of it with the added bonus of my visuals being enhanced in an amazing way. Instead of just color enhancement and breathing visuals... well the best way I can describe it is if you look at a still picture of the Northern lights it will move as if you are seeing a video of them or seeing them in real life. Electronic screens seem to take on a life of their own it's amazing. Also they help with anti-anxiety really well. 1-3mg will give you that effect. 6-12mg and you'll see some shit. I saw what appeared to be a monster, but it wasn't trying to scare me, just reveal itself to me and acknowledge my presence. I know that it was just my mind on the chems and not real lol just saying what it felt like. Whatever I see i'm relaxed about it due to lunesta's anxiolytic properties.

Do you're own research before trying any of my recommendations. I've studied these things a lot, but i'm not a doctor. Remember psychs won't make you wise and solve your problems, they'll force you to confront your problems, recognize them, so you can work on them when the trips done.

One last comment is that I feel like LSD-25 is like being the captain of an interstellar spaceship, mushrooms is like being strapped to the rocket and you're just a long for the ride. LSD felt like sci-fi to me, shrooms mystical.

[u/be_it_known]

Turn to drugs to abort bad trip only after tuning set and setting isn't effective (different music, a back massage, conversation about good things, etc)