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Why are these articles so popular with HN? Any article about treating mental illnesses (including depression) with LSD/shrooms/cannabis/[drug] immediately shoot

by umvi 5y ago

Why are these articles so popular with HN? Any article about treating mental illnesses (including depression) with LSD/shrooms/cannabis/[drug] immediately shoots to the top, and I see articles like this every other day at the top of HN. Is it just people wishing for a silver bullet that will cure their mental problems? At any rate, the number of mentally ill people on the internet must be much larger than I am estimating.

IgorPartola 5y ago
To your first point, I suspect that hacking your own brain and pituitary gland fits with the ethos of hacker culture. What’s cooler than going to the doctor and getting the same SSRIs as every other chump when you can hack together your own medication? In reality this is why we need serious research into these drugs. I am sure there are therapeutic benefits and also yet unknown risks. Would be nice to study them formally. To your second point: I know very few people without mental illness. GAD and generalized depression account for a large part of it, but so do neurodivergenicies like autism. Chances are much higher than you think that you yourself have one or more condition like this. That’s not to say I wish for you to have one, just that statistically speaking lots of people have them, so much so that the current advice is to establish mental healthcare same as you do with a primary care physician and have at least yearly checkups.
drooby 5y ago
Did... you read the article? It's highly critical of the hype around psychedelic research and how we have been interpreting it. Anyways. In general, HN is a community that is highly focused on emerging technologies, and undervalued, overlooked or novel solutions. Psychedelics, in my opinion is fertile ground for discovery and just super interesting, so it gets my upvote.
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tsol 5y ago
Psychedelics are just in with this crowd IMO. Microdosing was a big thing in silicon valley for a while

by umvi 5y ago

IgorPartola 5y ago

To your first point, I suspect that hacking your own brain and pituitary gland fits with the ethos of hacker culture. What’s cooler than going to the doctor and getting the same SSRIs as every other chump when you can hack together your own medication? In reality this is why we need serious research into these drugs. I am sure there are therapeutic benefits and also yet unknown risks. Would be nice to study them formally. To your second point: I know very few people without mental illness. GAD and generalized depression account for a large part of it, but so do neurodivergenicies like autism. Chances are much higher than you think that you yourself have one or more condition like this. That’s not to say I wish for you to have one, just that statistically speaking lots of people have them, so much so that the current advice is to establish mental healthcare same as you do with a primary care physician and have at least yearly checkups.

drooby 5y ago

Did... you read the article? It's highly critical of the hype around psychedelic research and how we have been interpreting it. Anyways. In general, HN is a community that is highly focused on emerging technologies, and undervalued, overlooked or novel solutions. Psychedelics, in my opinion is fertile ground for discovery and just super interesting, so it gets my upvote.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

tsol 5y ago

Psychedelics are just in with this crowd IMO. Microdosing was a big thing in silicon valley for a while