Panic attacks and magic mushrooms

New to the forums here but I like them there's some good information here that is very helpful.

Down to the issue I'm dealing with...
I'm currently 20 and in my sophomore year of college.
I took 2 grams of psychedelic mushrooms about a year ago. It's very difficult to explain how the trip was but it was horrible. I couldn't figure out who I was or who my friends were or where I could go to get the feeling away. I had the weirdest thoughts that really made absolutely no sense. At one point I just wanted to lay on the ground and just "tweak" out for lack of a better term.  

Since that day I've been getting little panic attacks. They come out of nowhere. For example I was just driving my car the other day and I had one, it came out of nowhere I had shortness of breath and I felt out of reality and I felt like I needed to pull over and calm down. When I get them in public it is very difficult for me to talk to people even though I am generally socialable.

I get these feelings when I smoke marijuana from time to time too. I used to enjoy smoking with friends before I took mushrooms but since then I just get severe anxiety and occasionally panic when I decide to smoke for whatever reason.

I currently smoke marijuana very sparingly. I have probably smoked it only 4-5 times all summer. I have not done any other drugs since a year ago when I did mushrooms.
I live a generally happy life and still do well in school but these panic attacks and feeling extremely uncomfortable are really starting to bother me and have got to go. I really think it is a lasting effect of a horrible mushroom trip. Why is this happening and how can I stop it?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and it feels a lot better just getting this issue into writing.

[IBKleen]

Hi and Welcome to the Forum!

You are taking me back some. It has been 38 years since I used mushrooms, pot and acid. Certainly they had some effect on me, but nothing lasting for long periods I would suggest that you stop doing the drugs altogether. They certainly cannot be helping.

Have you considered that you are suffering panic attacks unrelated to the drugs? College is stressful and peer pressure is stressful.

Why don't you go to the doctor and have a thorough check-up. Tell the doc exactly what you are feeling, and be honest.

Take care of yourself. Keep posting.

[vikes82]

Yes I have considered that but I really can't put my finger on anything. I will give it some thought. I have also considered making a doctor's appointment but I always talk myself out of it just by thinking to myself it's not a big deal. I will make an appointment this week and see how things go. Thanks for the reply.

[wait2long]

thats the awful thing about panic attacks...you may never be able to pinpoint what is triggering them...my doc told me it can be a smell, a taste, something that you see but do not know that your body is reacting to it as a reminder of something bad in your life...it can BE ANYTHING...and left untreated either with meds and/or therapy they can get worse.  panic attacks are something that changes in your body chemically, and it is your brains way of telling you that you may have an underlying problem that has been ignored...and its time to deal with it...

[azaddiction]

My fiance and Best friend have both suffered panic attacks.  Best friend could not leave her house she became a shut in, she is doing a lot better with therapy and med's, my fiance, knew he could become the same, a shut in, cannot spell to well but the tech term is aggoraphobic, he made himself go to work and do things, pushed through the panic, and he too is on med's, and they have turned his life around.  I don't mean to scare you, I just think you should seek medical help see what the problem may be and make sure you push yourself, do not let it beat you.  I also do not want to advocate pill popping but there are med's out there that can be helpful.  Do see someone, I have seen first hand what the effects of panic attacks can do, and it's better to get treated as soon as possible.

[JuneSunflower]

shrooms is one of the few drugs I don't have experience with...but after reading End Your Addiction Now by Charles Grant I realized why I use to get anxiety so bad and became addicted to xanex because of it.  Please don't use any benzo, they are very addicting and dangerous when used longterm.  Your body is probably depleted of certain amino acids and other nutrients from the recreational drug use.  I would look into buying that book and figuring out what you should take.  There's different supplements for certain drugs that you have used.  FLaddict may help you, she's good about helping others and because of her posting about this book is why I bought it.  Exercise is important also.
Junesunflower

[wickedwanderer]

I don't really have advice, but my boyfriend was into all this stuff when he was a teenager, and in his mid-twenties (after he'd stopped doing drugs for years), he began having serious panic attacks.  Could drugs contribute to the condition?  I have no idea...but I can tell you that his life is pretty difficult having to deal with this.

[rj777]

Its only been 5 days since I used shrooms but the same thing happened to me and I am very worried because the panic attacks are horrible. The worst 2 made me feel as if I was driving. Stress has triggered them, but I too used to smoke marijuana regularly and can not smoke without feeling a panic attack coming on... I need to figure this out and I am afraid to drive as the first panic attack was exactly the same and happened to me when I was driving. How bad did they get? How often? I would liek to know. Thanks RJ

[IBKleen]

The person you are posting to was here several months ago, but has not been around lately. This will particular post will go to archives because of the date, and it is possible that no one will see it.

Go to the top of this page and hit the "post a question" button. From there you can start your own post and it will be new in the forum. There are a lot of good people here who can give you advise.

Take care. Hope to see you out there.

[vraygodlike]

Look at the whole panic thing as a temporarry condition. Alone the fact that it's not going to stay like this already helps. The big thing to my mind is attitude. That is probably the best "weapon" against anxiety and panic attacks.
Do your research, learning about the issue also is a big move forward. Check your diet, over the years of eating **** you might be short of very important vitamins, minerals etc. Do you know what omega 3 is? No? You should! Not just omega 3, there is a ton of deficiencies that have anxiety as their symtoms (symptoms). Once again, starting to eat a much healthier diet is working towards riding you of your anxiety, which is a very good thing and shows also that you are improving your attitude towards it.

i dont have too much time and i dont know too much so let me finish up: when you feel anxiety, instead of getting all emotional about it, switch to logic mode. find reasons to tell yourself that you are not in any danger at the moment and that you don't need to worry right now. predict the future, what is the possibility that i will wake up tomorrow morning in my bed unharmed (very high right?). obviously you don't think about anxiety 24/7, there has to be some interval in between your anxiety where you don't have any issues. focus on this! the second anxiety kicks in, think a few seconds earlier of how you had absolutely no problem what so ever. also think how in a  you will once again have no problem what so ever (because you'll forget about it again). now what you are working towards is to increase those gaps between anxiety, where you are free of problems (as far as your mind is concerend). if you are doing it right, these gaps will be come longer and longer and longer. lets say you get a panic attack "only" once a day. here is how you should improve your attitude towards it. think of these few minutes out of all the time in the day and kinda laugh about it and tell your self that this is easy to tolerate, you can deal with this. bam, its becoming less of an issue.

think about it as a spiral, you can worry yourself into stuff and the way your worry increases is like gravity, the closer you get to the gravity point, the faster you get and the faster the gravity increases, making you go even faster. well the secret is that this also works the other way around! the second you feel that it is helping, you already increase by how much it is helping.

have a positive attitude, dont view it as a problem and let your brain just start filtering it out with all the other background noice (and what's not in your conciousness virtually doesn't exist!). as the gaps become longer, soon you will think about anxiety once a month and that will make you very happy, then it's two months and by then you already don't even care anymore and i guess thats when you are cured :)

good luck, stay strong

***@****

[normal1234]

vraygodlike I wish I could agree...

I am going through this now.  I came to this site for help.  I am going to tell my parents and get help.  Here is what I know.

If their panic attacks are anything like mine then logic doesn't help.  For me I am lost in this world where nothing makes sense...  The only things that exist are what I can see.  The visual halucinations are bad for me.  Everything starts forming together like there aren't 3 dimensions there are only 2 that wave like a flag in the wind.  Even voices can sometimes become deeper and scary.  

My last trip was yesterday... I decided to smoke weed by myself because I normally think its very fun.  It had been a little over a week since my first ever shroom trip which went badly.  well I went into American Eagle stoned and as I was looking around the music was all happy and the colors were bright then it all went bad.  the clothes formed together the music was the same but scary and the lyrics offended me.  I got my stuff and immediately went back to my car.  I called a friend to come pick me up but his voice was like a recording I didn't think he was there.  I just remember my stearing wheel what huge and looking outside at the sky thinking there is nothing out there.  

I don't understand why I can't make logic work but i can't.  I am not scared I am going to die.  I am just scared that nothing really exists.  That what I see when i am like that is real and what I see normally and what everyone else sees is not a lie but just all questions.  I think about death and birth and stuff when I am screwed up.  That knowbody knows how life starts and what happens when you die.  I see it as this is a constant.  We don't die ever we live this life always aware of this one life and we just keep coming back to it over and over again.  The people you know change the things you do change but life is always the same. I think about how Knowledge makes no sense.  All it is is trusting something someone else tells you you don't really know anything is fact.

These are all things I think when i am flashing back or tripping or whatever.  I am going to the doctor tomorrow because I am still freaking out.  I don't know anything else to say besides this was my first and only time taking shrooms and I feel like I am stuck in this place...  This thought process that has me so messed up.  Just be careful and get help if you need it.  I know I do

[Vikiara]

Magic mushrooms for mental disorders? Controlled magic mushroom doses could have psycho-therapeutic uses. One analysis finds that the same mushrooms could have use in psychotherapy. Patients who were given a managed dose of psilocybin were more open about their feelings and self-reported better life satisfaction over one year later.That is great!