So this is kinda related to psychedelics as some of my mental health issues stem from accidental NBOME use and I used to do LSD a bunch.
Im looking for a psychiatrist who is either well versed or familiar with psychedelics that can help me navigate my medication route. I’m in Colorado but would be fine with virtual meetings because it’s psychiatry rather than PCP or other. I accidentally took NBOMEs for a second time a couple months ago and I’m worried that the effects I had over a year ago will come back even worse.
I need a psychiatrist that is more understanding and willing to work with me as things progress. My previous psych nurse was an addictions counselor, but she took on the mentality of “well if you just didn’t do them in the first place you wouldn’t have these problems” which is a “duh, obviously”. But she refused to help me navigate the upcoming symptoms as a result of the NBOME and didn’t look into it much at all- kept calling it LSD to dumb it down and saying LSD causes the exact same effects
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You will definitely want to find one who will first get onboard with your lifestyle choices. I can't say this is a guarantee because conventional 'old fashioned' psychiatry won't favour aiding the facilitation of your lifestyle choices because of how out-dated and incompatible older models are at looking at people and their problems. More recent generations will probably be open more to going on a journey with you to help you with what you need knowing also what you are doing and it's implications socially, culturally, politically etc. Look at how psychedelic psychotherapy and new burgeoning areas in psychiatry, neuroscience etc are changing perspective and integrative care based on cutting edge research and acceptance of these compounds in comparison to what was a pretty sinister and stigmatized area not that long ago i.e if you take acid you are crazy and you will fry your brain etc.
This will be a process of finding out whether you are compatible with a professional and then trying to expand on where their limits are in regards to how much they could tolerate regarding your lifestyle choices and their ability to effectively provide the most beneficial therapeutic environment for your growth, potential, development and health. This could be a fairly long winding process and likely there will be those that cannot flex to the degree you want them to. I mean, can you tell one psychiatrist you took LSD yesterday without him/her trying to push on you the prohibition propaganda and anti-drugs stance? Can you tell another that you felt like you were losing your mind and your reality was melting without he/she reaching for the strait jacket? You get what I mean by that one, I hope anyway. You will really need to have the courage and the confidence to be as open and true to yourself as possible without seeking to hide aspects of yourself in order to try and compensate for what the professional may lack in understanding, awareness or even acceptance and ability to deal with what you are about. When you go private and you pay for these sessions and get someone like this on-board, it's not a case of being stuck with a doctor you get when and if you walk into A&E. You are CHOOSING the doctor and this IMPLIES the relationship is based on your consent and intention to seek that particular relationship out. Essentially, YOU are the CENTER of this relationship and you want these professionals orbiting you. So you need to ask yourself what do you expect from this person, what will you accept/not accept, where are the boundaries, how far can this person go, what kind of personality/character, what kind of experience, what kind of professional qualifications, what kind of stance on this or that etc, how you both get along, whether they can relate, whether they can actually offer you anything or it's simply a dead end.
If you want someone to go on this journey, you will need to do it like a pro athlete consults their elite support network i.e sport psychologist, nutrition, strength and conditioning coach, manager, endocrinologist, chiropractor or whatever. These guys are on your side and you are paying them to be on your side. So you want to make sure it is much like an elite level support network an elite level athlete would have. That means creating the environment you want and need and ensuring that that environment benefits you all the time.
Put the feelers out there, man. Talk to some people and pick their brains, find out what they know and push the envelope and be bold enough to say it how it is and what you are looking for. Even if it means saying I need a psychiatrist because I take psychedelics and I want someone to help me make sense of it all. Sometimes I feel like I am going crazy and sometimes I feel like God. What the f*ck does it all mean? That's an example but you get my point. It's much like saying, well doc I have fantasies of f*cking my mother and it almost seems like these fantasies should become true so what should I do? Most people would never dream to lay it out like that but the ones that do? Are likely to come to the best conclusion knowing they actually had the ability to take what was within them and lay it all out without trying to preempt reactions, consequences, disadvantages etc. For the latter example if that was a real situation, it's being dealt with when someone out there could be in the same boat and has no outlet whatsoever to even release it. What seems crazy, farfetched and absolutely not okay, given the right environment and the right people, is anything but these things. I mean, to me anyway, that's where the therapy is - in those environments where what issues you have are actually perfectly normal, acceptable and you are absolutely fine for experiencing them because the person/people know the blueprint that creates their existence and they can share this with you to create maps to reach new levels.
Hope this helps somewhat.
I have several years of studying psychotherapy and decades of researching fields of psychiatry and psychology down to societal and cultural factors in providing care. We are all here to some degree because that level of care was and is not sufficient i.e we take drugs and nobody to talk about this with, especially with someone who is a professional and someone who could help without envisioning getting a slapped ass for talking about the forbidden word; drugs. This is the hurdle to get over on both sides of the equation; as both client and therapist/professional/whatever - to greener pastures where it's actually okay to work together to understand this kind of stuff.
Where have you reached out to so far? Have you been on your typical 'find a psychiatrist' websites? Have you thought about checking out psychedelic therapists? Like I said, you will probably need to find somebody who has delved into these areas, and potentially co-exists within them currently and for some time, in order to get what you really want out of all this.
