Psychedelic induced psychosis?

Now I know this may not seem like it pertains much to this forum, but hear me out if you will.
A few months ago, I happened to encounter an experience that would captivate me (might I say, in a somewhat negative way). A friend of mine decided to make psilocybin tea. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. He’s made it before and had wonderful experiences. He’s a very healthy man; he does yoga, attends a buddhist monastery to practice meditation, he’s an extremely well rounded person, very sincere and kindhearted, he is a vegetarian, and attends a school to be an Ayurvedic practitioner. Now he’s still considered to be a “child” to those of age and so am I. He’ll be twenty-one soon.
Alas, he made his tea, drank it, and within seconds felt the effects. I stayed with him to make sure things would go smoothly (which in any case, there should be someone to assist if needed). Within the first twenty minutes, the situation begin to get out of hand. He has Cystic Fibrosis and was convinced that the “mother” had taken him under her wing and found way to heal him. Soon after, he blacked out. He was yelling things that were absolutely absurd (pertaining to the healing process). I won’t mention those things. His words were uncomfortably vulgar. He, most certainly, underwent a temporary degree of psychosis. He was yelling vulgar things to his peers, to me, to his father. He ripped his father’s bandage off (he had a broken wrist) and told him that he was now “healed”. He was certain he’d rid himself of his Cystic Fibrosis. He was incoherent. He wasn’t responding to anything anyone was saying to him. He was shouting out random words, sentences. His eyes were wide and when he’d look at me, it’s as if he was looking through me. He wasn’t there. It’s as if his most primitive tendencies had been exposed. At some points, he’d act like a child. Most times he would expose himself sexually. Saying things, doing things in front of everyone. I considered calling the ambulance but I didn’t want to make things harder on him. I had a good strategy for holding him down, anyways.
In two hours, his dad had finally gotten him (after many failed attempts) to take a few supplements that would reduce his stress and null the trip. He gave him a B complex vitamin, melatonin, and 5HTP. I was surprised to see that these vitamins had worked significantly well! He fell asleep within minutes and we let him lay in the basement in the dark, checking on him every so often. He was naked at this point, again exposing himself to everyone (we gave him a robe).
About thirty minutes later, he came up to our bedroom and he was back! He was coherent, very quiet, kind of puzzled looking, but coherent. I asked him what had happened. He said that he’d gone into a dream state and experienced “om”. Might I say, I was profusely disturbed by this answer. I told him everything that had happened from my standpoint and of course he was embarrassed as all hell.
I’d like to mention that I had taken mushrooms as well, but remained in stable condition. He doesn’t have a background of mental disorders. He isn’t on medication and he, again, is very healthy and well rounded. I am here to inquire about what exactly may have triggered such a psychotic dysfunction? This experience has mystified me for months and I am desperately curious to know if this is a common thing among others. I know this all may sound extremely ignorant, but I’m proud to say we’ve moved on to a much more beneficial lifestyle that consists of a lot of yoga and dedication to the Ayurvedic lifestyle and principles. No drugs have been consumed since the incident and I understand that the universe was telling us that we must reconsider our ways. And surely we did.

Namaste.

Hello,

I also played with entheogens in my early twenties. There’s nothing wrong in it. Later on as I matured I changed them for Yoga.

I remember how once one of my buddies lost his mind and punched and averted us and stared to us like “through us” as you described… After the trip he remembered nothing at all… He has always been mentally and physically healthy, open-minded, and actually leads a good, balanced life. So, never mind about that, it’s normal I guess.

Regards

The psychotic dysfunction was triggered by taking drugs which, when all is said and done, destroy brain cells and rob the user of health.

Best not to take them and follow a healthy lifestyle, which is a much better and practical high.

Namastey!

Perhaps your friend got the wrong mushrooms mate. Its very easy to go for the wrong ones such as Amanita Muscaria are dangerous deliriants. Lot of people who take mushrooms just go with the flow and take whatever they are offered by their dealer or friend.

I’ve personally never had a bad experience with mushies. I have tried Vipassna on shroom trip with some mindblowing feelings and states that i have not experienced singularly either on vipassna or mushrooms.

However, after the end of the trip, i did have a strong feeling that the state i had experienced was very temporary in nature,and i was very thankful to know that such heightened state of awareness and bliss exists. It has been a source of inspiration to learn new meditation techniques and share the knowledge and wisdom with all.

Anything what is not done in full consciusness, is alien to yoga.

Consciousness needs to be expanded, enhanced, awarness maintained, expanded, grown.

It would take too much space to describe how this is normally accomplished during one’s incarnation. Be it enough, that one is guided and protected by invisible arms. Given that one stays between the boundaries where this protection is possible.

As a rule, any consciousness altering, awareness reducing way, method, pursuit is dangerous, and it is as foolish to embark on these as trying to cross the tropical jungle without a guide, helpers, and necessary equipment.

I too have a long history with psychedelics. I can give credit to psilocybe cubensis for opening my mind and having me consider the spiritual side of life at a young age (16) but in my early twenties I ended up considering psychedelic drugs as my own personal route to enlightenment…I ended up losing my mind a few times as you describe your friend doing, and am extremely lucky I am not in a psych ward from these few occasions. I have since set the psychedelics aside, thanked them for the help, and now I am purely meditating and doing yoga for my mind expansion :slight_smile: I would say that they are useful but must be treated with much respect, because they can put a big hurt on your soul.

[QUOTE=speakthetarot;64226]Now I know this may not seem like it pertains much to this forum, but hear me out if you will.
A few months ago, I happened to encounter an experience that would captivate me (might I say, in a somewhat negative way). A friend of mine decided to make psilocybin tea. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. He’s made it before and had wonderful experiences. He’s a very healthy man; he does yoga, attends a buddhist monastery to practice meditation, he’s an extremely well rounded person, very sincere and kindhearted, he is a vegetarian, and attends a school to be an Ayurvedic practitioner. Now he’s still considered to be a “child” to those of age and so am I. He’ll be twenty-one soon.
Alas, he made his tea, drank it, and within seconds felt the effects. I stayed with him to make sure things would go smoothly (which in any case, there should be someone to assist if needed). Within the first twenty minutes, the situation begin to get out of hand. He has Cystic Fibrosis and was convinced that the “mother” had taken him under her wing and found way to heal him. Soon after, he blacked out. He was yelling things that were absolutely absurd (pertaining to the healing process). I won’t mention those things. His words were uncomfortably vulgar. He, most certainly, underwent a temporary degree of psychosis. He was yelling vulgar things to his peers, to me, to his father. He ripped his father’s bandage off (he had a broken wrist) and told him that he was now “healed”. He was certain he’d rid himself of his Cystic Fibrosis. He was incoherent. He wasn’t responding to anything anyone was saying to him. He was shouting out random words, sentences. His eyes were wide and when he’d look at me, it’s as if he was looking through me. He wasn’t there. It’s as if his most primitive tendencies had been exposed. At some points, he’d act like a child. Most times he would expose himself sexually. Saying things, doing things in front of everyone. I considered calling the ambulance but I didn’t want to make things harder on him. I had a good strategy for holding him down, anyways.
In two hours, his dad had finally gotten him (after many failed attempts) to take a few supplements that would reduce his stress and null the trip. He gave him a B complex vitamin, melatonin, and 5HTP. I was surprised to see that these vitamins had worked significantly well! He fell asleep within minutes and we let him lay in the basement in the dark, checking on him every so often. He was naked at this point, again exposing himself to everyone (we gave him a robe).
About thirty minutes later, he came up to our bedroom and he was back! He was coherent, very quiet, kind of puzzled looking, but coherent. I asked him what had happened. He said that he’d gone into a dream state and experienced “om”. Might I say, I was profusely disturbed by this answer. I told him everything that had happened from my standpoint and of course he was embarrassed as all hell.
I’d like to mention that I had taken mushrooms as well, but remained in stable condition. He doesn’t have a background of mental disorders. He isn’t on medication and he, again, is very healthy and well rounded. I am here to inquire about what exactly may have triggered such a psychotic dysfunction? This experience has mystified me for months and I am desperately curious to know if this is a common thing among others. I know this all may sound extremely ignorant, but I’m proud to say we’ve moved on to a much more beneficial lifestyle that consists of a lot of yoga and dedication to the Ayurvedic lifestyle and principles. No drugs have been consumed since the incident and I understand that the universe was telling us that we must reconsider our ways. And surely we did.

Namaste.[/QUOTE]

I’m a veteran psych user and it doesnt sound that bad, just sounds like he needs to not be doing mushies if he is on a serotonin inhibitor medication or the like if it was that cause.

If not it could be his genetics.

I did two drops of L straight from a vial and had a life altering scary trip where I went insane to a degree, but I never went full schizo like that.

[QUOTE=Terence;64235]The psychotic dysfunction was triggered by taking drugs which, when all is said and done, destroy brain cells and rob the user of health.

Best not to take them and follow a healthy lifestyle, which is a much better and practical high.[/QUOTE]

Psyches dont kill brain cells and have been shown to actually stimulate growth of neuropathways in the brain. They dont make you stupid, they reveal truth till you abuse them and fry the neuropathways that you were once stimulating.

All about moderation and reintegration.

My experience with this is quite similar to what Hubert posted earlier (post #5), further more one can become quite entangled, distracted and easily lose site of the original intention, the risk benefit is questionable at best, but don’t let me be the person to hold one back from instant enlightenment.

Such claims, Sean, are more effective when reinforced by citation to the scholarly work you’re referencing so that the position is not confused with anecdotal information.

While I’ve not read the following, it is fairly clear that science doesn’t fully understand the role hallucinogens play in brain function. But perhaps an interesting read anyway.

B.L. Jacobs. 1987. How Hallucinogenic Drugs Work. “American Scientist”. 75:385-92.

M.C. Bindal, S.P. Gupta, and P. Singh. 1983. QSAR Studies on Hallucinogens. “Chemical Reviews”. 83:633-49.

[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;64694]Such claims, Sean, are more effective when reinforced by citation to the scholarly work you’re referencing so that the position is not confused with anecdotal information.

While I’ve not read the following, it is fairly clear that science doesn’t fully understand the role hallucinogens play in brain function. But perhaps an interesting read anyway.

B.L. Jacobs. 1987. How Hallucinogenic Drugs Work. “American Scientist”. 75:385-92.

M.C. Bindal, S.P. Gupta, and P. Singh. 1983. QSAR Studies on Hallucinogens. “Chemical Reviews”. 83:633-49.[/QUOTE]

Whenever the mind takes up a foreign type of activity (such as gaming) it stimulates the neural pathways. This is already known. The psyches just do this a little more because they are a little more foreign.

I cant post links so in this space I will tell you to google “psychedelic neuropathways” into google. It was simple enough for me to find.

There is no way to claim anything is only going to have a good effect even with proper use, but the vast majority who only trip a few times do not report psychosis.

A lot of people who do LSD in my circle report weeks later that they still see movement in very complex patterns. This suggests long term alterations to the pathways as the drug metabolizes fast.

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