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> Today, the Van Tuinens said, they're healthy, sober and doing much better. They live together in their family's Waterbury home, where they have a Sunday ritua

by aazaa 5y ago

> Today, the Van Tuinens said, they're healthy, sober and doing much better. They live together in their family's Waterbury home, where they have a Sunday ritual of hiking in the woods, meditating and discussing their emotions. Last year they founded a nonprofit, Cultivating Connections, to help other Vermonters struggling with addiction, mental illness and past trauma. Hiking in the woods should not be underestimated. Every positive outcome described in the article can flow from peeling oneself away from a screen, leaving an artificial environment, getting lost every once in a while, and moving one's body toward a goal.

twobitshifter 5y ago
Be sure to read to the end, the conclusion takes some wind out of the sails of the ayuhuasca cure all argument. > 'Most Proficient Mind' Neither Rory nor Ryan Van Tuinen took a straight and unwavering path to recovery after his ayahuasca experience. Since Seven Days first interviewed them in January 2020, Rory quit methadone treatments. He relapsed, overdosed twice and nearly died before checking himself into rehab. Despite those setbacks, he's been off opioids and methadone again since April 2020, and he credits ayahuasca with saving his life. Ryan has quit alcohol and all prescription pharmaceuticals; he said he barely even drinks coffee anymore. "My habits with substances are healthier than they've ever been," he said. "For the first time in my life, I feel like my sober mind is the most proficient mind to handle life." Such reports are powerful — and, of course, anecdotal. Despite his belief in the potential benefits of psychedelics, Johnson, the Johns Hopkins professor and researcher, warned of "selling some snake oil" based on limited data. He believes that any therapeutic use of psychedelics should be "solidly based in empirical science."
- bayesianbot 5y ago
  That might feel like ayahuasca wasn't the cure-all, but hear me out. I was an absolute alcoholic in beginning of 2018 (and for 10+ yeas before that). I knew I was probably going to die really early from drinking, but I had no motivation to stop. I did not see it happening at all. Then I had few psychedelic trips with friend on mountains, and everything changed. I was still an alcoholic, I still drank way too much. But suddenly I had all the motivation needed, I knew I had to stop, I wanted to stop, I knew I will stop. If I could explain the experience, I had seen far in the future the ways my life could go, and at that point I made the easiest choice ever, that I'll have to pick the sober route. It didn't happen instantly, I was still addicted, I had a lot of setbacks, alcohol is powerful drug. It took me few years, but now I've limited my alcohol use to tiny tiny percentage of what it used to be. I know it was the psychedelics, because how my thinking changed in that special time, a complete 180 turn, biggest part being the night of the best LSD trip I had. If you were to ask my friends, they would not attribute it to psychedelics. In their mind I was alcoholic, went to mountains, came back alcoholic, and then few years later wasn't really drinking anymore. They'd be wrong, but I can understand how they feel that way.

by aazaa 5y ago

twobitshifter 5y ago

Be sure to read to the end, the conclusion takes some wind out of the sails of the ayuhuasca cure all argument. > 'Most Proficient Mind' Neither Rory nor Ryan Van Tuinen took a straight and unwavering path to recovery after his ayahuasca experience. Since Seven Days first interviewed them in January 2020, Rory quit methadone treatments. He relapsed, overdosed twice and nearly died before checking himself into rehab. Despite those setbacks, he's been off opioids and methadone again since April 2020, and he credits ayahuasca with saving his life. Ryan has quit alcohol and all prescription pharmaceuticals; he said he barely even drinks coffee anymore. "My habits with substances are healthier than they've ever been," he said. "For the first time in my life, I feel like my sober mind is the most proficient mind to handle life." Such reports are powerful — and, of course, anecdotal. Despite his belief in the potential benefits of psychedelics, Johnson, the Johns Hopkins professor and researcher, warned of "selling some snake oil" based on limited data. He believes that any therapeutic use of psychedelics should be "solidly based in empirical science."

bayesianbot 5y ago
That might feel like ayahuasca wasn't the cure-all, but hear me out. I was an absolute alcoholic in beginning of 2018 (and for 10+ yeas before that). I knew I was probably going to die really early from drinking, but I had no motivation to stop. I did not see it happening at all. Then I had few psychedelic trips with friend on mountains, and everything changed. I was still an alcoholic, I still drank way too much. But suddenly I had all the motivation needed, I knew I had to stop, I wanted to stop, I knew I will stop. If I could explain the experience, I had seen far in the future the ways my life could go, and at that point I made the easiest choice ever, that I'll have to pick the sober route. It didn't happen instantly, I was still addicted, I had a lot of setbacks, alcohol is powerful drug. It took me few years, but now I've limited my alcohol use to tiny tiny percentage of what it used to be. I know it was the psychedelics, because how my thinking changed in that special time, a complete 180 turn, biggest part being the night of the best LSD trip I had. If you were to ask my friends, they would not attribute it to psychedelics. In their mind I was alcoholic, went to mountains, came back alcoholic, and then few years later wasn't really drinking anymore. They'd be wrong, but I can understand how they feel that way.