Post-Trip Anxiety?

**Queen Zukin** · 11-01-2011 03:40 AM

I've really never been one who has had too much issues with anxiety. However, I did shrooms for the first time two weekends ago and since then I have had this strange, lingering anxiety. It's nothing really bad, it just feels like I constantly have a couple butterflies in my stomach, but it's new and enough for it to be really annoying for me. I'm thinking that the anxiety may have been caused by having a bad trip - I did it with two other people whom I barely know in the middle of a forest at night near a graveyard. Needless to say I was terrified for the first half of the trip and I realize that wasn't the brightest idea of mine. Though, it did make me really think about some things that are going on in my life.

There isn't really anything big and new happening in my life that would be the cause of any anxiety, so I can't really attribute it to that.

Has anyone else experienced post-trip anxiety and does it go away after awhile? I tried to meditate last night, but I suck at it and fell asleep. I wanted to try it again soon, under a better setting, but I also don't want to make this strange anxiety worse, either.

**Seroquel** · 11-01-2011 04:49 AM

Post trip anxiety can linger on after using psychedelics. It can be days, weeks, or months before you feel normal again. You also might never feel normal again.

It can even get worse, if your family has a history of mental illness, taking psychedelics can trigger an early onset of something that you otherwise could have avoided or at least postponed.

**Queen Zukin** · 11-01-2011 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by Seroquel

Post trip anxiety can linger on after using psychedelics. It can be days, weeks, or months before you feel normal again. You also might never feel normal again.

It can even get worse, if your family has a history of mental illness, taking psychedelics can trigger an early onset of something that you otherwise could have avoided or at least postponed.

You make it sound so bad, Seroquel! Perhaps that's because I may have phrased it badly.

I mean, it's not a horrible anxiety, it's more like I am just actually excited for things now. I'm excited for today, even though I have no clue what's going to happen. Usually I could care less. And since this is new for me, it feels weird and needs to stop.

**saltyseedog** · 11-02-2011 12:04 AM

Are you worried about something?

**greenhavoc** · 11-02-2011 05:34 AM

I'm excited for today, even though I have no clue what's going to happen

You're at the mercy of biology every time you trip. Think about that.

**tommo** · 11-02-2011 06:33 AM

Originally Posted by Queen Zukin

I did it with two other people whom I barely know in the middle of a forest at night near a graveyard.

Oh wow. See if you did it in a nice forest during the day. chances are this wouldn't have happened and you would have had the time of your life.

Though, it did make me really think about some things that are going on in my life.

I think that you really have to meditate on these things. Contemplate them deeply.
It should help, to move past them.

**Supernova** · 11-02-2011 12:03 PM

I had some fairly strong anxiety for a few days after doing shrooms for the first time. It went away ance I got back into the swing of things and really got to think about the positives of the trip. I would agree with Tommo then, that you should take some time to contemplate whatever it is that you were thinking about, and maybe look for the chance to make a positive change in your outlook, or some other lesson. My anxiety was pretty bad at some points, but once I started looking at it from that angle it aleviated a lot of my concern.

**Queen Zukin** · 11-04-2011 05:25 AM

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

Most of the anxiety is gone now. I'm feeling a lot better.

I did a lot of thinking about what I learned when I stopped tripping. It actually felt so nice to be able to think without mindfucking every five seconds. I'm kind of glad that I did experience what I did, and I wouldn't take it back either.

The people that I tripped with were dating each other, so I sort of felt like a third wheel. I was walking behind them in the forest and I would just see them being so far away from me, like I would never be able to catch up and I would be lost out here forever. It started to make me think about who I have now as friends, and I realized that I am lacking in deep connections with other people. I had a really good best friend in high school who almost completely understood me. I think the fact of having someone know me so closely scared me when I was in highschool, and so I constantly tried to push them away. I really regret that now, I wish I could have realized that sooner. I always wished that someone would understand, but I refused to acknowledge that he did.

I've done other things, and on each of them I felt that if there was an emergency I could deal with it accordingly. I could "make" room in my own mind do deal with the situation. I realized, while I was tripping, that if a situation was to happen then I would just be completely screwed. This made me feel a bit defenseless, which then made me realize that I seem to always build walls around myself, because I can't stand feeling defenseless or vulnerable, which seems to be why it takes people longer to get to know me. I seem just not to trust people because I can't let them in.

The trip was bad in that it could have been much less frightening and I wish that I could have at least remembered all of it without having large memory gaps (at one point in the forest, I was sure that I was becoming a werewolf LOL - I even had werewolf claws), but it was refreshing to be able to examine myself so freely and look upon what has been less than perfect in my life.