• 💖 [Donate To Keep MyPTSD Online] 💖 Every contribution, no matter how small, fuels our mission and helps us continue to provide peer-to-peer services. Your generosity keeps us independent and available freely to the world. MyPTSD closes if we can't reach our annual goal.

PTSD From Bad Trip

Status
Not open for further replies.

xavier656

New Here
I think that I have ptsd from a bad mushroom trip a few weeks ago in which I thought I had died and was in the afterlife. I have struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life. I had, and still hold on to, reasons for why I did the mushrooms. I am going to see a therapist to figure out whether what I've been experiencing is in fact ptsd but everything I've read points in that direction. I've lost weight as a result of lack of apatite, I have a general sense that everything is dangerous somehow, I had to move out of my previous residence where the bad trip happened. I'm wondering who has had a similar experience to mine. My plan as of now actually consists of going to a therapist who I will request guidance on exposure therapy, visiting this board, and to be honest I feel like doing a small dose of mushrooms in a safe environment will actually help me. I feel like this is akin to facing my fear to some degree although I'm unsure how much of this is part of my previous expectation that hallucinogens will heal me. I did lsd when I was 15 and somehow all of my previous anxiety and depression vanished for several months. My anxiety did come roaring back after that period but ever since I've been convinced that hallucinogens are the answer for me and it's just a matter of figuring out how to use them properly and at the right frequency. The bad trip I had recently was the result of foolishly taking far to much and being unprepared for the intensity of the trip. I feel that I've ignored the important set and setting aspects of a trip and that's why they haven't helped me. I should say that I'm now 28 so for over 12 years I've been obsessing about how one day I'll figure this out and then everything will be fine. I don't know if mushrooms will help me at all but I feel compelled to find out. I'm not entirely convinced that healing has to be a painful process, but maybe I'm just too afraid to truly face my fears, or maybe I'm too afraid to face them alone. Thanks for any advice or guidance. I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has dealt with ptsd from a bad trip, but really anyone who wants to help.
 
Welcome to the forum. I'm a bit confused. On the one hand you talk about having experienced anxiety, depression, etc for many years. On the other hand, if I'm understanding you correctly, you think you've only had PTSD for a few weeks and because you had a bad trip. Honestly, I'm not sure if a bad trip is enough to give a person PTSD...I'm not an expert, don't know much about illegal drug use and really just don't know if it would qualify. What I do know is that a few weeks since your "traumatic" event is not, by definition, enough time to have developed or be able to diagnose PTSD.

I would encourage you to do some reading and continue to educate yourself about your symptoms. I think seeing a therapist is a good idea. I think continuing to pursue using hallucinogens is a bad idea. It sounds as if you've been pursuing that idea for over a decade and it hasn't worked out for you. Perhaps it's time to consider more conventional methods.
 
Welcome to the forum,

One thing you will get here is honest opinions, so I won't beat around the bush. You may have some traumatic stress from your 'bad trip', but PTSD takes longer to develop than a couple of weeks, also personally, I would question whether a bad trip is traumatic enough to develop PTSD. However, no one here can diagnose you, or tell you what you should or shouldn't be feeling.

Personally, I think you should ditch the hallucinogens and speak to a doctor about your anxieties and depression, and find a good therapist to help you get to the route of the problem.
 
I've heard of people becoming so traumatized from hallucinagens that they need to be permanently admitted to a mental institution. Something way more powerful than just getting high going on there imho. I have heard of seious research linking a single mushroom dose to abateing depression for months after, but can't vouch for it.

At any rate, you're self-medicating/diagnosing with an illegal substance, so I doubt you'll find any positive input from a public forum if for only the legal aspects!

Maybe you can find one of the ongoing research trials and get involved?
 
I've heard of people becoming so traumatized from hallucinagens that they need to be permanently admitted to a mental institution.

Personally, that is a big enough reason to keep away from these so called 'recreational drugs'

I have heard of seious research linking a single mushroom dose to abateing depression for months after, but can't vouch for it.

Hmm, I think I'd almost rather stick with depression and conventional methods (prescribed medication, therapy, exercise, healthy foods etc), than risk being admitted permanently to a mental institution.

However, I'm sure that the (always wealthy) drug companies will be looking in to it, if it has any grounds.
 
Ok, I'm going to be brutally honest with you. You should NOT be taking hallucinogens for depression. There was some research many years ago with LSD and depression (Timothy Leary) where the LSD did actually help, but the drugs they were using then and the drugs today are two different things. Today, LSD is cut with so much strange stuff that I am surprised people survive a hit of the stuff.

As for the mushrooms... with mushrooms, what you get out of them is what you put in. In other words, if you are depressed, and have negative thoughts, you will get negativity out of the experience. It is foolish to think that something like mushrooms will help you considering you appear to not know how they work. I could go into that, but I really don't think everyone wants to read a long and boring talk on the chemical properties of magic mushies.

Now, to the PTSD. For starters, you cannot be diagnosed with PTSD after only a couple of weeks of having the problems. If you had been researching PTSD, you would know this.

It sounds to me like you are having drug flashbacks, and/or the drugs have affected your cognitive processing. The first will dissipate, the second may not, but it will still not give you PTSD.. Drug Psychosis perhaps, but not PTSD.

You say you've been obsessing about how to fix yourself, but you have not mentioned whether you are seeing a professional. I would suggest that instead of self-medicating, which is dangerous and stupid, to go and find a professional to help you before you do end up with drug psychosis... and no one can help you then.
 
Welcome to the forum, whether you decide to stay or not.

I won't specifically sanction what you did, although I have to personally sympathize with you because I've done the same thing (I stuck to legal drugs, though, but those tend to be worse).

I think it's unreasonable to say that you can't develop PTSD from a bad trip. Although there is another condition (HPPD) to cover drug flashbacks, in some cases it's probably the same thing as PTSD. I have heard cases of people being accidentally drugged, having adverse reactions, etc., and those people get the label PTSD. So let's not rule anything out.

That said, using psychedelics to treat any condition is a risky business. I wouldn't trade my experiences for the world, but I was lucky. Except the nutmeg one. It lasted 24 hours and I was in the hospital the next day.

These drugs can bring up the deepest, darkest parts of your psyche. It's exposure treatment taken to the extreme, if you're even that lucky. So be honest with yourself about your motives. For me, it was impatience and morbid curiosity.

Edit: In the future, please try to paragraph as much as you can.
 
I know that people can have things triggered from trips, but not sure you can get PTSD just from that exactly. I've heard of panic attacks being triggered from drugs though.

I've had PTSD my entire life but never realized it until I was into my teens, when I started to remember things that had happened. What I kind of relate to from your story is when I did shrooms at 14 or 15 years old and I had a bad trip. It was related to my childhood though and I was having flashbacks of it then, for the first time really....so, I am not sure what to say about your experience.

Maybe the drugs have really just messed with your head more?
 
The only thing I can suggest is see a doctor, a counselor, someone that can prescribe anti-depressants. Stay OFF the shrooms or any other drug really, if you have any intention of getting back to the real life where you belong. I can't think of a PTSD trigger involving drugs and hallucinations that caused you to freak out, paranoia etc. Like others are saying, you are confusing hallucinations with PTSD, and PTSD is something that is more gradual, and not sudden like what you are experiencing.

Back off the shrooms! Seriously!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top