Meant to get to this sooner herby but my brain is still all wacky but anyhoo...
Of course there are a lot of pros and cons with this type of treatment. What I like about it is that it is a drug that is used sparingly. Something that is used only one or a couple of times is much preferred to maintenance therapy IMO. Generally speaking, anxiety can come from the way that an individual thinks. Sometimes it can be a more physical type of anxiety from depression or bipolar or something, but many times it boils down to thoughts. Psychedelics can bring a lot of things to the surface that you would have never thought about otherwise and allow you to view a situation from a different perspective. A fresh perspective or a psychedelic perspective can do wonders for a person. With most tryptamines that I have experience with, there seems to be a nice reset affect that makes you feel refreshed and rejuvenated but not always. One time I had a bad, weird religious, good/evil trip one time when I was in high school and I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror the next day. I don't really have bad trips anymore but sometimes there are parts that can be a bit difficult at times depending on the drug and the dosage. I think with psychedelics or mdma it would be best if it is used only once if possible when dealing with patients. With MDMA, it can only take a couple of times before it doesn't have that same initial therapeutic effect.
Every time you use mushrooms there is a risk of not only a negative experience but the after effects of that experience which can last some time for some people, as you very well know from your own experience with this site. Also, with repeated uses that first time magic can fade and the head-space can become a bit more difficult if the set or setting is wrong. Don't get me wrong, anxiety can be crippling and severely debilitating for some people, but when you start expanding the scope to other mental health conditions, it can get a lot trickier. It's one thing to successfully treat a patient, it's entirely another to worsen their condition. With mental health patients it should be paramount to not do any more damage to an individual because certain mental health patients can become rather fragile creatures. It's important to not break them. With any substance there can be risks, of course, but psychedelics are wholly unpredictable by nature. Everyone responds quite a bit differently, even moreso than with any other drug class I think.
I wish there were more specifics in the article about dosages and what not. I wonder how they decided on psilocybin. Probably because psilocin degrades very easily but there are a few other alkaloids in mushrooms that do provide a more fulfilling experience than with psilocin or psilocybin by themselves. I also like that mushrooms are natural and that they have a nice bundle of complementary alkaloids tied up in a nice neat package blossoming on your nearest cow pasture. Naturals aren't always practical though for dosing precisely. I know the natural bias isn't always accurate but I do believe that the body prefers nutrients and chemicals made by nature with the exception of LSD
. I think the chiral molecularity plays a part in this to a certain degree. I am curious as to whether the chemicals were extracted or synthesized too. Definitely dosing psychs is tricky business. Some people can take 3 or 4 times as much as another person and have a similar experience. Dose low and you might feel very little to nothing, dose too high and you could wind up in hell. I've read trip reports of people actually going to hell and I do find it pretty fascinating but I'm sure the authors didn't feel that way at the time. I wonder how hard the participants are actually tripping and how they decided on appropriate dosages.
I think it's good that they are researching this, psychs certainly deserve more research and they may be the closest thing to a cure that we will find. There is a lot going on with them chemically and otherwise. I think another avenue to explore is with PTSD. There aren't many drugs that can successfully treat PTSD esp with a single use. It can be hard to shake that flight or fight response and psychs could help a lot of people live a much improved quality of life.
Thanks for sharing herby.
