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Comment by Starcrunch | Hacker News Reader

I'm glad to hear from someone else who's honest about their negative experience.

Psychedelics seem to somehow have simply amazing PR: plentiful testimonies of their life-changing abilities, encouraging us to try them, but very little acknowledgement of their dark side. The subculture is very quick to brush away anything that goes against the narrative of the "mind-opening wonder drugs that big pharma doesn't want you to know about."

My experiences with psilocybin over a few months started with awe and wonder and spiritual awakening (or what seemed to be at the time), and ended with horrifying lasting harm. Insomnia, constant vivid nightmares, sleep paralysis, intrusive thoughts, anxiety, tics, and all kinds of weirdness at the periphery of conscious experience that I can't really explain.

It feels like I flashed my brain's firmware with no way to undo it. I took all the precautions I thought I was supposed to. I wish someone had warned me.

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I had a similar experience. I took psylocibin a few times, but after the last one I started getting panic attacks and feeling derealization quite often. This led to negative recurring thoughts and I felt really bad for a while. Got better after a year of cognitive behavioral therapy and six months taking a light dosage of antidepressants. Routine exercises and zen meditation helped tremendously as well. Get help, it is possible. Your brain can heal itself with your help.

How many doses was that over how many months? Was it an intense regimen kind of thing, or do you think you were particularly susceptible in some way

I could see it being either, because "the dose makes the poison", but some people are almost certainly biologically more sensitive to some compounds.

People seem to think they can just take a load of mushies and it can solve all lives problems. The great art requires a lot of hard heart work and suffering.

" > The subculture is very quick to brush away anything that goes against the narrative of...

Oh here we go again."

No sense of irony?

Well, its like people who describe Ketamine therapy. The process itself can be deeply traumatizing, even if the after-effects make up for it. I've heard it described as deep hallucinations, often touching on dark places in your psyche, while you can't get up or do much or get away from it. On the plus side, it can make you face some difficult internal issues, but on the downside, not everyone actually responds well to that. Some people this can cause a psychological break.

Anyone who has been in the hallucinogens scene long enough knows someone who either did too much over the years and is a basket case or just had one really bad trip and never recovered or were the same after.

It's certainly not as dangerous as other drugs, but I'm fairly tired of people acting like it is inert or can only produce positive experiences.

I did two sessions of psychedelic IM Ketamine four months ago. The place I went requires a therapist sitter during the experience, followed by an hour of integration therapy, and a few days after the final session a follow up integration.

I cannot imagine doing this substance without someone else there. There were multiple times I simply needed a hand to hold as I was… descending, and my second trip was a “bad” one. The therapist was absolutely critical for helping me frame what happened in a positive light.

Geese. I occasionally get the sleep paralysis and I hate it. It makes me feel like I'm being pinned down to my bed. Never tried any psychedelics though, and sometimes I think I should stop being so stiff when it's around/available. Reading this is helpful and I genuinely appreciate the warning.

> The subculture is very quick to brush away anything that goes against the narrative of...

Oh here we go again. Give me three comments below (in direct links) that "brush away" the obvious risks. I think you just made stuff up. Of course there are risks.

Maybe the reason a whole lot of people are not complaining about bad experiences is that they are maybe, maybe, not as common as you want them to be.

If you want rational drug discussion then you should probably start with yourself – not everyone suffers from significant harm in drug use.

> I wish someone had warned me.

A little bit of reading around would have shown you there are risks. Either you didn't do your due diligence or you ignored them.

Edit: start here https://www.google.com/search?q=psilocybin+risks

This content and tone of this comment is completely out of place, and a perfect example of what GP is criticizing.

No, it's precise. I like to be precise.

He claims things get brushed away by a certain subculture but can't or won't give examples.

He provides his bad experience but seems to believe that must overshadow any good experiences of others' like mine. It doesn't because my experience with drugs has been generally positive and MDMA actually turned my life around. Without it my life would not be worth living now (and I assure you it's not much fun even now) after a childhood you could not imagine.

He laments that nobody told him the risks but clearly didn't make sufficient effort to determine them. Two words and one click on the web and he would have found plenty.

Respond to what I said, not what you want me to have said.

(edit: cleanup & clarify)

I repeat: Give me three comments below (in direct links) that "brush away" the obvious risks. Post some support for your claim please.

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