re: Rick Perry pushing bill to test psychedelics on vets with PTSD***2nd update...it's law!

quote:

---

Can someone please explain why psychedelic drugs are helpful to someone suffering from PTSD- who by definition is already reliving painful past experiences, especially when triggered?

---

I'm speaking almost exclusively of psilocybin here (mushrooms), but this is also possibly true of the other "classic" psychedelics like LSD:

Psilocybin appears to create an emotional distance during the trip. So, in "regular" psychotherapy, they try to coax the patient into talking about their trauma (e.g. I was in Fallujah and heard an explosion, when I looked to my right, the little girl's head was gone, when I looked to the left, my buddy was blown apart, etc.) However, often, the patient will have a panic attack even just thinking this vividly about the trauma (much less actively engaging with it). With psilocybin, they find that somehow the trip distances the patient and he is able to speak without inducing panic. Accessing the trauma for real like this also appears to provide relief and a path for actual healing.

Psilocybin has also shown great potential in treating severe depression and a whole host of other mental health conditions. It also is likely good for people who are already well just to maintain and improve healthy psyches.

As some other posters alluded to, all of this was very promising in the 40s, 50s and 60s until the hippies got Nixon's attention and it got Schedule 1'ed. It's arguably the biggest ethical travesty of the past 50 years. I believe that millions of citizens have been denied relief of their misery. I also believe that this is the absolute path for the future.

It is worth pointing out that psychedelics (this does NOT include MDMA) are non-addictive (it actually is hard work using them properly) and also appear to have no known overdose amount.

There are already a number of public companies in this space, but they are almost all in Canada (like with marijuana). Many of them are run by charlatans from mining companies, but that will change over time.

I believe this is a wave that cannot be stopped - too many real people are reporting back to their loved ones of transformational experiences.

Just read the Michael Pollan book for starters.

quote:

---

Good for you brother. These substances were put here by God and have been utilized for centuries in ceremonial events.

---

Another quality point. The past 3-500 years of our civilization here are arguably the extreme exception to the totality of the history of humanity, where virtually every culture had serious ceremonial rites centered around a natural psychedelic (think Injuns and peyote). There's a serious academic that has recently written a book which argues perhaps the entire ancient Greek Empire centered around psilocybin rites of passage for the elite.

quote:

---

It makes sense to me, but the argument is that PTSD describes a cluster of symptoms that stem from a brain injury.

Shellshock was a really accurate description for it, in retrospect. Soldiers were suffering brain injuries from the concussive blasts of incoming artillery.

---

What I think you are thinking of is TBI not PTSD.

quote:

---

There's a lot of difference between the two. How many covid nurses have seen bodies blown apart? Go frick yourself.

---

Bud, ER nurses see gruesome shite and death a lot more than soldiers do. And they do it for years and years every single day, especially those working in the inner cities. And they’ll be sure to remind you of that every single time they talk to you, which is the point he was making. Stop trying to get in a dick measuring contest (which is kind of ironic, because that was the joke). I don’t care what you do, no one wants to hear people constantly seek gratification about their jobs.

quote:

---

If it helps our vets - then go for it. But this seems a little counterintuitive to me. IOW - We’ve already seen what prescription medication can do, when abused. And if you’re already struggling, I worry if you’re ready for that kind of mind alteringness.

---

Mushrooms aren't synthetic and under the right conditions and doses can be beneficial for mental well being

I've posted on this several times, and many in this thread have expressed it too. Psychedelics have great promise.

They have proven to be effective treatments for alcoholism and any manner of mental disorders. Ayahuasca treatments have cured people of PTSD from significant abuse. Microdosing of psilocybin has led people to live all around better lives.

The state hates psychedelics because it opens people up to the truth of our reality and makes them less likely to fall for the propaganda of control. The common people that dislike psychedelics are just people that have never experienced them and think the only good drugs are those that the state supports, like alcohol, or are just against any drugs at all.

There is plenty of research on the benefits of psychedelics. People that deny it are usually those that just don't want to accept that their worldview is wrong.

quote:

---

They have proven to be effective treatments for alcoholism and any manner of mental disorders.

---

It helped me kick a terrible smoking habit almost immediately

It helped me with some other things as well but I'm not going to get into great detail since it's pretty boring

quote:

---

What I think you are thinking of is TBI not PTSD.

---

PTSD may be TBI.

I was just speaking with my uncle over the weekend about this. Marine Corps Vietnam combat vet with PTSD. He said he would like to have a few years of peace before it was his time to go. If something like this works, go for it.