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About two months ago I was at a festival with friends and a I had a psychedelic experience. What’s funny is earlier that day I had just told my friends “I know

About two months ago I was at a festival with friends and a I had a psychedelic experience. What’s funny is earlier that day I had just told my friends “I know this sounds boring but I don’t like dancing that much.” Then while I was tripping I found that I was really enjoying the dancing. I felt like I was tapping in to a part of myself that had been dormant for a long time. I felt really confident and cool and sexy dancing to the music, and had a wonderful time. The thing about this is that in the subsequent weeks and to this day the confidence is still here. I have come to realize that the pandemic messed me up in ways that I hadn’t even realized! I’m pretty in touch with myself - I go to therapy once a week but I’m usually talking about work and relationships. Dating in particular felt hard and I didn’t know why, but since rediscovering my confidence dating has been going very well for me. Now when I talk to people I like I’m finding them asking me for my number or asking me out. I had a cute friend I’ve been crushing on for a while nervously ask me for a kiss! The point is that there are parts of us that are nearly accessible but our brain pathways need a little temporary loosening to strengthen some of those pathways, and psychedelics can do just that. They’re no panacea and it takes some experience to really gain the desired effects. But they can also just be enjoyable and they’re generally harmless, and it’s such a shame that they’re so stigmatized. I live in Oakland where they have decriminalized mushrooms and I’d like to see more decriminalization and ultimately legalization of mushrooms, LSD, and more. I have a friend who has been doing legal ketamine therapy under the care of their therapist and it has helped them realize the ways in which they had been hanging on to old relationships which were holding them back. They’re finding out how to advocate for their own needs and they’re much happier for it. We’ve got a crisis of unhappiness in this country and psychedelic therapies are absolutely a powerful tool we could use to help people find themselves. Though I should say, probably because I just listened to a bunch of Noam Chomsky last night, that allowing broad swaths of the population to become more deeply in touch with their core needs threatens the status quo and current power dynamics. Honestly tho the structures of power are so solidified I’m not sure there’s really much actual risk to them from drug legalization.

dr_dshiv 3y ago
Thanks for sharing. Great example.
jagaerglad 3y ago
I have been struggling a lot with dating. Despite being a quite social, and often popular guy to be around, there has been some block/hump that always stood in the way of dating. Funnily enough it struck me some weeks ago that I probably have to go on a psychadelic trip to rewire my brain to be able to show my interest romatically to others. What I'm scared of is the possibility of it having some other undesired effect though I had a similar experience with dancing though. Thought I hated it, and I always had to force myself to do it, until I started (modestly) drinking alcohol. My body would dance for me and I would enjoy it. The effect more or less stuck around and I even genuinely have days of more confidence after a night with alcohol. All of this is mildly depressing though. It feels as though we are just our brains (maybe obviously), but just that we're the strange effects of the functions of a non-magical/soul-less organ in our heads primarily just meant to steer our bodies. Those thoughts make drugs both existentially liberating but at the same time also "imprisoning" for me
- kortex 3y ago
  > All of this is mildly depressing though. It feels as though we are just our brains (maybe obviously), but just that we're the strange effects of the functions of a non-magical/soul-less organ in our heads primarily just meant to steer our bodies. Those thoughts make drugs both existentially liberating but at the same time also "imprisoning" for me That is certainly one way of looking at things, and one of the more frequent perspectives I harbor. But I've also had enough trips down the rabbit hole to realize there's more to it than that. Way more to it. We are definitely strange effects for sure. We are haunted atoms that formed in the core of a dying star. Weird, right? If you find that worldview imprisoning, I encourage you to question it. Magic is often simply what you need it to be, no need to get hung up on whether magic is "real" or not, because that doesn't actually matter. Check out Discordianism if you haven't already. It's kinda like hot swapping reality tunnels. No need to commit to one ontology all the time :).
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- mahathu 3y ago
  >I have been struggling a lot with dating. >I probably have to go on a psychadelic trip to rewire my brain to be able to show my interest romatically to others u wot m8
__MatrixMan__ 3y ago
I totally agree that: > We’ve got a crisis of unhappiness in this country and psychedelic therapies are absolutely a powerful tool we could use to help people find themselves. But our blues haven't appeared from nowhere. We have significant cultural institutions that function primarily by dividing the populace against itself. Getting healthy likely means waking up to the fact that we're under attack and doing something other than "self care" about it. So I disagree with: > the structures of power are so solidified I’m not sure there’s really much actual risk to them from drug legalization. They seem pretty shaky to me. Which is for the best. Being powerful should come with a fear of the people you have power over. If you're one weird trip away from a revolution then it's probably time to start treating your people better.
- webnrrd2k 3y ago
  There is some history in the US with regards to power structures, getting needs met, and psychedelics. Mostly in the late 60's and early 70's there was a big counterculture movement that focused on exactly those things, and the power structures at the time were certainly threatened, and created things like cointelpro. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#:~:text=Overall%2C%20COINTELPRO%20encompassed%20disruption%20and,and%20religious%20groups%20(1968) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#:~:text=Overall%2....
- s1artibartfast 3y ago
  >Getting healthy likely means waking up to the fact that we're under attack and doing something other than "self care" about it. I pretty strongly disagree with this sentiment. The vast majority of misery in this country is self-inflicted from buying into a worldview and lifestyle that is inherently unfulfilling. The self care of conferring oneself from that mindset goes a long way.
  - __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
    Ok but who is selling that worldview, and how does our behavior change when we stop buying into it? Being bought in means that we're afraid to talk to our families or neighbors about certain topics for fear of things getting too spicy in one way or another, it keeps us divided. Apply self care (psychedelic assisted or otherwise) for long enough that we're not afraid anymore and maybe you've achieved your mental health goals, but now you're having the kind of conversations that change things.
ernst_klim 3y ago
I don't think there's any kind of global anti-drug conspiracy. Anti-drug fear mongering is a byproduct of few factors: ignorance (people confuse crack, LSD and say MDMA, labeling everything as drug), valid fears (LSD was legal while being underresearched and that lead to few terrible events), self-propelled drugwar cycle (drugs caused wave of fear, became a good target for politicians, that caused even more fear mongering and the cycle is closed), and valid historical concerns (many drugs are very bad and caused pretty terrible historical precedents like opium abuse in China). People are getting more educated on drugs these days, and more questions arise in the society regarding if certain kinds of drugs like LSD should be more available. Though it would be a long road.
- standardUser 3y ago
  It's not a conspiracy, it's a well-documented effort by the US and other powerful nations to extort every corner of the planet to adopting harsh, unscientific, liberty-obliterating laws against drugs (except the state-sanctioned ones of course!) that has been going on for about a 100 years. Cracks are beginning to show (see Portugal, Uruguay and others), but that is still the global system we live under thanks to various UN conventions pushed by the US and the national-level laws that adhere to those conventions.
chiefalchemist 3y ago
> We’ve got a crisis of unhappiness in this country and psychedelic therapies are absolutely a powerful tool we could use to help people find themselves. While I agree with everything else you said, this bit concerns me. I'm certainly in favor of using these tools to help anyone who needs help. But maybe we should start with a mirror, and collectively ask, "Why are so many so unhappy?" These psychedelics can help resolve the symptoms, but what are we going to collectively take to address the root problem(s)? And when?
- golergka 3y ago
  > But maybe we should start with a mirror, and collectively ask, "Why are so many so unhappy?" Because that's the default.. People haven't evolved to be happy; we have evolved to barely survive to have kids and care for them so that a few become adults. Being happy is the exception, you should ask how anyone manages that.
  - nemo44x 3y ago
    I sort of agree with this. We’ve been marketed to that we should be happy and that buying <thing|experience> will make us happy. These <things|experiences> will bring pleasure but they don’t create meaningful happiness. As if pleasure and happiness are the same thing. But they are often conflated. I can’t tell or teach people “how to be happy”. I’m not even sure that’s possible or if it’s something everyone can do or would really want to. But I do know that being hooked on a treadmill of pleasurable experiences isn’t it.
    - newacct3 3y ago
      > We’ve been marketed to that we should be happy and that buying <thing|experience> will make us happy. Seems like the entirely idea of happiness has been semiotically highjacked by marketing, morality, other things When I mentally picture "happiness", all I really see is a bunch of behaviors that are frequently depicted as desirable in the aggregate by media and others The Buddhists are a lot more sane about this than we are. Imo there's so much residue around the word "happiness", in order to achieve a sense of peace it's better to just throw it out and take each day at a time
slibhb 3y ago
For everyone who has an experience like you, there's someone like this guy: https://www.ecstaticintegration.org/p/dmt-derealization-and-depersonalization https://www.ecstaticintegration.org/p/dmt-derealization-and-... Anyway, since you were dancing, I assume you used MDMA which is much "less psychedelic" than acid or DMT (and much more of a stimulant). There's also more potential for misuse and addiction. Ketamine, too, turns out to be quite addictive by the way. It seems clear that psychedelics are going mainstream and, unlike the 60s and 70s, they will be legal in some places. I'm not convinced that ths will be a net good, partly because it's not clear that it was a net good in the 60s and 70s, but we'll see.
- golergka 3y ago
  There's nothing stopping you from dancing on acid or shrooms. In fact, that's the whole point of psytrance.
- knightofmars 3y ago
  You are implying a 1:1 relationship with good experiences and bad experiences. That's not how drugs work. It is important to know the actual reality of this type of ratio so that individuals who are looking to use a drug of this nature can be well informed.
  - slibhb 3y ago
    No, I'm positing a 1:1 relationship between "holy shit I am a new person" in a good way and "holy shit I am a new person" in a bad way. That's not the same as good/bad experiences.
    - p0pcult 3y ago
      [dead]
    - cthalupa 3y ago
      I don't think there's nearly enough data available to posit it one way or the other - anything we say is almost certainly going to be purely anecdotal. My anecdotal experience has been that the vast majority of people who have used DMT have not felt like a "new person", and the few that have, have felt so in a positive way.
napsec 3y ago
I've always been a very verbal person but the first time I tried mushrooms I found I wasn't able to describe my experience in words and I really wanted to draw it. Up until that point in my life I had thought of words as being the de facto correct way to convey thoughts, but that experience really made me understand that words were just my way of conveying thoughts, and there really isn't a correct one. It was absolutely a transformative experience for me and made me appreciate art, all forms of it, in a deeper way. Interestingly enough though that first experience with psychedelics was the only one I actually found transformative. I did mushrooms maybe half a dozen more times afterwards and experimented with a few other drugs including LSD and MDMA and I never really felt like any of those trips gave me any deeper insights or changed the way I viewed things.
newacct3 3y ago
It sounds like you were insecure about certain things like dating and got over it via psychedelics I mean if that works, sure. But what happens in the future if you latch onto some other insecurity? Will you just take a psychedelic again? Is that going to actually fix the problem?
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago
  I don’t know if it’s accurate to describe what I was going through as “latching on to an insecurity”. I had literally forgotten that I am cool and sexy and this led to insecurity around other cool and sexy people I liked. Once I remembered that I am also cool and sexy, I was able to see myself on an even playing field with the people I like and there was simply no cause for insecurity. I will certainly do psychedelics again tho. When done with intention and maturity they’re fun, harmless, and have generally always been positive and emotionally productive for me. Some years ago I had a mushroom trip that was emotionally challenging, but reminded me of the mortality of my aging parents. This led me to make more of an effort to see them and spend time with them. That’s a wonderful outcome. The thing about psychedelics is that they basically work by loosening up your brain’s “default mode network” which is the set of pathways you use to make decisions. By loosening up this network you can find adjacent connections that were almost there but had not quite clicked. So they are a tool to help you find things you have been missing. This is something I will continue to explore. On a more basic level, I found that a small dose of LSD at a dance party is very enjoyable and way better for me personally than drinking alcohol or consuming marijuana. Not that I need substances to have fun, but sometimes that’s a fun way to spend an evening.
- cthalupa 3y ago
  >I mean if that works, sure. But what happens in the future if you latch onto some other insecurity? Will you just take a psychedelic again? Is that going to actually fix the problem? If taking a psychedelic on occasion is effective in combating people's insecurities that is almost certainly one of the most massive wins in the history of mental health. I don't think it's nearly that simple but I am baffled by the idea of "taking a psychedelic cured you of this issue so what are you gonna do if you have another issue, cure it with another psychedelic, huh?" being some sort of negative thing.
mock-possum 3y ago
Sometimes people try psychedelics and have great experiences just like that! Sometimes they try psychedelics and they have baaaaaad experiences, that are essentially traumatic and result in lingering negative feelings. Risk versus reward! … but you don’t have to risk much, for your first time. Yes, tripping with your friends at a festival is great - but you can also do a little, on your own terms, to try it out, and get a feel for whether it’s the sort of thing you’re interested in. Possible benefits of micro dosing notwithstanding, you won’t get the dramatic effects everyone tells stories about without taking a significant dose… but that’s okay, it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing arrangement. You can try a little, you can increase or decrease your dosage next time, you can take notice of the conditions surrounding your hood and your bad trips, and - I mean what I’m really describing here is how to learn to use a drug responsibly. It’s like any other powerful experience, you need to be smart about how you approach it. I think people get suckered in by unnuanced anecdotes on either side - “it was amazing, it cured my depression!” and “it was awful, it escalated my schizophrenia” are on opposite ends of a spectrum. I always think everyone owes it to themselves to experience wherever along that spectrum they are comfortable going - not necessarily a psychedelic evangelist per se, just very much in favour of careful deliberate experimentation with your own brain and body chemistry. Glad you had a good trip! Ones where you come away learning something about yourself are the best.
- itomato 3y ago
  They are not all equal. Not the people, the experience, the substance, or the sum of all. Without study and care and the ability to be Frank about such things as purity, setting and set, those people are going to fail to realize any “reward”.
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago
  > Sometimes people try psychedelics and have great experiences just like that! Sometimes they try psychedelics and they have baaaaaad experiences, that are essentially traumatic and result in lingering negative feelings. > Risk versus reward! Well something I did not say in my comment but I believe is very important is that it's not just "do drugs, win prizes" it's "take time over a period of years to learn how psychedelics work with your body, try some experiences in emotionally safe spaces, reflect on those trips with your friend and therapist, and develop some confidence to work your way up in dosage as you learn to understand how it works for you". While some people may be able to randomly take a higher end dose and have a good result, I certainly advocate that people take their time to get in to these substances. I advocate for legalization because of what is possible with very careful use of them as a tool, but it takes some care to learn how to use them properly!
bowsamic 3y ago
I took 100ug LSD twice and I was suicidal after it for years

dr_dshiv 3y ago

Thanks for sharing. Great example.

jagaerglad 3y ago

I have been struggling a lot with dating. Despite being a quite social, and often popular guy to be around, there has been some block/hump that always stood in the way of dating. Funnily enough it struck me some weeks ago that I probably have to go on a psychadelic trip to rewire my brain to be able to show my interest romatically to others. What I'm scared of is the possibility of it having some other undesired effect though I had a similar experience with dancing though. Thought I hated it, and I always had to force myself to do it, until I started (modestly) drinking alcohol. My body would dance for me and I would enjoy it. The effect more or less stuck around and I even genuinely have days of more confidence after a night with alcohol. All of this is mildly depressing though. It feels as though we are just our brains (maybe obviously), but just that we're the strange effects of the functions of a non-magical/soul-less organ in our heads primarily just meant to steer our bodies. Those thoughts make drugs both existentially liberating but at the same time also "imprisoning" for me

kortex 3y ago
> All of this is mildly depressing though. It feels as though we are just our brains (maybe obviously), but just that we're the strange effects of the functions of a non-magical/soul-less organ in our heads primarily just meant to steer our bodies. Those thoughts make drugs both existentially liberating but at the same time also "imprisoning" for me That is certainly one way of looking at things, and one of the more frequent perspectives I harbor. But I've also had enough trips down the rabbit hole to realize there's more to it than that. Way more to it. We are definitely strange effects for sure. We are haunted atoms that formed in the core of a dying star. Weird, right? If you find that worldview imprisoning, I encourage you to question it. Magic is often simply what you need it to be, no need to get hung up on whether magic is "real" or not, because that doesn't actually matter. Check out Discordianism if you haven't already. It's kinda like hot swapping reality tunnels. No need to commit to one ontology all the time :).
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mahathu 3y ago
>I have been struggling a lot with dating. >I probably have to go on a psychadelic trip to rewire my brain to be able to show my interest romatically to others u wot m8

__MatrixMan__ 3y ago

I totally agree that: > We’ve got a crisis of unhappiness in this country and psychedelic therapies are absolutely a powerful tool we could use to help people find themselves. But our blues haven't appeared from nowhere. We have significant cultural institutions that function primarily by dividing the populace against itself. Getting healthy likely means waking up to the fact that we're under attack and doing something other than "self care" about it. So I disagree with: > the structures of power are so solidified I’m not sure there’s really much actual risk to them from drug legalization. They seem pretty shaky to me. Which is for the best. Being powerful should come with a fear of the people you have power over. If you're one weird trip away from a revolution then it's probably time to start treating your people better.

webnrrd2k 3y ago
There is some history in the US with regards to power structures, getting needs met, and psychedelics. Mostly in the late 60's and early 70's there was a big counterculture movement that focused on exactly those things, and the power structures at the time were certainly threatened, and created things like cointelpro. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#:~:text=Overall%2C%20COINTELPRO%20encompassed%20disruption%20and,and%20religious%20groups%20(1968) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#:~:text=Overall%2....
s1artibartfast 3y ago
>Getting healthy likely means waking up to the fact that we're under attack and doing something other than "self care" about it. I pretty strongly disagree with this sentiment. The vast majority of misery in this country is self-inflicted from buying into a worldview and lifestyle that is inherently unfulfilling. The self care of conferring oneself from that mindset goes a long way.
- __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
  Ok but who is selling that worldview, and how does our behavior change when we stop buying into it? Being bought in means that we're afraid to talk to our families or neighbors about certain topics for fear of things getting too spicy in one way or another, it keeps us divided. Apply self care (psychedelic assisted or otherwise) for long enough that we're not afraid anymore and maybe you've achieved your mental health goals, but now you're having the kind of conversations that change things.

ernst_klim 3y ago

I don't think there's any kind of global anti-drug conspiracy. Anti-drug fear mongering is a byproduct of few factors: ignorance (people confuse crack, LSD and say MDMA, labeling everything as drug), valid fears (LSD was legal while being underresearched and that lead to few terrible events), self-propelled drugwar cycle (drugs caused wave of fear, became a good target for politicians, that caused even more fear mongering and the cycle is closed), and valid historical concerns (many drugs are very bad and caused pretty terrible historical precedents like opium abuse in China). People are getting more educated on drugs these days, and more questions arise in the society regarding if certain kinds of drugs like LSD should be more available. Though it would be a long road.

standardUser 3y ago
It's not a conspiracy, it's a well-documented effort by the US and other powerful nations to extort every corner of the planet to adopting harsh, unscientific, liberty-obliterating laws against drugs (except the state-sanctioned ones of course!) that has been going on for about a 100 years. Cracks are beginning to show (see Portugal, Uruguay and others), but that is still the global system we live under thanks to various UN conventions pushed by the US and the national-level laws that adhere to those conventions.

chiefalchemist 3y ago

> We’ve got a crisis of unhappiness in this country and psychedelic therapies are absolutely a powerful tool we could use to help people find themselves. While I agree with everything else you said, this bit concerns me. I'm certainly in favor of using these tools to help anyone who needs help. But maybe we should start with a mirror, and collectively ask, "Why are so many so unhappy?" These psychedelics can help resolve the symptoms, but what are we going to collectively take to address the root problem(s)? And when?

golergka 3y ago
> But maybe we should start with a mirror, and collectively ask, "Why are so many so unhappy?" Because that's the default.. People haven't evolved to be happy; we have evolved to barely survive to have kids and care for them so that a few become adults. Being happy is the exception, you should ask how anyone manages that.
- nemo44x 3y ago
  I sort of agree with this. We’ve been marketed to that we should be happy and that buying <thing|experience> will make us happy. These <things|experiences> will bring pleasure but they don’t create meaningful happiness. As if pleasure and happiness are the same thing. But they are often conflated. I can’t tell or teach people “how to be happy”. I’m not even sure that’s possible or if it’s something everyone can do or would really want to. But I do know that being hooked on a treadmill of pleasurable experiences isn’t it.
  - newacct3 3y ago
    > We’ve been marketed to that we should be happy and that buying <thing|experience> will make us happy. Seems like the entirely idea of happiness has been semiotically highjacked by marketing, morality, other things When I mentally picture "happiness", all I really see is a bunch of behaviors that are frequently depicted as desirable in the aggregate by media and others The Buddhists are a lot more sane about this than we are. Imo there's so much residue around the word "happiness", in order to achieve a sense of peace it's better to just throw it out and take each day at a time

slibhb 3y ago

For everyone who has an experience like you, there's someone like this guy: https://www.ecstaticintegration.org/p/dmt-derealization-and-depersonalization https://www.ecstaticintegration.org/p/dmt-derealization-and-... Anyway, since you were dancing, I assume you used MDMA which is much "less psychedelic" than acid or DMT (and much more of a stimulant). There's also more potential for misuse and addiction. Ketamine, too, turns out to be quite addictive by the way. It seems clear that psychedelics are going mainstream and, unlike the 60s and 70s, they will be legal in some places. I'm not convinced that ths will be a net good, partly because it's not clear that it was a net good in the 60s and 70s, but we'll see.

golergka 3y ago
There's nothing stopping you from dancing on acid or shrooms. In fact, that's the whole point of psytrance.
knightofmars 3y ago
You are implying a 1:1 relationship with good experiences and bad experiences. That's not how drugs work. It is important to know the actual reality of this type of ratio so that individuals who are looking to use a drug of this nature can be well informed.
- slibhb 3y ago
  No, I'm positing a 1:1 relationship between "holy shit I am a new person" in a good way and "holy shit I am a new person" in a bad way. That's not the same as good/bad experiences.
  - p0pcult 3y ago
    [dead]
  - cthalupa 3y ago
    I don't think there's nearly enough data available to posit it one way or the other - anything we say is almost certainly going to be purely anecdotal. My anecdotal experience has been that the vast majority of people who have used DMT have not felt like a "new person", and the few that have, have felt so in a positive way.

napsec 3y ago

I've always been a very verbal person but the first time I tried mushrooms I found I wasn't able to describe my experience in words and I really wanted to draw it. Up until that point in my life I had thought of words as being the de facto correct way to convey thoughts, but that experience really made me understand that words were just my way of conveying thoughts, and there really isn't a correct one. It was absolutely a transformative experience for me and made me appreciate art, all forms of it, in a deeper way. Interestingly enough though that first experience with psychedelics was the only one I actually found transformative. I did mushrooms maybe half a dozen more times afterwards and experimented with a few other drugs including LSD and MDMA and I never really felt like any of those trips gave me any deeper insights or changed the way I viewed things.

newacct3 3y ago

It sounds like you were insecure about certain things like dating and got over it via psychedelics I mean if that works, sure. But what happens in the future if you latch onto some other insecurity? Will you just take a psychedelic again? Is that going to actually fix the problem?

TaylorAlexander 3y ago
I don’t know if it’s accurate to describe what I was going through as “latching on to an insecurity”. I had literally forgotten that I am cool and sexy and this led to insecurity around other cool and sexy people I liked. Once I remembered that I am also cool and sexy, I was able to see myself on an even playing field with the people I like and there was simply no cause for insecurity. I will certainly do psychedelics again tho. When done with intention and maturity they’re fun, harmless, and have generally always been positive and emotionally productive for me. Some years ago I had a mushroom trip that was emotionally challenging, but reminded me of the mortality of my aging parents. This led me to make more of an effort to see them and spend time with them. That’s a wonderful outcome. The thing about psychedelics is that they basically work by loosening up your brain’s “default mode network” which is the set of pathways you use to make decisions. By loosening up this network you can find adjacent connections that were almost there but had not quite clicked. So they are a tool to help you find things you have been missing. This is something I will continue to explore. On a more basic level, I found that a small dose of LSD at a dance party is very enjoyable and way better for me personally than drinking alcohol or consuming marijuana. Not that I need substances to have fun, but sometimes that’s a fun way to spend an evening.
cthalupa 3y ago
>I mean if that works, sure. But what happens in the future if you latch onto some other insecurity? Will you just take a psychedelic again? Is that going to actually fix the problem? If taking a psychedelic on occasion is effective in combating people's insecurities that is almost certainly one of the most massive wins in the history of mental health. I don't think it's nearly that simple but I am baffled by the idea of "taking a psychedelic cured you of this issue so what are you gonna do if you have another issue, cure it with another psychedelic, huh?" being some sort of negative thing.

mock-possum 3y ago

Sometimes people try psychedelics and have great experiences just like that! Sometimes they try psychedelics and they have baaaaaad experiences, that are essentially traumatic and result in lingering negative feelings. Risk versus reward! … but you don’t have to risk much, for your first time. Yes, tripping with your friends at a festival is great - but you can also do a little, on your own terms, to try it out, and get a feel for whether it’s the sort of thing you’re interested in. Possible benefits of micro dosing notwithstanding, you won’t get the dramatic effects everyone tells stories about without taking a significant dose… but that’s okay, it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing arrangement. You can try a little, you can increase or decrease your dosage next time, you can take notice of the conditions surrounding your hood and your bad trips, and - I mean what I’m really describing here is how to learn to use a drug responsibly. It’s like any other powerful experience, you need to be smart about how you approach it. I think people get suckered in by unnuanced anecdotes on either side - “it was amazing, it cured my depression!” and “it was awful, it escalated my schizophrenia” are on opposite ends of a spectrum. I always think everyone owes it to themselves to experience wherever along that spectrum they are comfortable going - not necessarily a psychedelic evangelist per se, just very much in favour of careful deliberate experimentation with your own brain and body chemistry. Glad you had a good trip! Ones where you come away learning something about yourself are the best.

itomato 3y ago
They are not all equal. Not the people, the experience, the substance, or the sum of all. Without study and care and the ability to be Frank about such things as purity, setting and set, those people are going to fail to realize any “reward”.
TaylorAlexander 3y ago
> Sometimes people try psychedelics and have great experiences just like that! Sometimes they try psychedelics and they have baaaaaad experiences, that are essentially traumatic and result in lingering negative feelings. > Risk versus reward! Well something I did not say in my comment but I believe is very important is that it's not just "do drugs, win prizes" it's "take time over a period of years to learn how psychedelics work with your body, try some experiences in emotionally safe spaces, reflect on those trips with your friend and therapist, and develop some confidence to work your way up in dosage as you learn to understand how it works for you". While some people may be able to randomly take a higher end dose and have a good result, I certainly advocate that people take their time to get in to these substances. I advocate for legalization because of what is possible with very careful use of them as a tool, but it takes some care to learn how to use them properly!

bowsamic 3y ago

I took 100ug LSD twice and I was suicidal after it for years