For some people, psychedelics can induce worry, anxiety and paranoia.

When I am not tripping, I can be paranoid, anxious and worried. Whenever I am tripping, all of this completely goes away. It is as if psychedelics "fix" my brain while I am tripping. Unfortunately I have not been able to completely integrate this into my sober life.

Psychedelics appear to do the opposite for some other people. I wonder why the effects can vary so widely accross this spectrum, from one extreme (elimination of anxiety) to the other (extreme paranoia). I have never experienced paranoia while tripping, only sober.

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. Tryptamine, phenelethylamines, ergotamines, mdma, & even something as simple as caffiene cause paranoia & anxiety.

Mine stems alot from the social stigma that surrounds psychedellics & drug use in general & is massively magnified when i trip. I try to ignore it but it seems to creep its way into most trips. Fear of persecution for something that has become a way of life & i truely love is something that bothers me pretty bad.

I'm hoping i can make a legitimate career out of organic chemistry & botany & forget the fear that hinders my psychedellic progress so badly :/

I felt a bit of similar fear or shame from the social/legal sigma surrounding drugs, even psychedelic drugs, when I was younger. However, now being integrated with a community where psychedelic drugs are accepted, I no longer experience this. Set and setting, not going out in public while tripping, may also play an important role in this.

Botany and organic chemistry are two interesting, but starkly different fields of science. Have you thought about going into plant biochemistry?

For me it's not so much an either/or thing. Sober I'm not very paranoid at all, and tripping I'm usually ok. There is often that brief barrier of fear during the initial part of an experience that has to be overcome... But I have had a some VERY paranoid reactions on psychedelics in the past that lasted throughout most of the trip. Usually this was when I smoked cannabis during the come-up, or took too much in a less than ideal set/setting.

Generally cannabis makes me more paranoid than anything else...unless I ease myself into it right.

i'd like to live in a place where psychedellics & drugs in general were not looked at as something evil & desructive. The u.s. I don't see making that turn very soon though.

For me the big part is what if somebody nosy catches onto what i'm doing or i get attacked by a government agency for some reason.

& as for the plant biochemistry thing, i've not put a whole lot of thought into the whole plan yet.
I love chemistry & working with plants, i'd like to build my life around the two & bridge the connection in some way.




& universe cannon, thats actually the exact reason i quit smoking cannabis. Even on it's own it makes me paranoid.
It also has a tendency to leave me doing nothing but eating loads of food & the. Falling asleep because laying down just feels so good.

I've noticed a similar thing with OCD. When I'm sober, I get wild intrusive thoughts and overwhelming compulsions associated with them, but when I'm tripping (and in the weeks afterwards), it's like my brain has been 'fixed.'

On the flipside of this, I have read a report of a neurotypical individual who took mushrooms and became extremely concerned that everything was contaminated, and spent most of the trip ruminating on how gross everything was. He even started to display some classic ritualized behavior (hand washing, not touching things, etc)!

Long story short: I imagine that because of serotonin modulating effect, it's possible that, in some circumstances, activation of the 5-HT system might limit symptoms, while others it might exacerbate them.

Brains are weird, but pretty cool.

Blessings
~ND

I think there have been plenty of studies that show that psychedelics can be used to help terminally ill people overcome the fear of death. Our insecurities and fears are part of who we are, so when the ego dissolves our insecurities and fears dissolve as well.