Undiagnosed Lsd - 1 Bad Trip Changed Everything

[Abstract]

Ken, personally I feel very differently about mine. I know I am lucky that I have not had more trauma. I am grateful for that and that my PTSD is not worse.

Incidentally I can imagine how a 12 year old having a trip and not knowing that was what it was could be traumatised and I actually never said you did not have PTSD.

I posted the link as it was relevant to the thread and to what has been discussed here. When I read it others comments about LSD made more sense to me. I knew nothing about LSD before that or that a long term condition such as this was possible.

I did not post it because I think that someone suffering with HPPD is any less entitled to sympathy or support but rather because someone who has this condition rather than PTSD needs to be treated differently despite presenting in most of the same ways and that it is important to know the differences.

Personally I would rather have PTSD as there is hope of change. I guess the OP may have had either disorder - there is limited information.

I hear you that you believe your experiences are way worse in every way than anyone else and worse that anyone else could understand and although I don't appreciate your stance I will leave it at that.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I think Ken is mis-attributing the effects of a bad trip to PTSD. As such, any discussions are, well, pointless. We only know PTSD here----we're not well versed in the effects of drug use. It seems a bit....odd? to come to a forum looking for support and then tell everyone how you're different, somehow special? I think that perhaps Ken has been seeking PTSD treatment when he should be seeking out help on how to handle lasting effects of a bad trip.

 

[Ken Haley]

Well Solara, if I am mis-attributing the effects of a bad trip on PTSD about 20 doctors also did between 1987 and 2007.
I am something "special" to use your would, specifically due to the fact that none of the treatments have worked for me. If you give to that "specialness" I would.

I stumbled upon this site by googling "LSD and PTSD" and found someone with nearly exactly the same problem (if fact this is the exact thread), unfortunately the OP is gone. I was not so much looking for support as the OP who unfortunately appears to be gone.

You can certainly think whatever you want about me, but read your own post. You are minimizing my situation and doing exactly what you accuse me of, so shouldn't people ditch both of us? Then there is the "Ken threatened my ideas about trauma, so no one talk to him". You don't want to talk to me and want no one else to talk to me? Your not going to support me? What good is support from a person who denies that a bad LSD trip can be traumatizing? None.

 

[Nicolette]

I have banned Ken for trolling.

 

[Scorpio111]

These people that are being mean to Ken obviously have never had any bad trip on LSD, probably never experienced LSD itself. I had a bad trip on LSD and I know what exactly Ken is talking about. That feeling is terrific, inhumane and you can't really compare that to anything on Earth. That's something no human being deserves to go through. I feel sorry for Ken for having such experience at 12 without even knowing he was drugged. You wouldn't know how nightmarish, terrific and traumatic that is you unless have experienced. You wouldn't be minimizing his story if you have truly experienced LSD nightmare.

 

[Friday]

It's not about being mean.
It's about 2 different disorders.

Say this is a cancer support website.
And someone comes in talking about adultery.
Do they or a loved one have cancer? No. But they feel adultery is like a cancer.
Okaaaaaaay. But that's not what we do here. We're here for people with cancer. Not metaphors.
And the person argues that the fear, grief, etc. is -if anything- even worse than what people experience with cancer!
Maybe. But that's still not what we do here.
Then they argue that there are adultery threads.
Right. For people with cancer. Discussing the ins and outs of how that relates with fighting cancer.
And they still don't get it &/or are being willfully ignorant... Talking about how, at least with cancer, your spouse still loves you. Unlike with adultery, alone and betrayed...
Banned.

It's not about what's worse, or shared symptoms, or being mean.
It's about actually having or supporting someone who has ________.
Be that cancer, PTSD, or any other focus of a website or forum.

 

[anthony]

These people that are being mean to Ken obviously have never had any bad trip on LSD, probably never experienced LSD itself.

No, they're not. You can't get PTSD from a drug induced episode, literal by definition for diagnosis of PTSD. You need to have such a discussion on a drug forum, thus others will share your experience and symptoms correctly, because they're primary issue is a bad trip or such resulting in x symptoms.

This site is for people with PTSD first, to then discuss their life, symptoms and such... not for everyone and anyone. PTSD or a trauma fitting PTSD diagnostic criterion.

 

[TheShawn]

I think criterion H is being misapplied here. It states, “Disturbance is not due to medication, substance use, or other illness.” Consider these two hypothetical situations:

1. A person presents with symptoms of PTSD, but has narcotics in the body or recently used narcotics. PTSD would not be diagnosed.

2. A person presents with symptoms of PTSD and narcotics have not been in the body for several years. The diagnosis of PTSD is a possibility because the disturbance is not due to substance use at that point; it is due to a traumatic event that just happened to involve a narcotic.

It doesn’t make sense to say a current disturbance is due to substance use when a person hasn’t used a substance for several years. I understand that an LSD trip is quite different from a real experience, but it really isn’t very different for the person who has a bad LSD trip. It is very real and very traumatic for that person.

 

[Friday]

I've had bad trips.

It's exceptionally different than CritA Trauma.

Feeling like you're going to die, whether you're a middle school kid who wants to melt into the floor because your socks don't (or do) match or hallucinating shadows come to life... Is worlds away different than picking bits of skull out of the corners of your eye and finding teeth in your hair after the guy beside you head explodes, or walking across a mine field, or having a knife to your throat, or being chained to a wireframe bed, or, or, or, or.

Actual trauma is a helluva lot more complex than chemical fear or the products of our own imaginations.

Just like actual sex is different than fantasies, playing a Doctor on TV doesn't make you a real doctor, and parenting is different than "When I'm a parent" or any other kind of imagining what you would do in a situation you've never actually been in... is world's away from reality.

A bad trip, or bad reaction to medication is no different than a nightmare. Scary? Yup. But it's not real. It's not about how scary a situation is. That isn't the definition of trauma. That's the definition of fear. I'm more afraid of spiders than I am of being shot. Doesn't make the daddy longlegs in my kitchen or tarantula in the zoo trauma, and being shot at (again) not. Hell. You know what I feel like when I'm being shot at? Insulted. More often than not. Put that thing down, it's dangerous, someone's gonna get hurt! Um. Yeah. That's the point, idiot. Or annoyed. f*cking A, I don't need this right now. Or nothing. Trauma doesn't equal fear. Fear is pretty simple. Trauma is complicated.

 

[TheShawn]

A bad LSD trip can seem very real and is very traumatic to the one experiencing it. There's no need to compare it to events that are traumatic to other people. What matters is the event that is traumatic to the person in question and how it has affected them.

During one LSD episode, I was convinced that a truck was right behind me about to run me over. I totally believed I was permanently insane and would probably die at any moment. Why differentiate between real events and events that are only perceived to be real if the result is substantially the same?

 

[Friday]

Because there is a difference.

Many.

Not the smallest of which being a brain which cannot differentiate between reality & imagination. It doesn't draw that line. Everyone has nightmares. A small percentage of whom cannot distinguish between their nightmares and real life. That's an entirely different issue.

Think of it like 2 people who have an internal temp of 105degF. One person has measles. The other person is laying in the sun in the desert. 2 different treatment modalities are needed. Even if, yes, both people have a temp of 105 and both need to be cooled down.

That's why we differentiate in medicine. Because the differences are important.

 

[TheShawn]

Well, it's a fact that doctors have diagnosed people with PTSD when the traumatic even was a bad LSD trip, so it's not impossible. More importantly, it's rude to discount the experiences people have.