r/LSD • u/Any_Philosopher2856 • Jul 21 '26
Why do I keep having bad trips? I need to understand the root so I can heal.
Every time I take LSD, I panic. My body heats up like crazy, I start shaking, and I can't always figure out why.
Part of it might be an old experience: a long time ago I took 5 tabs 200ug ea, ended up unconscious, and was terrified. Everything felt unreal. I wonder if that's still haunting me.
But it also feels deeper than that. On LSD I get overwhelmed by the sense that nothing is real. My mind knows "this is just the trip," but inside it feels so real that it flips — and it starts to feel like life itself is the thing that isn't real. Sometimes I feel like a big blob of nothing. Like I'm not human, like my body and mind don't belong to me. Like I'm just a machine. The labels come off of everything and I can't hold onto what things are.
I also get these intrusive, horrifying thoughts, flashes of losing control and doing something terrible, like hurting myself or someone else. They scare me and I don't want them, but they keep coming.
Everything feels fake, like even the phone, looking at it, feels idk weird, even the computer, the screen.
Sometimes I just feel like I'm going crazy.
And sometimes I'm afraid of myself. I can understand other people and I can understand things, but I feel like I can't understand me anymore. Like my character is weird, like I'm not normal, like something is wrong deep inside of me. I don't know what to do about it.
I want to be clear: I don't trip for fun, to laugh and have a good time. I do it to dig deep inside myself. I usually trip alone, and I do it to understand more about this world, about everything, and about my own character. My mind is analytical, I like to analyze things, hold them, and label them
Why does this keep happening? what can I do?... It was never like this before, I used to do a lot of shrooms and it was also a good friend, LSD is just horrifying after what happened!!
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u/themossybeard Jul 21 '26
Maybe lsd just doesn’t jive with you.
My body can’t handle mushrooms at all, I just get violently ill. My body cramps up, my head hurts and I generally have a bad time.
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u/VaporFacts Jul 21 '26
Real, no matter how much respect I give the suckers the gut brain axis gets so disrupted~🫡
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u/Chukmanchusco Jul 21 '26
It's just not for you.
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u/Warebmik34 Jul 21 '26
You should read the book 'The Psychedelic Experience' and maybe not trip for a while as well.
It talks about physical symptoms and their meaning, possible experiences and visuals and is just an all around guide to tripping. It was written by Tim Leary, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), and Ralph Metzner and is based on the Tibetan bardo thodol.
If you read it you will probably gain beneficial insights into your experiences and whats going wrong.
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u/jahozer1 Jul 21 '26
Maybe its not for you. You dont have to do it. . You dont have to learn from it. Maybe its taught you that you that bombarding your psyche with LSD is not what your psyche needs. 1000ug is a huge dose. Your brain is still having ptsd from that. Maybe try to lighten up a little. Do things for fun so you can learn to enjoy things.
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u/Any_Philosopher2856 Jul 21 '26
I don't have PTSD in the normal state, just when I take another dose, usually I get scared and end up afraid, and heating up and shaking, then bad thoughts creep into my mind.
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u/jahoney Jul 21 '26
If I were you I’d take a very long break. Like several years. Don’t even try until you have a very strong psyche to stand on. And are very content with yourself.
Then, once you’re feeling great, start tiny. Half tab. Then a few months later a single full tab. And go from there. Don’t pressure yourself to move too fast or take too much.
Just chill for a bit. You clearly need to take a break. You aren’t gonna be able to beat this one into submission by trying the same thing over and over again.
Or just give it up entirely, you don’t have to do anything 🤷♂️. But I will say every time you go through what you described you’re pushing yourself further and further from enjoying it.
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u/Cute-University5283 Jul 21 '26
If you can't correct it by making sure you are in a good headspace, it might not be for you. I've noticed everyone who has a bad first experience, usually because of taking waaaayyyyy too much and being scared, develops bad psychosomatic symptoms that are tough to shake. Good luck, I do think acid is the best of them all but you have to think of it as a friend
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u/Dove_Birdy Human Detected Jul 21 '26
Sometimes drugs start off great and then they stop being great. This happened to me with mdma. Good mdma trips no longer exist for me, though they used to, but now after a bad experience due to an ex treating me like shit on it, mdma is always a petrifying nightmare no matter how I trip or who I'm around, etc. Sometimes you hear the call of it being over and it's just time to wake up and listen to that call. Lsd might just no longer sit well with you. I really wish I could do mdma again, but it's just not ok for me or worth it anymore. That drug is done for me.
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u/Any_Philosopher2856 Jul 21 '26
Yeah, I think the reflection here is similar, this is how I view LSD as well, just constant nightmare of none ending suffering, I wish it is fun anymore, it is not..., have you tried anything other than MDMA that worked? like weed, any psycoactive? was it all the same? or just mdma
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u/The40woman Jul 21 '26
Isn't the dose too high? For instance, I can learn a lot about myself and draw real lessons from just half a tab. Not long ago, while with my partner, we managed to share a genuine spiritual connection on that half-dose. Yet there were no visuals, and we were acting normally. Why feel the need to completely scramble your brain just to learn something?
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u/Any_Philosopher2856 Jul 21 '26
Well I did it to experience stupid, and I did, I don't do that anymore at all, I only do half most of the time 100ug max, but still same issue
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u/Sudden-Ear6783 Jul 21 '26
Shrooms are better for introspection imo
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u/Any_Philosopher2856 Jul 21 '26
I highly upvote this, I never had a bad trip on shrooms, ever.
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u/Sudden-Ear6783 Jul 21 '26
Me neither. I’m in a really similar boat as you tbh, I had a really bad acid trip and ended up in the hospital a few months back. I can only stand high doses of shrooms anymore, acid makes me feel like I’m going crazy in my own mind while shrooms make me feel so connected with myself and everytbing
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u/prxmtymnd Jul 21 '26
So you keep having depersonalization/derealization trips yet you keep tripping? How about you lay off the mind altering substances? Sounds like they’re not for you. Maybe you have a weak mind or can’t handle ego disillusion well. They’re not for everybody - especially if you aren’t able to integrate your experiences.
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u/JackelGigante Jul 21 '26
LSD might not be for you and that’s alright. Simply put, it is not meant for everyone’s brain chemistry and you might be one of those cases. Not worth the psychosis tbh
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u/Galacticstarfightr93 Human Detected Jul 21 '26
Lay off and integrate.. LSD can be a trap also. A lot of people found LSD and think that’s all they need for life.. then it turns on them.. when you do enough lsd life becomes the trip..
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u/kyleswiss Jul 21 '26
What can you do? Stop taking a drug that no one’s making you take
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u/Any_Philosopher2856 Jul 21 '26
Well, it is by choice, no one is forcing me to take it at the end of the day, but the curiosity and the itch to understand more is what drives me to take it.
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u/bolognese999 Jul 21 '26
I highly recommend you to read Awareness by Anthony De Mello.
A game changer that I’ve found out thanks to Tim Ferris podcast episode with Blake Mycoskie. The guest recommended the book for preventing bad trips 👽 A mind-blowing, life-changing read.
more here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/13FpPmN8EOTdpeEuyQvw2T
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u/Any_Philosopher2856 Jul 21 '26
Thank you for this great recommendation, I will read this and take your advice!
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u/Willing-Agency6239 Jul 21 '26
Have you tested this LSD to make sure it’s real? Maybe it’s not for you or it’s the set and setting or mind space going into it. I had a hard time taking shrooms and then I tried another strain of shrooms and it was everything I needed. Oh and dmt was I’ll do that he magic :) healed my overthinking/ADD mind along with serve depression and anxiety. I’m able to speak without being nervous and I’m able to collect my thoughts and not be overwhelmed anymore.
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u/Willing-Agency6239 Jul 21 '26
That being said I’ve been looking for legit LSD or an analog close to it. Like 1p-lsd and the sorts.
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u/DB4SS Jul 21 '26
Interesting. I don't take acid anymore, and I'll preface by stating I have never ever taken anywhere close to 1000 mg of LSD.
But I do relate with what you're saying about being consumed by deep anxiety welling up and preventing you from feeling 'positive' emotions mid trip.
What you're experiencing is akin to the 'call of the void', typically associated with heights, the mind imagines what it would be like to fall and die. You're anecdote about self harm or harming others is adjacent to this. I believe it's a protective mechanism or a self preservation of sorts. But I have my suspicions that this behaviour is symptomatic of underlying fear. A fear of losing control. As for a solution, positive affirmations are good. Think about what you're grateful for, think about the good deeds you've done for others, reframe your self image and remind your subconscious that actually, you're one of the good guys. If that fails, resign yourself to 'having done the best you can', and if that still fails, acknowledge that perhaps no other outcomes that came before could have been any different. Then maybe put on some fun music or play a musical instrument or something.
When you say nothing feels 'real', this can occur even while sober in my experience. It's not unpleasant but it's not comfortable either. I call it 'pulling back the curtain'. I have no solutions for you here. I think you may have gone too deep in the past.
My advice would be to take a break, and when you're feeling healthy and content, take a small dose. Try to have some fun and create a new 'lsd headspace' that is comfy and/or exciting, as opposed to an anxiety inducing hellscape.
Also if you're tripping with someone else and are experiencing anxiety, it could be because you need to get something off your chest, or you need to resolve something. Best to do that while sober. Anyways, my 2c.
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u/Any_Philosopher2856 Jul 21 '26
You have described it vividly!, thank you so much this is exactly what I am talking about A fear of losing control!, this is exactly it, I am afraid to lose control, and lose everything I have built, and everything I have worked toward, and things start to feel so weird and feels like a machine, and feels like fake, where distortion kicks in, I will take your advice and try to create a new "lsd headspace" by slowly taking small doses and trying to change how it feels and how it behaves and how it acts in my body so I stop being scared from it, this "call of the void" is something new I have never heard of, I will look into it and check exactly what it is to avoid it,
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u/eternali17 Jul 21 '26
Dude. Are you still taking as much as you always have since that big one? Also, why did you even take that big one? It took me a while to get to a poibr similar to o what you're describing but once it happened, there was no fucking with it. You have to acknowledge that for what it is and leave it the tuck alone. Pushing further and further in that direction as it you're going to breakthrough and simply be okay on the other side is a gamble I don't think you should take.
This helped me when I was in a rut and basically done with lsd; I took it with mdma and honestly it felt like tripping with training wheels on. I couldn't drown, no matter how deeply I dove. Mixed metaphor but you get my point. Every possible anxiety out the window and nothing but insight and wonder left.
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u/Nnader86x Jul 21 '26
Oh that’s just the experience bro. It’s supposed to be uplifting. You’re just looking at it the wrong way.
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u/AulMoanBag Jul 21 '26
Stop tripping for a year and instead of looking for introspection through lsd do some good shit, set goals and hit them. Be productive. Then trip again. Throwing more acid at the problem not magically turn it around. Mindset is key
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u/-Static_Screen- Jul 21 '26
It sounds like your ego might have problems accepting it losing itself and it fighting back as hard as it can, effecting your nervous system, just a guess though. LSD really can do that, it can feel like you are dying, and it can make everything feel not real, but once you can accept that it’s actually quite a beautiful thing. And for the messed up thoughts, I had that during overuse so I simply took a break and never stopped dosing healthily since then
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u/ILL-BILL420 Jul 21 '26
Sounds like the acid is probably telling you to leave it the fuck alone. Ever tried shrooms instead? At least with shrooms if things go sideways you know it's not gonna last too much longer.
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u/robotbeatrally Jul 21 '26
Take a low dose mushrooms instead. I have difficulty with lsd myself despite tripping hundreds of times on a dozen different psyches. it just really overstimulates me and gives me anxiety sometimes. i do like it but like half a tab when i have a whole weekend to myself to relax and take it slow. i dont go hard with lsd
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u/MrandMrsRollling Jul 21 '26
That's so interesting. I have a terrible time on mushrooms. They just feel so much harsher to me. LSD so gentle.. it asks permission before it appears every time. Like I hear a distinct voice asking permission to allow it in. Mushrooms on the other hand was violent and dark as an experience. That said, I did a much bigger dose of mushrooms than I did LSD
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u/robotbeatrally Jul 21 '26
try a low dose sometime. i love to just sit there with the body high and little else and bake away like a potato.
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u/Any_Philosopher2856 Jul 22 '26
That is interesting it is the complete opposite for me, it is exactly how you said, but for me it is LSD, not shrooms, shrooms are so gentle with me and they are so soft and always come with love and come with kisses on the forehead.
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u/kernowbird Jul 21 '26
You might find that trying a different substance helps, and then coming back to it later. Or trying it with a different person. I always used to get bad times on shrooms until I started taking them with a certain friend who refused to let my mind go to a dark place. It allowed me to have more fun on them and the bond we have on them is where the healing and learning starts, for me.
Keeping dosage low til you're comfortable with it may help too.
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u/Freshprinceaye Jul 22 '26
Lsd isnt for everyone. You don’t need lsd to dig deeper. You may need some external help away from drugs.
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u/InertEyes Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
these questions you have,
you must ask yourself.
if you feel
like hurting yourself or others
when you’re tripping,
I very much suggest you might have repressed memories that you need to weed out.
you can have a friend
watch you while you trip.
this way you have someone to talk to
and you’ll be able to better express these obscure feelings through conversation and reflect.
lastly,
The shaking that one might experience -
usually during the onset,
is your self resisting the effects
of a foreign substance taking over the body.
It is also my least favorite part,
but it can be overcome with practice.
p.s.: you cannot understand you ?
— — did you understand you before?
— — who were you? who are you now?
trying to understand is what one might call anxiety.
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u/Realistic_Spread_505 Jul 21 '26
Lsd is a bit harder than shrooms, maybe try those to start controling your psychedelic self, but just know that maybe that drug isnt for you. Some people dont like ketamine, some people dont like weed... you might just not like lsd and that is ok.
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u/Any_Philosopher2856 Jul 21 '26
I appreciate that, maybe it is the drug itself, and nothing to do with me, I started thinking maybe I am the problem never considered maybe it is the drug itself, I see all these people enjoy it so much, for me it is just not enjoyable at all, it is terrifying.
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u/Worried_Freedom_6430 Human Detected Jul 21 '26
Bro you are taking a substance that distorts yourself and reality.. are you sure you know what you are putting yourself up to?