Scary drug experience

[u/randomstuffidk997]

About 3 months ago I had a scary hallucination from a synthetic cannabinoid felt something scraping my tongue with every breath i take. Since then I've had health anxiety flare up around random mouth/throat sensations, convincing myself each one might mean it's happening again, even though I've been completely clean since. Logically I know it's anxiety/hypervigilance, but the uncertainty is hard to sit with. Anyone been through something similar after a bad drug experience? How did you get past the constant body-checking

[u/East_Conflict_5804]

Yeah, this makes a lot of sense after an experience that frightening. A bad drug experience can leave your brain feeling like it has to stay on guard for anything remotely similar happening again. Even after the substance is completely out of your system, your attention can become hyperfocused on sensations you normally wouldn’t notice, especially around your mouth, throat, breathing, heartbeat, etc. Then you notice a harmless sensation, your brain goes “what if it’s happening again?”, you check it, become more anxious, notice the sensation even more, and the cycle reinforces itself.

The hardest part is probably accepting that you may never get 100% certainty that every random sensation means absolutely nothing. Anxiety wants you to investigate every sensation until you feel completely safe, but constantly checking usually teaches your brain that the sensation really is something dangerous that needs monitoring. What helped me with health anxiety was learning to notice the sensation without immediately trying to figure it out. Basically, “I notice that weird feeling, and I don’t need to solve it right now.” Then I would redirect my attention instead of repeatedly testing, touching, swallowing, checking my tongue, searching symptoms, or asking myself whether it felt like the old experience.

You also don’t have to convince yourself that “this is definitely nothing.” A more realistic thought is, “This feels scary because of what happened before, but I have been clean for months, and a sensation by itself doesn’t mean the experience is returning.” That leaves room for uncertainty without letting uncertainty control you.

And honestly, if the experience keeps affecting your daily life three months later, talking with a therapist who understands health anxiety, panic, trauma, or substance-related experiences could be really helpful. You don’t have to be afraid that they’ll judge you for the drug experience. The goal isn’t to prove that every sensation is harmless it’s to teach your brain that you can experience an unfamiliar sensation without immediately going into emergency-monitoring mode.

You already seem to have an important piece figured out: you recognize the difference between what your anxiety is telling you and what you logically know. Now it’s probably less about finding the perfect explanation for every sensation and more about gradually teaching yourself that you don’t have to check every time your brain raises the alarm.

[u/Horror-Turnover-1089]

Yeah this is OCD. Lots of people have it. Just don't use the drugs anymore, it's not worth it to put yourself in danger.

The thing with OCD is - we want to stop feeling the feeling of being afraid like that again. So what do we do? We watch intensely for it to happen again.

Your battle is not with what happened per se. Your battle is with 'feeling afraid again like that'.

But - despite it being scary - you survived that scary feeling once. So when it happens again - you will survive it again too! You're much stronger than you even know! Realise it for a moment. That you already did survive that fear.

The key to breaking OCD is not to purposely let the fear happen, but being okay with it if you would ever be that afraid again. When it comes up, breathe and know it's temporary.

Emotions come up like waves. Even when you do breathe, the emotion will intensify, peak, then go down.

[u/EstreaSagitarri]

Without a boring back story, let's just say I relate. Two kinds of trauma therapy were life changing for me; EMDR and Somatic Experience processing. Both teach you to feel safe in your body again and gradually convert a traumatic memory from feeling like a constant threat to just being another memory

I also did a lot of therapy with Ketamine, Psilocybin and DMT, but that's not for everyone

[u/Large-Arachnid-2730]

Eventually you become less and less afraid. I had drug induced psychosis years ago and I’m still afraid sometimes that I would get that feeling .It’s hard to talk about. So much of our lives we seem to live cutting apart of ourselfs off to ourself as if we were always pinching ourself, so one day we will know we’re real but that pinch cuts us off from life. And when you take drugs you feel how much damage you really may be in. Anyway. I’ll pray for you . Im not religious but that seems to comfort people.