
Using Psychedelic Drugs to Get to Know Yourself - taylodl
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/2/19/16739386/ayahuasca-retreat-psychedelic-hallucination-meditation
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firski
In a very long article he seems to be mentioning unwanted side effects only as
a small side note.

I find this rather harmful, and think journalists should know better.

I took LSD when I was 18, lured by stories of Steve Jobs and others and I had
the worst time of my time. Bad trip doesn't begin to describe it. It left me
with psychosis lasting 4 months and making me fail my first year at the
university.

I only began taking antypsychotic medication after one year, when my psychosis
was triggered again by marihuana.

Would I suffer psychosis without drugs? My psychiatrist doesn't believe so,
but it very well might have happened. But why risk getting it triggered while
being under influence of powerful drugs and risking killing yourself?

(Under psychosis caused by Marihuana I almost jumped out of a high
construction building)

Sorry for stupid rant, just wished journalists had some integrity and would
not lightly promote illegal substances that have real social cost on users.
(From my talks with psychiatrists in psychiatric ward, a lot of users come
with psychosis triggered by marihuana/amphetamine/mephedrone use)

~~~
rootsudo
At the same time, I was a bit younger when I tried and had the best experience
of my life and it fixed my stutter and led me to become more empathic.

Maybe I was just lucky, the friends I made were into Timothy Leary and Shulgin
books, and I loved internet and Erowid was the perfect place to read
experiences, learn about dose, environment and how to fully succeed and get
what you want out of the trip.

But different time, different era, this was before the bath salt craze.

But doing it is something I'll never regret.

------
reneberlin
The same goes for meditating and "retreat centers". Enligthing, leisure, and
chilling effects is not what everyone gets. Population isn't equal, and
psychic sideeffects up to dramatic psychotic consequences for individual cases
are known for a long period of time.

But please do not exaggerate your own disposition on the rest of the populatio
n of the planet. Visual descriptions of such dramatic situations could fear
the shit out of nice people, just wanting to talk to you, or just smoke a
spliff while you talk.

I mean, i am happy you have your problems with psychotic drugs under control,
but you cannot save people from that, because if they knew they had that
disposition they wouldn't use it in the first place.

How to safely identify psychotic dispositions in the individual brain BEFORE
drug usage?

