Hitting the shower

[Diethyl]

Im sure alot of people have heard of throwing someone in a cold shower in the event of an overdose , this of course it the wrong thing to do when someones life is at stake and won't really do any good. I was just wondering what a cold shower would actually do to your heart rate . Sometimes when SWIM is trippin' his heart rate gets high while not alarmingly high its high no less . When SWIMs heart rate gets this high what would you suggest he do to bring his heart rate back down. Should SWIM take a cold or warm shower. Thanks

[Muirner]

Taking a cold shower will help to cool off your body. Most of the time when people take a cold shower it is because they can feel themselfs "Burning Up". A cold shower will help to cool your body down, because having a high body temp for a prolongued time is not a good thing.

Muirner

[sands of time]

I think a cold shower would actually increase your heart rate.

[nanobrain]

cold shower wont do much, but an ice cold bath can be used with some success to stave off meltdown until the paramedics arrive in case of hyperthermic breakdown.

[slickstick]

I would say whatever makes the person tripping more comfortable is best. In my case splashing some water in my face has been enough to ward off the start of a bad trip. If you are talking about an physical overdose then of course a shower isn't going to do anything...

[Scape]

I enjoy a shower while tripping, it adds some nice visualizations. But wouldn't recomend it to someone freaking out.

[treefingers49]

I can see how a cold shower could "shock" someone out of the beginnings of a bad trip. The intense sensation of cold water hitting your body would be an effective way of grounding a tripping person, and at least knocking them out of their bad headspace for a bit.

However, I think it could also make things worse, and as they say, YMMV.

I'm also a firm believer that "bad" trips are a necessary part of the psychedelic experience. They force people to confront aspects of themselves that are detrimental and they have been hiding from. Of course it's terrifying, and emotionally exhausting, but isn't it the reason that these drugs are such powerful therapeutic tools?

[Nagognog2]

I've used a warm shower for people who were overwhelmed by the flood of thought in their heads on psychedelics - with good effect. Not forcing the person, of course. Gently suggesting. The focused sensorial effect of water on skin can help ground a person.

[fatal]

shower + drugs = fun
bath + drugs = drown
drugs + drugs = fun

such an odd mind state swim has had these last few days... stranded in town wandering about in a drug frenzy of some sort... strange memories and frightening images floating up out of the time fog... swim think he need sex... and a roast beef sandwich... and some pot... and some exotic chemicals to perform research on... maybe a new car...... 4 out of 5 not bad? ill stop now... OH... AND... maybe a fresh pineal gland to chew on...

[raven3davis]

Showring while tripping is a good way to calm down but it might cause a bad trip. SWIM remembers one time he took a shower thinking it might save a bad trip but it just made it worse. The shower was dirty and the stains were flying in swims face making him even more scared and depressed. It was so scary SWIM had to get out of the shower. He thought he was doing to die.

SWIM recommends taking a shower to intensify a good trip but it has not helped him during a bad trip. It just seemed to make things more complicated and put swim in a loop which was not good. The repetitiveness of the water beating down just got to him for some reason.

[psitryp]

The heart rate will go upp if you put someone under cold water. This is because the cold water will induce a constriction of the blood vessels in the skin and the surrounding tissue and this will ultimately lead to higher blood pressure.
This is a well known fact that is easily demonstrated. SWIM has actually gone through this himself during a laboration in a human physiology course. SWIM was put in a sauna for 45min and then was put in a cold shower. SWIM was wearing a BP-meter and also core and skin temp-meters. The BP went straight up during the first 30sec and then went gradually down. So yes the BP will get higher if you put someone under cold water.

If the person has a normal BP to begin with the BP peak will be quite moderate but if the person is agitated as is the case with people under alot of stress the BP can go quite high (beacuse of the high baseline BP). This is rather difficult to predictid though as the periferal bloodvessels could already be constricted due to high levels of sympathomimetica (adrenalin/noradrenalin) released due to emotional distress.

Well the bottom line is, don't throw your pal in a cold shower. SWIMs tip is to wrap a blanket around the person and talk in a nice and friendly voice to to him/her or just wrap a blanket and be around. If a emergency would occur, benzo and propranolol are good aides. Propranolol can be taken before the experience to alliveate panic attacks (high BP/fast heart rate can induce panic/bad mood (autonomic response)).

SWIM has had a couple of drinks so please excuse any spelling errors, plus english isn't my native language.

Reputation Comments on this post:

excellent info