A list of supplements that may help reduce acute anxiety, and therefore help prevent a bad trip on LSD or shrooms

1. CBD

“Pretreatment with CBD significantly reduced anxiety, cognitive impairment and discomfort in their speech performance, and significantly decreased alert in their anticipatory speech.”

How to take:

Make sure that it’s 100% CBD and that there’s no THC. THC causes paranoia in many users, and is not recommended to be used with psychedelics.

Optimal dosage: 0.8 mg of CBD per kg. So if you weigh 70 kg/154 lbs, the dosage would be 56 mg of CBD.

Note: This assumes regular dose scaling between rats and humans.

2. Magnesium

How to take:

200 mg of elemental magnesium, in the form of magnesium glycinate (good absorption and less GI-upset). Alternatively, eat a lot of foods rich in magnesium like nuts, beans and fish.

Ideally take it once per day in the evening for a few weeks to allow your body to resolve it’s deficiency, but if you can’t do that then just taking 200 mg the night before and the day of would be good.

Why? Magnesium deficiencies in diet appear to induce anxiety.

3. Lavender supplements

“There appears to be a notable decreased in symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder and with oral ingestion of lavender supplements; aromatherapy seems effective and implicated in reducing state anxiety (acute, situation based, anxiety), but has less robust evidence to support it. One study suggesting oral supplementation was comparable to lorazepam”

“To supplement lavender, take 80 – 160 mg of a supplement containing 25 – 46% linalool.” Source: Examine. Ideally, you’d take this every day with breakfast for a few weeks.

Can also use via aromatherapy: “Accurate dosing is difficult to determine during aromatherapy, but most studies use at least 30 minutes in a well-ventilated room.” Perhaps begin your trip like this.

4. Arginine and Lysine (Combo)

“We confirmed that, without regard to gender, the amino acid treatment significantly reduced both trait anxiety and state anxiety induced by cognitive stress battery.”

L-Lysine also seems to be beneficial for psychedelic induced nausea. Thanks to dentopod for noting the nausea benefits.

How to take: Each day for 7 days before your event, take 2.6g Arginine with or without a meal, and then later on 2.6g Lysine also with or without a meal. Take on the day of your event, too.

5. Treatments for psychedelic-induced nausea

Ginger

Examine: “Doses of 1-3g can reduce nausea and ease digestion quite effectively”

While not directly for anxiety, nausea can cause uncomfortable feelings.

How to take:

“Typically, dosages of 1-3g are used as a preventative treatment for nausea.” Ginger can be ingested via several ways, and the following is an approximate standardization table for 1g of Ginger Extract:[3] A capsule that has 1g ginger extract in it

A teaspoon of fresh, grated, rhizome (the vertical aspect of ginger root)

2 droppers (2mL) of liquid extract

2 teaspoons (10mL) of syrup

4 cups (8 oz each) ginger tea, steeping 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon grated ginger for 5–10 min

8-oz cup ginger ale, made with real ginger

2 pieces crystallized ginger, each 1 inch square, 1⁄ 4 inch thick

Source: Examine

Thanks to Borax for the suggestion to include Ginger.

Lemon oil

“Lemon scent can be effective in reducing nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.”

How to take: Perhaps inhale some lemon essential oil before beginning, and also have more on hand to inhale as soon as you feel nausea.

Thanks to dentopod’s posts for suggesting this.

Peppermint oil / menthol

Peppermint oil can treat postoperative nausea. Menthol is found in peppermint oil and other natural oils.

How to take: Perhaps inhale some peppermint oil before beginning, and also have more on hand to inhale as soon as you feel nausea.

Thanks to dentopod’s posts for suggesting this.

Ondansetron / Zofran (Rx)

“Ondansetron, marketed under the brand name Zofran, is a medication used to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or surgery.”

Don’t combine Zofran with MDMA (thanks sneakish-snek).

How to take: Follow directions on the packaging to take the day of your event.

Prescription only.

Pharmaceutical back up options for anxiety

Oral 10mg Valium (diazepam) is used as a back up in psychedelic research, though is almost never needed, with human reassurance from a trusted, sober and experienced sitter usually being enough to help.

“In these cases, we recommend a 10 mg oral dose of diazepam (Grinspoon and Bakalar, 1979).” Xanax is slightly less ideal than Valium, but can be used as an alternative, with 0.5-1mg being roughly equivalent to 10mg Valium.

Read the post on how to assist someone having a bad trip.

Other potential supplements

I don’t recommend these yet due to uncertainty about possible downsides when combining them with psychedelics.

Kava. Interesting anti-anxiety properties

Phenibut, perhaps at 500mg - 750mg dosage. Has rave reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 , 8, 9. Though one concerning anecdote related to LSD + Phenibut, hence the lack of recommendation: 1

Some users take a small dose of a benzodiazepine like Valium before starting the trip. e.g. this user.

Read next

How to take Shrooms

How to take LSD

References