The fear before taking a drug

[faithless]

Hi all!

I would like to talk about the fear i feel before taking any drug. I am not talking here about smoking a joint, but i get that fear event before a bong.

Every time I'm about to take a drug, I feel very humble and I sometimes hesitate to take it or not.

I even feel this sensation before smoking weed in a bong.

I think I'm afraid of what trip I'm going to enter and of not beiyng ready for that.

does anyone sometimes feels the same? Or is it just me who has a problem with that? If it's me, do you think it's a sign that I should not continue with psychedelics? I wouldn't want to quit them, I think I still have a lot to learn


Thanks for your replies & sorry for my bad english

 

[Stighar]

I had that in the past a lot of times, never when using a bong or smoking a joint, but always when I used mdma, and in the beginning when I started using mushrooms or acid.
I usually smoked a joint when I had taken mdma, so I would be easier at mind when it comes up.

I guess I was kind of scared because I didn't know what would happen this time. Now I stopped taking mdma. I don't have that scary feeling anymore when taking mushrooms or lsd, I think because I've used it a couple times now, I know what I'm up against.

 

[Forkbender]

I used to have this with psychedelics, and I think it is pretty normal. In my case, the fear is now almost completely gone. I do think that with experience, the fear becomes less and less, because it is fear for the unknown and experience helps you get to know the unknown.

Never had it with weed, though, maybe it's a bit more extreme in your case, but unless you have bad trips because of this or have some form of latent psychosis, I think you are okay continuing your use of psychedelics.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

I have several psychedelics in my kitchen cupboard, but I hardly ever take them (i.e. only once or twice a month lol), for two reasons: no time, and no courage.
I'm pretty nervous every time before I take a trip (mushrooms, DMT, ayahuasca). Especially in the case of DMT, lack of time is no excuse, so I guess it's fear mainly.
I never fear taking a bong hit, a low dose of mushrooms or a high dose of MDMA though.

"This one brought me down to my knees. Everything is slightly out of joint and weird, disconnected. I had to hold onto the walls. Knees shaking, quivering... My head feels like a frizbee..."

 

[Mycophile]

I have exactly the same. Not with marijuana, but with psychedelics definitely.

I won't call it fear though, more some kind of being nervous for about what's going to happen...

 

[user_1919]

To be nervous is perfectly normal. I never get nervous when taking a bong hit or anything to do with Marijuana, I feel safe in that zone. There is a quote from Terence Mckenna.....

"I'm saying, granted the situation, if one is not terrified then one must be somewhatout of contact with the full dynamics of what is happening. To not be terrified means either that one is a fool or that one has taken a compound that paralyzes the ability to be terrified. I have nothing against hedonism, and I certainly bring something out of it. But the experience must move one's heart, and it will not move the heart unless it deals with the issues of life and death. If it deals with life and death it will move one to fear, it will move one to tears, it will move one to laughter. These places are profoundly strange and alien."-Terence Mckenna

PEACE & LOVE

 

[VerusDeus]

I kinda have this too, and I think at least for me, it has to do with all the anti-drug propaganda I have had to endure in my life. I think subconsciously I somehow still tend to think that drugs are bad or something? though I know that in some cases the opposite is true :wink:

But it's nice though, cause it's a way to make sure you're ready for a trip. It forces you to really plan trips, and to overthink the decision.

Peace.

 

[spice]

When I was learrning about LSD, years ago, I always had that fear, and yes, it is somewhat a fear of the unknown, but I believe that a more precise explanation for that feeling is that it is a fear of losing your conditioned response.

What's that?

Fight or flight, in it's simplest form. We, as primate animals, evolved a response to strange, foriegn stimuli that has served us so well that we still carry it to this day.....it is one of the earliest things we learn, and as such, it is the basis for much of our classification of reality. Psychologists would call it 'avoidance response'.

There is no fight or flight with powerful psychedelics, only coping.

This is why many people have real problems, because they have no coping skills other than fight or flight.

Sometimes, you just have to take it.....this is what builds character, in any plane, be it 'meatspace', the web, or in the grip of a psychedelic hurricane.

Like a boiled egg, our psyches are soft, underneath that thin layer of hard, brittle shell.....strong jolts of psychedelics crack this shell, and allow new input to get into the psyche. Input that is ignored, repressed, suppressed, or outright rejected is suddenly flooded in, sometimes it is scary.

But this shell, (aka 'the ego') is funny, it grows back after a while, and then it IS consciously up to you, the individual, to decide to either try and assimilate the data that you gained, or to revert to repress, suppress, ignore, etc.

The ego is a shifty devil. It uses the avoidance response to try to keep from being changed ONE BIT.

In this sense, it can be seen for what it is, a control freak who'll do anything to keep things the way they are. But the ego isn't in full control, the subconscious mind, which is what leads anyone down this path, is the real driver, occasionally elbowing the ego aside, and taking command for short periods of time. It is the subconscious which makes the decision to go through with it, NOT the ego, which sees the ingestion of psychedelics as a useless decapitation.

The ego is beginning to look a little bit dated.

 

[st.bot.32]

Hey Spice I agree..

Anytime I feel fear before taking a psychedelic it is more a fear of losing control of my emotions, how I react to the world, or something along those lines. Not a fear of the drug itself.

The actual experience is profound and beautiful once you get there.

Getting into that state, letting go is the hardest part.

 

[Guest]

i fully agree with spice and his very elegant post. i enjoyed so much, certainly the best post i have read in many weeks!
we fear the unknown simply because we become strangers in our own bodies...

 

[spice]

 

[silv]

I am in the process of trying to completely ban fear out of my life. Ofcourse I won't ever fully be able to, but that's good because some things you have to be afraid of (it's natural you know ). With Psychedelics the first time I took mushrooms/cannabis at (near) psychedelic dose (which is a psychedelic in all it's glory) I can honestly say I've been afraid. However I've turned this fear into a feeling of excitement about what's gonna happen and what I'll learn this time. So I wouldn't fully agree with mckenna although I would agree on the part of feeling strong emotions, you need to feel strong emotions before/while/about taking psychedelics else they really don't have any use anymore.

 

[FrigginJoe]

I would do fine with the exception of frickin' Salvia.
Salvia and DMT should be the least worrisome trips to embark on, they're so short. But damn. If you've used them, then you know what I mean.
Salvia has been kind enough to provide the most awesome, terrifying experience of my life, complete with the feeling like my body and mind were being pulled apart at the seams going in.
Don't get me wrong. That kind of experience draws me to it. Problem is, I get apprehensive because as I'm taking the hit I know there's a possibility it's going to be a rough trip, and that in itself probably contributes to the potential for a rough trip.
Dammit.

Feeling scared before tripping just serves to affect the trip, it's a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy you set yourself up for.

 

[Guest]

Well, I also have healthy nerves before every trip.
Especially with DMT, but also with large amounts of mushrooms.
After ingestion I usually start to think: Ohw man, what have I gotten myself in this time, but I never had any bad trips or really serious unhappy times

 

[HeartCore]

To be nervous is perfectly normal. I never get nervous when taking a bong hit or anything to do with Marijuana, I feel safe in that zone. There is a quote from Terence Mckenna.....

"I'm saying, granted the situation, if one is not terrified then one must be somewhatout of contact with the full dynamics of what is happening. To not be terrified means either that one is a fool or that one has taken a compound that paralyzes the ability to be terrified. I have nothing against hedonism, and I certainly bring something out of it. But the experience must move one's heart, and it will not move the heart unless it deals with the issues of life and death. If it deals with life and death it will move one to fear, it will move one to tears, it will move one to laughter. These places are profoundly strange and alien."-Terence Mckenna

PEACE & LOVE

I knew this quote would be here when I read the topic title

 

[faithless]

nice replies, thank you all for your participation

 

[silv]

It's a nice topic too, I find it interesting to see how other people deal with the intense emotion before a psychedelic session. Fun to see how some experience it like some sort of fear or feeling of respect while others experience it more like a feeling of being excited about what's coming. I still do feel there is something all these have in common, but I might also be a little too baked :weedman:

 

[Brugmansia]

I often had this with MDMA for an unknown reason. Weird that is.

Didn't worry at all when I took my first acid and shrooms, or after that. Just because it was a meaningless small paper and shrooms a product of nature. That's how I looked at them, how could I know. The effects of both were much heavier than I predicted And strictly prepared every shroom and lucy trip since then. But when dosing them heavy, 400 mcg's plus or 60 grams+, I always ask question as 'is this mentally safe under this setting?' 'will you get an heavenly trip?' 'What if I get interupted with whatever during the peak?'

I remember I bought my first E ever, crystals, somehow I had an extreme tense when opening the seal and seeing a chemical drug. After taking it one week later, I stood with a lot of tension untill it kicked in 30 mins later. Damn, how that changed when it was onset. :lol:

Nevertheless, I still had this nervous feeling with M last December.