I never really had much of an interest in psychedelics for two (and a half) reasons.

1) I’m a child of the DARE era, which scared me about the big, scary risks associated with mind-altering substances!!!

2) I get severely anxious when I smoke even a little bit too much marijuana.

2.5) I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder (specifically OCD) which I now manage with ERP. But I severely fear losing control of my thoughts.

However, I recently read How To Change Your Mind, and it did reshape my thinking about a lot of the above.

I’m still hesitant to try shrooms or LSD, but the idea of a guided trip with a trained therapist, who will walk me through the more fear-inducing moments, does have an appeal. To think that maybe this would HELP my daily anxieties seems like a dream.

I suffer from severe depression. The surprise with LSD was actually that it made me happy. I had expected (and got) weird colors etc, but I thought its emotional impact was somewhere from neutral to negative.

In about 8 trips over as many years, I haven't had a bad experience, except one that just went on too long and became exhausting.

Yet I have had friends that are far more psychologically stable react negatively to it.

I've never seen anyone react badly to MDMA, and I think it may actually be more useful for emotional work. LSD makes me generically happy, but I'm more likely to develop a fascination with areal mapping than gaining any introspective.

Marijuana is pure hell. Sleepless nights of mild nausea, intense headaches, and terror nightmares. And mixing it with alcohol drops my blood pressure to syncope/sweating/panic levels.

Thank you for sharing. It’s interesting to hear how happy it made you. If you don’t mind expanding on that feeling I’d love to read more specifics.

It's just a state of extreme bliss, plus (and distinct) an appreciation for all sorts of suddenly very beautiful things: music, landscapes, people, etc. Sound especially feels incredibly precise and 3-dimensional.

Long term, the effect is rather small. I didn't have any negative hangover as some people apparently do, but rather a sort of low-intensity glow that slowly diminishes. In terms of treating depression, I don't think it made much difference either way. But since I have been suffering for as long as I remember, it was actually the first experience of such strong feelings I now at least know what improvement would feel like.

About weed, did you smoke in a legal or illegal setting? Last thing you need when exploring your mind for the first times is fear of cops storming the room.

The other source of anxiety is that cannabis raises your pulse for a few moments, I would guess because of increased blood flow (which is sometimes visible in the eyes). From my experience that never goes away entirely, but you learn to not freak out since it's not dangerous.

Organic drugs like shrooms are definitely less dramatic than synthetic such as LSD from my experience.

It’s legal where I’m from but wasn’t when I tried it the first few times.

The heart rate thing sounds like it is what gets me, like a moment of panic of, “oh shit I’m about to die!!” The times where I have pushed past that and chilled out it was more enjoyable, but even knowing it’s not going to kill me, I can’t help but worry I’m the first person who is going to OD on a few puffs of a joint.

The one thing you want to keep in mind whenever doing drugs is that its a ride, it will stop eventually and everything go mostly back to normal.

Fear and panic in combination with an unshackled but inexperienced mind has the potential to create your own personal hell in no time.

That's also a good reason to get introduced to this class of drugs by responsible, experienced users who can help guide you out of any loops you get stuck in.

You should know it's VERY common for people to freak out on cannabis but not psychedelics. I'm one of those people. I have to be careful around cannabis but as long as I'm in a safe place I can take psychedelics with virtually zero anxiety.

Sure, our bodies react differently to different substances.

But it's likewise very common to use Cannabis to take the edge of the unsettling feeling of having your ego deconstructed/reconstructed when going in/coming out of stronger psychedelic trips.

Also worth noting that more Sativa-leaning hybrids are potent psychedelics in themselves at higher doses.

The recent interest in Ketamine/MDMA/psychedelics is long overdue. But I can't help feeling the optimism is somewhat too high?

I would encourage everyone to try LSD at some point in their lives. There are just vast parts of culture and humanity that you will suddenly understand. Most striking for me was seeing everyday scenes on the streets–people in cafés, parks, etc.–exactly as they are depicted in impressionist paintings. Or, of course, The Dark Side of the Moon.

But I'm sceptical regarding therapeutic use. Somewhere between 2% and 5% of people have recreationally tried most any given category of drugs. It was explored rather thoroughly in the therapist community in the 60s and 70s. If, indeed, they had the potential to essentially cure any of the diseases we have so far failed abysmally (depression, schizophrenia), no moralising majority would have had the power to suppress them.

What's promising are some less-frequent diseases such as PTSD. PTSD is somewhat unique because it involves memory, a system which we seem to have a much better chance at influencing compared to the evolutionary ancient limbic system of emotions.

Another fun aspect is the use of MDMA in talk therapy. For psychiatrist, it's an absolutely mind-blowing experience. They have often devoted their life to learning to get people to open up to them. And here you give them a pill and the effect is, reliably, like that scene of Robin Williams hitting Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting.

I think they provide something no pharmaceuticals do - a rapid and acute shift in perspective. In the face of trauma which creates damaged areas of the brain, the perspective shift can allow us to address root problems that would be otherwise inaccessible.

One of the most powerful benefits of psilocybin I don't see talked about very often is in the treatment of ADHD. A tip for researchers: The anxiety reducing effects are probably linked very strongly to emotional regulation which also receives similar positive benefits.

Sold over the counter in Amsterdam. It's not really a problem here, I suppose, because the many open canals enforce minimal sobriety

Mushrooms, cannabis and LSD are each much safer than alcohol [1]. (Objectively speaking, cocaine, amphetamine and MDMA are, too.) Legalisation for the first three and decriminalisation for the latter makes sense.

(I’m a wine and whiskey person myself. But my subjective choices shouldn’t have relevance.)

[1] https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-rank-recreational-d...

No shit.

Yeah like honestly, pretty much anyone that's had them and didn't have a freakout can tell you that

Even the freakouts can be therapeutic depending on the individual's perspective and how they integrate it.

It was just decriminalized in Oakland.