Bad Trip and Lingering Effects - Should I seek medical help??

[jg14]

Hi, I tripped 2 days ago for the first time. I had been drinking, and casually decided to try my friend's roommates' LSD. It was a stupid decision and now I'm thinking the worst decision of my life. I do have some anxiety issues and have periods of short-term depression. The trip was wrought with mistakes...I took it alone, my "monitor" became blackout drunk, and we went out in Manhattan....not exactly a safe, calm setting. I had also been experiencing some anxiety a few days before but had felt great that weekend, which I'm reading now isn't a healthy "set."  I took it around 1am on Sunday....the first few hours were great, but then my friend blackout wandered off and I ended up with two acquaintances who I knew but didn't feel comfortable around, and then the trip went bad. Luckily I saw no hallucinations, but did feel paranoid and afraid, very anxious, until about 6pm on Monday. I was also experiencing visuals (moving walls, moving floor patterns) for about 17 - 18 hours, so I'm guessing that's how long my trip was. I didn't sleep at all during this time, and again, felt major anxiety and paranoia.

I was thank God able to sleep Monday night for about 10 hours, but since have not felt the same. I still have minimal appetite, waves of elation, followed by anxiety, followed by really tired / eyes heavy / "out of it" feeling. These waves are getting shorter and a little less extreme, but definitely still there. I am feeling somewhat "dissociated" but that's getting a little better with time. Monday night I was basically too anxious to sleep, I did manage to crash from like 5am til 11am. I did notice that on Tuesday I was able to concentrate a little more and wasn't spacing out....Monday, people would ask me things and I didn't even register them sometimes. I fell asleep last night (Tuesday night) around 10 but woke up at 2am feeling really "up" and unable to go to sleep. Light is still a little weird and I feel woozy, slightly dizzy. Stationary things move slightly, not nearly as intense as when I was tripping, but the visual weirdness is still there.

I am really worried because this is the beginning of day 3, which my experienced friends say is when you're back to normal. I'm reading a lot about afterglows and HPPD and really hoping it's not HPPD. Any advice or similar experiences? I'm about to tell my parents and seek medical help because I am so scared. They will kill me but hopefully I'll get better and this will end soon. LIterally never ever doing any drug again this fear, lack of appetite and healthy sleep, and altered visual stuff was so not worth the 5 cool hours I experienced.

[jg14]

Thank you very much! I'm definitely learning to manage the anxiety and I think the mood swings are getting better. If the appetite comes back and visual stuff goes away I'll be okay. Thanks again.

[Paxiled]

I think the experience shook you, it's probably not the drug but the experience you're feeling now.  I think you'll be fine, but it has told you that your statement you've suffered with anxiety might be something worth looking into more.  One thing that should comfort your fears:  LSD is almost never pure -- it's usually cut with speed, which is why the trip lasted so long.  This has been going on since I was a youth in the 60s, when labs tested drugs for people and by the 70s found virtually no LSD that wasn't cut with speed.  That may be why it's gone on so long.