Trip crisis first response and intervention.

This is the introduction to a workshop I will be doing
on crisis trip first response and intervention.


I've spent the better part of the last decade as a transitory student of a seemingly never ending string of teachers. Shaman, Medicine Men, Psychonaughts, Llamas, to name a few. If you were to think of the exploration of altered states of consciousness as a game of who wants to be a millionaire; I have unlimited phone a friend lifelines.


I'm here today to talk to you about Crisis Trip First Response and Intervention. Please note that although I am first aid and CPR certified; nothing within the physical medical realms will be covered in this talk. Anything along these lines opens a Pandora's box of liability for everyone.


Now that you know a little about me, and what this session is about; I'd like to start with some questions:


Show of hands, who has:

1. Had a hard trip personally?
2. Experienced a full blown crisis trip personally?
3. Seen a hard trip?
4. Seen a Crisis Trip?
5. Responded to a crisis trip situation?

I'm sure you've all noticed the distinction drawn between Crisis trip, and hard trip. The way I understand this is that a hard trip is a learning experience. These substances we utilize are medicines. Though also, they are teachers. A good teacher never hands out an A+ on every grade. This is how we learn.
A crisis trip on the other hand is a far different situation. A crisis trip resembles a scene more apt to someone who is in the depths of the 7th circle of hell, in a cold sweat, screaming, crying, panicking, sometimes with the potential for violence towards themselves or others. If this is something you don't think you could approach with the highest level of confidence, sobriety, and loving respect, then, don't engage at all with the situation, please.

Before we get into a little bit of role playing here. I'll just touch on my multi step process that I've found works for me in a crisis intervention.

1. Break the circle. Often times what winds up happening around a crisis situation is a mob scene. It's a form of 'entertainment' that predates the Colosseum. Much like a crowd forming around a house burning to the ground; or a large group circling around a fist fight. I for one, am not amused, if you are, the door is right there in the back of the dome. Sorry to have wasted your time thus far!
Your first step is to walk through this crowd, penetrating them with utter confidence. It is important at this point how you carry yourself. If your confidence falters even for a second, you are no longer the pillar you are there to serve as for the person in crisis, remember this. You are going to the person in crisis in order for you to do this others must back away; and they will.

2. Make contact and assess. My go to opener after breaking the circle is: “How do you feel?”. This is my favorite opener because it forces the person in crisis to stop and think. It is a grounding question, putting them in touch with how they feel, be it physically, emotionally, spiritually, hell, even visually for that matter. It is also an important diagnostic question for you. You may find out they have a dry mouth, in need of water. You may find out their mom just died, emotional crisis, often, you'll just get a long string of jibberish, keep at it they're engaging you, this is good. It is important to take responses to this without fear, or judgment. What ever the situation the response to this question helps clue you in to their needs. Mind you contact and assessment is a step that continues throughout the process.
It is important to try to figure out what they're on throughout this process. Remember, in their state of crisis, there is a good chance they will be guarded and at times paranoid. It is important not to spook them or put them on the spot. I like to use questions such as “You seem to be having a great time, what'd you get into today?” I've seen the process of gently teasing out of them the substances and amounts they've ingested take hours. Sometimes the whole story doesn't come out until the day after. It is also worth noting that what they think they've taken; can easily not be what they have actually ingested at all. The list of commonly misrepresented chemicals is a mile long. I find it helps more to find out what they took looked like than it does what it allegedly was. This is where a working knowledge of what has been going around and what it is makes all the difference. Seeking consult on this subject often helps. Obviously, leaving the person in crisis to seek consult is not advisable.

3. Sit with them and hold space. This is a simple but long process. It can take hours, or longer, depending. The most important thing is that the person in crisis is not alone and remains engaged to their fullest of their capability at the time. Keep asking positive questions, keep calm and confident, make sure that the their needs, and your's are met throughout this time.

4. Keep the circle broken. This is the part where you keep the original mob scene from reforming. It's easier than it sounds. I like to engage passers by before another downward spiral or mob scene can be initiated. Usually I engage passers by with a simple statement such as: “Hi, we're experiencing a higher state of consciousness and love right now” It is important to set an intention before the passer by can potentially open with a phrase such as “Are you alright?!”, “Is everything OK?!” or of course the classic “OH MY GOD WHAT'S WRONG?!” Maintain the space you're holding, keep engaging throughout this process, keep playing detective on what they've ingested throughout this step.

5. Find their camp. More importantly find their friends. This is the final step. It is important to realize that you can be back to square one in a heartbeat depending on who their friends are and just how much common sense they actually possess. This is a step that is different for every situation. Don't jump the gun on the final step. Be sure they're grounded, coherent, and capable of at least decent decisions prior to taking this step.

 

I have a feeling that there is some good advice in that wall of text.
You may need to edit some paragraph into that pasta.

 

Editing done. Bad copy and paste situation.

 

Sweet. Thanks

 

i think the question "how do you feel?" is a great one to ask, in a crisis situation, for the reasons that you described.

 

ive seen people have bad trips, and train wreck trips or bug out hard and really sudden. luckily most of the time ive seen somebody bug out hard it didn't turn my trip into a bad trip. distraction can help negative thoughts. i've also been in a few bad trips and fortunately fewer train wrecks and I mostly undnderstand how things can escalate to such a level but less how to turn it back the other way once things have started to go too wrong. the best thing to do is try to keep things from progressing any worse, and eventually things will get better but if they get past a certain point a psychotic break can occur and they could require being restrained and sedated lol

the primary driving force at this point is fear. It may be fear for ones life, or fear for ones freedom; both of those people may go to extreme measures to preserve. at this point, things escalate extremely rapidly and the rest will play out in a sort of automatic fashion that was mostly decided during the time leading up to this. the person is aware of what they are doing, but cannot override this and not much anyone can say at this point can bring them back as they have lost all contact with reality and will not listen to reason because their mind has carefully twisted the laws of logic and reason to make their delusion not only very plausible, but likely absolutely true.

fast acting benzos are probably a good idea in a situation like this. antipsychotics also work well to bring someone back to reality but take far too long (up to an hour) to kick in.

it's best to recognize when things are taking a turn and do what you can to make that person's experience better but this is hard to do if they don' t talk about it. usually you should be able to tell, but in some environments it can go unnoticed and this may be part of the problem. i have seen people bug out hard extremely suddenly where they were very quiet up until that point and then everything hit the fan and they started screaming and stole my friends cell phone (presumably to call for help) and took off running t hinking everyone else was conspiring to kill them. she lied saying she had done acid lots of times so I hooked her up with 3 hits of hoffman blotter. this was the first night i had met her, and it was actually the last time too. she straight up bolted out and ran down the street screaming bloody murder that we were trying to kill her and disappeared into the night. i did hear later tho that she ended up bein okay, but that she ended up encountering the cops probably because of the scene she was making and that was probably pretty traumatizing for a first experience. i also heard later that she said she never ever wanted to do drugs after that .. she took too much, too soon.