Sometimes if I get too high I get a decent amount of anxiety. Always wanted to try LSD or Shrooms but worried something like that may happen. Generally it comes from me feeling a strange sensation in my body which leads to a slight bit of panic. Or if I get really high I just don’t feel there entirely.

Always thought about taking LSD or Shrooms with some CBD incase I get a bit of anxiety.

Anecdotal:

I get very anxious from marijuana. Somewhat manic even. I hate the feeling. I’m generally not a stranger to anxiety in life.

I don’t get anxious from LSD. I _have_ felt anxiety on it that I had been repressing, felt it kind of wash over, but it was ... useful. Not difficult. I knew what it was. I wasn’t lost in it. It wasn’t like being swallowed by the uncomfortable anxiety from marijuana that kind of takes over or drives.

And, well, I think a low LSD dose actually helped me resolve a thread of anxiety I had had since I was a child. An permanent and obsessive safety-seeking walk down an endless tree of decisions and judgement. Kind of a background thread. I kind of ... found it again? Had forgotten it was there? And could revisit it and ... know to stop. “Just stop judging”, i.e. judging the situation. And it felt like I could. It still feels like something was let go of. But idk!; Anecdotal!

There are studies that show that when starting with low doses, then very few people get anxious. Other studies show that when people _do_ get anxious, there are still lasting benefits to well being. As I understand it. There’s a decent seeming summary of this on http://tripsafe.org

One can leave you permanently mentally scarred and the other will make you paranoid for a few hours.

I have stoner friends and lsd/mushroom friends. Some of the latter are still dealing with issues today from a single bad experience from a trip they had years ago. I cannot say the same of my stoner friends.

A mushroom trip can leave you feeling refreshed regardless but if you have a bad trip it may expose you to your deepest and darkest fears and become a terrifying nightmarish experience that weed couldnt induce if you tried.

The horror of a bad a trip didn’t necessarily teach me anything other than to respect mushrooms much more than weed.

I have had friends say the same. There is no comparison of the paranoia from weed vs the absolute horror of a bad trip.

I feel that people who say there is havent really done a lot of either to know the difference.

"At a dosage of 1.6 grams in a therapeutic clinical environment, we might expect 0% of people to experience some extreme fear, for an average of around 1 minute of strong anxiety, and we might expect around ~45% to report a persisting positive increase in mood from this dosage assuming they had first tried 0.8 grams, and then 1.6 grams5"

Via https://tripsafe.org/how-to-take-shrooms/#start-small

Based on studies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27578767 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3308357/table/T... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3308357/

I don't know why you are dismissing my experience like that, or why you think that I do not have a lot of experience. Have you ever had a panic attack? Anxiety and paranoia are something I would get consistently from weed. I never felt the same anxiety, and never felt paranoia, on mushrooms. I never had a panic attack from mushrooms. Almost every psychedelic trip I take (between 50-60 so far) has a range of negative aspects, but I am able to better control myself, something that is not the case with marijuana. I have experienced terror on both mushrooms and LSD, and I was able to keep it together and turn it around every time. FWIW, I also prefer to do relatively large doses (3-5 grams mushrooms, 2-7 hits of LSD).

Give it time. It can take a decade of reflection to untangle/parse.

A friend did have a very anxious trip - it's possible. However it was topical for him. An introspection into deep issues of security and control, and probably a too high dose for that occasion in his life, with not much experience. But he's fine after!

The psilocybin family's effect is imo a bit more "fantastically bewildering" than LSD. In a sense like old fairytales are sometimes curiously and bewildering to a child. (Comfortably bewildering!) It's hard to put into words. It's a place of beauty. It can be scary if you're an anxious type (like I am myself) and go in a bit fast. (Haven't had an anxious experience myself though.) BUT it doesn't have to be scary or uncomfortable even if bewildering - and usually isn't except in exceptional cases - and doesn't occur with low starting doses afaik, there are still lasting benefits even if you get anxious (iow it is processing), it passes, and the interesting thing is that you're somehow always fine if you let go. A kind and insightful tripsitter is all the insurance I would need I think.

It's really interesting and really hard to explain. Maybe check out the studies and study protocols. Plenty of stuff on http://maps.org – As an example, I believe it has been shown that psilocybin mushrooms strongly reduce anxiety in terminal cancer patients. In a lasting way. I cannot imagine a more trapped and anxious state than terminal cancer. So even id there is anxiety while under the influence, it seems to mean something.

LSD doesn't have this physiological effect though. It's more accurate to say that LSD will amplify whatever you're already feeling or thinking. If you take acid and feel anxious, it can spiral out of control and feel much more intense. On the flip side, if you're feeling peaceful then it will be a calm, happy journey with no feelings of anxiety whatsoever.

I'm not having high pressure or high resting pulse and it's so severe that, while not externally visible, causes for example a squeaky bed to squeak in rhythm with my heart beat.

I've had a prescription for Atomoxetin and it had some "body calming" effect but in some sense amplified the aforementioned effect.

Do shrooms not have this physiological effect as well? Or just LSD that lacks it?

Psychedelics are the same, for me, times like ten. Fortunately I handle it relatively well, and I just let it ride as "part of the experience" when I trip. Usually the uncomfortable parts go away after the peak, and then it's just awesome for hours. The peak is amazing in its own ways too, but there is (for me) no doubt a have anxiety/body buzz that is just uncomfortable as all get-out.

But they're really very different experiences.

Alcohol does accentuate psilocybin, acceptably.

But combining marijuana with either, especially LSD, can be frightening. Your short term memory drops to a few seconds, so you can forget who (or even what) you are, where you are, etc. Some people panic, and fear that they'll never be sober again.

Did you take any other drugs?

I've experienced stuff like that at high LSD dosages, but it wasn't unpleasant. In fact, I liked it. It's what I meant by "ego death".

That is, there's no awareness that an "I" exists. There's just stuff happening. Inside, outside, all the same. Just stuff.

And then gradually, there's this internal dialog that starts talking about all the stuff. That is, consciousness, what I'm calling ego aka "I".

With marijuana during LSD peaking, that happens abruptly. With sometimes considerable anxiety.

For the most part though, my small experiments (LSD, mushrooms, DMT) have had a very positive and borderline revolutional effect on my outlook on life. Only time I've had negative experiences have been on mushrooms, both LSD and DMT have always been positive.

The proper path is to wean yourself off of the antidepressants for the experience, and then only undertake the experience with an experienced sitter or guide.

Psilocybins effect is enhanced by MAOI and decreaces by SSRIs. LSD effects are decreased by both. With other other psychedelics you have to be a bit carefull.

You probably think of MDMA and MAOIs, this would be a dangerous combination.

And indeed, that's what ayahuasca (aka yage) is.

Plus various mushrooms and other psychoactive stuff, depending on the preferences of the curandeiro/a (shaman) and the intended outcome.

SSRIs, do not mix.

NDRIs, lots of people report they're fine.

Hopefully we'll get better data on what other chemicals are okay to mix as these things slowly become permitted to be the subjects of study.

Later, I used to vacation in Amsterdam for the shrooms. But I'd go off the SSRI maybe a week or so before the trip.

I take the SSRI Fluoxetine (Prozac) and have tried numerous psychedelic drugs while on that prescription drug. Before doing so I checked with my psychiatrist who did not believe there would be a great risk.

My experience has generally been that psychedelics work (with the exception of MDMA) and there are no drawbacks to using them while on an SSRI. Of course, psychedelics do have risks and educated, responsible use is appropriate.

Asking this due to wildly different subjective experiences.