> It suggests that if someone is determined to use psychedelics to self-medicate their depression, you should not try to stop them. That is precisely the bias

> It suggests that if someone is determined to use psychedelics to self-medicate their depression, you should not try to stop them. That is precisely the bias and weakness of this study. Self-medication is almost always a red flag; why not do it in a context of other people that know their stuff, be it tradition, institution (therapy) or even close friends that are mutually invested in each other's long term well-being? DIY approaches to self-transformation are fragile; no one to hold you out of potential pitfalls, to protect you from re-traumatization, to call you out on your self-deception. The title of the article that it "reduces depressive symptoms" is also telling of this bias. If symptom reduction was equivocal to enduring transformation, weed, cocaine and alcohol would have already healed the entire world. Without the study measuring if the subjects transformed their lives in a way that they were equally symptom free for the next 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, we can't conclude anything curative really took place. Don't get me wrong, they make a theoretical link to ACT in which experiencing of chronically difficult emotions are facilitated, which does offer potentially huge benefits, but just like we don't use studies on antidepressants that show symptom reduction to go shop bunch of prozac, we shouldn't readily assume we can use this one to facilitate our own healing in a DIY fashion either.