How open are you about your psych drug use?

It's kind of a broad topic, but from reading on the boards you kind of get this skewed perspective, or at least I think it might lend itself to that.

How open are you with those in your life about your psychedelic drug use? Are you at a stage where you have had the opportunity to discuss something profound that happened to you on TEH DRUGZ with people close to you in your life? What about family? Parents? Siblings? Some friends?

Do you think it is too quickly judged to be open about, or do you feel it a safe topic if approached from a reasonable perspective?

I turn these things over and over in my mind as I feel on a spiritual quest, one that seems to be crossing more and more over into shamanism and the use of sacred substances to help boost the occurance of sacred and mystical experience, and feel it a shame in sorts that it isn't something that is more accepted to discuss, or more of a ... respected path. In that throughout history there has always been a usage of sacred substances by mankind in their rituals to reach out to God, to the universal Love, and it feels like in modern life we have forced those interested in such an undertaking to a fringe of a fringe, where we have no place within 'Western' culture for the visionaries and the seers, the agents of change.

I realize part of this lays on my shoulders, in that I definitely need to get an additional circle of friends who are understanding of the spiritual healing we all need and can be supportive of this portion of my walk. That I think would be a very good step, and perhaps remind me that agents of change are actually everywhere and not merely on the fringe of a fringe.

But then how to talk about these magical experiences and strange places we get to go to, these lessons we are taught and get to learn and blossom through, the dark long nights and moments of rapture with friends? I find it too containing to withhold this info. Obviously there are some places it never goes, employers and such, though with the digital age who can even guarantee that, but even then;

Essentially: Does the risk or stigma associated with drug use keep you from ever opening up to someone about an experience that you feel might be relevant to them, or to whatever you're discussing at hand, simply because it involved drug use?

This particularly pertains to psychs, which is why I'm putting them here, because honestly I've never had another drug experience in a different class of drugs that inspired explanation quite like psychedelics and in my walk the tools I choose to work with are from this family.

 

Open. People around me have to deal with it, except my family, who do not a approve. They know I take drugs, but I won't shove it in their faces or anything.

 

In my circle of friends, psychedelic use is the norm. I know doctors, lawyers, and physicists. Having said that I have no problem relating to politicians and church people all the same.
What is it you want to share? Unless you are trying to push drugs, there is no reason to mention drug use.

 

....Not like I'm going to lie about psychedelics.... Maybe if I had an affinity for heroin or something, if someone asked, i would be less free about it.:coffee:

 

im open about the fact that i use them, when the topic comes up anyway. but with most of the people who know me i feel little need to bring up the discussion. i do have a good circle of freinds though who understand what tripping really is and that provides me with a good outlet to communicate my more personal journeys.
as far as family goes, that one has been difficult over the years. in my high school days my parents just thought i was on drugs and that it couldnt be a good thing (it wasnt always a good thing), so those lines of communication were closed. after coming back from peru though i felt the need to really sit down with my mom and speak openly about my ayahuasca expiriences, because i felt very transformed by them and because a lot the work i was doing with this medicine at that time was about healing my family relationships and my inner child. we pretty much just sat and cried as i tried to convey the weight of these expiriences to her, and how important it was to me. she felt it in my heart and understood at that point and our relationship has changed for the better since. it was a big deal, my mom is a devout christian and a suburbanite.

somtimes its hard for me to talk openly about the spiritual side of tripping, but i always feel like im being true to myself when i do.

 

I'm open if someone asks.
I don't go around telling people about it though.

 

i'd be at least somewhat honest when asked by anybody short of a cop...and admit to using psychedelics in my younger years to my parents...

 

Thanks for the thoughtful answers.

I guess I feel kind of like Archemetis on this one. I'm starting to do some serious work, stuff that is more indepth to me and different than any other previous experiences i've had. It's a radically different approach, is yielding radically different results, and ... I guess part of talking to my family about that is I've seen the error in my ways and how my actions affected my family, those around me, and there is this moment of clarity where I'm coming out and discussing these things, talking about a lot of stuff that was just buried for years within our entire little clan, and ... I guess I feel if drugs are a part of what is inspiring me to stand up for myself and to be a good human being it feels like something that I shouldn't fear talking about.

I feel it was a difficult but important step. I also was "TEH ONE ON TEH DRUGZ". My parents have known for years that I smoke MJ, nothing really to discuss there, but I told my dad flat out that I took a drug and the experience around it and ... it was a really good feeling. I've just started my reading more and more into the history around the sacred use of drugs and feel like I'm turning onto ... something potentially greater than I've ever known.

And the funny part is it isn't the drugs. Like the initial result after having an awesome trip is to want to do it again, but instead I'm learning that the integration of the trip and the learning that you experience during it are what is crucial, and that the experience was not simply a drug, but the entire spiritual world in harmony with you at a moment where your senses are heightened and the window to your soul is opened wider.

And as my being is becoming more ... fulfilled than I ever thought possible, there is the inevitability of how often drugs will or will not come up when I talk about my own path of change. I feel I'd still be in a huge slump were it not for drug use and there is no adequate way to explain how I got from point A to point B without inserting drug use.

I guess I consider a psych trip like a road trip. Sometimes things happen that are radical, sometimes things just move. Sometimes you want to be able to share with those close to you about what happened, sometimes there isn't really anything interesting or useful to share.

I hope everyone's having a awesome day out there. It's rainy here, but the coffees a flowing

 

my friends dont care, they just dont take a lot of interest in it so i never talk about it. I'd only mention something about tripping if something real significant happened.
as for my family, i've told mom i've done acid, shrooms, weed, and she probably is assuming i've done e cuz i go to raves. she doesnt care about drug use, i just cant do it around her. besides that, it's strictly forbidden by everyone else. if someone asked me about it though i wouldnt lie.

I wish i can express anything about acid and how it's so enlightening and an amazing thing. A lot of people have a very slanted view on it. I've talked to people that have shroomed and are scared of doing acid.
There's just a lot i'd like to tell people but they're all walls. thats why i go on the hipforums

 

Slightly less open than my marijuana use.

I guess with psychedelics, I don't tell the person if I'm unsure of reaction; whereas marijuana I'll tell people as long as I feel I can manage their reaction afterward.
In other words, I wouldn't tell my grandma about either because she's a stubborn old Polish lady, but I would only hide the psychedelic usage from my professors (unless they're cool).

 

Always been a fairly open community to mushrooms here, my dad taught me which ones to pick and every year I go out with him and many friends picking

My dad went to the Kerry mountains last year and came back with thousands
Although, outside my mum, dad and friends I keep quiet about it, I doubt that would go down well with the rest of my family.

If the topic comes up with some stranger then thy are obviously grand with it. Otherwise I dont really mention it..

 

In my circle of friends too psychedelics may be discussed. Though I don't really bring it up unless asked about it. Family is a no-go too.

 

I don't care if my friends know... In fact it would be rather hard for them not to considering they are often right there next to me enjoying life. I don't really care if my sisters know, but there is one sister i would share more with simply because we get along better and are closer. I try to keep most things from my parents. I am sure they wouldn't be too heartbroken if they knew the circumstances of most of my drug experiences, however it isn't something that I feel would be beneficial for them to know.

 

I wouldn't know how to begin to convey any of my experiences which I truly know and believe to be of a real spiritual nature to my family. I don't know if I'll ever tell them of my psychedelic experiences.

 

well, ive always been honest with my mother. i tell her about the good trips as well as the bad. she is a spiritual person and has never touched anything psychedelic in her life. i try to explain to her that these substances can change the world. she believes in a natural high. she has been meditating for years and has had many outer body experiences but i try to tell her that OBE's can be achieved in just a few minutes but that scares her i guess. she doesnt really want me to do it but she knows im not going to die. as far as friends go...in my circle, they have all tripped but wont trip these days. a few of them are my tripping buddies. we have been tripping together since we were 14 or 15. personally i wish that psychedelics wernt known as drugs. that way everyone can talk freely about them with there family and friends....

 

I'm as open as the us gvt is.
which is not that much lol.


In all honesty, when asked, I admit, but I wait till I am asked.

 

Well I don't talk about my psych use with family or co workers, but my friends that I am comfortable talking to it about I do. My MJ use is known by some family members.

That's why I like festivals, I can be the true me.

 

i'm pretty open about it. my family knows about my marijuana use, i haven't discussed my psychedelic use with any of my family members other than my siblings/cousins really. i am pretty sure the majority know though, it's just something that isn't discussed much.

 

I smoke weed likes its legal, and am a bit more reluctant to talk about psychedelics because do to a slip up a year or so ago our group was labelled as "acidheads" for a couple months, I still am sometimes.