I'm relatively new to DMT but not totally green, and have 30 years experience with psychedelics (and therapy). I had my first bad trip the other day, not just on DMT but anything.

I normally have to pull from the vape that I have three times to breakthrough, but this time was different. After the first pull, visuals were strong and reality shifted slightly, something felt juuuuuuuust off. In hindsight, I should've stopped immediately but it happened very quickly. I started taking a second pull when something changed. A door was opened or something; there was a noise, but it wasn't audible, sort of a switch sound but more of a feeling than a sound. I knew immediately it was bad and stopped pulling, but it was "too late", I wasn't in a safe place anymore.

There was a being, not humanoid, not even really anything I could see, but it was there. The setting/feeling was what can be described as a combination of when a psychopath slowly turns and sees the victim they're searching for, and when Vampire receives an invitation into a home they're trying to get into. It was terrifying.

I couldn't see straight; dimensions were not correct, things were out of reach, I struggled to get my eyeglasses off my face which was important for some reason. Something was trying to keep me in my bedroom, and the feeling that I had was that if I didn't get out I will never get out.

It felt like life or death, and there was a real chance that I wasn't gonna make it, but somehow I found my way to my doorway and was able to grab the metal railing to the downstairs. I don't know if it was because it was subsiding or if truly grabbing the metal railing helped, but it seemed to bother the presence there, maybe because it was grounding me to something in the "normal" dimension.

I basically blindly made my way downstairs holding onto the railing, and tried to get outside, but my vision and reality was still too fucked up to figure out how to unlock the deadbolt. I wasn't able to figure it out, and the presence was still there, I could see it in black shadowy smoky movement and shapes and equations, but as long as I held onto the railing it stayed at my feet, and the door handle helped. Eventually it faded/slunked away.

I'm sure it was much shorter, but it felt like I sat there holding on for 30 minutes. As it started to subside, I was exclaiming with real terror "you motherfucker, fuck you, not today, you're not gonna get me today you motherfuckers. Fuck you, fuck."

I know that trips are about us, that they are explorations into our own psyche, clearly I've got something that needs a little work. That said, I'm normally someone that doesn't ever feel like hallucinations are real, and this was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. The scariest part about it was that this presence was waiting for me. I've seen it before (duh, part of it is me), we were not strangers. It's still waiting for me. I'm not gonna say that I was in any real danger aside from myself, but I'm not sure that it was 100% hallucination.

Don't fuck around with this shit. I don't think I will ever do it solo again.

edit I said that it felt like life or death, it was worse than that. It felt like I would be stuck. eternal discomfort. not traditional hell, but just unable to ever do anything about it. Stuck in time kind of.