[codr7]

It's understandable if you've never tried psychedelics yourself, and probably not hanging out with people who have.

But that safety promise goes for the ones we have plenty of experience with, especially the naturals; once you start putting random substances in your body, all bets are off.

[LoganDark]

What safety promise? There is no promise of safety here. Part of being a responsible user is understanding that safety cannot be guaranteed; one can only attempt to minimize risk. That's the guiding principle behind the concept of harm reduction.

Making sure you're actually taking what you intend to take is indeed very important, because if it's something else, that indeed would be random and you might not only apply the wrong strategy, but take an incorrect dose as well; the correct dose may be "none" if it is a toxic or lethal substance.

But even when you know exactly what you're taking and what are the risks involved, you can't guarantee safety; no one can. This is important to understand. An incorrect understanding can lead to reckless behavior that will get you killed.

[codr7]

You're typically not going to kill yourself with weed or shrooms, or a lot of other well researched psychedelics. It may well get uncomfortable, but not dangerous.

[LoganDark]

Under psilocybin, certain smells can make me suddenly lose consciousness. Due to this, while trying some out at the start of this year, I fainted while exiting the bathroom and woke up with a head injury that required staples in order to close.

Sure, it wasn't the drug itself's fault; all it did was make me sensitive to smell, and then the smell made me faint. I had been fine for something like 8 hours since having taken it. But stuff like this is a risk with psychedelics. If I had fallen slightly differently I probably could've died.

I took the other half of the psilocybin about a week later in order to process the trauma; I figured out the reason for the fainting when I walked past the bathroom again and felt like it was about to happen again. Pretty crazy if you ask me.

I guess the moral of the story is that you really can't expect anything to be perfectly safe even if it won't kill you on its own.

[codr7]

Wild, thanks for sharing. One theory would be that it increased your sensitivity to something in that area. I have a hard time seeing that just a memory would make you faint again.

Look, nothing in this world is guaranteed to be completely safe. We take risks all the time, otherwise we wouldn't get out of bed.

Never heard of anything like it though, so I'm going to assume it's not very common.

[LoganDark]

> I have a hard time seeing that just a memory would make you faint again.

It wasn't a memory; I had to physically be near the source of the smell in order for it to happen, so it indeed seems like what changed was the body's sensitivity to some component of the scent. Maybe something like ammonia since it was cat pee.

> Look, nothing in this world is guaranteed to be completely safe. We take risks all the time, otherwise we wouldn't get out of bed.

Of course. I accept risks all the time.

> Never heard of anything like it though, so I'm going to assume it's not very common.

I've never heard of it happening to anyone else. I've heard of death by overdose of course, and I had certainly taken quite a lot, but I have never heard of someone being completely fine until a mere scent knocks them unconscious (especially when they wouldn't even perceive the scent normally).