Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/18/enhance-mystical-type-experien.html
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This is excellent news, and a relief that there’s more evidence showing that psilocybin’s efficacy to treat depression and anxiety is not wishful thinking but a real thing.
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I wonder if VR couldn’t be integrated somehow? Like, some sort of slow 3D “slideshow” to enhance the patient’s state? (When they say “mystical experience” the scientists are talking about how this term is what most patients use when they experience the most successful, beneficial effects from psilocybin)
edit: Also, the word “dulling” is a terribly sanitized way of describing the suppression of brain functions resulting from the restriction of bloodflow to the hindbrain and excess serotonin preventing mood shifts.
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As someone who has repeatedly been completely failed by the current antidepressants on the market, and from a family that has also shown poor response to them. I’m always hoping, always, that at some point in my life other options will be available. There simply has to be another way that brains of depressed people can function than the ones currently understood. Or there has to be another aspect or type of depression that hasn’t been understood completely. Dulling hardly describes it. I’m stuck between not being able to work but being numb about it due to notable reduced cognitive function on anti-depressants, and going untreated keeping up my work and life through it which is at times so painful and daunting it does inspire true hopelessness which of course is both a symptom of depression and an effect of living with it. It’s unfortunate, but dealing with the symptoms of the condition is easier for me though it leaves me at a great deal of risk, because dealing with the symptoms of the treatment leaves me with my “dealing with” parts disabled completely as well as any ability to rank and prioritize anything really. Frankly, I’m just not willing to become totally disabled by middle age by a treatment for something I’ve been coping with my entire life anyway. I hope they continue research and I hope more discoveries are made. I wish that people would see that much like snake venom there’s potential for life saving and life improving medications in substances that have gotten a reputation as 100% evil due to association with recreational drugs. It’s especially annoying in the face of an industry that will, on the other hand, gladly put you on a “pain management” plan and dole out opiates. I’m not an opiate hater, I’m too sick to be, and I know too many people with more debilitating versions of physical illnesses I also happen to have… I understand there are some cases where it’s the only option. But again, I get frustrated by the lack of willingness to investigate alternatives due to stigmas and social assumptions based solely on folklore, media, and prejudices.
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Well VR might be applied to people who are taking strong doses of magic mushrooms but going off what i know of micro dosing that is likely the best avenue for dosage. Trying to go on a psychedelic trip might be helpful for treating something like PTSD during a therapy session maybe? In the middle of work so i hope i didn’t misread what you meant 
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Off Topic: I have a close colleague of mine that is totally off his heavy duty PTSD meds and just using low dose CBD oil 4 times daily. Alternate models exist, we just have to give them a half a chance.
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How’s that working for him? I imagine it’s a big quality of life improvement but wondering how much insight you have on how he was doing before and now.
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He is his old animated self, I knew him before the War, and after. So from my perspective, he is happier, and more engaged with people. As well I know his wife has said as much too. All said I use it myself after a hard workout at the gym, my wife too, it really has zero negative effects as far as my personal research is concerned.
PS. This isn’t the super duty get you high as fuck CBD, it’s 2 - 3 milligrams, taken over several hours.
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Glad your friend is doing well and thanks for the answer. I really hope pot will be legal where I live at some point, I have a hard time managing anxiety and I really don’t want to take the current medications for it. Don’t think I ever would, I’ve seen what it does with some friends
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I think you already know I’m in California, so I won’t go all pro-pot on you…
We have to bring this issue to the National stage, sooner than later. This [cannabis] has finally left the dark ages and there are enlightened folks out there seeking it’s many uses for the very reason you stated. As a child of the early part of the last century, I see hope on the horizon.
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Who are The Grateful Dead?
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Last i knew even in places where pot was legal it still could land you in trouble at the workplace as a recreational user. Is that something that California has addressed? I don’t keep up with this sort of stuff too much since it doesn’t directly impact me. And yes, i’m biding my time until Texas will make it legal, but considering its… well… Texas it’s not likely to be soon. I used to live in Colorado and Las Vegas, both places where its now legal 
Just my luck.
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Work place interference is waning. As long as you’re not pulling tubes at your desk station, you’ll likely avoid detection. The rando pee pee tests are all but extinct in Cali.
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I think it’s mostly an issue of private employment vs public as well. Of course government employees can’t really enjoy without the fear of being fired, but unless your boss is really anti-pot, smaller organizations that don’t have many OSHA issues can probably be much freer to partake.
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My current workplace is in the private sector and it does random drug testing despite me having an office job. If pot were legal here and have the proper protections for it set up i would feel comfortable using it… not at work of course i’m not an idiot. But yeah i wouldn’t want to get fired for enjoying it either recreationally or for mental health issues.
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Now that I’m (marginally) self-employed, living next to San Diego may soon have its perks. I do look forward to trying out some of the “good stuff” once I can afford it.
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it does have the power to help people restructure their complexes and addictions and manage them better. but usually its just used by yuppies, college kids and hippies to blast off into space for a few hours (or days if they take enough)
I wonder if there’s a correlation between bad trips and worsening of symptoms. Of course it’s very clear that psychedelics may trigger latent or nascent mental health problems – i.e. schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder etc. – and these episodes are usually described as very horribly bad trips.
And to be clear, psychedelic trips are usually challenging – you see yourself stripped bare of your illusions and ego; there have been times when tripping I’ve had to work really hard to stay above the water and keep from falling into the despondency of self-loathing and existential dread, both, when I experience in the mundane, non-psychedelic realm, I consider symptoms of depression. Granted, I think I described a mechanism for helping depression: being stripped bare of illusions and learning to float.
With small sample sizes, one can’t honestly make any claims – psychedelics are incredibly subjective and squirrelly – which makes me happy that they are able to do research with ever increasing sample sizes.
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yeah its difficult to know how each persons individual chemistry will react with the drugs… especially stuff like acid. some people never return from their trips
Sounds like anti-drug claptrap, if you ask me.
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