Psychedelics can treat anxiety and depression, but there's a catch

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/05/psychedelics-can-treat-anxiety.html

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“but the effect,” he said, “evaporates like water running through their hands.”

HA HA HA HA! Thank BB, good way to start the week with a laugh.

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The catch is, you go to prison, which causes anxiety and depression.

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Just want to let people know, this is an update to a post made by @maggiek in early 2014.

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The corruption runs deep, doesn’t it?

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Although cancer patients will not have access to therapeutically administered psilocybin anytime soon

Sure they do, it is just not institutionally supported.

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Man, I miss Maggie on BoingBoing.

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BINGO!  

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Turns out you can’t compartmentalize therapy if you want the benefits from it.

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Translation: Profoundly spiritual experiences have been found to ease anxiety and depression in cancer patients. Since a days long fasting vision quest with continuous prayer and no sleep could not easily be administered to the test subjects, we cut to the chase by having trained shamans facilitators give them hallucinogens and counseling.

Snark aside, it’s sad how religion and spirituality need to be repackaged in secular guise to get people to take them seriously these days.

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As far as i understand there’s microdosing (which this research is not about), and dosing with psychedelics. My layman knowledge on the dosing part is that the mechanics of the trip on the brain helps rewire or reset some pathways and help alleviate a patient’s anxiety/trauma/depression.
Not saying that as fact, just expressing my understanding on how dosing works. I’m more iffy on the details for microdosing and how that works.

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I’ve read that LSD interferes with the communication between cortexes, separating functions like hindbrain derived anxiety from the more consciousness manifesting systems in the forebrain, resulting in adjusted thought processes and hallucinations.

The trouble is that the effect is semi-random, and there’s almost no research into the mechanics of the drug.

Unlike those horrid opiates.

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I feel like (years ago) BB used to do “guest spot” announcements or when people would roll on/off the blog as contributors. Maybe I’m remembering wrong. In any case, when someone who regularly blogged on the site moves on from BB it feels like ghosting. I kinda wish they’d (go back to/adopt) a little more formal process in that regard.

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I did a lot of reflection, some in writing, in the days following my psilocybin experience. My depression lifted completely for the next four months. I guess I did myself a favor processing it that way (that and being more outward towards others).

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That’s a good practice for, ahem, non-party substances and other transformational experiences. It’s too easy to lose the benefits without reflection. I remember every dream I’ve ever written down and basically none of the ones I haven’t.

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I think it depends on the person. I’ve found all my psychedelic experiences meaningful and memorable, and I’m confused, really, how people can do them and not be affected by it. But I didn’t make a point of reflecting on the experiences, the experiences themselves made me reflective.

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Like water through the hour glass, these are our evaporated lives.

Or maybe the metaphor was from an early draft of Star Wars, in which Princess Leia is actually on the side of the empire and is cheering on Tarkin: “The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will evaporate”

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I see and experience nothing religious or spiritual in my personal experiments. That such labels are applied by some to me seems a mistake. In my view, it’s much more amazing how such chemicals facilitate self awareness and introspection especially where negative self abuse and behaviour are concerned than any delusion of a spiritual or religious nature.

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“Um, I feel too hot/cold, man. Yeah, I’m dying of heat/cold. Please turn on the tub, hot/cold, please, yeah, man. Too hot/cold. Oh, wait, and I’m bleeding to death? Great. Just heat/cool me, man, the blood can wait. The blood can wait.”

true trips

http://thumbs.picclick.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/7cYAAOSwMtxXuFBg/$/Brass-beehive-sash-window-catch-bee-hive-lock-_1.jpg

There it is.

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