Triggering (Substances): Very bad marijuana trip

[outofoptions]

Hey everyone,

I'm not doing very well right now. It started 1 month ago when I took a big hit with a bong. I had a very bad marijuana trip due to this, I felt like I was dying, seeing my life fading in front of me. My friend who was with me said I even yelled like hell but I can't remember that.

This trip didn't have much effect on me, and due to this I smoked another joint with the same friend a week later. This time I had another trip, but this time I had it under control. It again didn't have much effect on my but I decided that I'd never use drugs again after this.

Now, 3 days ago this friend came to my house to work on some projects, and at first it felt kinda weird seeing him because he was in my trip, I remember him asking me if I was okay for like 1000 times. We talked a bit about the trip and I startesd to feel really weird.

Once he was gone I got scared that I was in the trip again, like it didn't end. It wasn't close to as intense when I was on the weed trip, but it still felt really weird and scary.

Today I'm doing better, I feel like I'm improving and sometimes I dont even think about it, feel normal again, but then when I think about it again I start to get the same feeling back and I feel like I've been "living a lie" when I didn't have this feeling.

I'm basicly watching movies and playing games all day to get my head off this feeling, and being with friends/my mom as much as possible, but now I'm alone and it feels weird.

What is happening to me? Should I just see if it gets better for a week and if not take a visit to the doctor?

(I'm sorry for my english, It's not my native language. I also didn't want to read it over again what I wrote to check for errors because I don't like reading it :/)

[Maloo]

I don't really know what to tell you, because you're not supposed to trip if it's just pot.

[outofoptions]

Originally Posted by Myss

I don't really know what to tell you, because you're not supposed to trip if it's just pot.

I think it was a panic attack, and some weird pot trip =/

[Katrina]

Hi there,

Due to the nature of your thread, I'm going to send it over to the Substance Use forum.

Otherwise, if we're being honest, I know very, very little about this topic, so I'm instead going to leave you with a few resources (found on our resources page). According to Erowid, negative effects of marijuana can include:

NEGATIVE

• nausea, especially in combination with alcohol, some pharmaceuticals, or other psychoactives
• coughing, asthma, upper respiratory problems
• difficulty with short-term memory during effects and during periods of frequent use (Ranganathan M, D'Souza DC, Psychopharmacology, 2006)
• racing heart, agitation, feeling tense
• mild to severe anxiety
• panic attacks in sensitive users or with very high doses (oral use increases risk of getting too much)
• headaches
• dizziness, confusion
• lightheadedness or fainting (in cases of lowered blood pressure)
• paranoid & anxious thoughts more frequent
• possible psychological dependence on cannabis
• clumsiness, loss of coordination at high doses
• can precipitate or exacerbate latent or existing mental disorders

The ones I've bolded seem to be in line with what you've been experiencing...I believe symptoms are not meant to last quite this long though (but once again, not my area of expertise!). If you'd like advice on how to deal with the actual potential anxiety being caused by this, please do feel free to make a separate thread in Mental Health. However, as it stands, I'm going to, as I mentioned, move your thread to Substance Use; if anyone has any questions, please feel free to Private Message me.

[Dyvan13]

Originally Posted by outofoptions

Hey everyone,

I'm not doing very well right now. It started 1 month ago when I took a big hit with a bong. I had a very bad marijuana trip due to this, I felt like I was dying, seeing my life fading in front of me. My friend who was with me said I even yelled like hell but I can't remember that.

This trip didn't have much effect on me, and due to this I smoked another joint with the same friend a week later. This time I had another trip, but this time I had it under control. It again didn't have much effect on my but I decided that I'd never use drugs again after this.

Now, 3 days ago this friend came to my house to work on some projects, and at first it felt kinda weird seeing him because he was in my trip, I remember him asking me if I was okay for like 1000 times. We talked a bit about the trip and I startesd to feel really weird.

Once he was gone I got scared that I was in the trip again, like it didn't end. It wasn't close to as intense when I was on the weed trip, but it still felt really weird and scary.

Today I'm doing better, I feel like I'm improving and sometimes I dont even think about it, feel normal again, but then when I think about it again I start to get the same feeling back and I feel like I've been "living a lie" when I didn't have this feeling.

I'm basicly watching movies and playing games all day to get my head off this feeling, and being with friends/my mom as much as possible, but now I'm alone and it feels weird.

What is happening to me? Should I just see if it gets better for a week and if not take a visit to the doctor?

(I'm sorry for my english, It's not my native language. I also didn't want to read it over again what I wrote to check for errors because I don't like reading it :/)

I know what you are talking about dude. When you freak out like that on pot like that you are really just telling yourself that you are fucked up and are losing control and in a sense "tricking" yourself into being freaked out. How I know this is because you say you get the same feeling sober, and I'm pretty sure you think about if you are "messed up" and then because you are thinking about it you of course find something "messed up" which isn't really, but you get freaked out over it and the cycle continues. This happened to me a few times, IDK your exact scenario but it really just might be all in your head. It was with me

[Gidig]

Hey-

First, tripping is what happens when you take things like acid or shrooms. It can happen from a number of drugs. If you had the effects of tripping, you're getting laced weed. It doesn't happen too often, but it definitely happens and more than people realize.

But otherwise, I think you were feeling the effects of marijuana and how it can make you paranoid and so forth. If it freaks you out so much, don't smoke it. Some people can handle it, and some people it makes them freak out more and they dislike it.

If you've changed and are still so freaked out by it you can't function as you normally do, speak to a therapist because it could be an underlying issue which is what I've found when I have bad experiences with drugs.

Best of luck, I'd try to stay clear of weed if you can. =)
Maria.

[outofoptions]

Originally Posted by Gidig

Hey-

First, tripping is what happens when you take things like acid or shrooms. It can happen from a number of drugs. If you had the effects of tripping, you're getting laced weed. It doesn't happen too often, but it definitely happens and more than people realize.

But otherwise, I think you were feeling the effects of marijuana and how it can make you paranoid and so forth. If it freaks you out so much, don't smoke it. Some people can handle it, and some people it makes them freak out more and they dislike it.

If you've changed and are still so freaked out by it you can't function as you normally do, speak to a therapist because it could be an underlying issue which is what I've found when I have bad experiences with drugs.

Best of luck, I'd try to stay clear of weed if you can. =)
Maria.

I have no idea what exactly happend to me, I think it was a panic attack in combination with a big bong hit.

I am able to function normally, but life feels so different right now. Sometimes I have these moments where I think everything is fake and I'm not really living (paranoid I think).

It's like I'm living my life normally, and every now and then I "wake up" and see how everything I did the last hour felt so fake and unreal, because I'm able to think for "real" then. It's really hard to explain (also had a bit too much alcohol with my friends this night, doesn't happen usually ).

I only smoked pot like 10 times and stopped smoking it after the second trip. Perhaps it is some THC that is left in my system?

I've never been a person who talked about his problems, so maybe it is an underlaying issue. I just have to figure out a way to tell it to my mother

[Dedalus]

I'm just going to tell everyone here, as I've already discussed this with the OP and given him my advice, that you can trip off weed and it is very common. I've experienced it and several other people I know have experienced it - and that is not having a whitie.

The weed in none of these cases was laced, because everyone else had their usual stoned experience save for one person.

Mine was most definitely fine because 4 or 5 joints it was the usual stoned, and then all of a sudden without even taking another joint I was gone. I had entered some kind of thought process and the room was spinning.

Everyone else I know who has experienced what the OP is talking about will tell you it is when they started trying to percieve reality from some other angle they can't remember now, and things suddenly just started exploding as they got trapped into thinking further and further into it.

You can carry on and say the weed was laced or you're not supposed to trip off marijuana. But I have, and I think it is a very unsafe drug.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Marijuana can and does produce hallucinations, not necessarily in all users. My reason for saying this is, other than the many pharmacology and related studies and books that say that, the DSM-IV-TR has a section on drugs affiliated with substance-induced psychotic disorder. In here, marijuana is mentioned as causing delusions and hallucinations.

There are various mechanisms proposed as to why hallucinations occur, some mechanisms interact. For example, one commonly-talked about one is the reduced lung capacity when smoking, meaning less oxygen reaches the brain. At that point, behaviours can be altered and possibly induce hallucinations. Although the biological mechanisms haven't always been known, before the 1900s, marijuana was known to have mild hallucinogenic effects (See the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research Volume 8, published 1892). It does not need to be laced with anything to produce delusions or hallucinations.

Unfortunately, it's near impossible to give a precise range of the duration of effects, however, it's not unusual for it to last for more than 2 days, given the half-life of THC is around 1-1.5 days. Different types may have higher concentrations and may affect bioavailability, however, there are varying effects from person-to-person. Furthermore, the context can have a mediating effect in the duration, so it wouldn't be odd for the effects to last for about 3 days. If the effects lasted for 1 month without additional smoking or any other drugs, that's unheard of.

In that case, I'd say one of two things. First, the effects only lasted 3 days maybe 4-5 days. At that point, the marijuana has left your system however, it is possible that you had such a salient experience, you experienced conditioning akin to adversive taste conditioning. Second, it was laced, not with any "street drug" but there are research drugs that may be able to produce a similar effect. One I can think off the top of my head would be oxidopamine. It's not meant to be a clinical drug, it's a powerful neurotoxin used to simulate Parkinson's Disease and Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome in lab rodents. Alternatively, MPTP as well as desmethylprodine (although that is an illegal synthetic opiod) could produce similar effects. All 3 have long-lasting effects but even typing this, I doubt it's those because people aren't going to use oxidopamine to get high from (keep using it as shown in rats and you lose the motivation to eat, drink and move, eventually dying although oxidopamine is reversible up to a certain point).

I think it's more likely the conditioning I mentioned. I mentioned the 3 drugs to show how unlikely it is that the weed was laced. To further illustrate, for oxidopamine, you don't swallow it like a normal pill, in rats you inject it directly into specific parts of the brain. So I think it's a conditioning effect for it to last for 1 month.

I also harped on about oxidopamine because it's one very interesting drug I investigated some research on in one of my courses. I also recently submitted a 10-page paper of the effects of chronic alcoholism on one receptor in the brain as well as a 18-page paper but its topic isn't relevant so I'm still in the mindset of giving detailed answers.

[Dedalus]

Originally Posted by WOW!USaidSomethingSmart!

Marijuana can and does produce hallucinations, not necessarily in all users. My reason for saying this is, other than the many pharmacology and related studies and books that say that, the DSM-IV-TR has a section on drugs affiliated with substance-induced psychotic disorder. In here, marijuana is mentioned as causing delusions and hallucinations.

There are various mechanisms proposed as to why hallucinations occur, some mechanisms interact. For example, one commonly-talked about one is the reduced lung capacity when smoking, meaning less oxygen reaches the brain. At that point, behaviours can be altered and possibly induce hallucinations. Although the biological mechanisms haven't always been known, before the 1900s, marijuana was known to have mild hallucinogenic effects (See the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research Volume 8, published 1892). It does not need to be laced with anything to produce delusions or hallucinations.

Unfortunately, it's near impossible to give a precise range of the duration of effects, however, it's not unusual for it to last for more than 2 days, given the half-life of THC is around 1-1.5 days. Different types may have higher concentrations and may affect bioavailability, however, there are varying effects from person-to-person. Furthermore, the context can have a mediating effect in the duration, so it wouldn't be odd for the effects to last for about 3 days. If the effects lasted for 1 month without additional smoking or any other drugs, that's unheard of.

In that case, I'd say one of two things. First, the effects only lasted 3 days maybe 4-5 days. At that point, the marijuana has left your system however, it is possible that you had such a salient experience, you experienced conditioning akin to adversive taste conditioning. Second, it was laced, not with any "street drug" but there are research drugs that may be able to produce a similar effect. One I can think off the top of my head would be oxidopamine. It's not meant to be a clinical drug, it's a powerful neurotoxin used to simulate Parkinson's Disease and Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome in lab rodents. Alternatively, MPTP as well as desmethylprodine (although that is an illegal synthetic opiod) could produce similar effects. All 3 have long-lasting effects but even typing this, I doubt it's those because people aren't going to use oxidopamine to get high from (keep using it as shown in rats and you lose the motivation to eat, drink and move, eventually dying although oxidopamine is reversible up to a certain point).

I think it's more likely the conditioning I mentioned. I mentioned the 3 drugs to show how unlikely it is that the weed was laced. To further illustrate, for oxidopamine, you don't swallow it like a normal pill, in rats you inject it directly into specific parts of the brain. So I think it's a conditioning effect for it to last for 1 month.

I also harped on about oxidopamine because it's one very interesting drug I investigated some research on in one of my courses. I also recently submitted a 10-page paper of the effects of chronic alcoholism on one receptor in the brain as well as a 18-page paper but its topic isn't relevant so I'm still in the mindset of giving detailed answers.

Basically those hallucinations can cause psychosis, predominantly, and most likely in this case, depersonalisation disorder and schizophrenia - without needing to explain the latter, the former can last for life.

[mIssIng:nO]

Originally Posted by Dedalus

Basically those hallucinations can cause psychosis, predominantly, and most likely in this case, depersonalisation disorder and schizophrenia - without needing to explain the latter, the former can last for life.

Most likely, rofl... Wrong
Most likely they smoked some good weed and had a paniac attack. I don't see how you can say most likely when its well known that weed causes panic attacks in new smokers (hell, even some old smokers), it depends on the potency of weed.

Don't take the worst case scenario and put it at the front of the line for most likely cause.

In terms of the not feeling like yourself, thats not suprising, you had a bad trip and continued to smoke afterwards. Give your self some sober time and I gaurentee within the next couple of weeks you will be feeling back to normal, exercise and eat healthy, sleep well and think positively.

I've had drug induced paranoia and worse, the worst thing you can do for yourself is automatically think you destroyed your brain/sense of self, as soon as the thought gets in there, the seed of doubt is planted.

[Dedalus]

Originally Posted by mIssIng:nO

Most likely, rofl... Wrong
Most likely they smoked some good weed and had a paniac attack. I don't see how you can say most likely when its well known that weed causes panic attacks in new smokers (hell, even some old smokers), it depends on the potency of weed.

Don't take the worst case scenario and put it at the front of the line for most likely cause.

In terms of the not feeling like yourself, thats not suprising, you had a bad trip and continued to smoke afterwards. Give your self some sober time and I gaurentee within the next couple of weeks you will be feeling back to normal, exercise and eat healthy, sleep well and think positively.

I've had drug induced paranoia and worse, the worst thing you can do for yourself is automatically think you destroyed your brain/sense of self, as soon as the thought gets in there, the seed of doubt is planted.

I've had discussions with this member and it does appear to be leaning towards the DPD end of the scale.

[mIssIng:nO]

Originally Posted by Dedalus

I've had discussions with this member and it does appear to be leaning towards the DPD end of the scale.

Let a doctor do his/her job then.

As soon as you start telling this kid stuff, its gonna get into his head that he probably has it and is making it worse. I get you are trying to help, but leave it to a professional. If you are actually worried about this member, get him to seek help, don't do it yourself.

Because mostly, your not someone who knows enough to be doing enough to "diagnose" someone, I'm not trying to sound harsh, but you are not, I'm not either, I was simply telling him not to over-react, and having panic attacks aren't uncommon, neither is feeling "not real" after having them if its bad enough.

To OP, if you feel like its bad enough that you need to talk to someone about "treatment" i guess you could say, go to a doctors office, no one on this site knows enough to be telling what is up.

[Dedalus]

Originally Posted by mIssIng:nO

Let a doctor do his/her job then.

As soon as you start telling this kid stuff, its gonna get into his head that he probably has it and is making it worse. I get you are trying to help, but leave it to a professional. If you are actually worried about this member, get him to seek help, don't do it yourself.

Because mostly, your not someone who knows enough to be doing enough to "diagnose" someone, I'm not trying to sound harsh, but you are not, I'm not either, I was simply telling him not to over-react, and having panic attacks aren't uncommon, neither is feeling "not real" after having them if its bad enough.

To OP, if you feel like its bad enough that you need to talk to someone about "treatment" i guess you could say, go to a doctors office, no one on this site knows enough to be telling what is up.

Yes Mum, I have explained my reasoning behind why I would say that, it is my opinion, and above all I have emphasised the importance of professional diagnosis.

I am sorry for expressing my extreme concern and empathising with the member for having gone through the exact same thing he has. I'm sorry, I won't do it again.

[mIssIng:nO]

Originally Posted by Dedalus

Yes Mum, I have explained my reasoning behind why I would say that, it is my opinion, and above all I have emphasised the importance of professional diagnosis.

I am sorry for expressing my extreme concern and empathising with the member for having gone through the exact same thing he has. I'm sorry, I won't do it again.

never said that man, I said that if you really believe that there is something more than just a panaic attack you should be telling him to get help from a professional, thats it man. I'm sorry if I don't believe in giving advice on something that should be left to the profs.

[Dedalus]

Originally Posted by mIssIng:nO

never said that man, I said that if you really believe that there is something more than just a panaic attack you should be telling him to get help from a professional, thats it man. I'm sorry if I don't believe in giving advice on something that should be left to the profs.

well, as I said, I said that.

[Alexx]

Oh wow. You've described perfectly the experience I get whenever I smoke weed. It's horrific. No-one I've spoke to in person about it has understood what I'm talking about at all but you have all explained it so perfectly here. =/

I used to smoke pot several times a week, with the result of tripping, paranoia, and pretty much the feelings you've all explained above. I've stopped since then, and the paranoia and delusions lasted quite severely for a few months after, but it's calmed down a lot since then, thankfully. I thought I was going crazy. However, I do still kind of get delusional and anxious at times ever since I smoked it.
Then a couple of weeks ago I smoked it again for the first time in years and I had an exceptionally bad trip. Brr. It was horrible. That's the last time I'm doing it. I really wish I hadn't and have learned my lesson from that.

Sorry, I know this comment hasn't helped any of you at all, but thank you for posting your experiences on here. I'm a bit confused about it now, though, to be honest.