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Psychedelics (LSD, shrooms) made me a better person. I don’t know anyone who became less caring, less respectfull, more violent or more greedy after doing thos

by srge 8y ago

Psychedelics (LSD, shrooms) made me a better person. I don’t know anyone who became less caring, less respectfull, more violent or more greedy after doing those drugs. I would argue that psychedelics make you more human, in the good sense of the word.

icantdrive55 8y ago
I hate to be that guy, but my best friend went off to UCS twenty years ago, and came back a different person. Every summer he would come home, and tell me his drug exploits. All psychedelics experiences. Every summer he was more defensive, and less caring. And the long hubristic speeches. I gave him a wide birth until he started to deconstruct me. That I wasen't going to take. We stayed friends, but god I wish he didn't experiment so much. He recently tried to get in touch with me, but I remember those verbal jabs, and contemplating wether I should contact him. I grew up with him, and hated the changes. I can't prove it was drugs, but just gave a weird feeling his changes were due to the shrooms, lsd. That said, he's much more classically successful than myself. He has always had jobs he loves. He's a good looking guy, but no females stuck around, and I understood their complaints. I never told him though. I on the other hand, I went to school, didn't do any drugs, worked hard in school, and side jobs; and had a nervous breakdown. My life has been a trail of anxiety, and depression ever since. I've self medicated with alcolhol. In a weird way, alcohol is the only drug that made me normal. I learned early on not to abuse it though. Just use it when the anxiety was horrid. (Yea--I'm on a cocktail of psychotropic psychiatric medications. Medication I'm trying to get down to very low doses because I can't go through the process of procuring them, when my doctor retires. It's a game, and it's tiring. The mandatoty rediculious office visits, and refills going unfilled. Ugh! I don't know what my point is other than do everything in moderation. I'm not the personality type to do any psychedelics, but the micro doses seems like the prudent way of experimenting. I don't know why anyone would risk perment brain changes with large doses of anything.
bsenftner 8y ago
I know of one guy, a brilliant man, who after a period of a month taking shrooms practically every day had a personality shift that is easiest described as "like Rick" from "Rick & Morty" - he became convinced he was the smartest man in the universe, dangerously smart and people would kill him if they knew how incredibly smart he was. That attitude stayed with him, and destroyed him; about a decade later he died due to alcohol poisoning as a result of his overwhelming rejection by others from his elevated behavior insisting his superiority over others. Clearly, he had original issues the shrooms simply magnified out of his control.
- hesdeadjim 8y ago
  I’m not going to bash on psychedelics, but there does seem to be a lot of selection bias around the positive benefits of them. Like your example they can, for some people, trigger an extreme expression of latent psychological problems. Of course the response is always to use them with guidance. Unfortunately here your options are often limited to pseudo-religious practitioners who will inadvertently prime you to have the same cliche experience most people in those circles have. It’s for these two reasons I have avoided psychedelics completely. If I could have a guided experience from an agnostic and trained professional I would consider trying them. I’m definitely hoping the goals MAPS has come to fruition over the next few decades.
  - Giroflex 8y ago
    > If I could have a guided experience from an agnostic and trained professional I would consider trying them That would be the dream. I personally got curious about it and talked it over with a good friend and we read a lot about LSD. After studying it a lot from the most credible possible sources and reading arguments for both sides, we decided to try it responsibly; a medium-high dose of 150ug, each on a bright lazy Saturday with the other one sober through the whole trip. It was very fun and mind-opening and I think it's an experience pretty much everyone should have at least once in their lives. We have done it recreationally a few more times since then (and alone with lower doses and together with both tripping on lower doses) and it has been nothing but positive things; it's exhilarating to discover the world in new ways. I think it would be fantastic if we could have professional guiders and spaces specifically designed for responsibly tripping. Not only is it fun, but I believe it would lead to a healthier culture as it's not unusual in my experience to see a lot of things wrong with our society and personal behavior when looking at them from a different perspective. I think it's really a shame that it's not possible due to the substance being illegal (wrongly, IMHO).
- adamsea 8y ago
  Sounds like a mental illness.
tdb7893 8y ago
I had some friends in college who took LSD periodically and they were still not great people and many of them still had anxiety so it's definitely not a silver bullet for personal problems. They also trashed an apartment and got arrested while on it once so that might've colored my views on it.
hungerstrike 8y ago
Same here - I don't know anyone who became a worse person after psychedelics - and I know a LOT of people. It seems like the other responses you're getting are the exception and not the rule. I always expect the exceptions to come out on HN because the denizens here are always quite contentious about whatever subject comes up.
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by srge 8y ago

icantdrive55 8y ago

I hate to be that guy, but my best friend went off to UCS twenty years ago, and came back a different person. Every summer he would come home, and tell me his drug exploits. All psychedelics experiences. Every summer he was more defensive, and less caring. And the long hubristic speeches. I gave him a wide birth until he started to deconstruct me. That I wasen't going to take. We stayed friends, but god I wish he didn't experiment so much. He recently tried to get in touch with me, but I remember those verbal jabs, and contemplating wether I should contact him. I grew up with him, and hated the changes. I can't prove it was drugs, but just gave a weird feeling his changes were due to the shrooms, lsd. That said, he's much more classically successful than myself. He has always had jobs he loves. He's a good looking guy, but no females stuck around, and I understood their complaints. I never told him though. I on the other hand, I went to school, didn't do any drugs, worked hard in school, and side jobs; and had a nervous breakdown. My life has been a trail of anxiety, and depression ever since. I've self medicated with alcolhol. In a weird way, alcohol is the only drug that made me normal. I learned early on not to abuse it though. Just use it when the anxiety was horrid. (Yea--I'm on a cocktail of psychotropic psychiatric medications. Medication I'm trying to get down to very low doses because I can't go through the process of procuring them, when my doctor retires. It's a game, and it's tiring. The mandatoty rediculious office visits, and refills going unfilled. Ugh! I don't know what my point is other than do everything in moderation. I'm not the personality type to do any psychedelics, but the micro doses seems like the prudent way of experimenting. I don't know why anyone would risk perment brain changes with large doses of anything.

bsenftner 8y ago

I know of one guy, a brilliant man, who after a period of a month taking shrooms practically every day had a personality shift that is easiest described as "like Rick" from "Rick & Morty" - he became convinced he was the smartest man in the universe, dangerously smart and people would kill him if they knew how incredibly smart he was. That attitude stayed with him, and destroyed him; about a decade later he died due to alcohol poisoning as a result of his overwhelming rejection by others from his elevated behavior insisting his superiority over others. Clearly, he had original issues the shrooms simply magnified out of his control.

hesdeadjim 8y ago
I’m not going to bash on psychedelics, but there does seem to be a lot of selection bias around the positive benefits of them. Like your example they can, for some people, trigger an extreme expression of latent psychological problems. Of course the response is always to use them with guidance. Unfortunately here your options are often limited to pseudo-religious practitioners who will inadvertently prime you to have the same cliche experience most people in those circles have. It’s for these two reasons I have avoided psychedelics completely. If I could have a guided experience from an agnostic and trained professional I would consider trying them. I’m definitely hoping the goals MAPS has come to fruition over the next few decades.
- Giroflex 8y ago
  > If I could have a guided experience from an agnostic and trained professional I would consider trying them That would be the dream. I personally got curious about it and talked it over with a good friend and we read a lot about LSD. After studying it a lot from the most credible possible sources and reading arguments for both sides, we decided to try it responsibly; a medium-high dose of 150ug, each on a bright lazy Saturday with the other one sober through the whole trip. It was very fun and mind-opening and I think it's an experience pretty much everyone should have at least once in their lives. We have done it recreationally a few more times since then (and alone with lower doses and together with both tripping on lower doses) and it has been nothing but positive things; it's exhilarating to discover the world in new ways. I think it would be fantastic if we could have professional guiders and spaces specifically designed for responsibly tripping. Not only is it fun, but I believe it would lead to a healthier culture as it's not unusual in my experience to see a lot of things wrong with our society and personal behavior when looking at them from a different perspective. I think it's really a shame that it's not possible due to the substance being illegal (wrongly, IMHO).
adamsea 8y ago
Sounds like a mental illness.

tdb7893 8y ago

I had some friends in college who took LSD periodically and they were still not great people and many of them still had anxiety so it's definitely not a silver bullet for personal problems. They also trashed an apartment and got arrested while on it once so that might've colored my views on it.

hungerstrike 8y ago

Same here - I don't know anyone who became a worse person after psychedelics - and I know a LOT of people. It seems like the other responses you're getting are the exception and not the rule. I always expect the exceptions to come out on HN because the denizens here are always quite contentious about whatever subject comes up.

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