How to support someone after a difficult experience
A harm-reduction guide for friends and family — how to be useful to someone shaken by a psychedelic experience, and how to recognise when to seek help.
Not every experience goes gently, and people are not always in a clinical setting when it doesn't. If someone you care about is shaken — during or after a psychedelic experience — your steadiness can matter enormously. This guide is about being useful.
In the moment: lower the temperature
- Calm voice, low light, fewer people, a familiar place.
- Reassure simply and repeatedly: you took something, it will pass, I'm here.
- Don't argue with their reality or demand they explain it. Don't leave them alone.
- Don't give them anything else — alcohol, other drugs, or "something to bring them down" — unless a medical professional tells you to.
You are not there to guide a journey. You are there to be a safe, boring, reliable presence until the intensity recedes.
When to seek medical help
Call emergency services without hesitating if the person has chest pain, a seizure, a very high temperature, trouble breathing, or cannot be roused; if they are trying to hurt themselves or someone else; if you cannot keep them physically safe; or if you suspect what they took was not what they thought it was. Also seek help if a pre-existing serious mental-health condition is clearly escalating, or if you are simply out of your depth. Asking for help is the responsible move, not a failure, and in most places you will not be in trouble for doing so.
If the situation is frightening but not a medical emergency, peer-support lines exist in some countries. In the US, the Fireside Project runs a free psychedelic peer-support line by call or text. Check what is available where you live.
In the days afterward
A frightening experience can leave someone raw, suggestible and prone to catastrophic interpretation. Useful support looks like:
- Listening without rushing to explain what it "meant".
- Keeping things grounded — sleep, food, routine, ordinary company.
- Gently encouraging professional support if distress persists or deepens, especially if they are not sleeping, are becoming withdrawn, or are talking about the experience in ways that frighten you.
Looking after yourself, too
Sitting with someone in distress is heavy. You are allowed to find it hard, to get support afterward, and to have limits. A carer who burns out helps no one. Steady, humane presence — not heroics — is the thing that helps.
Sources and further reading
- Johnson MW, Richards WA, Griffiths RR. "Human hallucinogen research: guidelines for safety." Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2008.
- Zendo Project, psychedelic peer-support principles (zendoproject.org).
- Fireside Project, psychedelic peer-support line (firesideproject.org).
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