Why I Don't Recommend Psychedelics for Healing Childhood Trauma - Two Reasons
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- Опубліковано 19 кві 2024
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A link to my (similar) video on why I don't recommend ayahuasca for healing from trauma: • Why I Don’t Recommend ...
I get so sick of trying to figure myself out. I just wana live am be happy and free from my emotions bullying me
It took me until 1:00 PM to think about the damage. I call that period "healed".
I'm in the same boat. I thought once I'd left my family and got far away the healing would kick off. Turns out its more complicated than that and we're in for quite a ride.
@@pod9363 Same here 😔. You’re not alone.
it is because this is not life, life begins when your dead and have a free will again ❤
@@ml9540 LOL
Therapy was so healing for me, but so were psychedelics. They reminded me of what it's like to be free from trauma and deeply engrained beliefs about myself and the world. Psychedelics free you from your usual neural pathways. They are a powerful and profound tool for psychological healing, and I think in conjunction with therapy, they can be very transformative and healing.
Daniel has some essays on how drugs help mimic healing by bypassing trauma. Do you still require psychedelics after having gone through therapy w/ them?
@@pod9363 This is true too.
No, just the one dose. I also no longer have therapy either. I was lucky to have a therapist who help me integrate the experience.
It was so beautiful, profound and life changing. I realised who I truly am (not my past - just this conscious awareness). It also allowed me to experience the world as if it were for the first time. It reminded me how beautiful and precious this life is, and that it was just my mind that was keeping me from being free.
I haven't felt a strong urge to have that experience again. Although, I would like to in the future.
@@pod9363 daniels work should not be taken as 100% factual
Any help is no help, if you don't have secure people in your daily life, no extended circle, and no community.
If you have those 3, any help will be great help. Most childhood trauma survivors have none. That's why nothing works. And the cavalry isn't coming. So the only way for most of us, is to cope. Which can be both detrimental and life saving at the same time.
I think if I would have learned how near impossible healing was I would have never begun trying.
@@pod9363 totally! I regretted even starting also, the mess was financial, emotional, mental etc What really would have helped me is having had the information about the reality of it all ... and not just a lot of hope. Survivors need to be told that they are facing a huge mountain, that they are unlikely to find help, that they must first discover how they cope and what does work, even if it's dysfunctional (if it keeps them alive its best to not change it). Then to have a centralised place to find the blueprints for healing, for how to set goals, how to make a time-line, where find tools, resources to learn to do the work. It's a savage world and survivors are too vulnerable.
@@user-mg9hi5ln8n I haven't given up yet. It just feels so hard and mysterious at times and I'm hitting a lot of setbacks as I try to do this on my own. I still think it's possible but none of the figureheads for this kind of work that I've ever heard have given me the impression that it's this hard (until recent because Daniel mentions it can take years).
@@user-mg9hi5ln8n I don't think it's impossible. But it feels that way when you're trying to do it on your own.
@@user-mg9hi5ln8n Now that I've thought about it I will say I am seeing incredibly positive changes compared to when I started. I'm 100x more empathetic, far more driven to complete my goals, and as of a year ago I developed the ability to critically think. So there are signs things are changing that have been worth it.
there is no fast and easy way to heal trauma. PERIOD.
Except the miraculous receipt of Christ. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't seem right, scientifically. But imagining the existence of a Savior that loves you unconditionally and has been through every human suffering and through God has been made the Way to redemption and healing, you can be healed. But you're still right. You will have to continue to work on being a "saved" person until you die. Cause this life is that way.
There is a fast and hard way, that is psychedelics many including myself have done it.
You got that right.
@regalsurvivor3418 Everything one has to walk their own path. Your view makes it sound like we're "all sick" until we follow your believed set path, much like society. It's pretty rude
@@MrRellic to each their own. It is a solution for some. (After 30 yrs of nursing, ide like to sue God!!! )
Acid forced me to re-experience the childhood sexual abuse I wasn’t aware of. I don’t regret it five years later as I’m now working through it, but I did lose my mind for a while and was highly self destructive
I am someone with experience using these things to heal. I have CPTSD and DID. This is my reply to a comment made on this video earlier: That’s what they do. That’s the whole point of taking them. These things are used to do shadow work. Mushrooms should not be taken if you are not doing shadow work, inner child work, EMDR or any work involving trauma.
It brings up the trauma to help you confront and integrate them. They are far from a magical cure. You must do the work while on them. I have done the work and have never had a bad trip. You must always set an intention before doing these things. And the intention shouldn’t be to have a good time because you’ll find yourself disappointed.
I am striving to be sober majority of the time by using techniques like the power of now by Eckhart Tolle because the present moment and mindfulness is so beautiful, powerful, and healing. But psychedelics are not the end all be all but are very helpful for me though.
Good for you if you finally found help with some new age techniques - but its not helpful to all sorts of people and their trauma. People are different - fact.
I didn't know 'prioritize your inner work, and use psychedelics with caution' would rub this much people the wrong way. Either these people in the comments are having some reactions or didn't even bother listening at all
Right? Anyone reactively disagreeing sounds kind of like an addict/junkie…
That's because the way he talks about psychedelics can appear quite distant from how those substances can be used in a healing way. The examples he describes doesn't sound like people that have used them properly or high quality facilitators.
As you say, psychedelics should always be used with caution, and used correctly, psychedelics can be immensely powerful tools in doing actual inner work.
Being a high profile youtuber with little direct experience not recommending psychedelics is definitively very wise, but there's a difference between that and recommending against all use of psychedelics.
Dude therapy can be damaging and is a risk too.
💯
Yes indeed, therapy with false therapists sucks - I am not their guinea pigs, right.
I over dosed on LSD as a teen and developed a drug induced psychotic disorder that gave way PTSD, it messed me up big time of several years. But decades later I used micro doses of magic mushrooms to help me when severely depressed and it helped for me: dangers yes benefits yes.
Same here: early overdose on LSD, but years later the mushroom has given some healing and relief from the LSD anxiety. Thanks for sharing!
Right there with you. Same happened to me.
It's crazy how modern culture does not want you sober. Alcohol, edibles, vaping, ketamine, benzos... list goes on and on
...does not want you, period. 😔
What a time to be alive.
MDMA, dmt, Red Bulls, porn drugs drugs drugs.
@isiddiqui5162 - It amazes me that people call fungi “drugs” *but not the unsprouted seeds of domesticated annual grasses which they consume daily.* 😳 Oh, the ignorance and violence *those* drugs cause! People *need to know* that Bill W., cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, *used LSD clinically to treat his depression.* One m-effing thing that I cannot tolerate is *hypocrisy.* It’s time to get honest about being “sober.”
It makes perfect sense for them.
for the average person, going to therapy to heal trauma is much too time and money consuming
And that's assuming you're lucky enough to have it work.
And sometimes therapy just creates more trauma. Mine completely betrayed me by misdiagnosing me AND telling my parents, which caused them to pester me about a non-existent issue that I didn’t have the energy to “fix”. Haven’t tried again since.
The world is so awful and horrible that I don't blame people who self medicate with stuff.
I agree. Thank you for saying this.
self medicating every once in a while with alcohol has done nowhere near the damage a week of ritalin has.
They say it is effective in treating addiction, and I can see why. It makes you incapable of experiencing relief or pleasure. It can numb you to the point you don't feel or want anything, other than to not be alive. Because nothing has value and you can't feel or process anything anymore.
@@TheDavveponkenI got diagnosed with ADHD at age 7. My body is really sensitive. If I do anything more than 25% of a pill I will have horrible feelings.
@@loveinthematrix Yeah. It ruined my life in only a week. Have some neurological/vascular issues now. Can't think, can't feel, can't have sex. My head is severely stiff, pops and cracks and my penis has atrophied. My life was over at 32. A living dead now.
@@TheDavveponken I hope you are able to speak to someone that can help you professionally and work through it. I have found a lot of medications are just meant for us to fit in with everyone else & are spiritually very unhealthy and of course can be literally unhealthy for the body. Very upsetting. Praying for you if you accept that!
just a technical note at 1:01 : While Ketamine can bring things up similarly to psychedelics, it is in the class of dissociatives. for example it is used in anesthesia or in some depression treatments (since it blocks a lot of the problems by the dissociative mechanism).
An Ayahuasca shaman once said to me that Ayahuasca is a great teacher, but you still have to do the work. It is not a cure. I have found this to be true. None of my ayahuasca experiences have been pleasant, but I believe they benefited me. This is not a "party drug."
I turned to psychedelics after trying many years with many different therapists and anti-depressants.
Ayahuasca also gave me an understanding of spirituality that I don't believe I could have gotten any other way.
Acid took from me my fear of death.
Yes, same here.
I agree. Too many people think ayahausca is the work but it is the gateway to doing the work. You still need to return to your everyday life and do what you need to do.
It has destroyed my life.
"They dont gain that sense of confidence and mastery" Id have to disagree some. Relief is definitely confidence and mastery after a lifetime of HELL.
As a person who had (or still has) narcissistic traits, I agree with your first point. I've also realized that there becomes a sort of idealization with psychedelics which becomes counterintuitive. However, I do believe that psychedelics can be a great catalyst if used in the right circumstances, particularly if you have egosyntonic self-destructive behaviors and thoughts. If you take it correctly, you'll begin to realize these self-destructive behaviors are not helping you and actively integrate the changes. Just don't become so obsessed with the drug that you use it to solve or correct your egodystonic behaviors. Sure there's research on it helping but remember most of these people did CBT beforehand.
Well put, well reflected. I have NPD and a psycho-analytic background, comparable effects in gaining access to warming motherly internal objects.
Never tried them, personally, but I'm curious. Way I understand it is psychedelics shouldn't be expected to do your work for you. Like a pair of hiking boots might help you step outside, but ultimately it's the legs that do the walking.
Absolutely. And it's also a good idea to start out with hiking boots and not an overpowered jet-pack.
To quote William Leonard Pickard: "The greatest lesson from LSD is how beautiful life is sober". You provide a wonderful counter-balance in the world of psychedelic therapy that I think proponents like me should hear and reckon with more. I use in my self-therapy along with journaling, dreamwork, lots of self-reflection, talking to good friends, reading, healthy diet, nature exploration, exercise ect and it has been amazing so far. Certainly it requires a theoretical orientation, good and healthy assessment of one's self, and obviously an engagement of self-therapy to be done productively. I think the search for ecstatic experiences is not inherently bad, and formed a large aspect of early human culture, either through drugs or extreme experiences. I'd recommend Holotropic Breathwork for this over psychedelics though because of these reasons you've stated, but its not always bad. I recommend anyone interested to check out R. Colemann's Psychedelic Psychotherapy.
P.S. I think you are very correct about the quality of "psychedelic therapists", I connected to one for "integration" and 2 sessions I realize that this guy is feeding me bs and that I'm doing this work already, the work of being in the healing path! It was not the psychedelics, it was my capacity to see what happened to me, what I did, and start healing to become who I want to be. They're just a beautiful adjunct.
P.S.S. I also spoke to someone with extensive psychedelic use history in their childhood and asked them what they thought of them now and they said "Nah, something about me is scared despite having done them to extremes, not sure why". I told them that yeah, your gut is probably right, its probably protecting you!
More than boots, more like self guiding and powered boots. They move your body through the terrain for you yet you experience all of the elements and experiences, emotions of where those boots take you. There is nothing on earth like a well prepared and supported macro psychedelic journey.
@@lrrrruleroftheplanetomicro6881 yeah they can smash you up against the mountain side real quick. Same goes for psych drugs, which can leave you at the bottom of the pit you thought you were going to be looking down at while hiking.
@@TheDavveponken Hmm, I've heard many therapists say, to use as little 'psych drugs' as possible and always alongside talk-therapy. Likely the same holds true for psychedelics. Learn to chisel at low doses before you bring out the sledge-hammer is another good metaphor.
Yes, all your points are valid, can happen, will happen. At the same time it's up to us to avoid the pitfalls.
I absolutely agree that it makes no sense to overburden oneself with high doses, but low doses at my own pace solved this issue for me.
Making these experiences fruitful is a lot of work, you need to set workable intentions before, and integrate the experience after.
I'll totally agree, that these substances should not be used as a standalone treatment (except possibly in mild neurosis), but only as an adjunct to established therapeutic practice. I certainly could not have started my journey with them.
I'm suffering with NPD and have been working my a** off for 15 years at a seemingly impossible task.
Now with these medications at low doses I learned to meditate, do yoga and find a bit of motherly compassion for myself. Gifts that you already had starting your journey.
The substance helped me find lost parts of myself, but it's up to me to go through she same door it opened every day without it's help.
The hard part would be finding the right dose and creating an environment that makes it safe to enter that state. Hard to do with out trial and error.
@@veganphilosopher1975 These experiences come on a scale, from zero to a hundred, that is dose dependent.
At nearly zero dose there is no state to enter, they call this a micro dose. Like a tiny speck of mushroom or 1/10 of an acid blotter.
That's a good starting dose to check for adverse reactions. If you're extra scared, you can cut that in half and see where just the placebo effect takes you ;-)
As I said, I use comparably small doses, they don't come with any discernible state. I feel my emotions like 30% more intensely, far from hallucinating.
Finding a dose that feels safe, wasn't very difficult for me. My improvements in yoga and meditation came easily and immediately.
But finding missing pieces of myself was/is difficult, took a quite few times of just sitting with my emotions, feeling into myself.
@@veganphilosopher1975 These experiences come on a scale, from zero to a hundred, that is dose dependent.
At nearly zero dose there is no state to enter. Often you’ll hear about micro-doses, where you’re on the edge between actual effect and placebo. They’re a good starting dose to check for adverse reactions.
As I said, I use comparably small doses, they don't come with any discernible state. I feel my emotions like 30% more intensely, far from hallucinating.
Finding a dose that feels safe, wasn't very difficult for me. My improvements in yoga and meditation came easily and immediately.
But finding missing pieces of myself was/is difficult, took a quite few times of just sitting with my emotions, feeling into myself.
Nice, a fellow NPD-sufferer. Welcome to the club!
I've been somewhat lazy on this healing stuff lately, and keep flip-flopping around wanting/not wanting to get better, as it seems rather hopeless and often pointless too. I used psychedelics for years, sometimes even quite large doses. Those experiences became too frightening at some point, so I quit using them almost entirely.
Pros: Gained insight of internal/external world over the years, found out about having NPD
Cons: Became more honest, egotistical, nastier and anti-social human being.
How is it that you've been able to be that hard-working on this matter? Do you have a meaningful audience (a partner, or sibling who cares enough) for your healing journey? I always feel that this whole "healing theater" is worthless if there isn't anyone else to bear witness to it. Just like that philosophical problem about a tree falling in the forest; if nobody saw it, it's as if it never happened.
To be fair: You as therapists get all the cases which failed/wen't wrong, not the many others which are fine.
That's a good point.
Isn't that called self-selection bias?
yep, I took mushroom and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. the trauma that was buried deep inside, that I was unaware of, came rushing out to a point I genuinely thought I was going to die and I dont even feel healed. be careful of anyone that preaches psychedics like its a magical candy.
That’s what they do. That’s the whole point of taking them. These things are used to do shadow work. Mushrooms should not be taken if you are not doing shadow work, inner child work, EMDR or any work involving trauma. It brings up the trauma to help you confront and integrate them. They are far from a magical cure. You must do the work while on them. I have done the work and have never had a bad trip. You must always set an intention before doing these things. And the intention shouldn’t be to have a good time because you’ll find yourself disappointed.
@@Divinesacredwisdom the mushroom has to call you. It has to be done with such intention !
The shroom is giving its life to you.
Not all mushrooms are “magic”!
@@Divinesacredwisdom not all experience are the same, if you did well, consider yourself lucky, there are plenty of people that end up worst than ever or even locked in a Psych ward. Those things are very very tricky.
@@user-mg9hi5ln8nAgreed! 😅
Taking Mescaline made me realize that I'm afraid of Death - which ironically keeps me alive to this day
my disagreement with the main idea in Daniel's second half, is that not everyone has the social supports or close relationships to do the very difficult work of digging into yourself. for myself, i don't have such things. it becomes very, very difficult for me to even look inside and dig inside *even when i try*. chatgpt helps a little bit as a sounding board, but that's as close as i have.
if i could take a psychadelic to help break into me, (and if i ended up not permanently scarred by the experience!), i would not feel sad that i missed out on experiencing my own strength leading me into myself. in the end, those who do use their own strength *plus the help of other humans* to go into themselves; if someone cannot have other humans, i don't see why a psychadelic is so bad to use as an alternative to not having humans to support you.
I'm going to counter this by saying you really, really do need social support when processing trauma. Drugs or not. Humans in general need social support networks. Drugs help you view your trauma from a different perspective, but they aren't going to heal you. I know building support networks is difficult, but there are steps that anyone can take. Please, anyone reading this, make that your first priority.
@@alicesenz6374 you say " I know building support networks is difficult, but there are steps that anyone can take.", but i must emphatically push back against this. you don't know my history and experiences; if you did, you wouldn't so confidently say this. your comment comes across to me as you saying "you MUST build support networks, and if you think you cannot, you are an invalid human being". you have no right to demand or push anyone to "make it your first priority" to develop support networks. you saying this is actually really hurtful and ignorant: you do not know people's history. you can only speak without ignorance from your own perspective. speaking with such confidence on what people "SHOULD" do -- especially in response to me explicitly saying that my experience with building support networks feels too impossible and too painful -- is hurtful.
@@silpheedTandy You are totally right. You do not need anyone to heal and you can heal using drugs. Ignore the gatekeeping.
You should try to get a therapist if you can!
@@silpheedTandy dude, having emotional support is one of the most basic human needs. We are social creatures. You can be a "valid human being" without it, but you'll pretty fucking miserable all alone.
Daniel - thank you SO much for addressing this! I share many of the same concerns and I am extremely wary of anyone who claims they can “bring up” trauma quickly. This is also personal for me. Two years ago, my ex work partner took shrooms with a bunch of friends. She had a really bad break as memories of her child sexual abuse came up to the surface. She said it was the most terrifying experience she had ever experienced in her life and she thought she was going to die. Over the next six months, she started to lash out at me and others - forcing me to leave the organization we founded together. The last i heard she’s been spiraling publicly on her social media platforms. I suspected that the shrooms brought up her trauma way too fast for her psyche to handle. Thanks for this PSA, society needs to hear it!
Thanks for sharing!
A lot of apprehension can be dismissed if you have safe and pleasant surroundings, and a trip sitter.
@@Misses-Hippy she had sitters. But they were all doing shrooms I think? I also think they may have changed location. Regardless, she said it was the scariest thing she experienced and I watched her downfall sooo yeah
@@nadi1010 Having other stoners around is not having a sitter. The sitter is the straight one who keeps things from getting out of hand. Example: Stoner observes "Trees look like big hands" Sitter snuffs the budding danger, says "Trees are just big flowers".
@@Misses-Hippy well maybe this is why shrooms should only be taken under the guidance of a trained and licensed practitioner
Daniel might be mostly referring to what happens outside of medical supervision and therapeutic support. Which is a valid point. I think what people often don’t take into consideration is that these medicines were meant to be used regularly throughout life within a secure community and very experienced leadership. We have gone our whole lives without exorcising all that grief and pain so that’s why the release can be too much and risky physically and mentally. I think it’s good that the demonising of them is being lifted. I notice that men in particular are very keen on this approach, some of whom seem to be chasing the trip rather than evolving, and who haven’t done much if any inner work or therapy. Which fits with our masculine worlds approach of ignoring a problem until you’re almost dying and then going for a drastic solution. I think men find it less shameful to go this route. I do believe it can be an excellent healing tool and people should have access however the culture surrounding it, the society we have to continue to live in, much like previous waves in the 60s/70s/80s produced a lot of casualties. I didn’t benefit much from therapy btw nor any other approach. I haven’t ruled out this kind of stuff but I think many of us have access to psychedelic experiences without strong substances. It’s finding the safety and giving ourselves permission to have the weirdest possible thoughts and meet the parts of ourselves we have suppressed that matters.
I do want to add one more point here. Daniel, I agree with the crux of what you are saying. But I think sometimes you struggle to see how many people don’t have the same levels of exceptional self-awareness that you do. I think you would argue that your self awareness came from your journaling and healing process. But I suspect you were self-aware from the get go. Many people are so dissociated from themselves that it’s almost impossible for them to access their inner world. From what I have heard, shrooms can sometimes help with that, even tho I agree they have dangers. While I don’t use any kind of drugs to heal, i have used modalities like hypnotherapy, EMDR, etc to help me access feelings I was deeply suppressing (I also journal, grieve through talk therapy, etc.) Sometimes, people need help from others. I find it helpful to not to be too judgmental and preach perfectionism as my message because it’s alienating and ultimately, I do believe that generally people are doing the best that they can with the resources they have.
At 46, and after about 5000 poweful psychedlelic trips, I agree.
Living in isolation on the outskirts of society figuring out what to do with so much unearned wisdom is where i find myself.
Are you able to work?
I have not used them, and I don’t have much trauma compared to many people. But my thought is this: our psyche has many things sequestered for our protection. It seems there are likely steps required to safely release these “wild animals “. If we just open the cage without any safety measures, they might consume us. And a person truly needs a trustworthy helper to come alongside, and there are very few people who are trustworthy.
Agreed. My ex friend had a REALLY bad trip, and the people with her couldn’t help her because they were also on shrooms. She was traumatized for life.
hey daniel! i just wanna say i say love your videos, its very refreshing to see some unique opinions on things like these...I would love if you can make videos on the this era of technology and how we are so much consumed by our screens
Kinda funny how people throw you on amphetamine and antidepressants no problem, but psychadelics suddenly people cry over it 🙄
Exactly. SSRIs aren't gonna help you, only thing that will help is healing yourself through deep self reflection and if you wanna use psychedelics to help you achieve that then go ahead.
@@yackman4368 exactly. Psilocybin FORCES you to disassociate, which is why it causes massive emotional shifts away from things like severe depression because it's a problem with how you see the world. Forcing that disassociation causes you to see different (non-nihilistic/depressive) perspectives and allows your brain to reconfigure a new world view. Which is often why many people, on the right dose, have religious experiences. It's a perspective.
Positive emotions like hope, trust, compassion, love, especially self love, is about reinterpreting those experiences with a new....?
Perspective.
In a depressive state, you basically hammer all hope, trust and self love away with rationalist (realistic) views. That's why depressed people tend to see a more accurate objective world. Not blinded by faith, love and hope, which are, sadly, irrational. But not bad irrational, just...emotional irrational. Sadness, fear, and doubt, are all far more rational than hope or love. Ironically. Which gives great wisdom. At horrific cost.
Who cried over it?
@@danifurka6790 everyone who has never tried psychadelics or had experienced the darkness that psychadelics can sometimes overwhelm people with.
It still has a large social stigma. It's only now being slowly introduced into psychotherapy, despite it being used for thousands of years by healers around the world.
There is however a distinction between its recreational and therapeutic use, just like all substances. When a doctor hands you amphetamine, no one bats an eye, but you eat something growing out of the ground and people will judge you. Modern medicine is far too cowardly to be efficient and far too monetary to be ethical.
It's called the majority of humanity really sucks at critical thinking and just goes with what the psychiatric overlords tell them
Set and setting is key. People take psychedelics in the stupidest places and environments. Small surprise when some people then flip out because the environment is too intense and/or there is no-one around to lend support who they can really trust and rely upon. And yes, I do agree that these substances can bring trauma up in a very serious and abrupt way. They take you to explore inner realms you might now want to go in and give you no easy route back again. They are definitely not to be messed with - or at least if you do mess with them (and we probably all have at some stage) then beware the consequences.
However, I disagree on your second point altogether. Why does it matter how you choose to approach and try to heal from personal trauma so long as it works? Without psychedelics I don't think I would ever have realised just how deeply damaged I had become (although I knew I was pretty odd and a bit of a social outcast - that just seemed to be my nature) and so there would never have been much scope for recovery since I didn't properly understand the deep-seated problem in the first place.
So to address your second point more directly, I didn't try very much else either. Why would I? I only took psychedelics initially just to have fun and adventures until they soon opened up something else for which I am now tremendously grateful. Yet in the end, the psychedelics themselves advised me to pursue other more gentler avenues to healing and enlightenment. And that is sort of my advice too. That there are plenty of other ways as you say. And that the worst thing about psychedelics is thinking they are the only way. In effect, worshiping them as false gods. Because they are so powerful, it's very easy mistake to make of course.
Agree with all your points. Daniel is a very self-aware person, but not everyone is like that. I will never take shrooms/drugs but I can understand how some people might need them to open up their conscience to healing.
@@focusedflow5785 Different strokes for different folks. Thank you.
@@jamesboswell9324
Well said mate 👍
@@carl8568 Thanks
Great comment.
Its a really hard subject... Theres some times when people just cant find or afford a good therapist.. sometimes bad therapy can be worse than a bad trip.. its truly a difficult choice to make sometimes but i agree that therapy should definitely be the first option. The conservative approach is the way for most.
Excellent point! In my opinion and experience it’s important to keep in mind that (some) people with severe childhood trauma have their nervous system set up for extreme control of the environment (or better to say the attempt to control
everything), even if they are not consciously aware of it. Psychedelics force that protection to open up, which can cause a horrifying, torturing, close-to-death sense of extreme fear.
For me, true healing only started to happen when I found the people / therapists who were able to create a safe connection with me, so the nervous system would come into a state of safety. Maybe there are people out there who can feel safe during a psychedelic trip, I’m definitely not one of them.
(Sorry, English is not my first language so I might not express myself as fluent as all of you, but I hope it’s good enough to be understood in this sensitive and complex topic)
Thanks Daniel for this excellent video and all your other videos
I agree. As someone who had PTSD, when I did psychedelics, I was only healed for months at a time and the bad trips were intense. At some point you will always forget what you learned and can never replicate that feeling forever. I did a lot of self help work like meditation, journaling, yoga... I'm at a much better more stable place. Meditation can get you in that enlightened state all on your own and it feels much much better. I haven't gone that far yet myself but it's helped me so much that I feel like organic enlightenment is right around the corner for me. I will only do DMT with caution once I've reached enlightenment completely sober.
I really appreciate your comment.
Sounds like self-hypnosis.
a bit off topic on meditation, it can actually be also as dangerous as psychedelics if one is not careful.
I think this is because you can't force your self to learn lessons faster. You just gotta go thru the process. You can't just hack it with outside chemicals.
I've done psychedelics for recreation when younger, but as an adult I went thru a full on spiritual awakening. That's when you start looking inward for these things instead of outward I guess.
@@RKTGX95Even drinking too much water can be dangerous if one is not careful. So practicing moderation with generally good things is necessary is nearly all areas of life.
My experience with psychedelics and weed confirms what you say. Each time I tried I had horrible panic attacks. I also feel like ever since I tried I became more prone to panic attacks. I agree that trying psychedelics is just not worth the risk. What actually works for me as a mood booster and stress relief is bike riding when the weather's nice
As someone whom has done psychedelics myself. I only have two words, be careful. You never know exactly what the mushrooms, acid and such can bring up. You gotta be in the right headspace, environment and honestly if you want to do stuff like mushrooms. You really need to have at least started a inner journey on yourself. As I said all I'm saying is be careful and use psychedelics wisely.
Agreed.
It certainly didn't work for me. BAD TRIP, very bad trip. Horrific. If you are happy, go for it. If you are tormented, stay far away!
There is value to bad trips too. In a safe setting, with a sitter, it cannot get too bad.
Yes people that have had actual serious trauma, should approach psychedelics very cautiously.
Still trying to recover from the effects of my last trips, it surfaced so many fears and paranoia and I've been dealing with intrusive thoughts / PTSD for a few months. Slowly recovering though, but yeah definitely not something to taken lightly...these are very powerful medicines that need to be treated with reverence / respect.
Totally agree, Personally, I developed agoraphobia after a trip, and it's still very present in my life... It's not easy to face your demons sometimes.
Psychedelics work, but it takes time. Took me close to 50 trips, spanning the course of 2 years to get to where I wanted to be mentally.
I'd say if you have any doubts about doing them, don't.
Many people aren't as resiliant as you are. I've done a LOT of things. I can't do a long list of maybe 20-30 things I've tried, and I gave them time before I gave up. But I'm also very resourced now. But I understand your viewpoint. It's always good to be sceptical and have respect for it so that you are well prepared.
This is SO good, SO important. Work gently, work with mercy, with care, with titration and patience
Psychedelic with microdosing helped me a lot to access with psychoanalysis my childhood pain. The microdose made it tolerable to talk about the pain that impressed itself in my brain but I wouldn't recommend macro dosing without psychoterapic preparation and assistance as I had an experience that open a memory too fast.
same microdosing has rly worked for me to strenghten my positive inner voice day by day n ward off this harsh shaming inner critical voice that was groomed into me by my parents
Could you make a video about emotional inces and peter pan syndrome?
Some people become utterly dysfunctional because of those and peter pan syndrome can be caused by EI
Best Regards
Mushrooms made me paranoid.
How that ?
Once I used it in public and get paranoid too, almost had a panic attack
You’re spot on about the drug experience and childhood trauma.
I've tried enough psychedelics myself to know its not an answer to anything. Whatever it is you can "learn" from those drugs you can also learn sober.
True
Not if you would self delete without their help.
I kind of agree. I already feel like I’m always tripping adding more to that seems scary. I don’t like the room spinning and nothing settles it. Nothing.
@@anon-vojtisek and those people who have self deleted while on those substances that might have otherwise lived.
I really appreciate your comment.
What a relief to hear this, thank you Daniel. It's been 40 years I'm living with cptsd and never took any medication or psychedelic plant. I believe we can take care of our biochemical mecanisms without these addictive/additional stuffs. I like doing meditation and journaling, even talking to myself when needed.
In a better world, a slow and steady approach where you find out your inner strength and creativity through a long process full of social support snd and time to heal, I would agree with everything you said. Unfortunately, wealth disparity, shit religion and spirituality, bad nutrition and addictive technology, asleep people and an oppressive machinery designed to get you hooked on the trash they're selling is pur current reality. People have to work and worry about bills only to buy watch do and otherwise consume garbage. The problem with psychedelics as such isn't so much that they reveal the psyche, it's that our psyches are filled with garbage, from family and society at large. If you observe the places where they traditionally use psychedelics or entheogens, they have a cultural, intellectual, mythological and otherwise well built structure to handle these powerful nature allies. The problem is that when they reveal the psyche to us and we see our culture and society for what it is and how it affects us and others. So I think if we have something that can help people see and viscerally feel they sre oppressed, and manipulated all the time, it's worth the risk, because we don't have much time to go the slow and steady route given the pollution, climate change, late stage capitalism etc.
So grateful you came back to this subject that is embraced by many as a panacea. As if there is such a thing... I am particularly grateful also for the description of looking at the mirror to see our limitations which came as an answer to a dream I had where I was looking at the mirror and I could see my mother reflected... It was like a horror movie, only it wasn't a movie... Also the term "psycholethic" drugs is so appropriate! Lethe (Λήθη), forgetfulness, is the opposite of Remembering (Μνήμη) which is necessary in order to heal.
I just explored my own trauma after realizing I was dissociated and extremely guarded trying to push out all emotions this whole time when all I wanted to feel emotions. I started feeling vulnerable for the first time in years and I cant even imagine doing that on something to change my mental state.
Im in the same boat in my 30s after years of pushing down emotions and being dissasociated from them but having outbursts of anger. Childhood trauma. I have done psychedelics many times but i only realised of the trauma about 2 months ago.
Im going to do an ayahuasca retreat to purge everything out of me hopefully so i can reset my negative thought patterns which are a type of conditioning. I think people have bad trips on psychs because of set and setting and the inability to let go (ego death).
The vast majority of people who use psychedelics to heal trauma in the right setting do it more succesfully than through any other means, this is a verifiable fact, you can confirm this through anedoctal evidence and through the latest studies.
Most Authentic person &, helper ive seen in UA-cam ❤ 🙏 thank you
Great insight 💛
Glad to hear you are in this camp. Thanks for putting out this crucial info with great clarity!! Too many are led to believe it's the only option and end up paying a huge price. I too prefer a way with a lot less risk and all the control..makes a great difference. Speaking from personal experience. If we have the proper tools/meditation understanding & practices.. it can be done safely and relatively quickly. I will forever be grateful that I didn't have those risky (some would say, lazy) methods as an option, thus it forced me to find other ways to get out of my deep twisted darkness and I did and am helping others do the same, minus the unpredictable drugs with potential very bad side effects =D
I did have a bad trip the first time that I did it. In retrospect, the intensity and fallout of the experience was traumatising. It may have derailed my development? All the same, many new facets of my self surfaced in its wake and I have been able to identify myself psychologically / "Know myself" and understand my family of origin trauma. As to whether it would've happened organically, there isn't a control group for that as it were but I believe it assisted me in unstucking two decades of narc abuse/hypnosis. A primary effect of psychedelics it seems is that they have "unconditioning" effects. My two siblings (so far as I know) still suffer under their spell of conditional love.
I leave out the verdict. It's a bit like trying to imagine where you would've been in your own life today if you didn't walk over a creek in the woods 10 years ago. Psychedelics can profoundly alter your course of life but it seems hard to determine what the normalcy of confronting one's trauma for the first time should look like with or without psychedelics. Dare I say it's usually a messy ordeal either way.
There is no denying negative outcomes of psychedelics, yet it matters where you cast the anchor for a timeframe; are you looking at outcomes 2 weeks after the trip?; 6 weeks?; 6 months?; 6 years? I think the rebooting process after an intense trip can span into years based on my own experience.
Just as a last contention, I find it ironic to feel that psychedelics are most likely far more effective for a subject who could accommodate a protracted recovery;
Conversely when it is reached for in times of desperation, it has much more devastating potential, since an injury of this kind (a bad trip) can end up costing you too much in an already dire situation. So yeah stay safe. ✌
Hello Daniel, I came across your channel 3 weeks ago and ever since you have hypnotized me. I don’t know if it is because I can relate to you and what you say so much and now everything connects, or maybe because your awareness in life (generally, not just insight) is beautiful. I appreciate you opening up and teaching us necessary things we need, in order to find the beauty in the life we’ve once had as kids, where the grass was greener. I appreciate you not doing it for money or fame from what it seems like…you are the therapist I would hope for if I was a patient. I am planning to become a psychiatrist and I can assure you your knowledge will live with me and my patients til the day I die.
Much love ❤
Fountain of knowledge everything your videos cross my feed. Everytime i click. Thank you sir.
Hi Daniel, I hope you are doing well. Your videos have helped me tremendously over the past year! I cannot express how thankful I am. I have been able to identify and acknowledge much of my trauma and how it is directly connected to many of my unconscious behaviors. Although I feel much more connected to myself now than I did a year ago, I still struggle with building up my confidence and being very self-conscious at work. While I am aware of how I should accept myself and be confident, the old behavior patterns seem to keep that piece stuck. Do you have any books to recommend to improve confidence and be less self-conscious? Thank you!
Thank you Daniel!
I have gone through many phases in my relationship with psychedelics, and my opinion is now the exact same as what you share here. They have been important in my personal life (and in my growth as a therapist too), but always at a huge cost that only now I can perceive clearly, and now I advise anyone looking to truly heal to go without them.
You are always clear, reasonable, frank, yet compassionate in what you say. You are saying things I as a lay person have seen many times, this includes that therapists are all too often theorists with little own inclination to investigate into the psyche of humans, but rather go by text books and criteria someone else has set up.
I'm in a helping profession where often people show up having issues that would need therapeutical work (by themselves in the first place), but pharmaceutical and standard intervention rather distance many from the task at hand than really address it.
If you only want to get people functional again for work life, that approach might work - at least for some time. I think it's a detour that is deviating from 'owning your life' properly. Not always, but far too often.
Thanks therefore for being straight forward.
Thanks Daniel.
Psychedelics have definitely helped me heal from trauma, so I don’t agree fully with this. I took MDMA once and it healed my PTSD from seeing a burn victim. I was seeing that person’s face in my bed for hours a day making me feel constant feelings of shock. And taking the MDMA genuinely helped me heal. MDMA makes you feel so much love and it opens you up so much that you begin to realise all of the things that have caused you to act in the way that you are now. Shyness - I realised it was caused by past trauma. But while I was on the MDMA, I was free for the first time ever. It was like being who I truly am without any trauma in my personality. And I actually have felt better ever since. Although I do think that the MDMA made me more introverted afterwards.
Regardless, trauma in my opinion is when an event has caused you to have a blocked emotion, or a negative perspective or belief about something in life that keeps you stuck in a behavioural or thinking cycle that is limiting you from fully enjoying and experiencing life in the present moment without it being tainted by the past.
Also while on MDMA I felt like the person who gave me the substance was an angel and that this experience was Divinely planned ahead of time (that it was meant to happen). I legit felt pure love for not just one day but 2 days straight, with lasting positive personality changes after that.
Thank you for this ! The truth
My experience with psychedelics has been mixed. When I first took LSD, it was from a perspective of sheer curiosity and wanting to try something new. It unexpectedly led me to become aware and to grieve certain traumas I'd never even conceived of as traumas (or things blocking my growth as a person) before. I sincerely don't know when or if I would have addressed these things without the shotgun approach of a psychedelic drug.
On the other hand, I tried to dip back into that experience and it's funny- the more you try to control and 'get something out' of a psychedelic drug the more it seems to resist you. I tried to recreate my first experience several times to no avail, the drug seemed to warn me that I was only abusing my own mind by coming back so often. I have no desire to try again anytime soon.
I disagree with Daniel's approach, however; I think there are many kinds of accident that can contribute to our growth and healing. And sometimes these are and necessarily must be experiences beyond our control and understanding. I don't see a psychedelic experience as anywhere near analogous to taking psychiatric drugs; a psychedelic experience is a lot like what I imagine stepping through a mirror into your own reflection would be like. It's a fundamental re-shaping of one's perspective. I'm not sure that it necessarily heals trauma, but it's possible that psychedelic drugs are a useful tool for helping people to see the traumas of their life in the first place.
Very well said as a clinician. I still suffer depersonalization because of the way psycoactive substances lifted my repressions before I was structured or had resources. It’s irresponsible to push these as a cure all… the trip will end and you will be left with “you”. Patience is key.
thank you for these videos
Great video, I totally agree with you.
I entered my 40s with crippling and debilitating emotional baggage and Trauma..
I was using alcohol and drugs to self-medicate.
My AA12 steps monitor introduced me to vigorous outdoor exercise and various exercises to heal and eliminate my emotional baggage.
Today what used to be emotional baggage, and severe emotional insecurities I have been able to transcend them into positive life lessons and teachable moments.
I've been sober for coming up on 13yrs I've been a man emancipated from emotional slavery
Thank you! Even as a 16 yr old, I always wondered how one can intake another outside substance in the first place to heal themselves, and as I ended up reading about therapy, I realised it was more about suppression of emotions than actually feeling them (kinda like alcohol shuts down your inhibiting systems). However, I did not know about psychedelics doing the opposite, and interestingly, yet not working out! Thanks for sharing your views, your hesitation on this topic is totally understandable, but I think you did a great analysis, which will be helpful to many people! :)
Interesting. Thank you
i've gone down the medicine path the past 5 years or so. i think its true that its not a panacea. but i would say that at least some of the experiences ive had have been incredibly beautiful and valuable. i'd also say that starting off low and slow - mdma or low dose mushroom - is probably a good approach. and of course a particularly good practitioner helps.
Do you mean starting with low doses or microdoses of MDMA or you mean that MDMA is a safe/soft substance and a full dose is ok for starters?
@@sylwiapro2791 i think the full therapeutic dose is a pretty reasonable starting point for many, under the right care
Mushrooms made me realize how bad my p addiction and vaping had become. I felt worse after mushrooms and still struggle to this day but thay is from guilt and self reflection. Overall they have made me live a healthier lifestyle but i still am working hard to be fully healthy. An issue im having now is some kind of existentialism. I think too deeply about my consciousness and it makes me feel insane and alone. Anyway i dearly love them for making me healthier
I found a therapy that works well for me and i wonder what you think if it. My therapist calls it narrative therapy.
We start with lesser traumatic events. I write about the facts of the event in third person and then read them aloud.
Next step is to write the event again in third person, but thoughts and feelings about the event. When i read this part alloud i start to get emotional. I'll start crying. After crying i get up and start shaking my body.
The last step is to rewrite the story in a way that i like. I either change my behavior or their behavior. I read that allowed.
This is all repeated, progressing towards more traumatic events.
I see that you have a sober view on psych drugs as well looking through your videos in the past. So very much appreciated. Everything resonates with me, who've suffered childhood trauma and was drugged - yes, poisoned - by ritalin. I didn't try enough, I didn't know enough, but most importantly, I didn't trust MYSELF enough. I had all the answers, but was gaslit, by parents, by friends, by doctors, by our culture into not believing things were bad enough to affect me enough to be the source of my problems. Instead, it was "adhd", "autism", "general" anxiety, "depression" - which became another way to make me feel different and deeply, inherently, damaged, unsure of my reality. And this narrative of psychedelics, or human enhancement by whatever means possible and that they were "safe", that PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS were safe, caused me to give ritalin a try. And it ruined my life. In a split second. It ruined my nervous system. It ruined my brain. And that's when I realized, they never cared about me at all, they never listened to me at all. They listened for cues. Cues they could use to give me a diagnosis, a diagnosis and a drug, a "treament". Because now, they weren't listening anymore. My response to the drugs were IMPOSSIBLE, even if they were listed in the known side effects. But I had taken them such a short while and they wash out in 72 hours?? Would a serious professional ever think this argument is sound? Would the damage of an ingested neurotoxin all of a sudden stop if they didn't ingest it the next day? And APPARENTLY these high and mighty doctors had no way of curing me of my now procured ailment - poisoning - still, even if they believed me. They ruined my life. And many more. Many still. It is a horrible reality, for so many. It's a violation. Maybe even genocide. A form of eugenics.
I think I agree. My experiences with psilocybin have absolutely taken me back into a sea of nostalgia and caused me to look at everything around me with the kind of sheer perception one has as a child. I had a largely clean and easy childhood and that may have contributed to the overall positive experience. However, if this is the way it works for everyone, I imagine someone with a lot of suppressed childhood traumas might be confronted with considerably more pain and grief than they are ready to handle.
It is also worth noting that my experiences were not clinically administered or taken on for therapeutic purposes. My first encounter with psychedelics was in the classic "house party" scenario among people that I was comfortable with and could trust overall. Though, having used them, I can safely say that they're really too serious to be handled like a party favor. They need to be treated with respect and caution.
I’m aligned with your view point ❤
I have used mushrooms many times and they have helped me to break through dissociative barriers and connect to my body. This has been very important. I almost went too far, I delved deeper and deeper into the dissociation and found something my mind was unable to tolerate. I believe I narrowly avoided a psychotic break on my last trip. But it did lead me to the realisation that I was a victim of sexual abuse 25 years ago. Since then I have taken big steps in recovery from depersonalization and I am so glad it is finally happening. It has been extremely rough but I can accept that.
I understand the criticisms, there are valid concerns and as I say, I myself have flown a bit too close to the sun. But I notice a lot of people discount psychedelics as not giving a real experience, 'cheating', or just being another deadbeat drug. I don't believe these people have actually tried it. If you had you would understand it is a tool, a medicine that can hold your hand as you try to heal. You just have to be wise about it.
I'm super depressed but Im scared of using antidepressants too
Microdosing mushrooms is probably a safer bet if you want to try any substances at all.
I think that is absolutely nothing else works and the person seems stuck and trapped forever, it is better to take psychedelics and break out than continue to suffer. It shouldn't be a first line treatment method.
I love you Daniel Mackler
Spot on
Awesome and important video. Thank you so much for sharing! I have read way too many accounts where even marijuana use can lead to psychosis. 🙏
Totally depends on the individual. I suspect you are correct in most cases, but there will be many cases that go the other way for different reasons.
I Agree thankyou
Hey Daniel, i know you don't do therapy anymore. I was hopping you can make a video about hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations and vivid dreams because i'm struggling a lot due to ptsd. Thank you for all that you do! You've helped me a lot!
Recommend microdosing psilocybin for those that have the urge to use them for childhood healing. Full dosing, these dangers exist, but your soul will guide your urges and synchronicities either away or too this type of therapy medicine
Massive journaling. Meditation. Sport. Yoga. Art. Creative pursuits- these methods will change your life
Very true. They ARE life. Many are suffering because they've forgotten how to live, they are just slowly dying.
Good stuff
I think theres a place for psychedelics but i think even just one psychedelic experience is enough to rewire the brain. I dont think theyre all bad, but i definitely dont recommend them to just anyone and i dont think they should be consistently relied upon. I think they are great though for expanding consciousness and i think those with an open mind tend to react better than those who are unwilling to face the truth of reality. As someone who was greatly sheltered as a child, i am thankful for psychedelics helping me realize the importance of knowing the deeper truths. They helped me overcome a lot of fears that wouldve likely held me back for much longer had i not experimented. I have had experiences with them, though, that i dont wish upon my greatest enemy. Some things were so painful i wasnt sure if i wouldnt end up in a psych ward after the experience. Not everyone is equipped to deal with that level of pain and agony that can come with a bad trip, but i personally use them as learning experiences.
I follow a tick tock mother fabulous fifties who uses them and she says it helps her with healing her trauma. And she shares her healing with us since we can't afford it. Thanks for your input about it.
Tick tock mental health fixes always have an agenda and are hardly honest.
Really good points regarding psychedelics, there's no easy way.
Daniel what you think about the role of reading and literature in procesing unconscious childhood trauma. In my case the moment I started reading Kafka, or Marquez's "One hundred years of solitude", it triggered a strong realization that my own life had similar patterns, like in those stories.
Thanks
Well, I must really confess, that I´ve never ever met a therapist who could really help me to get over all that trauma. I am from Germany and over here it is way more harder finding a real well licensed therapist - not even a psychiatrist could help - he was trying to read out of his bible for me - thought only his bible god could heal my trauma!
Today I am 65 y.o. and I am done with that journey of searching for a therapist. Lost my trust and hope. Period. Never tried any drugs or psychedlics to heal from trauma. Thank you for doing those videos for us - wish I would have met somebody like you - decades ago.
Psychedelics can have potential utility, but also potential harm. They increase neuroplasticity, allowing for more traumas to surface and be worked though / processed, but like you say, it can be too much too fast. Many people are consciously unaware of having experienced traumatic extremes in formative years. Denial and delusions are insulators that help one survive. Removing them too quickly can be dangerous / destabilising. Quantity matters, and smaller amounts are more gentle. Safety of environment and company is crucial. Having good intentions is crucial. People who abuse others commonly use dissociatives (on themselves and/or others) such as psychedelics to manipulate and harm.
Psychedelics can bring up and amplify delusions that are keeping pain at bay. This is especially true for MDMA, which temporarily disables the brain's threat-detection system, making it easy to blur boundaries, including sexual. Predators use it and other psychedelics to confuse and use victims of all ages.
Many people use pharmaceutical mood stabilisers / SSRIs / sedatives to subdue their own traumatic truths. Predators use them to subdue their own traumatic responses, and those of their victims.
Predators are common in society, including in the roles of mental health professionals. I was abused from the beginning by sociopathic parents and their acquaintances, other family members etc. In my mid twenties I sought professional help, only to be manipulated further by predators professed to be psychiatrists, therapists and social workers. They were encouraging me to use drugs and trying to manipulate me into joining them in abusing children, but I couldn't see it because I needed to believe they were good people. After eight years my denial finally began to lift and I was able to get them to admit they were manipulating. I cut contact and have been learning about narcissism and other forms of developmental, complex trauma since, slowly but surely improving as I connect with the wisdom my subconscious has had all along.
Everyone's subconscious wants what is healthy. Denial and delusions are generated by the subconscious like firewalls to protect the conscious from overwhelm and pain. When the environment is emotionally safe enough, the defences can ease and traumatic reality can begin to surface. Creating that emotional safety is almost impossible in the company of predators, who work to prevent it so as to maintain control and dominance. Predators are made in childhood by older predators; they are relying so heavily on their delusions that they reenact perpetually, addicted to the drug of abuse, to corruption (and the delusional pleasures that compensate for the pain it generates), ever deepening their core wounds. This causes the divide between their true inner self and their behaviours to grow, which causes them to crave more reenactment to compensate for the pain (and feelings of worthlessness). Thus they are stuck in a loop, encouraged to worsen by the other predators around them.
I was very fortunate to survive my traumatic childhood with a strong connection to empathy intact. It's allowed me to understand, learn, grow and care where many do not. Most are not so fortunate. The drugs I was prescribed to quell me did not help, they made me feel more trapped and irate. The psychedelics were sometimes very helpful, but sometimes harmful. Increased ability to process was greatly beneficial, but blurring internal boundaries was unhelpful and painful, though informative. It took a long time for me to grasp what my parents did to me and my siblings, and that so many others are like them. It's something that's flaunted in society - monsters hide in plain site and get off on getting away with it so blatantly. The systems of law, of child protection, of education, of mental health are all dominated by corruption, by predators. Children don't get saved even when reports are made. Often the reports are taken by monsters. The good people in those systems are overwhelmed and often effectively powerless. The wheels of justice have no teeth in the machine of society.
So I do what I can to improve and learn and grow. It's a slow process. Psychedelics are powerful, can be alluring, and can be dangerous. Good intentions are crucial. It says a lot that the sociopaths (and others on the narcissism continuum) around me want me to use psychedelics with them, or to try SSRIs again. They want me to be confused, manipulable, subdued. They do it to themselves all the time. I'm getting better at reading and listening to my own subconscious. The messages from within are always clear, but after so many years of obstruction it takes practice to learn to discern them from the noise. The empathy, integrity and compassionate wisdom of the true self within everyone needs to be unearthed and embraced. All beings need and deserve health and well-being.
Daniel I can hear you! I was telling this to a friend of mine the other day. I think it can be helpful. I do think it is like opening the flood gates. I like doing it myself. It is hard and painful doing it on my own. It has taken a lot of time and I understand that it is a life long process.
You're right. Any form of escaping reality is just a short term solution that you pay for with the loss of long term success, and self respect.
Can you also do a video on the exposure to the modern internet - which basically does have the effect, I think, of having a caustic effect on many preconceived ideas. Unlike in prior periods, where perhaps you would have to chew through books to change your mind, or engage in face-to-face conversation, or do isolated thinking yourself, the modern internet seems to rip through all of that with a new intensity. When I was growing up in the 90's / early 00's, I would never have access to a quick 10 minute video of someone telling me how to relate to my parents, or have a robust purview of comment sections / internet forum boards to quickly give me a totally different perspective to my own. The modern internet has become an extremely mind-opening thing, and I wonder if we are all a little short on guidance when using it?
They always were very helpful for me but I always stuck to low doses. The 1 time I took a large dose of mushrooms (unknowingly very potent strain) I started freaking out bad but managed to pull myself out
Every other time, when done irregularly, it was very productive. I haven’t done them in years but I’d like to try it again someday. Some of the most beautiful experiences of my life
Great vid btw I’ve always wanted to see your view on psychedelics
Psychedelics worked extremely well for me. Condemning an entire class of tools days more about your bias than it does about psychedelics. The way you use a tool means the difference between it doing harm or doing good.
100%
🎯
🙏🏿
people don't know how to use a "tool" and secondly, think it's more than a tool.
He's not "condemning", he's literally describing facts and risks.
As if you dont have a bias.
I don’t think we can be black and white about psychedelics. There is a place for them, but they’re just like a shaman that opens the doors to perception and seeing a way through much faster than talk therapy. And they need to be used with great caution and possibly only micro-dosing for people with childhood trauma. They’ve helped me a lot to heal depression and anxiety.
I agree about them being too much too fast. Used them for internal exploration and indeed went too hard too fast and had an incredibly intense and somewhat traumatic experience. Still, when I fell into a suicidal depression months later it was my experiences from my mushroom trip that made me decide to stay.
I essentially had a death trip, where I experienced death over and over and over again in loops. Each time I had to encounter the life review with all the regret that comes long with it after living a life like mine. So later when death seemed like the best answer, i remembered that deep regret I felt as I felt my very existence melting away and remembered how in the moment I would have done anything for another chance at life. I recall feeling like even if life is painful and horrible and full of nothing but loneliness and failure, I still prefer it over the void. Then I was forced into the void and felt like I was there for millennia, over, and over, and over again.
So when suicide seemed attractive later, I had a flashback to that experience and I know now that I just need to hang up my interest in ever committing suicide. It is not an answer.
I've taken a ton of psychedelics. I even took Ayahuasca in the Peruvian Amazon with a bona fide ayahuasquero. We did the ceremonies, chanting, singing, laying of hands, invocation of astrological bodies in Catholic prayers recited during a pagan rainforest drug ritual, ajo sacha, palo santo smudging, all that shit. I've taken them alone, at music festivals, in intimate company, and elsewhere. So I have some firsthand knowledge of the psychedelic experience, and that is why I want to share my thoughts.
My times with these substances have left me with the impression that they do (or can) in fact reveal one's own mind to itself. The issue is that the things we as people tend to believe tend to be insidious lies, and under the influence of such powerful pharmacy, these lies can become empowered with a new lease. That is how it happened to me many times. My conditioning led me to buy into the notion that the things which were done to me were my fault. I believed that believing in this way was the avenue to taking personal responsibility in life. I did not think this in these explicit terms, but it was rather buried somewhere in my repressed reality. I thought blaming myself for what happened to me would lead me through a painful catharsis that would ultimately empower me. It didn't.
My use of psychedelics gave this hazardous belief system more energy and more credence. I knew that I was traumatized, and I took these drugs in some effort to heal. But I was more powerfully motivated by a sense of my own deficiency. I had become convinced that I was "missing something." I thought we were all "missing something" (I still think this), and I thought that the psychedelic experience was THE key to regaining this "missing thing" (I no longer think this), but I thought I was missing even more (I don't quite think this anymore. I am just disabled). Psychedelia facilitated a feedback loop which enabled this embedded, entrenched way of thinking to continue leading me nowhere.
What broke me out was neither meditation nor grief, though. What set me down a better way of living and believing was becoming the kind of absolute motherfucker who you do not want on the approach, paying a revisit to that old carousel of pederasts and laying down some harm in the spirit of prejudice and hatefulness. Talk about catharsis. Try menacing a child rapist until they're afraid of you.
🤪👌👌👌👌👌👌
This has had a tremendous utility for my life far beyond the catharsis of feeling good about being bad. Alienation created for me the oft-reported as vital "island of safety."
The context of my relationships was utterly inimical to healing from my history and building an authentic life for myself. Beset on each side and landlocked, I carved that island of safety right out of the ground. With confidence that nobody would dare approach me in attempt to detract from my process, confronting those awful, painful, uncomfortable truths became not only possible but inevitable. This was a thing which psychedelics had not a prayer of helping me with.
I haven't taken one since my 2017 Peru trip. Now that I have hit a few milestones of healing, could psychedelics help me along? I don't know. I'm no longer impelled to take them, and buying illegal drugs on the internet is extremely sketchy these days.
All of that said, I will probably take mescaline again someday. I like mescaline. Cacti are so cool. Anything that blooms in a desert deserves enough respect for another go, I think.
As always, Daniel, thank you. I am inclined to agree.
Quite the journey John.
Mother nature provides, I have never once paid for mushrooms in 20 years and I love growing San Pedro cacti, I find they are a lovely presence 🙂
@@carl8568 Thank you for your kind words, Carl. Blessed are the horticulturists.
Thank you for your insights. A lot of people wsnt a quick fix and the data I've seen on these therapies shows good results for people who have trauma from a single event as adults such as a car accident. But for those of us with lifetimes of abuse and trauma since childhood it's not as effective. One cannot undo a lifetime of harm in a day or a month or a year. It's going to he a lifetime of work. I wish everyone healing all the best ❤