"Bad trip" from eating a brownie?

I have only gotten a weed buzz twice before and I enjoyed it, but I hate smoking so I've been holding off until there might be an opportunity to try eating it. Well, a couple of days ago I finally had a chance to try a brownie and I was excited for it. I washed it down with a Starbucks Frappucino, which may have been a bad idea, I'll let you advise me. I experienced what could only be considered a horrendously bad trip, literally the worst experience of my life so far. I started out feeling slow and stupid, as I would expect to, but then I felt like I was having a stroke, then I started to panic, and for the next couple of hours I had an extreme panic attack in which I even hallucinated a bit, couldn't stop shaking, kept forgetting to breathe, and repeatedly almost passed out. My boyfriend was with me the whole time and has talked people through bad trips before, so he handled it like a pro and just watched my pulse and checked the clock to estimate when I might come out of it. Eventually I threw up and that seemed to help, and after it dissipated, I was exhausted and fell asleep for the night. My mouth got really dry and I was dehydrated for a while too. I've been around lots of pot users and I'm the only person I've ever seen this happen to, so I feel strongly about continuing to campaign for legal marijuana because I know it's beneficial and enjoyable for most users. But this makes me never want to be near it at all! Anybody have any insight? I'm still wigged out about this.

 

You have described a panic attack and it is not unusual with the first time ingestion. The difficulty is in the dose. You eat way more at once than you are able to smoke at once. It is easy to consume more than you are used to without realizing you are doing it.

Panic attacks are all managed in the same way, through the breath. Gain control of the breath and your rhythm is reestablished.

 

I'm glad to hear that it's not all that uncommon. You know, the other people getting brownies (it was a group of us having a "bake sale") mentioned that they were more potent than a joint. Naturally, since I've been unsuccessful with smoking (might not be inhaling enough), I thought that was great. Famous last words ...