SFA what should swim do if they get a bad trip at a party?

[poison1981]

If swim is at a party and starts getting scared/panic what is the best thing for swim to do?

Swim started to panic and get shakey last night at a new years party thank god swim over came the fear but if swim panics how can swim get out of a trip?

[Heretic.Ape.]

Get out of a trip? A psychedelic shouldn't be consumed if the lab animal isn't ready to commit the time to the trip. There's not really any great way to "get out" of a trip. I'd recommend not going to parties on psychedelics if the individual gets uncomfortable in such circumstances.
However if one finds one's self in such a situation, I would say that it would be a good idea to find a quiet secluded place; like a bedroom or something where people aren't hanging out, or stepping outside. This will cut down on the sensory overload that lends power to anxiety during trips. Then just accept the feelings present, even if they are fear. Just say "ok" to whatever and sit still, relaxing into the present moment. After a few minutes of this the anxiety should pass.

[poison1981]

swim tried that and went into a full blown panic attack and got the shakes one time

[enquirewithin]

Tripping is often more enjoyable in a place where you know people and feel secure, or so it is said. The best way out of a panic attack at a party would be to go somewhere else.

[Corksil]

Breathe more deeply and slower, just relax and go somewhere else in your mind. Think about something happy

[Samadhi]

grab the nearest area rug, tape his eyeballs to an asian slant and run around saying "wake up the children, it is christmas mornin!"

Might as well freak some people out eh/

[Wierd Logic]

This is why parties always need chillout rooms! If you have the means, leave the party.

[Corksil]

SWIM steps outside to smoke a cigarette. Excellent alibi - though SWIM does not recommend smoking tobacco as it has been known to the state of california to cause cancer and reproductive harm.

[Wierd Logic]

Originally Posted by Corksil

SWIM steps outside to smoke a cigarette. Excellent alibi - though SWIM does not recommend smoking tobacco as it has been known to the state of california to cause cancer and reproductive harm.

I stayed at a cheap motel once in Cali, and saw this fucking odd sign that chemicals had been found on the site known to cause cancer etc etc, but without the mention of tobacco! Freaked me out until I asked the reception what the hell it was...

[ComfortablyNumb]

Its nicer to do psychedelics in a nice, safe enviroment but if you enjoy doing it at parties. But SWIM recommends taking a valium or something similar to the party and if you feel axious or restless take one, it should take an edge of the trip, calm you down, if you take 2 you may go to sleep, if thats what you want.

[shaman_DE_85]

Originally Posted by Corksil

Breathe more deeply and slower, just relax and go somewhere else in your mind.

Could have a bad end, i one time ended-up heavily hyperventilating end no idea how to stop it... now i know that a paper bag could help

[Potter]

Parties are generally a bad place for psychedelics. Tripping around other people generally requires everyone to be in the same head space, public parties are about as far from that as possible.

So what do you do to keep from freaking out at a party? Don't take psychedelics before you go. Or if you do, take only a low dose. Large groups are simply not the place for an ego cracking.

[convalescent]

"what should swim do if they get a bad trip at a party?"

the answer is quite simple - do not use psychedelics/much-perception-changing drugs in parties with many people, all the booze and chaos all around.

[Waste]

Yea SWIM tries to steer clear of psyc's at parties, he finds they just make him very quiet / introspective, he'd much rather just drink or hit some uppers

As for calming SWIYself down, like someone else said, take a vally or 2 with SWIY just in case and step outside for a moment just to calm SWIYself down without having to worry about what others are thinking

[Sushi]

It's actually much easier to leave a party than to get out of the trip. Founding opinion on St.Grof's findings on "treatment" of LSD trips with psychiatric drugs, it's ill-advised to forcibly stop a process of exposing subconcious data. All psychdelics do it and they do just this - they dig up hidden stuff in SWIY's mind. Interrupting this forcibly is known to cause long-lasting disorders. It's actually more benefitting and safer to make it through a bad trip than to kill a nightmare with a pill.
Psychedelics, maybe apart from Ecstasy and cannabis, generally make poor party drugs. But if SWIY really thinks they are suitable and want to do them at parties, then it's easier to leave a party, if SWIY has the means and if neighbourhood is known and friendly. Changing environment can make wonders. Otherwise finding a secluded place to cool down is advised, and someone trusted to tell it's bad and SWIY is in need of care and support.

[Joe-(5-HTP)]

Originally Posted by Sushi

It's actually much easier to leave a party than to get out of the trip. Founding opinion on St.Grof's findings on "treatment" of LSD trips with psychiatric drugs, it's ill-advised to forcibly stop a process of exposing subconcious data. All psychdelics do it and they do just this - they dig up hidden stuff in SWIY's mind. Interrupting this forcibly is known to cause long-lasting disorders. It's actually more benefitting and safer to make it through a bad trip than to kill a nightmare with a pill.

swim doesn't know if he agrees with your characterisation of a bad trip.. Swim's bad trips usually consist of a horrible fear that comes on in waves bringing nausea with it and lingers until he manages to go to sleep. Swim would love a benzo or something to send him to sleep: The fear is not psychologically meaningful or attached to any issues that swim has in his life and so it is just an annoying painful experience.

Swim's friends who have had bad trips do not report much difference- unless they psyche themselves up about something or other or get paranoid or worried that they are going insane. Then, they come out of the experience feeling more mentally stable for having overcome it.

I think that is how bad trips are characterised: they just create a fear which tries to attach itself to something in your conscious (not your unconscious) such as the immediate fear of going insane or never coming out of the trip. This is not an eruption of the unconscious or any similar romanticised pseudo psychological explanation...

back on topic: To stop letting a bad trip get out of hand, just ignore the fears which surface in your mind as they will be irrational. Try to be comfortable and just wait until you are tired enough to fall asleep. That always works for swim, even if he is at a party. Of course, he has to wait 8 hours or so but it is doable. If you don't want to wait, swim would advise taking a sedative or anxiolytic or both (research possible drug interactions).

If you are so far gone in your bad trip that you are unresponsive to the environment around you and totally lost in some other world then that is the stage at which swim would be inclined to agree that forced intervention (sedatives / anxiolytics) could result in psychological harm. But in swim's experience and opinion, if you are that far gone you are much more likely to incur more harm by continuing in that state than sedating yourself out of it.

==>swiSushi, swim would be interested to know how it is possible to tell that the psychological problems developed by someone who was sedated out of a bad trip were actually caused by the act of taking them out of it and not simply the result of being in the bad trip in the first place? They may well have lingering psychological problems but so do many who are not forced out of the bad trip... how can swiyou tell it is the act of forcing them out that causes the problems?

[poison1981]

next time swim has a bad trip swim hopes joe is there with swim *kisses*

[Sushi]

@SWIJoe
Madlab is not surprised SWIY doesn't agree with his description of bad trips because it's not a general description of a bad trip. He described only general modus operandi of psychedelic drugs (in accordance with theories and discoveries of St.Grof). Unfortunately his copy of Grof's "LSD Psychotherapy" lives with someone else now so he can't quote appropriate fragments.
As to methodology of psychological/psychiatric evaluation, Madlab can only speculate how it's done. But he is generally willing to take into account opinion of someone who performed thousands of scientifically controlled experiments with psychedelics and was confronted with hundreds of bad trips and with victims of interrupting psychedelic processes of subconsciousness' exposure by tranquilizers or antipsychotics.

If Alf ever finds himself in a "bad trip at the emergency room" situation, he will rather restrain anyone trying to sedate him than allow him to do it. And to anyone else offering him pills he will just say "No, thanks, you can eat them yourself. If you want to help me, take me for a walk or a ride, or just stay with me, hug me and do not talk too much".

[Joe-(5-HTP)]

Originally Posted by Sushi

@SWIJoe
Madlab is not surprised SWIY doesn't agree with his description of bad trips because it's not a general description of a bad trip. He described only general modus operandi of psychedelic drugs (in accordance with theories and discoveries of St.Grof). Unfortunately his copy of Grof's "LSD Psychotherapy" lives with someone else now so he can't quote appropriate fragments.
As to methodology of psychological/psychiatric evaluation, Madlab can only speculate how it's done. But he is generally willing to take into account opinion of someone who performed thousands of scientifically controlled experiments with psychedelics and was confronted with hundreds of bad trips and with victims of interrupting psychedelic processes of subconsciousness' exposure by tranquilizers or antipsychotics.

Indeed- The psychotherapy patients were, of course, having a bad trip in the context of psychotherapy and so the therapists were focusing the patients consciousness onto certain aspects of their life or whatever and this subsequently, as i described previously, manifested as content for fear/whatever emotion in the bad trip.

Of course, if the bad tip is induced in a psychiatry patient in the context of having a psychotherapist expose their insecurities, fears, past, and ultimately, things which they try to suppress and then ending the trip through tranquilization, then swim agrees that psychological problems could be a result. If, however, swiyou are just a normal person having a "normal" bad trip consisting of irrational fear but not consisting of thinking about how your perants abused you when you were young or something, then swim thinks tranquilization would not create a problem.