Before tripping write down a note and put it in your pocket. Write a note in your phone, or send yourself a message. Only open this note if you become terrorized in the middle of a trip. The reason for this is so you don't regret taking the drug and suffer a hellish trip for the next 5 hours. In the note write why your taking this drug, write that you wouldnt take this unless you knew it was safe for your body, and that the effects will wear off with time. Also include a paragraph of reassuring sentences you can read aloud, "It is ok, I am ok, Everything is ok, nothing is wrong, its a little different than normal, but thats ok."

The thing you dont want is to be stuck in a trip and have no way of exiting your anxiety ridden thought loops, because it may take hours to escape if you are alone.

I don't mean to pounce, but when I'm in the grips of a panic attack I'm absolutely certain that the note is full of LIES! and that I was badly tricked into writing it and carrying it around like a moron, thinking that it would help when clearly nothing can help and i'm fucked forever and beyond any salvation... I just can't be made to take any medicine because somehow the poles have shifted and all the medicine has turned to poison and everything i know is wrong...

i mean, it does wear off eventually, and hopefully this isn't a jinx because i rarely get the fear any more, but for me this utterly irrational helplessness is the essence of the panic attack. Any tips for that?

One would, of course, have to remember to read the note once they were far gone enough for it to matter as well as be able to focus on and read the words themselves. Writing the note ahead could give one a good start on a proper headspace I suppose. If you believe it will help it probably will put you in a more confident mood. A good Set, as they say.

A buddy of mine once showed me a 'note' he had written to himself the night before in the mid of a drug induced panic state. He said it was supposed to be his name, address and such in case they found his body somewhere. It was just scribbles, and not even very good ones, at that.

Whenever I've felt things go out of control I've been absolutely unable to read. Don't think I would even find that note. Probably wouldn't even remember it or this reality much

For me, I don't think there's much in a note that I could write down that would console me in the face of something I couldn't handle. For me, the "bad trip" doesn't come from not knowing who I am or suffering from some kind of existential anxiety or thinking that it will last forever or something along those lines, but rather I'm faced with the immediate situation of confronting a hostile entity. I don't mean to say your idea is a bad one, because I certainly do constantly reassure myself of the things you listed in my head, and I know on Salvia, such a note would be much more appropriate for me. With DMT, it seems to be no so much the case for myself.

Even if I would write a note I highly doubt that I'd be able to read it while tripping. I probably wouldn't even know what a note is for that matter.


This is actually a very good advise. Eckhart Tolle says similar things about acknowledging the anxiety instead of fighting it, etc. Ever since I began applying this idea into my daily life my once-regular panic attacks have become pretty much nonexistent.

During my worst moments that voice has always chimed in and said, "you will come down". Even when I'm so gone I don't understand the concept of a drug, this thought can be somehow comforting, a reminder of the temporariness of the state im in. Sometimes takes frigging forever though.

hehehe.....

This is a great thread. If we could get a solid list going on do's and don'ts you guys should sticky it. This is good information. We need something like this. Not sure if it already exists, but I surely didn't know about it. So maybe we need to make another ;]

Awesome thread either way.

Such a thread could be titled "bad trip reset buttons" or something like that. But I kind of have to agree that preventative measures like this amount to so much diddlysquat when you're in the midst of a panic attack. I had a really long hard bad trip one time, 600ug taken on the comedown from 500ug (terrible idea BTW, NOT the way to enjoy acid). And I had this heaven/hell painting upstairs that I had just finished, one that provides the viewer with an escape or ascension from the abyss... And I remember commenting to one of my fellow travelers, many hours prior during the wonderful first half of the night, that this would be the perfect image for guiding oneself out of a dark trip. But when things went wrong, and they went horribly wrong and went on and on for many terrifying hours, not once did I think to sit down with that painting. My friends, who tried every darned thing to snap me out of it, never thought to sit me in front of it, despite our prior conversation. A note in the pocket? Not sure about that.

The one thing that has worked consistently for me in times of need is having a trusted sober sitter in the next room (my wife). She has performed miracles in times of need.

The best thing to have when someone is having a bad trip is an experienced trip sitter. I was with someone who was losing it. Not thoroughly, just starting to show the first signs of a rough ride. I sat him in front of a TV and turned on Sesame Street and told him to pay close attention. He was fine within 10 minutes.

I've seen two other trips that were so out of control that there is no way the person could be talked or reasoned with. Both were on religiously inspired Heaven and Hell type freak outs, end of the world type stuff. One ranted until he got kicked out of a bar. The bouncers roughed him up a lot. The other fought demons in his head all night and would not talk to anyone around him. In fact, he thought we were demons when we tried to talk him down. I really wish there had been some way to bring him down.

Really, when someone inexperienced has lost it, they need someone else who can calm them. If they're just having a rough spell, sometimes all it takes is to convince them, "If you do X, you'll be OK and come down to where you can manage it." Sometimes all you can do is keep them from hurting their body while they have a fight with their demons. Integration after the experience is just as important as ending a trip gone bad.

This is more for the new tripper, taking a moderate dose of shrooms or lsd. Something that is completely new to them, they may be very scared for hours. If you are tripping hard then nothing can save you, you just ride it out. But this is for the person who is aware of what they did and is scared to death.

A note would definitely apply more to a smaller dose, because as others have said it becomes near impossible to read at certain times during a trip.

I like to keep a small pendant in my pocket that I rub at the first signs of anxiety. It's just a small piece with a Bible verse on it, but the physical sensation of touching it is a very simple thing to do and it instantly brings about a certain peace as it acts like a comforting reminder of 'normal' reality. It becomes more and more efficient the more often I use it because it brings to mind all the previous times which in turn brings on more feelings of ease.

During my very first acid trip I totally forgot where I was, who I was, why everything looked so weird and how I felt during the day after smoking a massive bowl of hash. I was with a friend at the time and his presence pretty much prevented me from freaking out even though he looked as confused as I felt.

Not long after I started tripping all by myself and I would always hang a big "You took <substance>, it's going to be OK." note on my bedroom door just in case. I don't do that anymore as I always remember "Tomorrow morning everything will be fine" as my mantra when things go wrong. I always have a friend on call when I trip just in case I have a desire to talk. Made use of that option several times.

But I would certainly recommend hanging up a note for the beginning tripper.

I've always thought about using some kind of symbol that has meaning written into it that you design yourself. This symbol would be studied during normal reality and its meaning embedded in your thoughts over time. This symbol would be nearby when tripping and could theoretically help with a bad trip by the information embedded within.

This idea or trying to read a note of some kind only works up to a point. When you are deeply envolved in a difficult or intense trip its almost impossible to take in any kind of external stimulus. In most cases words are meaningless.

Personally I've found that over time i've made friends with a deeper part of myself that helps me through tough journeys by talking and reminding me that i'm going to be O.K.

I once was gifted with a crazy idea during a trip where a voice told me to:

"Go as Two" . My interpretation was to split the self in some way during a trip where a part of you actually is a sitter for the other part traveling all within your own consciousness. Its not impossible to do this, in fact i've been working on this for a long time. One part of your mind stays fully grounded while the other part explores. try it sometime.

Such a cryptic yet lovely idea

exactly , i have written notes like this years back when i used to be doing LSD and it basicly amounts to nothing on a strong trip , infact i was scared more then ever after reading the note on a strong trip , thinking something must have really gone wrong for me to have written a note like this in the first place , on a strong trip each and every word written in such a note can have double/split meanings in my mind and strong negative associations with the split meanings

I have to concur. In the beginning I used to leave notes for myself but during the height of a fearful experience it didn't even occur to me to read it, and even if it did, the text probably would not make any sense in that state of mind.

I've had much better results with meditating into the psychedelic state and letting troublesome thoughts wander by instead of grabbing them and turning the trip into a living nightmare.

Very true!

I learnt to let go on heroic doses of shrooms! once i let go i found it took me to very insightful places, life reviews that where always positive in the end....

Once I felt like I spoke with elves or something elf like on 4 large amanita muscaria (i didnt see the elves and I threw up most of the mushrooms) but whatever who ever they where they spoke with me, they told me the earth was male and the moon female and the moon is really the earth's little sister and she is always trying to catch up to her big brother.

now at this point i have had full ego death and I think I am a yin and yang sign / ball... I Was crashing on top of a bed with about 3 other people, and someone said move over to me, when i moved I thought I was the white side of the yin and yang ball, with only a spec of black darkness in me, then when I moved back into my original position, I thought I Was the dark side of the yin and yang ball with only a spec of goodness in me trying to hang on, I was terrified, 8 hours later i was fine,

but I remembered just let go next time, and I have ever since!

Shrooms and DMT have a lot to show the user, but can the user let go and allow the drug to give you the experience?

Thats the question, can the user totally let go!?