LSD: Not Even Once • Hacker News Board

Re: LSD: Not Even Once

#171

Post by zvmaz » Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 9:05 PM UTC

Trasmatta wrote: post #79

I’ve noticed a troubling trend among psychonauts: any reports of terrible experiences or long lasting negative effects of psychedelics are waved away in two different ways: 1 - blaming of the person who had the experience, for not having the proper “set and setting”, or not respecting the drug. 2 - claiming that there’s no such thing as a “bad trip”, and only a challenging one that takes time to integrate. There migh…

> That it’s absurd how much suffering the human mind is capable of experiencing.

Not only that, but the different "qualities" of pain one can experience. I never believed that grief would feel the way it felt when I first experienced it, and I was completely ignorant of it, until I went through it (I thought I understood grief through empathy, but I was wrong). How many subjective experiences are we ignorant of?

Re: LSD: Not Even Once

#172

Post by jamesblonde » Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 9:06 PM UTC

snovymgodym wrote: post #5

Had a somewhat similar experience. Irritating how harmless and positive psychedelics and cannabis are made out to be in popular culture in spite of the issues like these that can cause.

I had a similar experience, too. I was 18, just before starting college. It took me about 15 months to start to recover with Prozac helping me create breathing space. Daily flashbacks. It took about 4-5 years for the flashbacks to stop. I stopped marjuana/cannibis during that time, tried it again 10+ years after the event, could handle it then.

LSD is dangerous, even once taken in the right environment can screw you up for life. I had a long road back, screwed up my first 3 years in college (went from top of class in high school to average, but recovery in year 4 meant i ended up back top-of-class). Still, terrible drug.

Re: LSD: Not Even Once

#173

Post by code51 » Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 9:07 PM UTC

Trasmatta wrote: post #123

code51 wrote: post #66

I find it so ironic that on one hand, we are placing great value on achieving consciousness with artificial intelligence and yet, we place so little value on our own. If this "consciousness" thing is so hard to get, then why do we try our best to get rid of it through alcohol, recreational drugs etc ?

Drugs create altered states of consciousness, not get rid of it

Yes, sorry, I didn't frame it well. I meant the possibility of breaking your properly functioning state of consciousness.

Re: LSD: Not Even Once

#174

Post by dieselgate » Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 9:07 PM UTC

jamescontrol wrote: post #8

This is one of two reasons why I decided to not try anything, ever. 1. What if it’s the most amazing thing ever, like ADHD medication, what if you get insanely productive, and you then have to go back to being mediocre? 2. What if it triggers something bad. If I get 10% worse at focusing on a solving a problem? Nope

Without getting into opinions this made me think of a Richard Feynman quote about abstaining from substances, along the lines of "I like how I think and didn't want to do anything to possibly change that." To each their own and much respect for doing what works best for you.

Re: LSD: Not Even Once

#175

Post by ahoy » Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 9:08 PM UTC

This seems akin to drinking a whole liter of vodka as your very first drink and concluding that no one should drink alcohol, ever.

Re: LSD: Not Even Once

#176

Post by jancsika » Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 9:08 PM UTC

> LSD is a hallucinogenic drug, promoted a lot in tech circles for both recreation and the expanse of creativity it grants you.

Those last six words are troubling.

At least in my experience, it's that drugs tend follow the creatives around. Often to the detriment of their creativity.

I sincerely hope this kind of cargo-culting of LSD is limited to college-age tech circles.

Re: LSD: Not Even Once

#177

Post by Trasmatta » Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 9:08 PM UTC

wnolens wrote: post #162

Trasmatta wrote: post #79

I’ve noticed a troubling trend among psychonauts: any reports of terrible experiences or long lasting negative effects of psychedelics are waved away in two different ways: 1 - blaming of the person who had the experience, for not having the proper “set and setting”, or not respecting the drug. 2 - claiming that there’s no such thing as a “bad trip”, and only a challenging one that takes time to integrate. There migh…

Every time I talk about my negative LSD experience with someone in-person (even one who is very pro-psychedelic and enjoys positive or growth experiences from it), I receive great empathy and we discuss it, they are genuinely curious and perhaps even recalibrate their own compass. However, bringing it up online (reddit, HN) I either get others chiming in with their negative experiences or I get blamed as if I have ne…

> Anyway.. when I recommend LSD to new friends, it's to stay in the fun domain (50-150micrograms, go have fun at a music festival) and consider the myriad of other forms of therapy first.

This is what I do as well. People are gonna take drugs, I’m not trying to talk anyone out of that, so I recommend staying safe and sticking with low doses. But curiosity often comes calling anyway and people naturally want to delve deeper, and I worry a lot of people justify massive doses without proper preparation because they see so many people saying “oh, there’s no such thing as a bad trip!”.

Re: LSD: Not Even Once

#178

Post by totoglazer » Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 9:08 PM UTC

This happened to a teenager I know. About 6 months ago. They’ve been hospitalized several times for suicidal thoughts, self harm, etc. Really messing them up, I fear for the rest of their life.

Re: LSD: Not Even Once

#179

Post by dathinab » Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 9:09 PM UTC

siva7 wrote: post #13

Both those trip reports are very unusual for psylocibin and LSD. It looks to me that the author might have other health complications that caused the bad trips. As a general advice one should be very careful when taking psychedelics with other prescribed medications or having a history of mental illness.

> It looks to me that the author might have other health complications that caused the bad trips.

This doesn't matter and is a very misleading IMHO.

Because people having some per-existing conditions they don't know about and hasn't caused anything but supper middle issues is _extremely high_. EDIT (extremely likely to have some condition, not neccessary a condition which interacts with the drug you are about to take)

And the problem with psychedelics is that the chance of both you getting long term problems if you have conditions from even small doses and you not knowing about this conditions and you and people around you not understanding the risk at all is high (at least if compared to some of the legal drugs, like alcohol).

Through I believe they do have high potential in health care (assuming personal being well educated about this topic()), because one one hand this setting allows reducing the number of unknown risk factors, (should be) well educated, and directly know what to do if something goes wrong.

() Except that the handling of pain killers in the US can make you question if that is reliable possible.

Re: LSD: Not Even Once

#180

Post by mberning » Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 9:09 PM UTC

marketneutral wrote: post #116

mberning wrote: post #28

I have had really, really bad trips on weed and alcohol. No way in hell I am trying anything else. It makes me really uneasy to hear normies going on about trying this and that. They all have some vague yet beneficial reasoning for why they did or might try shrooms or LSD. I always ask them, tell me of somebody that significantly and measurably improved their life after getting involved with psychedelics. Nobody ever…

“since no one can provide an example to me in person, on command, it must not be possible for anyone” take me as your first anecdotal example of someone whose life has been significantly and measurably improved since taking psychedelics. there goes your entire argument.

I would love to hear more about your experience and how it measurably improved your life. My point though is not that it is impossible for people to see real benefits. My point is that the vast majority of people that have tried it don’t seem any better off than before.