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Set and Setting Sensitive Psychosis
2C-C
Citation:   Trippopotamus. "Set and Setting Sensitive Psychosis: An Experience with 2C-C (exp52261)". Erowid.org. Apr 17, 2006. erowid.org/exp/52261

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
40 mg oral 2C-C (capsule)
  T+ 8:00 30 mg oral Pharms - Zolpidem (pill / tablet)
  T+ 0:00   oral Pharms - Alprazolam (pill / tablet)
BODY WEIGHT: 160 lb
Space and time: New York City, March 2006

A strong dose of 2C-C in a public setting resulted in an overwhelming and paranoid experience. In retrospect, guinea pigging a new drug outside of a careful and private setting was very foolish and the ultimate reason that this trip went awry. 40mg turned out to be far more intense than I anticipated. At home I would have been able to handle it and probably would have even enjoyed myself, but I would never use 2C-C at this dosage again regardless.

I am a healthy male in my early 20s weighing 160 lbs. At 13 I had my first psychedelic experience. Since then, I have probably had about 100 trips using many different drugs in a variety of settings. I have also read thousands of pages of literature on psychedelic drugs.

In the last ten months, my interest in experimentation has waned. Most months I used MDMA once or twice in party environments. No other psychdelics since last summer. The last six weeks had seen no use at all besides alcohol and cannabis a couple of times a week. I use Ritalin to help concentrate on work for long periods of time occaisionally. I have a perscription for it.

The 2C-C was of known dosage and purity. I personally saw the powder in the clearly labelled and sealed commercial chemical packaging. It was encapsulated by a professional chemist, diluted with sugar to garauntee precision.

I had no prior experience with 2C-C. The only person I talked to who had experience with it said that it was mild. He did not specify the dosage or conditions he used it in. The only documentation I read was the entry in Pihkal, which briefly describes 40mg as an intense form of relaxation with lots of visuals. As mentioned earlier, it had been a long time (10 months) since I had used any psychedelic besides MDMA.

The night of my trip I was well rested and had barely eaten. No other drugs had been used that day. I am very well aware that testing new substances should always be done in a carefully controlled environment, but my prior experience made me feel overconfident. My attitude was that I could handle anything. This time last year, when I was tripping more frequently, I would not have been so foolish. MDMA had softened me and I lost sight of the power and risks of 'true' psychdelics. It was very fortunate that many sober friends who are experienced trippers were with me.

That evening, I went to a concert. Note that all times here are approximate. About half an hour before I got to the concert hall I dosed. When I arrived, the musicians were just warming up. The telltale tactile numbing and loosening of thoughts began. I felt great and started dancing. Other effects set in quickly over the next half hour. Emotional sensitivity to music and visual distortions grew stonger and stronger. I was sweating profusely, dancing wildly and having a ball.

However, I will still far away from the peak. Eventually I realized that I was having great difficulty thinking rationally and keeping my balance. Around +1:30 I grabbed one of my sober friends who and told him that I needed to go sit down. We walked up to the mezzanine and I sat down.

It felt good to be off my feet, but my entire field of vision was dissolving and warping. Forming sentences was challenging. I have had enough strong trips to know when I've made a mistake. At +2:00 told him that I was going to be incapacitated for the next two hours and would need careful attention. The room was swelling and distorting. Fractal patterns and patchwork weaved their way in and out of anything I tried to focus on. Conversations were beyond my ability.

I remember very little about what happened from +2:30 to +5:00. The last thing I recall distinctly was warning my friend that it was not possible for me to navigate my way down the stairs, let alone all the way home. Being manhandled out of the venue while peaking, even by close friends, had a very dire effect. Paranoid hallucinations set in. I believed that there was a mass of hysterical people who were freaking out all around me as we departed. We took a car service home and I was convinced that we were fleeing from the site of a major medical emergency.

When we arrived at my building around +3:15 I was peaking and livid. I had not clearly explained to anyone around me exactly what I thought was going on. I began making frantic rants on a variety of topics familiar to most trippers such as the depraved state of humanity in general, the dangers of greed, society's underappreciation of creativity and art, the importance of being in touch with nature, and of course all of my deepest personal insecurities that I normally pretend not to have. And of course, everyone was out to get me. The cops are listening to this conversation, right?

Around +6:00 I began settling down. I was still in a confused and paranoid place but my emotional intensity died down and I became calm and manageable. At +7:30 I was quiet and began to understand that everything was OK and that I had been freaking out. Although the psychological effects had faded, sleep was distant and the room was still breathing and swimming around me. At +8:00 I apolgized profusely to my friends, took 30mg of Ambien and went to sleep as the sun was coming up.

In the late afteroon I awoke. My sanity was restored, although the post-trip lethary and fuzziness was rougher than usual. I called a friend who hadn't heard anything about my escapade and went over to hang out with him for a few hours. To explain my apparent washed out mood I mentioned having a bad trip the night before. He was in the middle of cleaning his turtle aquarium when I got there. We talked about animals for the rest of the afternoon. It was refreshing to get my mind away from the incident.

Around sunset I went back home. My friends all came by to make sure that I was OK. After assuring them that things were fine, I told them that I would not want to discuss the previous night for awhile. The shame of the episode had put me in a depressed and frustrated mood.

Still, they informed me that at one point I was totally naked screaming at the top of my lungs trying to climb electrical conduit up to the cieling. They had to force feed me Xanax to get me to calm down. It was also mentioned to me that I ought to trim my pubic hair more regularly, which is true.

It has taken me about a week to digest what happened. This was a very powerful reminder of the importance of set and setting. If I had not been in the company of sober and trustworthy friends I probably would have wound up in a police station or hospital. In a proper setting there would not have been a problem. This was far from the most intense trip I've been on. One of these days I will write up my 750mcg LSD trip where I sat on a rock in the middle of a river for nine hours without moving. Being in public and having other people carrying and restraining me is what pushed me into paranoid hallucinations.

Short term memory and rational thought were severely impaired. Most typical psychedelic effects were present. Phantom epiphanies, amplification of obsessive tendencies, and delusions of grandeur abounded. When used correctly, I'm sure that a comfy halo of trancendence washes over the user.

2C-C does not produce the true ego death that LSD provides. Long term memory reflections and introspection were definitely major features of the experience, but I doubt any amount of 2C-C will take the user to the clear light.

Most users of my weight should probably try 25mg or so. Venturing past 30mg will probably incapacitate most people during the peak, unless you're a true high dosage champion. 40mg produced two hours of build, a three hour peak, four hour plateau (cut short by Ambien) and would probably allow sleep around hour ten. A 25mg dose is probably more like a six hour trip and eight hours until sleep.

It should be noted that I have used both Xanax and Ambien while tripping before and have never had a problem. The people who administered Xanax to me knew this.

Exp Year: 2006ExpID: 52261
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Apr 17, 2006Views: 21,477
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2C-C (262) : Small Group (2-9) (17), Difficult Experiences (5), First Times (2)

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