panic attack racing heart 26 year old

[420 HELI]

I went throught a stage of cutting my weed intake afater smoking from when i woke to when i went to sleep

 

Smokin in your sleep now that is fookin talent!

[rebel_chick]

I smoked some the other day all good now :-))

[eexpee]

Ive had many panic attacks from smoking too much weed. Mainly because I had stopped for a while and had a lot of real chronic, or because I wasn't in a good state to begin with. The panic actually came from thoughts that I was going crazy and I was looked for sings that would reassure that I was indeed going mad and so the cycle continued till I freaked. The effects of the panic attacks would last a couple of days or weeks for me to settle down, having similar experience of depersonalization and sometimes another panic attack sober. But, I realised it had nothing to do with going crazy, but had to do with the obsessive thoughts that I was going to go crazy and that pot would make it worse. in the end it's all your thought patterns. And, if the weed makes your heart race, your more likely to panic as your body thinks there is something wrong.

 

I find if I smoke a very small cone, wait, and then am relaxed I can smoke more. However, if I take a good cone of dank, BAM! i'm gone into another panic attack. Know your body, know yourself.

[jabez]

Hi,

 

This is an experience I want to share with you guys...

 

I used to smoke dope infrequently with close friends on and off over some weekends for about a year or two. (My family and I have no history of mental illness and I consider myself to be very healthy). The time when I decided to quit came after I was sharing a bong with a mate one night at a party getting ready to go out. It wasn't laced with any other drug because my mates at that party didn't have the experience as I had - it was dope and some tobacco (I was 21 at the time and now in my 30s).

 

I was in his bedroom and after a few drags, passed it back to him. I was feeling pretty stoned. He made some comment and I noticed his tone of voice had changed becoming deeper and rougher. I closed my eyes briefly and opened them. I looked at him and noticed his skin texture had changed and his face had stretched taking the form of a lizard. I was scared and walked out of the bedroom to tell my other friends next room what had happened. They found it pretty amusing, but for myself i felt like I was haunted by the image of his face. My heart began racing uncontrollably and and a few mates tried to calm me down but I was very paranoid with thoughts racing in my head that I was about to go insane. The following day I was calmer, but overwhelmed by the experience from the previous night.

 

A few weeks dragged by when one day I was making my bed thinking why am i doing this? it doesn't make any sense? I went to the bathroom and looked at my reflection in the mirror asking myself is that me who i'm seeing or someone else? This really started to freak me out. (Another friend of mine had a similar experience not long before mine and found it interesting and had since given up dope).

 

After a few months, I was sitting in a lecture room, when an intense feeling of not knowing who I was came over me. I was almost to the point of walking up to the lecturer right then and asking him if he was able to help me. I continued to sit on the chair and waited for the emotion to disappear. This had occurred numerous times since, including a moment when i was about to jump off a moving tram believing the passengers were aliens in disguise after me.

 

I recall another night soon after, when i was in my backyard hanging up the washing. I gazed up into the dark sky when a sense of extreme insignificance swept over me to the point where i felt physically and emotionally detached from the rest of the world and I was in any moment about to be sucked up into the sky. The feeling was overpowering, I wanted to yell out and I was almost to the point of falling to the ground and clench onto the grass. I believed I was on the tipping point of insanity.

 

I had spoken to a few close friends about this experience, didn't mention it to my parents because i didn't want them to worry, but never got help from anyone and slowly over a period of 6 to 12 months began to gain control. The episodes disappeared altogether and have never occured since i stopped smoking that night.

 

What I have learnt through this experience is (apart from being the scariest point in my life), your mind can become very fragile and sensitive to the point where it could tip when not careful. I was made aware of areas of my mind I never knew existed. I am however grateful to have experienced that and have made it through safely and in a position where I can help/talk to others in similar situations.

 

Thats all

 

Cheers

 

Apart from the hallucinations (which I have no idea about) it just sounds like your describing severe depression, I get those feelings all the time if I haven't smoked herb in a while, which is the only thing that's ever helped me with depression/anxiety, BTW.

 

Also if people have issues handling there herb then try smoking only joints, if you haven't smoked for a while. That's what my brother does, he's always fliped out on bongs but I've never seen him have a problem when smoking joints, it's just a much more mellow high, I guess.

Edited August 24, 2009 by jabez

[kiloppo]

i had a hard out anxiety attack when i was traveling and it lasted about 12 hours in which i couldn't sleep or eat, just shook the whole time. I got over it but the experience has lasted with me till this day.

 

now and again i start to feel the adrenaline coming in at unnatural levels but you have to remember that a panic attack is the result of your body's defense mechanism, fight or flight. if you choose to flee it won't go away, thats why when your thinking, 'why wont this shit stop' it doesn't. and it isn't until you start thinking to yourself, im fucking strong and i control the way in which my mind operates that you beat it.

 

funny thing is, i learned to control my adrenaline output to some extent. before afl matches and sparring sessions i can psyche myself up and i do a lot better in respected areas of the sport. i guess it's just another thing you have to think there's a silver lining to it.

[Mustapha Toke]

I have had a few anxiety hits, best way I find deal with them is say to yourself , hey hang on I have felt like this before and I was alright it was worry for nothing. I find that quickly difuses your mind and gives you the confidence to forget all about it. and enjoy the high. Try not to self analyse yourself like check your pulse or your breathing road to ruin when anxiety is at play. Becomes a self fulfilling prophecy

[jabez]

I just recently went to nimbin and once I got there I basically cracked the shits and got out of there as soon as I got what I was looking for, BTW, me cracking the shits and not hanging around had nothing to do with nimbin, it really is a beautiful place. Anyway, I hadn’t smoked in probably over 2 weeks and about a 100 km out I pulled over at a rest area and pulled 2 nice cones, that was all it took, I haven’t been that stoned since I was in high school. Thoughts at a thousand miles an hour of all the things I've ever done and feel guilty about, down to going off at some macdonalds worker over five years ago. But I just told myself that it would settle down in half an hour and kept on reminding myself that id just smoked a little herb. Then I laid down in my back seat got my iphone out, turned the simpsons on and opened a box of barbeque shapes, in no time at all I went from freaking out to all of a sudden just totally cruising, in the middle of nowhere all by myself with a good supply of munchies just chilling out in that fresh tropical air, turned out to be a awesome night.

 

I’ve also talked many people down from flipping out on LSD before by using the same method of just continuously reminding them that they just took LSD and that it won’t last forever, seems to bring people back every time.

[resinator]

I guess this is an area a lot of us deal with but hate to talk about. I've dealt with them on so many occasions, I've lost count. I ended up going to a psych and getting prescriptions for xanax. Yep, the old brick. (Be very careful with these little fuckers. Highly addictive. It took me a while to get off 'em). Supermarkets, events, even trying to get to sleep can fuck you up when they get bad. At the end of the day, I found that the thing that worked best for me was to just tell myself, "no one has ever died from a panic attack. It will eventually fuck off and I won't be tripping so hard". Eventually they do go away. I don't get them anymore. I used to think it would be a part of me for the rest of my life. Try meditation, just trying to focus on your breath. If any other thoughts come into your mind, just let them go and bring your thought back to your breath. Don't try to control the breath or freak that it's to fast or slow. It just is what it is and just let it happen. Remember. No one has died from a panic attack. Before you know it, you'll be cool as a cucumber.