Flashbacks

So.. it's been close to two months since I last tripped. I had a particularly difficult experience, and decided to lay of the 'cid for a while.

Since then, I've been woken from my sleep about 6-7 times, by what can only be described as a cross between a bad dream, and a flashback. It's kinda like I'll be having a regular dream (typically a very intense dream when I feel very much aware of my surroundings and my actions), and then something will happen that brings back memories of past acid trips, I'll have a very brief feeling of "acid flashback" (if that makes sense to any of you), and then I wake up.

On top of that, I've had 2 or 3 experiences in conciousness, where I'm back in a situation similar to that I was in when I last tripped, and I'll have a very vivid second or two of full blown flashback.

For example, I was at a party and they were playing this very dark tune, which had been playing the night I'd been tripping, and at a certain point in that tune, I was properly transported into "acid land" for a couple of seconds - everyone around me became slightly sinister and distorted, their movement slowed down, and the colours all became darker and more purpley. This only lasted a couple of seconds, but it shook me enough to want to go and sit down.

Then, about a week after that, after smoking some weed with my friends, we were just walking through town, and we all started laughing inanely at a joke one of us had made, but the laughter went on so long to the point where I'd actually forgotten what we were all laughing about, and suddenly, just for a split second, things got "weird", it just strongly reminded me of being on acid, and I had to step back a moment, and just felt kinda like "whoaa.."

Then the last, and most recent flashback I had after coming out of a party a couple of weeks ago. The party itself had gone *amazingly*, I'd really had the time of my life that night, and I was outside in the most bubbly mood you can imagine, gleefully helping the organizers hand out flyers to everyone as they came out of the door, but then, just like, totally unexpectedly, I had a brief couple of seconds flashback of a situation quite similar to the one I was in there, from when I'd been tripping.

We were all standing outside the club obviously and people were forming little groups, chatting away, there was that general disappointed feel in the air, you know the sort of "Aww.. end of the night, time to go home. It was an awesome party it sucks that it had to end", that was the general buzz in the air.

The last time I'd been in a situation when that same sort of feeling was in the air, I'd been bad tripping, in the sense that everyone around me had some sort of mental illness, like downs syndrome or something, and they were all getting upset in a typical downy sort of way, and other people were trying to comfort them and calm them down. It's really quite disturbing to have the whole world turn into one big mental hospital, but that's what happened on my bad trip, and that's what I flashed back to for a couple of seconds that night, despite the rest of the night being so perfect and the fact that otherwise, my mood couldn't have been better.

Anyway.. it kinda sucks, because, although it's not negatively affected my life in any noticable way (besides the occasional "whoaa.." moment), it's pretty much put me off taking psychedelics, because despite wanting to continue experimenting with them, it's hard to argue with the rationality that, if relatively small reminders of my bad trip can bring me right back into them briefly, surely actually being on psychedelics is likely to take me right back into it, and that could be for 8 hours not 2 seconds

Edit: Which is a shame since Mushroom season's just starting in the UK..

 

Yeah thats normal. I get it to.

 

yeah dw i get it sometimes without ever having eaten cid. prob not as intense but yesm, i guess try and make the most out of it.

 

A true flashback lasts more than a minute. You are getting deja-vu like flashes. I get those for usually a month after using shrooms or LSD, I find it much worse with shrooms then LSD. It goes away after awhile.

 

For starters, no offense, but don't listen to what anyone else in this thread has said. A couple of seconds of flashbacking is most certainly legit, as I'm sure you can attest. It can be very alarming even if brief. That said, I don't think you have much to worry about. Let me elaborate.

The first time I tripped, I did it alone (although with a sober sitter), and it got rough in places (it was definitely shocking in general - the first few hours were great, then my thoughts turned to my own life and it got a little emotional). Since then, a few times when really really high, I've had what I thought at the time were flashbacks. I basically blinked my eyes, and all of a sudden the room seemed really "off", I shot out of bed and immediately launched into a moderate panic attack, pacing around the room, etc. It was then like that for an hour or two and I went to sleep. However, these days I wonder if it wasn't just a panic attack and anxiety that caused it. I say that because once, I was just "normal high" and very briefly started flashbacking, but I just calmed myself down and it immediately went away. Moreover, being really really high is quite a lot like tripping already. A lot of people don't understand that because they either aren't sensitive enough to pot's effects or don't smoke enough, but if you are sensitive like me, being super high is... well, quite a trip - no depth perception, no time perception, etc. As for your other episodes, sleepiness/going to sleep can cause flashbacks, but if it's in your dream, it's not a flashback. That's called a dream. Tripping is like a dream anyway, so it makes sense that a bad dream would take you back to your bad trip.

I think what you really need to do is deal with what made your trip bad. How did your trip turn awry? Were your friends being dicks? Are you insecure? Have you been depressed lately? I think you'll find that fixing these things will help you a lot, and also, I think a huge percent of this stuff you're bringing on yourself. Something as powerful as acid doesn't just leave you - I can conjure up feelings of it right now, and if you're always looking for flashbacks, you'll probably have a few.

Just my two cents.

 

Crucial thing I forgot to add:
In between the first time I tripped and the first time I had a flashback, whenever I'd get really high, I felt like the visuals were so very similar to acid - I could zoom in on objects or expand my peripheral vision to crazy new heights at will. However, I didn't panic, and I didn't really consider it a flashback. My guess is that when I had the "flashbacks," I basically just got equally high and all of a sudden noticed everything was crazy and had a panic attack. I also think that tripping can cause you to appreciate the aspects of the cannabis high far more, so that can have a big effect on all of this kind of thing.

 

Yeah i know what you mean. After taking lsd then smoking pot in the future it would be like i was tripping again except the visuals wouldn't move like on acid, and weren't quite as intense. And as for the panic attack, i've been having those to lately. Ever since i took acid i've been having them so i'm thinking it could have been caused by my acid use. I'm not for sure though. But yeah i've just been taking xanax to fix that, and it works just fine. Xanax is the only drug i can take now, but i don't like abusing it for many reasons. If it didn't help my panic attacks i wouldn't even take it. Ever since the panic attacks i've not been able to do drugs without either getting extremely sick, even with acid, or without having panick attacks. I can't even eat that much sugar without getting really sick and panicy. And the panic is at it's worst when i don't want it to be. And no matter what i do i can't seem to stop it. All thats running through my head when im in this state of mind are things like; oh shit i hope i don't throw up in front of these people, or i hope i don't shit myselve in front of these people. Things like that. And the more i think about it the more i can feel my stomach turning like i'm about to. It especially happens when i'm around good looking girls. I just wish this shit would stop. Panic attacks suck dick! And i wise i could take acid again.

 

Oh, no it's most definitely flashback. There's a feeling that I can only describe as a flashback feeling, which I get in these dreams, and I IMMEDIATELY wake up, like, as soon as the flashback ends.

Thanks for the encouraging words though everyone

I've actually been feeling a lot better lately. I had a dream a few nights ago in which I confronted my fears, quite literally, head on.

I was at a station, talking to someone, I didn't recognize him as anyone I knew, but we were chatting, and then suddenly his face sort of hung there for a moment, things seemed momentarily creepy, and then his face morphed in such a way that people's faces had morphed that one night I bad tripped, I felt the full strength of the acid trip just like in my other flashbacks, but I lifted both arms up, and he lifted his to meet mine, we both clenched our hands together tightly, as if to fight the fear, and then I woke up. I've felt a lot calmer and more relaxed since then, almost entirely back to my normal self (I'd been a little on edge before then, just from the fear of unwanted flashbacks, during the day and at night).

I'm gonna give it another month or so I think, and with any luck be ready to drop again before Fireworks night Man that ought to be sweet. I'll be going for the biggest, longest display, in the most relaxing area, hopefully somewhere like a beach so when it's over I can just go walking with my friends till I come down

Oh, btw, if it's any relevance (which I think it must be), I've only had flashbacks while concious (ie, not in my sleep), when I've been high on something else, so yea I think that does play a big part in it.

 

http://doodie.com/index.php?date=08152006&dir=b

 

I had a flashback from LSD not too long ago. i was driving my car through an area of my neiborhood that i go through more times than i can count, but i just kept thinking to meself look how beautiful all this is. Everything looked very new and pristine even though i had been through that area many many times before. It was a reall nice little experience actually. i enjoyed it immensely

 

I've had a moderately bad trip once, but never any bad flashbacks except for one that hit me when I had just fallen asleep. It was violent enough that I woke myself up screaming. But bear in mind this was a day or two after I had tripped so I guess it was still fresh in the system. Anyway, I understand what you're saying Hemisphere; I am positive it wasn't a nightmare or a night terror because I've had those and in this particular instance it was indeed a flashback. All my other flashbacks are great, free trips!

 

How was a flashback though? I get that all the time , particularly after I started doing acid, but I think finding so much beauty in the world is more of a long term side effect (if you can even call it that), than a flashback.

A flashback (if it was of the nature you described), would be more like for a couple of seconds everything would seem *astonishingly* beautiful, like the way things often seem on acid, and then it would go back to normal again as quickly as it came on. Perhaps you're just not used to appreciating nature so much I always did to a certain extent so it's not such an alien feeling to me.

 

Ah yes, the dreaded 2 second flashbacks... The first couple times I tried acid, I would just really remeber something in my trip (first time) and the second time I thought I saw it happen and then I said "Did that happen again" (only lasted a cople seconds). The ones I have now are a bit longer (about 20 seconds), but they go away after a while when I get them longer... Happy tripping

 

every once in awhile i will be laying in bed or in the bathroom or something and if i zone out a bit things start looking like i'm tripping. it's like that 'second layer' appears (i have never known how else to describe it) and i start seeing patterns that float over the surface i'm looking at. then i usually end up blinking or something and it goes away, which is always sad and annoying. i've always considered that to be like a 'flashback' of the times i've been able to trip; but i haven't done that much, but the experience (though very brief) is exactly the same.

 

Well it's possible I've consumed shrooms and LSD at least 9 times now. There have been no flashbacks to report. Also, there's never been any "bad trips." That is unless you count getting stomach pain from laughing for a long time or sore cheeks from smiling too long.

 

After the last time i tripped I couldn't listen to Band of Gypsies without the lights melting for a couple months.
Sometimes someone will give me a weird gooey substance in a dream and I'll trip balls

 

I have colors and slight waving and shit, it gets more intense after I have sex or do something rigorous.

 

I get slight waving when I close my eyes at night or look at a black surface. The "blackness" seems to compress and move around.

 

Yeah i'd get that even before i had taken psychedelics. I think thats normal.

 

Heh, you're probably right. Selective attention.