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Babysitting (Drug thread) ((Resolved))
Captain Vash
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I have a friend,
He wants me to watch over him while he takes acid for the first time.
Believe me I have tried to convince to just not do it,
and in reading up terms like "ego death" and the "the possible death or restructuring of your historically defined personality" have me more and more scared for him..
I'm still hoping I can talk him down, but if he does this shit, I do want to be there for him.
My question here is, what can I do to help minimize his potential for a extra shitty 6-12 hours of "bad trip"?
are there certain foods people on acid are going to want to eat? will he be hungry at all?
how "there" can I expect him to be? is he gonna be drooling, mind off in wonderland?
basically what should I expect going into this?
He wants me to watch over him while he takes acid for the first time.
Believe me I have tried to convince to just not do it,
and in reading up terms like "ego death" and the "the possible death or restructuring of your historically defined personality" have me more and more scared for him..
I'm still hoping I can talk him down, but if he does this shit, I do want to be there for him.
My question here is, what can I do to help minimize his potential for a extra shitty 6-12 hours of "bad trip"?
are there certain foods people on acid are going to want to eat? will he be hungry at all?
how "there" can I expect him to be? is he gonna be drooling, mind off in wonderland?
basically what should I expect going into this?
Captain Vash on
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The easiest thing to do is entertain by letting him watch you play video games. I spent an entire night watching my friend play the same track of F-Zero over and over and over and over, and a different night watching him play Master of Orion 2.
Talk to him a lot unless he asks you not to. Be in a good mood. Don't be worried or concerned about his behavior or condition. You being releaxed and in good spirits will put him in the same state. He's not going to go insane or become a different person, but just make sure his environment is very comfortable or familiar. Try to dissuade him from leaving the house and going out in public. That would not be too well advised for his first time.
Put on some soothing music. Poe's first album is pretty much awesome for tripping. Portishead is probably a bit too depressing. Dont play anything loud or fast. Just something good and mellow, but not somber. Have some video games on hand he can watch you play or play with you if he's feeling up to it. Personally, I just liked sitting back and watching people do fun/funny shit.
But the biggest thing you can do is to be calm, and try to joke around and be happy yourself. Don't make multiple references to his state of mind or him acting crazy, just try to laugh and make him laugh. Don't make a BIG DEAL out of anything.
EDIT: My first time, we watched horror movies. That's not exactly what I would suggest.
If he starts freaking out then do your best to just remind him that it's the substance, but most importantly keep reminding him that it will wear off.
Most people start freaking out after several hours of hard tripping. It starts to feel like days or weeks and they can become scared that they've harmed themselves.
Again, just reassure him, put on some cartoons or something, and get him to chill out. Be cool and he'll be cool.
If you have them on hand (never know) major tranquilizers (i.e., valium, largactil) will halt an acid trip.
You can also use benzodiazepines to mellow out a trip. Niacin might be effective in this prospect as well (never tried it myself but read positive things). If all else fails hook your boy up with a glass or two of milk, never had to but people I know swear by drinking milk to shorten the effects of LSD. Hope this is of some assistance.
Oh: Make sure that the only people that he will possibly be around that night are on the list of people he approves of and will be informed of his condition. And keep that group as small as possible. This would be a bad time for mom & dad to show up or the girlfriend to come over (especially if she wouldn't approve), or that sort of thing.
Do either of you know anybody who has had acid from the same source or the same batch that you can talk to about effects and potency?
Does he have any psychological or neurological conditions that you know of?
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
- He does a low to moderate dose
and
- It's actually LSD
and
- He doesn't have any lingering major psych issues
then:
There really isn't much to worry about.
Acid is not that big of a deal. The rumors of complete psychological meltdown from LSD are greatly exaggerated. Yeah, it's happened, but people have done acid since the 60s in uncountable numbers and unfathomable dosages and most of them turned out okay. Most of the time he's just going to find mundane things really interesting and occasionally ask you something like, "Am I fucked up or is that {some random object} moving a little?"
If he does have a bad trip, Erandus has good advice. Remind him that it's only a matter of time until it wears off and if he starts to act ashamed or guilty of being in a bad place, let him know that it's okay and you still like/respect him.
There are some really simple things that can help ground somebody, too. A cool glass of water. A comfortable natural setting with trees and foliage or a clean softly-lit indoor setting. Gentle physical contact (like a hand on the shoulder). Soft music that he likes.
As long as he takes it easy on the dose the first time around, things will probably be just fine.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Your friend MAY hit a point, if he's experienced enough with drugs, that he'll go "Oh shit, it's not working, I need to take some more." This is your most important moment. Do not let him dose a second time.
All above advice otherwise is brilliant.
In addition to the fact that psychedelics can take a while to kick in, when you're having a stellar trip there's often a strong tendency to prolong it, especially once it starts to wane. This is a bad idea for a first time tripper as it increases the chances of the experience turning dark.
However, if he does manage to double-dose despite your best efforts, don't freak him out. Just go with the flow and keep him positive and relaxed.
Chances are, after witnessing your friend's first trip you'll want to try it too. In my experience, acid (and psilocybin) are about as close as you can get to magic.
Do not:
-Repeatedly ask "Are you ok?"
-Freak out yourself if he has a difficult time. If necessary, call another friend over to help mellow things out.
Do:
-Make small talk from time to time.
-4 or 5 hours into it, offer him a single raisin and see if he wants to hold it on his tongue for a minute.
-Play mellow music. Ziggy Marley, for example, is universally inoffensive.
-Relax. Bring something to entertain yourself, be it a nonviolent game or movie, or whatever. It's going to be a long night.
you have piqued my curiosity with that one.
Never actually tried it, but I was told about a weekend college class about Stress Management. They spent some time meditating to relax, then after an interim activity period they meditated again with an organic raisin in their mouths, taking care to fully experience the taste and texture. It struck me as incredibly trippy.
And especially take into account his DO NOT list. From the OP I was a little worried. Someone who seems to be afraid of psychadelics as much as you might not make the best trip sitter. Not freaking him out is key.
So yeah, relaxing music, getting him food or a glass of water if he starts to freak out a little bit, things like that. You're just there to remind him that he's just tripping, and any scary thing he might envision is not really happening.
wikipedia actually.
Shit isn't that dangerous at all. I've dropped about 20 times and never had any real problems, though I've had a few bad trips.
If the goal is inoffensive, relatively mild entertainment, that is sure as shit not the movie to watch.
I just wanted advice.
Wish me luck guys, I'm about to dive in.
So you are both taking LSD with no one to watch out for you? That sounds like a bad idea.
Its not as bad as it sounds. It doesn't make you an idiot, accident prone, or dangerously stupid. If he takes the advice to stay in a comfortable, familiar place, all will be fine.
worst idea ever.
even tripping shrooms my buddies and i could never make it past the lizards. the one time we did we all kind of sat back and relaxed a little. then the fucking coocooclock went off and we all simultaneously stood up for a cig
The first time I dropped was wonderful. Changed my life. I watched the sun set over a local church, went on a long bike ride with friends, and ended up going all over the city on my bike that night. Came home around 11:00 and watched TV with my buddies until we all fell asleep.
The strangest part was taking it and coming up during gym class. Oh, high school.
I'll explain.
I took it alone.
1 of my 2 room mates was home, and I told him if I went insane to restrain me.
Right as I came up, my other room mate showed up with a whole fucking party of people, and my first room mate, in a massive dick move, told everyone that I was frying... so everyone's all "are you ok blah blah blah" etc for like the first half hour.
Then I retreat into my bedroom, watch cartoons, lie on my bed watching cartoons, eventually cartoons are too intense, turn them off, listen to muse, experience a vision quest and become one with the universe, fall asleep.
I thought your "friend" was supposed to?
???
Glad everything went well. Your roomie did make a mistake, but in all honesty you should have made sure you had the evening to yourselves. What if instead of a party, dude's parents had come over or something?
went from awesome to shit back to awesome.
Do you really imagine these tripped out sequences and images? I don't think I've ever done that unless I was looking at a shadow the wrong way or something. This experience seems very interesting and I've never had my beloved hydroponic dro give me any hallucinations.
And to the OP, I'm really ashamed that your story had changed throughout the thread, for what seemed like the worse. I hate it when my friends can be fhegs and pull what they did to you.
I really wish there was a movie that gave a practical and unsensational view of Acid or Shrooms. I can't really tell if they're exaggerating or you really see a fucking room full of dinosaurs gambling and smoking at the casinos
It depends on the person. When I did acid (or shroomies to a lesser extent) years ago I would usually see really extreme patterns on everything (plaids and paisleys) and sometimes things would "shift" or just pulsate a little bit, (the floors in the subway in Toronto have a really amazing visual effect from what I remember.) never once did I actually fabricate a full-blow hallucination from something that wasn't already physically there though.
I have played Katamari and Gitaroo Man on acid (highly suggested), and that is (if you can handle it) easily one way to see extra shit that you don't know if it is real or not, but isn't that what Katamari feels like in the first place? I digress...
I have friends who have said ridiculous shit (in regards to visions) when it comes to acid, but I think it lends itself to your imagination and fondness of logic...
Realistically, if you were watching some shit on dinosaurs on TV, you could see them in gambling outfits and imagine them smoking, but it's not like that tripped out shit just... happens out of nowhere (am I leaving myself too open here?)
I'd like to hear more about your Vision Quest OP. This is the kind of stuff acid does well, taking you through the looking glass kind of shit. And I commend you for trying it alone, it takes a strong mind! A few of my friends can't go three hours alone without getting restless, but tripping on acid alone can really get your mind going places. (not an advertisement.)
"Because of acid, I know now that butter is way better than margarine. I saw through the bullshit." - Mitch Hedberg
For a fairly non sensational view you can read the experiences at erowid.org.
No offense, but if you're taking lsd alone, having random people pester you into watching cartoons alone on your bed then you're doing it wrong. Same if you're lying to random people on the internets about doing drugs so you can get some advice. Put a little honesty and effort into it and you'll be well rewarded.
This is about the extent of it. You see shapes and shades contrast and jump out vividly in what would otherwise be fairly plain surfaces. Paisleys is about the best way to describe it, but it could be anything. One thing that always sticks in my mind for no real reason is the cover of a hardback book that was on my desk one time when I had dropped. Every time I looked at it, the very faint texture of the hardcover seemed very extreme and the normal subtle mottling of colors on any slightly textured surface was very highly contrasted. What was normally a generally blue and parchment textured hardcover book looked like it was covered with a crazed spiderweb of much darker blue cracks and ridges.
For things that are already patterned, those patterns can appear, or be perceived as far more complex and amazing than they really actually are. The shifting and pulsing is a big part of it. Things you're not looking directly at seem to swirl and move very subtly when you're not really looking at it, and it draws your eye.
Its pretty difficult to describe, and the odd feeling or body high you get all over can intensify it, so its hard to simply state that things "look" different, without trying to help people to understand the way your body feels too, ahd how much that feeling contributes to the experience as a whole. Your whole body feels excited and energized. Almost on edge, but in a great way. Its sort of like how an orgasm makes your whole body feel amazing for the brief time that it lasts. Acid isn't "orgasmic", the body high is different from that, but it is a semi euphoric sensation. Your mind will make a little thing into a big deal, amplify emotions and perceptions, and your body will react to it in an extreme fashion.
As far as actually seeing shit, no. You are highly unlikely without a ridiculous dosage to make up full on hallucinations, a la Fantasia or the scene in Dumbo where he gets drunk - Pink Elephants on Parade. You may catch a movement out of a corner of your eye and your brain will make up a bizarre explanation, or the plusing/shifting effect make make it seem as something is moving when it isn't, but you won't see things that aren't there. The closest to that you might get is if you close your eyes for a while, you'll see flashes and stripes of color, or explosions of color, patterns, movements, etc.