Tune in, turn on, and drop........on in.....we want to take a closer look ! This is about mental health, finding cures for depression, ultimately, which is why I'm posting the thread, here. I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember the famous phrase, 'tune in, turn on and drop out' by Dr. Timothy Leary, the professor who promoted taking LSD back in the 60s, but psychedelics appear to be being taken seriously these days, at least in the fields of psychiatry where they are studying the positive effects psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin, LSD, Ecstasy, DMT, Mescaline, etc., on depression. I took acid three times in the 60s, when I was 15. The they were life changing events, I had major epiphanies, all positive, about myself, my place in the world, and all that. My self- esteem took a leap forward which, before, I was a miserable shy-as-hell wreck. An amazing drug. However, I was lucky. Others, not so lucky. the drug is a crap shoot. Anyone who is thinking of taking LSD, or something as strong as it, or one of the psychedelics, I'd only recommend it if you could take it as a part of one of those controlled studies, done under strict professional supervision. I was extremely lucky. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/health/psychedelics-mdma-psilocybin-molly-mental-health.html Psilocybin and MDMA are poised to be the hottest new therapeutics since Prozac. Universities want in, and so does Wall Street. But some researchers worry a push to loosen access to the drugs could bring unintended consequences. It’s been a long, strange trip in the four decades since Rick Doblin, a pioneering psychedelics researcher, dropped his first hit of acid in college and decided to dedicate his life to the healing powers of mind-altering compounds. Even as antidrug campaigns led to the criminalization of Ecstasy, LSD and magic mushrooms, and drove most researchers from the field, Dr. Doblin continued his quixotic crusade with financial help from his parents. Dr. Doblin’s quest to win mainstream acceptance of psychedelics will take a significant leap forward later this month when the journal Nature Medicine is expected to publish the results of his lab’s study on MDMA, the club drug popularly known as Ecstasy and Molly. The study, the first Phase 3 clinical trial conducted with psychedelic-assisted therapy, found that MDMA paired with counseling brought marked relief to patients with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. The results, coming weeks after a New England Journal of Medicine study that highlighted the benefits of treating depression with psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, has excited scientists, psychotherapists and entrepreneurs in the rapidly expanding field of psychedelic medicine. They say it is only a matter of time before the Food and Drug Administration grants approval for psychoactive compounds to be used therapeutically — for MDMA as soon as 2023, followed by psilocybin a year or two later.
I used to think that Marijuana was a psychedelic drug, which was one of the reasons why I was against recreational legalization. Now I have depression, which I'm managing with an anti-depressant. I'm not sad or anything. It wasn't a matter having to do with self-induced weakness. Rather, it's just that my body fails me no matter how much will I've got. Mind says yes, body says no! I don't really want to take psychedelics. I love my sanity. My biggest fear is that the medical field will jump on the psychedelic bandwagon and replace all the anti-depressants with psychedelics. Or, even, my insurance company mandating that I take them because they're less expensive than the anti-depressants. Needless to say, I'll have to be dragged kicking and screaming to take psychedelics.
All the people I know who regularly take psychedelics have pretty substantial mental problems. What I don't know is if the psychedelics made them mentally unbalanced, or if their mental instability made them take psychedelics (and as a result they're less unstable than they would be otherwise?). Either way, I don't equate psychedelic use with mental health... Take frequent walks in the woods and plant a garden before exploring chemical alternatives.
