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durxo
Stranger



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My friend is struggling after a trip
#28643491 - 02/02/24 12:35 AM (4 months, 22 days ago) |
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Hi, I have a friend who recently had a mushroom trip with people who often do mushroom ceremonies, they gave him a high dose and he says that his trip wasn't a bad trip, he felt a bad trip during one part but it then turned into a good one and he describes the trip overall as positive but as pretty intense, he even saw himself from outside at one point and he believes he had an ego death.
The problem started after the trip, he felt like he couldn't quite come back to reality and they gave him food to see if it worked but it didn't, he came back to his home not feeling well and feeling like he wasn't himself, he says that when he looked in the mirror even days after the mushroom trip he felt like he wasn't the person reflected.
He started panicking because he said he felt like he wouldn't be able to ever return back to reality so he went to visit a psychiatrist who told him he didn't think those effects were gonna be permanent but that only time would tell and it was too soon to know, he prescribed him Atarax for anxiety and to help him sleep better.
He started having those episodes less often, first it was all day during a few days, then one day he had it and one he didn't, then he felt good for several days before feeling bad for one day, then he started feeling bad only for short periods of time, he was feeling a little better but one day he had a nightmare where he went down to the kitchen and he encountered somebody standing there without a face and he didn't know if he was good or bad or how to react, that startled him a lot. (maybe the person without a face was his fear of losing his identity?)
Even with the nightmare he started having those bad feelings less frequently to the point where it didn't happen at all for several weeks so he traveled to visit his brother to another country because he thought it wasn't gonna happen anymore. As soon as he arrived he started feeling very bad again, he's been there for 6 days and has been feeling bad the entire time so he's very scared cause he thinks he's gonna be like that foverer.
I've been telling him the entire time that it's normal and that it's gonna go away as time passes but hes feeling more and more anxious, he even says that he believes he's gonna have a panick attack some times.
Any advice or insight into what is happening to him? I'm experienced in psychedelics and have had ego death several times but never been through what he's going through.
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“The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight.” ― Joseph Campbell
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Gargantua
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Registered: 08/27/23
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Loc: Alps
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Re: My friend is struggling after a trip [Re: durxo]
#28658528 - 02/13/24 02:37 PM (4 months, 10 days ago) |
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I have no qualification to give proper advice. But imho it would be best your friend would seek professional help (not medication) to develop strategies to cope with anxiety. The example of panicing in a different country shows that he needs a stable secure situation. Frome there on he can expose himself gradually to demanding situations. If he has psychotic episodes he may need medication. I wish him as all the best.
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Buster_Brown
L'une


Registered: 09/17/11
Posts: 12,020
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Re: My friend is struggling after a trip [Re: durxo]
#28663404 - 02/17/24 06:43 AM (4 months, 7 days ago) |
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Repetition of a mantra helps me overcome anxiety brought on by an excited mind:
Om mani padme hum Om mani padme hum Om mani padme hum Om mani padme hum Om mani padme hum Om mani padme hum
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Northerner
splelling chceker


Registered: 07/29/12
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Re: My friend is struggling after a trip [Re: Buster_Brown]
#28664886 - 02/18/24 04:14 AM (4 months, 6 days ago) |
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Sounds like anxiety disorder to me.
The best cure is distraction. Whether that is rock climbing or sex... whatever stops them thinking.
It's hard hey. Sometimes there's no way to console a friend like this. Making them feel not alone in a very present way can really help though. I really understand.
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The nearest we ever come to knowing truth is when we are witness to paradox.
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Buster_Brown
L'une


Registered: 09/17/11
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Re: My friend is struggling after a trip [Re: Northerner]
#28665084 - 02/18/24 08:06 AM (4 months, 6 days ago) |
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Personally I doubt the efficiency of distraction in this situation. My own experience has my mind wandering at crucial moments which jeopardizes safety, leaving no choice but to give up my driver's license.
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Blue Cthulhu
Undefined


Registered: 05/27/19
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Re: My friend is struggling after a trip [Re: Buster_Brown]
#28666644 - 02/19/24 09:57 AM (4 months, 5 days ago) |
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Sounds like depersonalization/derealization. Not uncommon after psychedelics. Obsessing about it makes it worse (in mine and many others’ experience).
Instead of fearing losing his identity, he could start to think of it as being in the process of changing his relationship with himself. We are raised in this modern image-obsessed culture to think that our reflection IS ourself (and that it’s either desirable or undesirable). Many products are sold to alter our image. But a reflection is just a reflection. Who he really is has something to do with that which is aware of the reflection, aware of whatever he is observing.
Just my 2 cents. Everything will be okay. Those who enter into a psychedelic ceremony do want to change, it’s just that how we change often does not happen the way we thought it would.
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"Things are true that I forget, but no one taught that to me yet." A disembodied-re-embodied consciousness be-ing (With all the accoutrements.)
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nooneman


Registered: 04/24/09
Posts: 14,851
Loc: Utah
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Re: My friend is struggling after a trip [Re: durxo]
#28666830 - 02/19/24 12:26 PM (4 months, 5 days ago) |
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Benzos would be my first choice of treatment, and if those didn't show any improvement, I'd try seroquel.
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