[enjo]

My experiences have been universally negative often very much so. I have given LSD a good go. It has led to intense hallucinations with very long lasting PTSD like consequences for me. I have done it under the guidance of "professionals" (as close as you can get in a world where these substances are completely unregulated). Even in very small doses I have experienced intense anxiety and general feelings of dread.

This isn't to discount your experience but rather a general warning: all drugs aren't for everyone. It's easy to take away from these threads that psychedelics are universally positive and that negative trips are generally the result of misuse.

Which isn't true. Before going into this doing some deep introspection about yourself and your abilities is really important. Use these drugs with extreme caution.

[thinkingtoilet]

I did say "most" people. There are people who if they eat a peanut will die. It's a universal truth that everyone reacts to things differently. I will say, you jumped right in the deep end with LSD. A small dose of mushrooms is an order of magnitude tamer and much better for first timers I think. In the end, if it's not for you, it's not for you. I still stand by my statement.

[MyOutfitIsVague]

I had a similar experience on a very small dose of magic mushrooms. Significantly smaller than necessary to even have hallucinations (under 1g of dried magic mushrooms). I was filled with dread and terror and felt like I was going to die. I was told by my shrooming friend that it was probably just bad, and to take some of his good stuff. I took 1g, and again had hours of terror and dread, and thought I was going to die for several hours on end. I then had nearly constant anxiety for about a month afterward.

I think many pro-psychedelic and pro-drug people in general underestimate how much these drugs vary with people. I have a friend who will make a gram of weed into cannabutter and eat the whole thing in 1 sitting, getting about 200mg of THC at once, and not have any major problems. He was a big proponent of "there's no such thing as too much" until he saw another friend of ours have an incredibly intense panic attack on 10mg of THC. My wife has intense anxiety on as little as 2.5mg of THC, regardless of CBD and CBG levels (whether via gummies or straight plant matter); no dose can be thereputic for her.

Based on the number of people I know who have experimented with these drugs, I think there's a smokescreen effect where people who have bad experiences don't talk about it nearly as much as people who have good experiences, so it seems significantly less risky than it is. Of the 10 or so people I know personally who had a psychedelic experience, about a third of them have had bad ones. They just don't really talk about it and never want to try it again. I wouldn't say that most people should try psychedelics at least once unless I knew what the actual numbers were, otherwise I'm pushing many people into having a horrible nightmare for hours on end.

[thinkingtoilet]

I know people who have had a bad trip, but not a single person who has only had bad trips. I would say confidently that 95% or higher, probably closer to 99%, of the experiences I and the people I know have had are positive. I don't think there's a smokescreen effect at all. There's a reason people love these drugs. I think suggesting that 33% of people have horrible experiences on these things is no where close to reality. These are powerful drugs that need to be respected, but if you take them in a good mindset in a safe place the vast vast vast majority of the time it's going to be an amazingly positive experience.

[MyOutfitIsVague]

I have tried a few times and only had bad trips. Not only that, but I used weed regularly beforehand, and alcohol occasionally, and after my last mushroom trip, both reliably give me anxiety or panic attacks every single time I use them. The first time I used weed after the mushrooms, I had a panic attack so bad I ended up calling 911 because I was convinced I was going to die. It's been two years now, and the last time I tried weed was three months ago (a CBD heavy strain; I had 10mg CBD and 2mg THC), and the last time I tried alcohol was a month ago, and both times gave me an anxiety attack.

Maybe I'll go back to normal eventually, or maybe I had a latent anxiety disorder that was triggered by the mushrooms and I'll just never be able to enjoy weed again. I don't know. My friends didn't have experiences as bad as mine, but they did have a bad time. Most of my friends love psychadelics, and I'd never take them away from them, but before we all tried them, they were talking the same way, and it's what made me excited to try them. I wasn't expecting it to do to me what it did.

[winterpunk]

so who did you kill