Resources on adverse experiences / extended difficulties
The Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project works to try and make psychedelics safer by providing reliable and evidence based information on typical psychedelic and post-psychedelic difficulties, and what helps people cope with them.
Here is where we will put links to all the best resources and research we’ve found on adverse experiences and extended difficulties. This page is a work-in-progress and we’ll add to it.
This is an academic article we produced on extended difficulties after psychedelic experiences.
This is another academic article we produced on short-term integration challenges reported by people after a psilocybin retreat.
And this is an updated Google Doc listing research on psychedelic harms.
Types of extended difficulties after psychedelic experiences
Anxiety and various sub-types of fear: people can feel many types of anxiety after a challenging psychedelic experience, including specific types of anxiety like social anxiety, fear of dying or fear of going mad. We wrote this piece on ‘feeling like you’ve permanently damaged yourself on psychedelics’.
Derealization / Depersonalization : people can feel like they’re detached from reality and from their self, and even that the external world is unreal, a dream, or the afterlife. Here is an article we wrote on this topic, and here is another. And here’s a third account of it.
Existential confusion: people can feel confused about the meaning of your experience, and of life in general. We are producing research on this type of post-psychedelic difficulty for publication in 2024.
Social disconnection: this is one of the most common sorts of post-psychedelic difficulty - feeling disconnected from those around you, and that they wouldn’t understand what you went through. Finding people you can trust to talk to, especially if they have been through similar experiences, can be helpful for this.
Resurfaced trauma and visions of childhood abuse: sometimes, people encounter traumatic memories or visions of traumatic events that they didn’t previously recall during psychedelic experiences, including visions of childhood abuse. We wrote this piece on that, and the challenges of trying to decide if the event is a real memory or a fantasy.
Post-psychedelic trauma: sometimes people feel traumatized by a very bad trip. We wrote this piece on that.
Hallucination Persistent Perception Disorder (HPPD): sometimes people experience prolonged visual distortions after a psychedelic experience. We wrote this piece on that.
Insomnia and other post-psychedelic sleep issues: sometimes people struggle to sleep after psychedelics, occasionally for extended periods; they can also be troubled by nightmares, or reactivations / flashbacks in which they ‘wake up tripping’. Here’s an article we wrote on that.
Somatic difficulties / Kundalini Awakenings: some people report powerful forms of energy release and embodied reactions like shaking, which some (but not everyone) classify as ‘kundalini awakenings’ and others as somatic difficulties. We wrote this piece on this phenomenon and the different ways to make sense of it.
Demonic encounter / hell experiences / spirit possession: some people report entity encounters on psychedelics, and these entities can be experienced as malicious or demonic. We wrote this piece on this phenomenon, with advice from experts on how to deal with it.
There are many other sorts of harm that can occur during or after psychedelic trips, including depression, cognitive confusion, and psychotic episodes.
Psychedelic predictions and epistemic harm: sometimes people come to strong conclusions on psychedelics, deciding for example that precognitive, clairvoyant or divinely-transmitted information has been revealed to them, and the information they receive turns out to be wrong or unwise. We wrote about that here.
Psychedelic ethical harms: people are sometimes harmed by the behaviour of others in psychedelic culture, including by sexual predatory behaviour, or people seeking money from others while they’re still in an altered state. We wrote this on conflicts of interest in the psychedelic media landscape, and this on psychedelic organisations getting money from people when they’re in post-psychedelic altered states.
What helps
We are doing research on what practices people find helpful after difficult trips. So far, people reported being helped by:
asking for support from friends and family
talk therapy
psychiatric medication
cognitive self-care techniques, especially meditation and acceptance
embodied self-care techniques, especially yoga, exercise, relaxation and walking in nature
journalling / writing
reading and self-education
Here’s an article summarizing some insights from Breaking Open: Finding a Way Through Spiritual Emergency, and what people found helpful in coping with ‘spiritual emergencies’.
Integration therapists
If you’re experiencing post-trip mental health difficulties, you’re not alone - around 10% of people who take psychedelics sometimes experience a challenging trip which leads to functional impairment lasting a day or longer. Almost always it eventually resolves, and there are things you can do to try and cope with the difficulties.
If you can afford it, a few sessions with an integration therapist can be helpful.
Here is a list of integration therapists in the UK (most also do online sessions). And here is MAPS’ database of integration therapists.
Integration circles / peer support
There are also integration circles and peer support groups, online and offline, which are obviously cheaper and more communal than integration therapy. There are psychedelic societies in most major cities and they often provide integration circles.
Books
Many people report that particular books after helpful and therapeutic after challenging psychedelic experiences and / or spiritual emergencies. For example:
Stanislaf and Christina Grof: The Stormy Search for the Self
Stanislaf and Christian Grof: Spiritual Emergency
Russell Razzaque: Breaking Down is Waking Up
Tim Read and Jules Evans: Breaking Open: Finding a Way Through Spiritual Emergency
Marc Aixala: Psychedelic Integration
Pema Chodron: The Places That Scare You
Alan Watts: The Wisdom of Insecurity
Carl Jung: Man and his Symbols
Isabel Clarke et al: Spirituality and Psychosis
Let us know if there are others to add to the list.
Films and videos
Many people love Phil Borges’ documentary Crazywise, about how different cultures make sense of spiritual-psychotic experiences
Here is a Rebel Wisdom interview with Tim Read on spiritual emergencies
Here is a talk by Jules Evans on spiritual emergencies
Here is a conversation between Jules Evans and Sean Carroll of Waking Up on spiritual emergencies
Here are the videos of some talks by people who went through spiritual emergencies
Research
There is a growing body of research on adverse psychedelic experiences, and a well-established body of research on psycho-spiritual crises. Here is our updated summary of research on psychedelic harms.
You can contact us at contact@challengingpsychedelicexperiences.com