Did my trip alter reality?

[Argonil]

Yeah... Where do I even begin...

About 2 years ago, I started smoking cannabis daily. After about 1½ years, I moved on to synthetic cannabinoids, such as AM2201 and several kinds of UR. I smoked synthetics for about 6 months.

I quit cannabis and the synthetics about 1½ month ago, best decision I ever made. After about 3 weeks, I decided that I would smoke cannabis once or twice a month, and only once or twice a month, for special occasions.
Yesterday, I went to the neighboring town to meet my friend whom I hadn't seen in a long time. We decided to smoke a bit of "medium quality" hash. At about 14:45 yesterday, I smoked one single small bowl on the bong, which usually would get me high only slightly. Of course my tolerance was very low, but here's what happened:

After about a minute, I started to feel really, really high, it was overwhelming. I thought that it was just the rush, but about 15 minutes later, I started tripping aswell. Open eye hallucinations, heard sounds, body hallucinations, everything. I was aware that I was probably having a flashback on synthetic cannabinoids, as the high felt alot like a large dose of AM22-01.
Then I started to lose about 50% of my vision, the same way that happens when you stand up too quickly after lying down, but instead of darkness blinding me, it was intense light. This lasted about 15 minutes.
Afterwards, I was still really high, and was still hallucinating. I don't know how long it took, but after a while, I started to get nausea. I was seeing the same pattern on everything I looked at, which became very unpleasant.
Then I vomitted. The vomit was red slime-water, and I had not eaten anything that day which could possibly have made it red. I vomitted for... It's hard to tell, but at least 2 hours.
Now, here's where it really gets weird. After vomitting, I wiped the slime around my mouth away with my shirt. The slime stains formed the exact pattern I had been hallucinating! So I obviously thought to myself that it was because I was still hallucinating and very high. I sat down, tried to relax, hoping to come down soon.
Many hours passed, and I stopped hallucinating, but I was still very high, no change in high whatsoever. I took the last train home, leaving at 21:01, and somehow found my way all the way home. I was still very high, and went directly to bed at around 22:00-ish.
I woke up this morning at 6:30, and I was STILL HIGH! It was really unbelieveable, and I went to the mirror to check my eyes; they were still red "weed eyes".
I watched some movies, then I remembered the patterns I saw yesterday, and thought about my shirt! So I got my shirt, and holy pineapple, the stains from the slime had in fact created THE EXACT PATTERN I had been hallucinating. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, so I put the shirt away, waited about 20-30 minutes, and drew the pattern I had been hallucinating from my memory, and then compared it to the shirt. It was almost identical, apart from my poor drawing skills.
I talked to my friend to the internet about it, he told me to show it to others and see whether they would find the drawing and stains identical. I showed it to my brother and my friend at around 15:00, and yeah, again, they said it looked almost identical, except for poor drawing skills. I also asked my brother and friend whether I looked high, and they said that I did look slightly high, especially in the corners of my eyes. And I felt slightly high aswell.

Here's what I'd like to discuss:

1. How can I get flashbacks from synthetic cannabinoids after smoking THC, when it was 1½ month ago I quit it, and synthetic cannabinoids have a very short half-time?

2. How is it possible that my high lasted over 24 hours? I find this disturbing.

3. My vomit was red slime-water. It was probably red because of blood I suppose, but what does this mean? Where did it come from? I have not had any stomach cramps or the like.

4. Ehm... How... The stains on my shirt formed the exact pattern I had been hallucinating. Did my trip alter reality? That's just silly, right? It could've been a mere coincidence, but it's really creepy how coincidental that is. Has anyone had experiences like this?
Because I have in fact had an experience like it once before, when I was addicted to synthetic cannabinoids. It buggled my mind, but I thought it to be coincidence. I was hallucinating a certain human move, the one where you just look behind you to check if your friend is still with you, and right after I had seen the hallucination, both of my friends did it at the same time...

There's no doubt that I'll be quitting all kinds of cannabis for good. I don't want to experience this again.

Thanks in advance!

[robinl555]

Dear Argonil,
Thanks for your story and have nothing to say other than.... I'm sure glad I quit...
after that mind blowing experience I'm betting... u will too...

[Argonil]

Dear Argonil,
Thanks for your story and have nothing to say other than.... I'm sure glad I quit...
after that mind blowing experience I'm betting... u will too...

I sure will.

Even though I don't expect an answer to question 4, I would like to see ideas or just any comment.

And I'd really like to solve questions 1-3. They should at least be possible to solve.

[BFB]

Hi and welcome to the group,

I will try and address each question to try and give you my opinion on each specific matter:

1. There is a difference between the effects a person may experience because a drug is still in their system and the long lasting effects they may experience from its use (usually from a sustained considerable amount), for example some of the mental health problems people experience as a result of using cannabis and the changes it has made in their brain can last long after the half life of the drug, but usually people find that given time they more or less get back to their old selves, although unfortunately there are apparently some cases where drugs of this kind do sometimes trigger lifelong mental health issues but from what I have heard this is usually quite rare.
2. Maybe what you are experiencing is psychosis rather than a high, in which case it can last a lot longer than 24 hours.
3. Don’t know about this as it’s not really an area I have ever read too much about.
4. There are perhaps a couple of explanations for this, although it may look like cannabis has somehow give you super natural psychic powers or something, IMO the more likely explanation of what you have experienced is either just coincidence, for example the laws of probability say that strange coincidences are certain to happen, or perhaps your drug use has triggered some kind of mental health problem possibly even psychosis, some of the things you say you are experiencing sound very peculiar if you continue to experience such things then if I were you I would consult a mental health professional.

Like I say that’s just my opinion and I am not a psychiatrist or anything but I have seen quite a few people experience mental health issues as a result of using cannabis as well as experienced them myself. It can be a powerful drug when it comes to this sort of area of side effects.

All the best,

[Argonil]

Thank you for your reply.

It was probably a psychosis, yes. However, after I came down from hallucinating and vomitting, it just felt like a high. And around evening yesterday, I did not feel high anymore at all.
About the stains/pattern, I know it could (or should) just be a coincidence. With 7 billion people, odd coincidences are bound to happen to somebody.

I don't think that my previous drug abuse has caused any permanent noticeable damage to my brain, such as a permanent psychosis. I don't notice any difference in intelligence, performance, thought pattern etc. However, is there any way to test it? I don't see how.

[BFB]

No probs, happy to help. Yes cannabis can trigger psychotic episodes, but fortunately from what I have heard most usually subside after discontinuing the drug for a sufficient period of time, however there are reports of people for whom it triggers mental illness such as schizophrenia from which unfortunately they don’t recover but like I say these sort of cases are meant to be quite rare.

I believe there are standard tests that psychiatrists use to diagnose psychosis, on one documentary I watched a while back when they tested people who had been given a large dose of THC it significantly upped their scores, the introspective effect of the drug meant they were reading meaning into all kinds of things that didn’t really exist, it really can make you over analyse every little thing, if you Google it I am sure you will find such type tests although like I say if symptoms persist it’s always best to see a qualified professional.

You are indeed right about the 7 billion people thing and when you think of all the millions of actions and thoughts each and every one has due to the law of large numbers then extremely unlikely things are certain to happen, it is indeed just the law of probability, I suppose when you combine the chemical effects of a drug like cannabis with the law of large numbers then you really can end up on quite a trip, like I say I have been on similar journeys myself, but after I discontinued the drug I eventually came back to earth or as back to earth as I ever am.



Take care and please keep us posted.

All the best,